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The Impatient Gardener

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EXPERIMENTS IN HORTICULTURE (WINTER BOREDOM EDITION)

February 17, 2015

I have a few horticultural experiments going on in my house right now. This is unusual for me because I rarely have the patience for such things, but this time of year calls for finding new things to amuse ones self.

All of the cuttings are currently residing in one pot, but if they root successfully I’ll pot them on in their own personal pots. If it all works I should have trees in like 15 years. Ha!

About six weeks ago, maybe a little less, I took cuttings from the new white spruce (Picea glauca ‘Hudsonii’) we planted last year. So far it’s been a lovely little tree and one I wouldn’t mind having a few more of. It’s the first time I’ve tried to propagate an evergreen and from what I’ve read, it will take up to 13 weeks for the cuttings to root, so I’ve not even tried to check on them yet. The good news is that they appear to still be alive in their little mini greenhouse (i.e. a plastic bag over the pot).

The cuttings live in their own mini greenhouse while they hopefully root.
 

If it works, I’ll be sure to tell you what I did, but I don’t want to share a method that is a failure if it doesn’t work.

The other experiment going has to do with sweet peas. According to my little seed chart, sweet peas are not scheduled to be sown until March 15 at the earliest in my area, but I want to do everything I can to make sure that they are successful.

There is some debate as to how to start sweet peas. OK, there is a lot of debate involving everything from timing to the type of pots you should start them in to what to do with the seeds before you sow them. The last bit is what my mini experiment focuses on.

Some people say to soak the seeds. Other suggest nicking them. And several of the British gardening television presenters suggest doing absolutely nothing to them other than sticking them in the soil.

Blog reader Casa Mariposa reminded me to soak the seeds overnight and said hers sprouted in just a couple days by doing that. The growing instructions that came with my Owl’s Acres Sweet Peas order (yeah, I’m the freak who orders seeds from England the first time I try to grow sweet peas) strongly suggest nicking or soaking, going so far as to say they don’t recommend even trying them without doing one or the other.

Since I ordered too many seeds (I’ll probably end up giving away whatever I don’t use, so stay tuned if you’re interested in that sort of thing), I’m starting six of them early. I took three of a Spencer variety (long-stemmed, meant for showing and bouquets) called ‘Lake Windemere’ and three of grandiflora ‘Fire and Ice’ and potted them up, one pot per variety (which is how I intend to sow them in March). For each variety, I nicked one seed, soaked another for 22 hours and did nothing to the third seed.

My sweet pea experiment is underway in the basement where the two pots are on a heating mat and cardboard makes sure that all light (not that there’s much down there) is blocked.

The two pots are currently on the seed-starting mat (set to about 60 degrees but it’s having a hard time getting to that temp for some reason, maybe because the pots are somewhat large) and I’ll be keeping an eye on what happens.

Of course I’ll report the results to you when I have some, which maybe be in a few weeks because it can take some time for sweet peas to germinate.

 

cuttings evergreen experiment propagation seeds sweet peas
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
5 Comments

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Comments

  1. Heather - New House New Home says: February 18, 2015 at 12:52 pm

    I'm a soaker for sweet peas and other hard seeds like that. Need to get a warming mat!!

    I keep looking at my seed tray wishing I could start things. But I've done that too early before and land up with leggy plants that are hanging around waiting for spring. Kind of like us right now. We had 6" more snow last night!!!

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: February 19, 2015 at 11:31 pm

      It is SO hard not to rush to starting things, although I know that's no good. Plus, I also know that last year I was really sick of tending to all of those little plants by the time it was warm enough to put them outside.

      Reply
  2. Casa Mariposa says: February 18, 2015 at 2:48 pm

    I soaked mine, stuck them in a Solo cup full of soil and put them under a grow light in my coldish basement and they are huge! I've had to pinch them back three times! Was the shipping on your seeds crazy expensive? I'm growing a few extra fragrant varieties I bought from Botanical Interests. I started mine waaaay too early and think they're going to bloom while still under my lights. Hooray!

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: February 19, 2015 at 11:30 pm

      Oh wow! I hope mine are as successful as yours! I think the shipping was less than $10, so not horrible. I'm pretty sure I placed that order after a cocktail hour. 🙂

      Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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E R I N 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
I had a rather unpleasant realization last night w I had a rather unpleasant realization last night when I remembered that I’d not yet ordered tomato seeds. And I’m not going to rectify that until I dig into my seed stash, because I don’t go through tomato seeds quickly so there are definitely some lurking down there. 

I never used to grow tomatoes from seed because there are great varieties to be had in garden centers (including many heirloom varieties). But it’s almost non-negotiable for me now that I’m a convert to dwarf tomatoes. If you’re not familiar with the #dwarftomatoproject championed by @nctomatoman and others, these are heirloom varieties that are crossed with dwarf varieties to create plant that produces all the flavor and interest of an heirloom in a short (usually less than 4 feet) plant. 

They are particularly great in my tall raised beds. Of course I leave room to try new non-dwarf varieties every year (I loved Sun Dipper from @panamseed last year and I’ll grow it again).

Last year was a good tomato year and the photo shows some of the varieties I harvested in one day. I hope this summer will be equally good for the tomato harvest. 

One of my favorite questions to ask gardeners is: What is your favorite tomato variety to grow? So have at it in the comments because inquiring minds want to know!
And this is why I leave my winter containers assem And this is why I leave my winter containers assembled until at least March. A dusting of snow gives them a whole new look (even if it’s shades of gray). Also, I think I love my Limelight hydrangea even more in winter. Fabulous winter interest!
I’m going to look for opportunities to add more I’m going to look for opportunities to add more ferns to my garden this year. They are such interesting plants and often real problem solvers, bringing texture and color to places that many plants aren’t interested in. Athyrium niponicum (Japanese painted fern) ‘Crested Surf’ grows well for me in part shade (even pushing a bit into part sun) and looks great next to Persicaria ‘Golden Arrow’.
Birds chirping, glorious fresh (i.e. not nibbled o Birds chirping, glorious fresh (i.e. not nibbled on) foliage, and texture galore. I can’t wait to have moments like this again. The star, by the way is Hakonechloa ‘All Gold’ which looks so good with the bold foliage of Ligularia dentata ‘Desdemona’ next to it. 

With the new path, this area will be getting a small revamp. It’s the next spot I’ll be focusing my planning on.
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