It’s a pretty exciting time in the greenhouse right now. We have seedlings germinating and cuttings rooting. I noticed that the Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) seeds we got from Warren Nolan a couple of years ago is germinating. And Chocolate Flower (Berlanderia lyrata) too. Here’s a picture of Desert Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja angustifolia) just barely up.
And the picture below shows an equally tiny seedling, a strawberry: Fragaria ‘Yellow Wonder.’ Yellow Wonder is an alpine strawberry, it has small berries that are very sweet–and they’re pale yellow when ripe, so the birds don’t get them. We really enjoyed these last summer. Despite the tiny size of these seedlings at the moment, they’ll grow and produce berries before the season is over. And, once established, they’re everbearing, so next year expect an even longer harvest.
I mentioned getting a geranium (pelargonium) from our friend Alana back in November. We took cuttings a week ago and they already have roots an inch long! Here is the first flat of them. I hope to get another round of cuttings in a couple of weeks.
If you brought any of your geraniums in for the winter, you might notice that they’re getting a bit lanky by now. You can take cuttings and rejuvenate your plant at the same time. Some people root the cuttings in a jar of water, but I have better luck in a flat with potting soil. They’re easy–cut about a 4″ tip, let it callous for a couple of hours, and then plant it. Keep the soil moist while it’s rooting. By trimming back your stock plant, you’ll encourage it to put on new growth and be nice and full when you want to move it back outside in May.
