Back to the Garden

I'm so excited to finally have time in my garden again. I feel as if I totally neglected it last summer, and I'm getting a really late start this year.

Of course, I did get some help this year from the explosion of bunnies in our neighborhood.

I purchased several close-to-hopeless plants back in May and June from the clearance racks. I'd been able to nurse similar specimens back to health in the past. But I'd put time into the garden then.

The bunnies made quick work of my ground-level critter salad. I was so perturbed!!!

At the beginning of the summer, I had decided I wanted to devote a segment of the "upper deck" in our backyard to giant sunflowers. I always loved going east in search of miles and miles of sunflowers during August, but I've not been able to put much time into that the last couple of years. Naturally, I thought I could plant my own, not have to go anywhere other than my own backyard.

As I began leveling the first tier for a row of Mammoth sunflowers, I realized although young sunflowers follow the sun, once mature, they'd all face the fence. I wouldn't be able to snap the gorgeous photos I'd envisioned. My property faces the wrong direction!!!

I planted multiple individual seeds in yogurt containers, then transplanted the seedlings into the bricks lining our irrigation rocks. The bunnies ate them. I planted a second round. The bunnies ate them. I'm now on my third attempt, with barely enough season left for the seedlings to reach maturity. I haven't transplanted yet...

I'd strategically planted red sunflower seeds throughtout the garden back in May. Most became bunny food. But I have had one fully red sunflower so far this summer! It is located in the porch rail planter, where bunnies cannot reach!

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Love-nder

A few years back, I bought the cutest little lavender growing kit. I fell in love with the purple metal watering can, but I knew it would rust if I put anything directly into it. So I used a black plastic cup whose origins I do not recall and stuck a few small rocks from the garden into the bottom to give the soil proper drainage.

The seeds that came with the kit never sprouted. I ended up buying a tiny little lavender plant and transplanting it into the black plastic cup. Once it was big enough to go outside, I began putting volunteer grape hyacinth from the backyard into the cutest little planter in the house.

A couple of years later, I hadn't learned a thing, and I bought another indoor lavender grow kit. Same song, second verse. I bought a package of lavender seeds the next time I was at the nursery, and the only seeds that sprouted were in my outside garden. I ended up transplanting volunteer grape hyacinth I dug up in my backyard into the terracotta pot.

Every year now! Once the bulbs are big enough, I transplant them into the garden. And they always end up making more volunteers in places I don't particularly want or need them to grow. But one can never have enough grape hyacinth, right?!?

Prior to Lizard's first surgery, by golly, I did it again. This terracotta planter was similar to the second one, but it actually SAYS lavender on the outside. I thought that was adorable. I'd learned my lesson, but I thought I might plant more volunteer grape hyacinth if the seeds didn't come up.

Of course, the seeds didn't come up. I had a few leftover lavender seeds, so I put them in the pot and stirred up the soil a bit. Still nothing. Then shelter-in-place happened, and I kind of forgot about the indoor lavender, even though it has been on my work-at-home computer desk all this time. Last fall, I stirred in some lavender seed heads from my garden, not really expecting anything to happen.

Last week, when I began digging up a few of the new volunteer grape hyacinth that seem to thrive in the rocks near the house, where there is nothing but clay that doesn't get watered by me (they do get rain and snow...), I was going to start over in the third lavender pot. But to my surprise, two of my homegrown seeds had begun to sprout!!! And now, there are FIVE!!!

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Baby, What a Big Surprise

I chopped down (or pulled out of the ground) all my sunflowers as the petals fell off this year to prevent (I hope) another forest next year. (Although I absolutely love sunflowers!) I made a huge pile in the backyard in one of the areas I hope to terrace this season. I expected to compost the now withered and crunchy sunflowers, along with all the spent bachelor button, cosmos and lavender mint plants and seed heads from throughout the year.

One day, I noticed, through my window as I worked, finches feeding in the sunflower pile. I took a few photos but wasn't horribly pleased with the through-the-window quality. During my lunch hour, I sat still outside on the retaining wall with my camera waiting for the finches to return (because they took wing the instant I stepped out the back door). About 20 minutes later, I got something even better than finches!!!

I got a few more shots before they found unguarded faire elsewhere, but nothing outstanding because, it turns out, blue jays do not like people. They are social, but not with humans. Everything I could find about attracting blue jays said watch them from the window. I also learned they don't like to share their food. They will intimidate other birds.

They may scare other birds away from the feeders, but they sure sparked interest from winged creatures within earshot.

I stopped feeding the birds and the squirrels and the raccoons earlier this summer because I couldn't keep them out of my tomatoes, even with a makeshift scarecrow made of old clothing worn out by me and by Lizard. I'd be willing to tolerate squirrels and raccoons (as long as they stay away from my tomatoes, which are dead now until next spring) for the oppotunity to get better shots of these guys and gals! They have the most beautiful wings! Definite quilt inspiration!

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Vase Pods

Four of my amaryllis pots are from seeds I grew from my own flowers, cross-pollinated via Q-Tip. I ran this first experiment five years ago. The baby plants, which I understand can take up to seven years to flower, are looking terrific but have yet to bloom. I thought this year would be the year. Yet I'm not complaining. One day they will flower, and I will get to see what colors I've cooked up. It will be worth the wait.

Two of my amaryllis pots are from pups sprouted by the moms. I thought they might bloom this year, too, but not so far. All three of my papillon bulbs have sprung pups, and one split into two before becoming a mom. Only one of the papillons bloomed so far this year, and that's rather disappointing, but I'm hoping one day they will all rage once again.

My favorite amaryllis is my first amaryllis, the white picotee. I cross-pollinated it the first and second years I had it, hoping to create new varieties. Amaryllis seeds are not true to the parent, so my imagination was running wild with possibilities. However, I learned (and forgot) the second year that allowing the flowers to go to seed expends all the bulb's energy, causing it not to bloom prolifically the next year. I vowed not to put my white picotee through that again because two blooms each year is not enough for me. I want more!

Because I'm home full time, I forgot once again that I shouldn't pollinate my amaryllises if I want them to bloom generously next year. I got three plants pregnant. Then I remembered. I clipped the top-heavy flowers and put them in vases to spare the bulbs the stress of making seeds. Then something amazing happened. The seed pods continued to grow!!! In the vases!

I don't know if the seeds will be viable. (None of my first iris seeds from 2019 produced new plants.) I don't even know if the amaryllis seeds will continue forming. But for right now, I'm thrilled at the possibility of becoming sort of a surrogate parent again - via my hand-crafted vases! I will plant every seed with a bump, and whatever comes up, I'm going to cherish, even if the baby takes (or babies take) years to mature. Making something beautiful come from this whale of a year will be just about the best legacy I can imagine!

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Oh, My 'Ryllis!

We have amaryllis seeds!

This year, I cross-pollinated the red and white picotee amaryllis, and I was thrilled to get seed pods a few weeks later!

My previous experiments with pollinating my amaryllis plants has produced four babies that are still very small, but not dead yet! I also have one larger baby that grew as a second bulb from the parent picotee amaryllis. I broke it off last year and planted it in a pot of its own, and it seems to be doing fine.

One of the seed babies I've almost given up on three times because the single leaf it produces has yellowed and died all three times. But each time, it shoots up a new leaf a few days later! I just found its fourth seed last weekend!

Once the amaryllis seed pods dry and crack, I have to remove the seeds and put them somewhere they can dry without getting moldy. Living room window works great for this.

Then I have to plant them right away. First I sort them. The paper-thin seeds with a bump in the middle are the only viable seeds; the rest are discarded. Just because a seed is viable doesn't mean it will grow. I got four seedlings out of my last batch of about 24 seeds.

Too bad it can take up to seven years to grow an amaryllis from seed! I'm anxious to see what the new flowers will look like!




I also learned in researching this topic one more time that the white picotee amaryllis is expending all its energy making seed pods, which probably is why it has produced only two flowers each of the last two years. So next year, I will cross-pollinate the red amaryllis (perhaps I'll have a bit of fresh pollen from Phil and Maryann's pink amaryllis to play with, too!), but I won't ask the mama white flowers to make any more seeds. I'd love to have more than two white picotee amaryllis flowers again. Which can't happen until 2020 now, darn it!

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