It’s Good to be Planting Again

When my orange Asiatic lilies stopped blooming, even quit putting out green shoots (I was ever hopeful), I knew I had just the pot for a hydrangea. Unfortunately, my attempts at growing a plant from stem cuttings didn’t work—at all, so I determined that I would have to buy one. As I searched the garden centers this spring, I found huge, expensive ones—even topiaries. I don’t need all that, nor do I want to pay for all that. Then I saw a good deal on this small-potted one in the mid-range of colors—a mix of pink and blue and knew I couldn’t pass it up.


While its clay pot is too big for it now, it will quickly grow into it (Lord willing). Meanwhile I’ve added a Cherry Super Bells plant to keep it company. The pink petunia-like flowers (it turns out that they only resemble petunias) with yellow stars are new in our garden centers this year. It will add some pizzazz.

Though my current tastes in color and garden style are more tropical, I still have a fondness for English garden plants but I do have to make an effort to keep my combinations from being too “sweet”. There’s nothing at all wrong with soft colors; I just have to have bright color! I’ll be adding a bit of Creeping Jenny in a bit later and maybe something tall and spiky.

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Dreaming in the Sunshine

While sitting in the morning sunshine with my feet propped up I felt almost like I was at the beach—almost. “It’s good for what ails you.” So I began to dream of what this year’s garden could be like. I keep a garden journal in color pencil of my plans, of what worked—and what didn’t. This year’s “have” list is much longer than usual (it also filled a second page) since I was able to overwinter more plants this year. That will help.

This year hydrangea is at the top of my list since I so enjoyed a gift of some cut ones from my friend R’s garden. I favor the in-between red-violet ones. When we lived in a duplex in the older part of the city, I tended a hydrangea bush that grew in the mature landscape. I altered the soil in opposite ways on each side of the bush making one side blue and the other pink with purple in the middle. Our elderly landlady and her friends were scratching their heads, "How did she do that?."

I want to make the outdoor garden more of a place where we can spend time—a lot of time, outdoors. I think it’s important to physical, spiritual and mental health (barring the neighbors’ smoke breaks).

Late Bloomers

“Four o’clocks” remind me my first apartment. The old house, which had been divided into apartments still had a little strip of “yard” beyond the
parking lot, filled with the afternoon and evening-blooming flowers.

A few years ago, I bought a seed packet to grow my first ones but they’re such heavy seed producers and ready volunteers (though I often direct a few of the seeds into the soil to make sure)that I haven’t needed to buy any more.


My four o’clocks tend to get leggy and “cascade” (the “in” word), down the balcony. At first I thought that was a good thing so that they could be enjoyed from below until the night I remembered to go out to see them. I discovered they were in total darkness where no one can see them; so I pulled them in and propped them up on a rail where I can see them.
Now I can readily see their pink and peppermint-spotted white night blooms. Unlike morning glories, the flowers can reopen for a second performance.

I’m sad to say that my hydrangea rooting experiment didn’t work. Though the tops of the cuttings kept turning black, I held out hope that the tiny sprouts of new growth would prevail. Unfortunately, the heavy heat and humidity prevailed; the cuttings are now entirely black.

The good news is that my Mexican Petunia has budded! Okay, so I did fertilize it. Apparently even weeds need nutrients.

Plan B

What a humid day! Last evening a blanket of gray clouds pressed down the oppressive heat. They were so heavy with moisture that I knew they’d have give it up. They did.

And that’s the problem—not the rain, we’re glad for it. It’s just that our gullies have been washed several times lately and uncharacteristically, the rain has inundated my garden. Usually welcome, the rain waterlogged my pot of hydrangea stem cuttings, causing several of them to rot—even though they were in a terra cotta pot.

So today I was able to rescue three cuttings and followed the rules more closely, putting them in a small plastic pot with a lighter “sterile” seed-starting medium. They’re now out of the way of downpours but I’ll have to watch closely that they don’t dry out. Many plant cuttings can be “just stuck in the dirt” and they will grow but apparently not these. I did add more rooting powder.

If you look closely at the picture on the right you can see tiny bits of new growth! We’ll see how it goes.

It’s yet another two-red-hibiscus-day and yes, the grasshopper was back. But not for long, I sent him flying--further this time.

Resistance Can Be a Good Thing

I checked to see if my hydrangea cuttings were taking root by gently tugging on each stem (probably not the ideal way but far better than digging them up!) and was pleased to discover that I met with firm resistance, a sure sign that roots are taking hold! I had experimented to see if it mattered whether I stripped all the leaves off or not, so I left the leaves on two of the hydrangea stem cuttings. Apparently it does matter since the two-leaved ones gave no resistance but pulled easily—no roots. So I stripped their (now black-edged) leaves as well and am expecting rooted resistance from them soon.

Multiplying a Gift

Recently I received from my friend R’s garden, a gift of gorgeous deeply hued hydrangeas. They lasted, in one form or another, for nearly three weeks but there’s no need to let it stop there. In all my years of poring over garden books I’ve seen a lot of articles about starting new plants from stem cuttings; I’ve tried it from time to time with mixed results so I decided to try it with the hydrangeas. I had a pot and remembered an old package of rooting powder. Though the powder is very old, it’s been zip sealed so it has possibilities. I made holes in the soil with an old pencil, dipped the stem cutting ends in the rooting powder and stuck them in the soil pressing it down, then watered. I stripped most of them of their leaves—we’ll see whether it makes a difference. This is regular potting soil but I may have to change to something with sand in it. I think I have some. I may do two sets. It seems that I have nothing to lose but I surely would enjoy my own beautiful hydrangeas.