Propagation Progress!

I am thrilled to report that the local Holodiscus discolor cuttings I put in pup tents back on October 30 have rooted! This is sensational news for me because it's the first time I've had any success at all with cuttings. I also noted down where the cuttings came from: tips, midsections, or heels. And the interesting result: the midsection cuttings did not root, but both tips and heels did. I'm leaving the midsection cuttings to see if they get roots, given time. I kept them fairly warm, and misted them daily or almost daily.

I've put them back in Rat's sunny office until the greenhouse is ready :-) He has finished putting in the footings and is now putting up walls. I'll post on that at a later point in these interesting developments.

Seedlings are coming along too. Here is a snapshot of what's growing.

Local Natives
First the local natives I'm propagating from seeds I gathered.

The below seedling is in the warty ceanothus tray. It's the only thing growing in that tray. I hope it's warty ceanothus! I'm not seeing the characteristic leaf pattern of ceanothus: "The leaves have three very prominent parallel veins extending from the leaf base to the outer margins of the leaf tips and the leaves are ovate in shape." (wikipedia) So I hae ma doots. It looks interesting whatever it turns out to be.


I was amazed and happily surprised to see shoots suddenly arising in the tray of native Douglas Iris. They have white flowers, and are really pretty. I hope that's what these are!

And here are the amazing little lupines. I planted so many lupines - big green ones, big silver ones, and tiny annuals - and only these tiny annuals are appearing. Next year I'll do better - this year was definitely a learning year.


Last but not least, the bee plant. I have to say, the bee plants that are sprouting all by themselves in the chaparral and also on the shady north slope are doing much better than the propagated ones. But still - I can put these where I want them.

(I'm being lazy about names this post. I don't have the names at my fingertips and am using whatever is in my head, which, as you can see, isn't much.)

CNPS Propagation Left-Overs
Volunteers at the Santa Cruz CNPS propagation group get perqs! Material that is supernumerary to requirements is eagerly snapped up. I have two trays of bulbs, one is alium unifolium and the other is Ithuriel's spear, and I have one with a mixture of both.


I don't know which is which yet - In due course I'll figure it out

One thing I learned for sure is this:

Don't use Sharpie permanent markers on plant labels: the ink bleaches out with light! Dark pencils work just fine.

This clump of native buttercup is burgeoning in a gallon pot. Don't you love that green? I see a stray clover leaf in there - have to do some weeding of the pots.


So I'm feeling very happy. Not a high success rate - lots of seed trays sitting doing nothing at all but sprout the odd weed -- but the thrill at seeing anything at all growing as a result of my efforts is inspiring beyond reason!