3 Begonias Brighten Up Your Life
Begonias are perhaps the best houseplant. They are simple to start, easy to grow, and cheer up any space you place them in. They are great in a garden, hanging in baskets, growing in containers, or blooming indoors. They are selected for the many color choices in the flowers, but also for their gorgeous chocolate or waxy green leaves. There are more than 1,500 species of begonias, not to mention the thousands and thousands of hybrids that have been created. Begonias cross fertilize quite easily, so you can have fun with these, year after year. Although Begonias are native to the tropics and grow as understory plants, they have been adapted to other climates by hybridization. The downside of this is that they are not typically grown from seeds, but from rhizome division and leaf cuttings. Wax Begonias (Semperflorens begonias) You will find these Begonias everywhere. They are so hardy and keep blooming. Wax Begonias can be grown in the garden or indoors. They love sunlight, just keep them away from drafts and absolutely away from freezing temperatures (as you might expect of any Begonia). Temperatures over 60F are perfect. Water your Wax Begonia only after the top 1/2” of the soil has dried out. Keep the humidity low and water through and through, allowing the water to drain. They prefer soil that drains quickly. Liquid fertilizer should be applied weekly at ¼ the full strength and 1 out of 3 or 4 times a phosphorous rich fertilizer should be used. Planting Wax Begonia seeds takes much longer than growing from a cutting. It propagates best from leaf-cuttings. Choose cuttings without blooms and with more than two nodes, about 6 inches long. Cut just beneath a node. Remove the leaves from the last two inches. Place the cutting into a small jar with enough water to cover the cutting. The more water you add, the less concentrated will be the root hormone that the cutting produces and the slower and less dense the roots will grow. You can even put many cuttings in one jar. Once the roots grow to a minimum of ½ inch, plant the cuttings. Add fertilizer once per each growing season. Angel Wing Begonias Angel Wing Begonias are almost as easy to grow as Wax Begonias. Their flowers are some of the most beautiful among Begonias, drooping in clusters. They enjoy indirect sunlight mostly, but bright areas. Their ability to thrive in sunlight lies between that of Wax Begonias and Rex Begonias. Angel Wing Begonias should be watered after the top 1/2” of soil dries out. Water it through and through, keeping the humidity high. Liquid fertilizer, at ¼ strength, should be feed to it weekly. When the plant is in bloom late in Winter or Spring, apply a fertilizer rich in phosphorous. Angel Wing Begonias can be propagated much the same way as Wax Begonias, with some slight variations. Take a cutting, a minimum length of 3 inches. There must be at least 3 healthy leaves on one end. The best cuttings are those taken the day after watering. Clean a small jar or plant container. Rinse any bleach or soap off thoroughly. Take any additional leaves off the stem, leaving only the three on the one end. Place the cutting into the water so the three leaves are above the water and the rest is submersed. Place the jar in a sunny place and in only 7-14 days you will see roots. When they are well formed, transplant your Angel Wing Begonias to soil in a pot. Strawberry Begonias (Saxifraga stoloniferae) Strawberry Begonias throw out runners that crawl along the ground and end in a splash of leaves. Snip these off and give them as gifts to your neighbors so they can plant their own Strawberry Begonias. Give them very bright sunlight without subjecting them to direct sunlight. These guys really dislike heat, so guard them against it by locating them somewhere facing East or West. When they are growing you will want to water them generously. If you spill water on their hairy leaves you should immediately dry them with a paper towel. Otherwise, you risk fungal infection of the leaves. When Winter sets in, reduce the amount of water. The Strawberry Begonia will slow its growth almost to a standstill, so do not be shocked. As for fertilizing, you have two choices. Either you can apply a weak liquid fertilizer supported by micro-nutrients weekly, or fall back onto pellets that allow for a more controlled release of nutrients. Propagating Strawberry Begonias works very differently from either Wax Begonias or Angel Wing Begonias, because they send out...
Indoor Cactus Garden – Bring the Beauty of the Desert Home
Cacti are the most misunderstood plants in the home. Some people assume that because they come from the desert that they should never be watered. Fact is, a cactus garden requires water to bring the beauty of the desert home. With a bit of attention to soil, water, light, and temperature you can have a flourishing cactus garden. If you treat them right, you can have cactus flowers in all kinds of colors adorning your spiked crown jewels. Cacti belong to a larger group of plants called succulents. Not only do most cacti bear spines, but many also have hair to protect against the evaporation of their moisture in the hot desert Sun. All of them bear waxy skin that locks water into the cactus. The hardest aspect of growing cacti indoors that many gardeners have to face is that they grow very slowly. Moving your cactus outside can sunburn it if you do it too quickly. First place it in the shade and gradually move it into the full sunlight. Watch in particular for either light green or tan tinting on the plant itself. This indicates a sunburn. Return it to the shade and start again. You can over water your cactus quite easily, rotting the roots. You can acquire the same effects by potting a cactus in too large of a container. Besides the overall size, the height of a cactus pot can stunt its growth by stressing the roots, when the pot is too deep. This occurs because cacti have laterally reaching roots. Soil You can prepare a cactus pot by layering rough gravel in the bottom. Add soil that drains very well, since you will want to allow the soil to dry out completely before watering. Your cacti will appreciate alkaline soil that is quite porous. Forget the idea of dropping them into a pile of sand. That is not their true habitat and they do not thrive in pure sand. Do-it-yourself soil mixture is not so difficult. Put together equal parts builder’s sand and regular potting soil, then add in some pulverized limestone or bone meal. Transplanting If you are transplanting a cactus, you will want to take care not to put them through the shock too many times. For a cactus, which grows so slowly, moving their home is a huge shock. Use a folded newspaper to hold large cacti and tongs for smaller specimens. In either case, cactus spines will easily spear your hands through gloves. When you do transplant a cactus make sure to gently remove all of the old soil from the roots before re-potting. Avoid watering your cactus in its new pot for a few days. Fertilizing Cacti, and their flowers even more so, are sensitive to nitrogen. They require a special balance of nutrients in their plant food. Too much nitrogen can burn the plant. Try a 7-40-6 ratio of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potash. While you are at it, do not neglect the macro- and micro-nutrients. These include iron, magnesium, calcium, sulfur, manganese, copper, and zinc. In order to coax a cactus to flower you must control their environmental conditions. Lower the temperature at night, if not also during the day. Shorten their length of day to less than 12 hours. Finally, feed them a well diversified plant food mixture. Light One sure way to keep your cacti thriving indoors is to set up artificial lighting. In fact, this will be necessary if you want flowers. 150 Watts for every square meter is ideal. Place fluorescent lights slightly more than a foot above your plants. Be careful how many growing lights you have employed, though. The police might suspect you of growing pot if your electric bill is too high. The length of day that you simulate for your cacti should mimic that of their natural habitat, which is between 12 and 18 hours. You will also want to rotate the pots bi-weekly and set up reflectors to concentrate the energy of the lights. Pay attention to the kind of spectrum your lights emit. Anything toward either the red or the blue end will act like poison on the cactus. Growing lights or especially metal halide lamps will yield top results. Halide lamps generate huge amounts of both UV and heat, which will make your cacti want to kiss you, just watch the spines if you let them. Diseases As far as diseases are concerned, cacti are quite impermeable. The most common disease is mold, which may infect almost any part of the cactus. You can also watch for Coccoidea, a type of scale insects, and nematodes. Although a certain scale insect’s eggs...
Plant Your Own Tulip Indoors
As the gray skies of late Autumn and Winter threaten your joy, you probably want to turn to gardening. What better to brighten your drab Winter than pots of Tulips? Growing Tulips indoors can be difficult, but with attention to details you can do it. Although they are a forgiving plant, they require a fine balance of quick draining soil and moisture retention. Mixing the right soil and choosing the right pots will take you most of the way toward balancing these critical requirements when growing your own Tulips indoors. Selecting Bulbs Choosing tulip bulbs in early Autumn, you should select those without blemishes, bruises, or soft spots. Remember that large flowers are produced by large bulbs. Some species can grow quite tall, requiring staking to keep them upright. If you want shorter species, try Tulipa batalinii and Tulipa humilis at only about 6 inches tall. If you want tulips indoors that put out a large blossom and come in many colors, then you should turn to Triumph tulips. They are quite easy to grow inside. Preparing Bulbs Your Tulip bulbs should be stored in a dark, cool location, approximately 35-45F, for 3-4 months. Ideally, you should keep them cooler for the first 4 weeks and then warmer for the last few weeks. Try putting them in the crisper in your fridge or an unheated shed. Do not keep them near either fruits or vegetables that might be ripening, since there will be ethylene gasses. Ethylene will destroy your Tulip bulbs. Planting Bulbs Once your bulbs are ready, find a container that will allow for adequate drainage. Choose flower pots, wooden boxes, baskets, but not clay pots. Clay containers will suck the water out of the soil too thoroughly, drying the bulb out. The pot should have drainage holes. The ideal size is about 8 inches deep and 10 inches in diameter. Three bulbs can be planted together in this size of pot. Remember that the better the drainage, the better you will avoid rot. Yet, you do not want your bulb to dry out. So choose a soil that drains well, but avoid the ceramic pots that sap water from your soil too quickly. Your soil should be a combination of potting soil, compost or manure, and sand, in three equal parts. Fill your container up with the mixture, leaving only 3 or 4 inches to the top. Lay the bulbs on top of the soil with the pointy side up and not touching each other at all. Be careful not to press the bulbs down. The roots must be able to easily penetrate the mixture as they grow. Turning the flat side toward the outside of the pot, the first leaves will end up growing out and over the edge. Fill the pot to the rim with more soil mixture, so the bulbs are covered and you can only see the tips peeping through. The pots need to be kept in a cool, dark place. You can put them in your basement or garage, but make sure it is dark enough and cool enough (approximately 40-45F). Water very little, weekly, discarding any water in the bottom drainage tray. As the leaves begin to show, in the form of young shoots of about 2 inches (in about 10-12 weeks), haul the pots out to a place with low light. The temperature should be a bit warmer than 50F, even as warm as 60F. Move the pots a little at a time toward a window with very bright sunlight, but not direct sun. If you will rotate the pots as you move them, the growth of the stems will be quite even. You should start to see the flowers after only 2 or 3 weeks. Tulip Care Caring for forced tulips is quite similar to caring for any other indoor plants. Feel the soil to see if it is dry. Then water it. Tulips use a significant amount of water, so check the soil often. Keep your Tulips out of direct sunlight and away from any kinds of drafts. However, keep them as cool as you can in order to extend their time of blooming. As far as humidity is concerned, Tulips require normal levels. Add fertilizer biweekly, diluted to half the potency. Maintain a pH between 6.0-7.0. Once the flowers of your Tulips are spent, you should not allow the foliage to die down into the soil. This will poison the bulb. So remove the bulbs before this happens. Allow them to dry on their own. Store them in a cool and airy place for planting the following season. Growing tulips indoors brightens...
Winter Gardening 101
Your garden is your pride and joy during the Spring and Summer. You only wish you could make it last year round. Asking others for suggestions for a winter garden usually turns up a list of drab vegetables, snickers, or snide remarks. The composition of that garden is dependent partly on your latitude and elevation, combined with the severity of your winter weather. A winter garden in Phoenix Arizona will have a greater variety of plants than in Juneau Alaska. The former is at the same latitude as the middle of the Sahara Desert, while the latter at the same as Stockholm Sweden. The same goes for contrasting winter gardens in San Francisco California and Denver Colorado. The former is at sea level, while the latter is a mile high in the Rocky Mountains, although they are nearly the same latitude. A garden has a context and nothing reveals this context more than the nude garden of Winter. Your garden does not have to be so bare nor void of interest, as are most gardens in the coldest of months. Winter gardening is not only about planting, growing, and beautifying with other structures, but it is about rejuvenating the soil. Turn over the soil, break it up, and add compost or manure. If you do this when the soil is neither frozen nor logged with water, you will improve the structure of your garden’s soil and enrich the nutrient and water reserve for all of your plants. Protecting Potted Plants Special consideration should be given to potted plants, since their root systems are more exposed to the elements. If you have space in a greenhouse or an enclosed porch, these are the best options for moving potted plants when the weather turns severe. Otherwise, you can huddle them together, a practice derived from a fact of Environmental Science – lone trees are more vulnerable to the elements than groups of trees that are close together. The wind and cold are dived among the group and more individual plants survive than if they were each alone and exposed. Even moving the plants closer to the house will help, since the house radiates some heat and blocks the wind and cold. If you need to protect individual plants, wrap the pots in burlap. You could double the layer of burlap, but make sure you close the tops and bottoms tightly with string or wire. Horticulture fleece will also keep them warm, but nothing will save your plant if it is in the freezing winds of Winter. Just remember to take the fleece off as the temperatures rise again, to protect your plants from overheating. And do not forget to lay mulch on top of the soil. A fine tool for Winter gardening is the cold frame. You can protect your plants by building a wooden structure around the bed and laying a plexiglass cover on top. This allows solar radiation to extend the warm period of growth. Be careful, though, if the temperature rises, to uncover your cold frame. Otherwise, the raised temperatures within the cold frame can damage your plants. Hang a thermometer inside the cold frame to help you quickly identify what to do. The Focus of the Eye Winter gardening is an interesting challenge even for the experienced gardener. Remember that as Winter sets in, your garden is stripped naked. So consider the focal points of your garden and plan appropriately. Nice boulders, a sculpture, hedges and large trees, decorative containers, ponds, gazebos, and arbors draw the attention and interest during Winter. Colors and Fragrance The four main colors of Winter are white, gray, brown, and dark green. Make the most of these colors in your garden and you will be welcoming Winter. If you have a bare deciduous tree, strikingly brown against an evergreen hedge, the image can evoke deep feelings. As for fragrance, the cold Winter air carries the poignant smell of witch hazel and sweet box across your yard. Of course, any pine will likewise fill a void. Wildlife Refuge Think about the birds when you plan your Winter garden. Add a few trees and shrubs that will produce food in the middle of the Winter for the birds. Yew, hawthorn, holly, and blackthorn are fine examples. You can go a step further by creating a birdbath to give them a fresh water source. Add a ball and it will not freeze as easily. If it does freeze, remove the ball to give them a hole to access the water. Dormant Plants Take proper care of your plants that you will allow to lie dormant through Winter. Do not fertilize...
Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate (Polygonum orientale)
Rumor has it that this gorgeous bush was grown in the U.S. for the first time in history by President Thomas Jefferson. However, it is also claimed that John Custis of Williamsburg Virginia was the first to grow it in 1737. It was quite popular a century ago and is making a comeback. Flowering Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate, a.k.a. Oriental Persicary, Persicaria orientalis (Polygonum orientale), Prince’s feather, Princess feather, or Lady Finger, grows to 5′-8′ tall and 5′ wide. The branches cascade with hundreds of flowers. Every 3-inch cluster of these pearl-sized flowers bounces in the Summer breeze, adding so much vibrancy to your sunny memories. This beauty flowers from mid-July until the first frost. Harvesting Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate seeds requires removing the oldest catkins and drying them. Then you simply have to rub them in your palms to discover the seeds. Planting The best time to plant Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate is during the Spring after the last frost. Make sure you place it in partial to full sun, since it is sensitive to low temps and frost. The soil should be moist and have good drainage. Place the seeds 1/4” deep and 2′ apart in peaty media or one containing pumice. Do not overwater. The seeds are fairly hardy, so you may require a minimum of 4 weeks to germinate them. They are activated by cold. So keep them in an outdoor shed during Winter, in order to plant them next year. Transplanting This annual flowering bush is difficult to transplant, but readily reseeds. Transplanting requires the roots be undisturbed during the move. Growing Growing Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate requires a good amount of experience. It grows in sandy, loamy, or clay soils, but prefers loamy to clay. It also tolerates a variety of pH levels, but prefers slightly acidic. Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate comes back well in the Spring if humus, slow release fertilizer, or mature manure are added in late Winter to the soil around the base of the plant. The Spring fertilizer should be strong in nitrogen and potassium. Dose the water you use on the plant at an interval of 20-25 days. Protect the plants from low temperatures with dry leaves or straw around the stems. They are easily damaged from the cold. Watering You should water generously, but rarely. Once in 2-3 weeks will suffice. Be careful to water deeply, but ensure the soil is dry during the few days prior to watering. Do not allow any standing water. Pests, Diseases, and Animals If you are growing Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate in a damp climate, you will want to protect it from aphids and fungi. These plants are also a delicacy for Japanese Beetles and attract many species of moths, so be careful and guard your plants closely. However, rabbits tend to ignore them. Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate grows quickly and attracts bees who cross-pollinate the hermaphroditic flowers. So it really is a pleasurable addition to any garden. Nutrition It has been found to have anti-oxidant properties in some studies Journal of Food Composition and Analysis. While this species has not been indicated as a health problem, members of the genus have been reported to cause light sensitivity in people who include these plants in their diet. Since so many of these plants contain oxalic acid, as also does rhubarb, there are specific potential health risks from consuming them. Oxalic acid is non-toxic, but it chemically binds to some minerals, stealing them from the body. The result is that the person becomes deficient in these minerals. Cooking will lower the levels of oxalic acid, but those who suffer from arthritis, rheumatism, kidney stones, acidic stomach, and gout should avoid consuming plants of this genus. If you plan to eat Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate, you can cook young shoots or the seeds, as they do in Southeast Asia. Known Problems Many consider polygnums to be invasive. There are mixed reports about how invasive polygnum orientale is though. However, Persicaries growing near wheat fields are often accidentally harvested with the wheat, since they propagate quickly and widely, falling among the wheat. Persicaries are susceptible to fungi and molds. So they introduce wheat smut into the harvest when stored. The inference for the gardener is that if you do not take care of your Kiss Me Over the Garden Gates, you are likely to find fungus or mold introduced to the fellow plants in your garden, even the fruits and vegetables that you might...
Air Cleaning Plants – Chrysanthemums
Chrysanthemums, a.k.a. Mums, are an easy perennial to grow. This is clear by their wide representations in gardens across the globe. Another reason people love growing Chrysanthemums is that they come in nearly every color, save blue. They also can be found of varying heights. Their flowers comes in single and double heads, anemone centers, but also doubles that are similar to daisies. Lastly, the growing period is longer than the rose. They begin in early July and finish all the way in December. When you make the decision to plant Chrysanthemums, you must choose between hardy mums and florist mums. The former are suitable for growing in harsher climates, while the latter are fine for indoors. Either way, Chrysanthemums filter out benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, xylene, and ammonia from the air. So keep a few plants in your home and contribute to a healthier environment for you and your family. Light Mums love 6 to 8 hours of full light, but they will do well with a mere 5 to 6 hours. They do require their night cycle of darkness in order to develop their flowers properly, though. So any nearby artificial lights would destroy this cycle. Also, you probably will not see buds starting until the nights reach close to 10 hours long. Then it will be another 6 to 10 weeks before the flowers bloom. Water Mums require watering once a week, but be sure to let the water soak in. Never just sprinkle them with water or your flowers will not form properly. If your Chrysanthemums happen to dry out, just drop them in water or poke holes in the soil prior to watering them. It is important to keep watering them during the Winter. Soil Avoid mildew from wet roots by planting your Mums in well draining soil. Add some compost when you plant them and add a bit more on top. Just after the blooming ends, mulch your Chrysanthemums with 2 to 3 inches of light mulch, such as straw or bark chips. This will protect them from colder Winter temperatures. Propagation When you plant your Chrysanthemums, be sure to place them at least 18 inches apart. The fresh air that circulates around the plant will ward off mildew. Place about a half an inch of soil on top of the roots of your seedlings and keep them out of direct sunlight for three days. This is a recovery time from the shock of planting. You can also propagate Chrysanthemums from cuttings. Clip a 4-inch stem off that has leaves. Place it in vermiculite or some other non-soil substance for growing. Give it bright sunlight and maintain its moisture. Roots will appear within a couple of weeks. Place it in a cup-sized container with holes in the bottom, containing soil. Fertilize it weekly for 3 weeks, then transplant it to a regular pot and fertilize normally. Even aside from other forms of propagation, Mums should be divided every 3 to 5 years, so they do not crowd themselves out of resources. It also ensures the best flowering. Dividing should be done in the Spring as soon as new growth is apparent. Growing Grow bronze or burgundy Mums, because they hide their age much better. Try also to grow doubles rather than singles for the same reason. To keep your flowers coming you have to keep watering and pinching off the spent flowers. Pinching is best done from Spring to the beginning of Summer. Pinching also encourages branching when done in the Spring up to the middle of July. If you have warm weather then you will have to tend to your Mums daily. Cooler weather demands a simple every other day schedule. However, cool temperatures create more dramatic colors in the flowers. While Mums really are perennials, they end up as annuals, because they have such shallow roots and get pushed out of the ground easily be frost. When your Mums die back from the cold weather of Winter, cut the rest back to the soil. Keep the moisture off their leaves and especially the ice. Build up some extra soil around the plant to create a mound and dig a small drainage ditch around the mound to feed any runoff away from the roots. It is good to get into the practice of relocating your Chrysanthemums every 3 years to prevent infestations and diseases in the soil. If that is too difficult, then at least find a way to sterilize the soil. The Final Word Chrysanthemums are simple to grow and to propagate. They bloom through the months when other plants are completely spent. While many plants cannot...
Growing Pea Sprouts for Chinese Food
Pea sprouts, a.k.a. pea shoots, pea greens, or pea tips, are an essential element of Chinese food. Perk up your lunches and suppers with fresh pea sprouts that you grow in your own garden. The nice thing about growing pea sprouts is that even if you are a poor gardener and have failed growing mature pea plants, you will succeed with ease at growing pea sprouts. Within 2-3 weeks your job will be done. You will be eating fresh, crisp pea sprouts and boasting to your friends about your crop. Of course, you will need to beg, borrow, or steal some dry pea seeds to get started. To make things super simple, buy dried peas from the market. They will work fine. About 500 seeds will run you less than $1. If you want something very special, buy some snow peas and use their seeds instead. It may be a bit more expensive, but they will offer a unique flavor to add to any dish. Be sure to plant more seeds, rather than less. You will eat plenty of sprouts in no time at all. It takes many seeds to satisfy the palette when they taste so good. Begin by soaking the seeds for 3-4 hours in water. While they are soaking, choose some pots that are deep enough for roots, at least 4 inches. Rinse the pots, and then sprinkle a little baking soda in them. Wet your sponge and scrub. Rinse again at least 3 times. Punch many small holes in the bottoms for water drainage, since good draining soil is ideal for pea sprouts. Now you can add either compost or soil, but make sure the result is a sandy, well draining soil. You would do best to mix a little compost in with the sandy soil to contribute rich nutrients. Pack the pea seeds in as densely as you like. There is no worry here about spacing the plants, because you will harvest them too early for this to be a concern. When pea sprouts grow in warmer weather they turn out woodier and less tender than if grown in cooler temperatures. This means you can grow them indoors during the winter. However, remember this one point: try not to overwater them. One very sober warning is that if you grow your tender, delicious pea sprouts outside you will be feeding the neighborhood wildlife. You might find it more productive to grow these in a window indoors or a small greenhouse. After merely a day, you will see roots pop out and then the plants will begin to grow small shoots. Within only 2-3 weeks, your sprouts will be perfect for harvesting. Do not wait too long or you will find too many tendrils on your plants that will turn out to be too tough to eat. Harvesting at the 2-3 week mark will yield tender tendrils though. You can clip them off near the soil and grow a second crop. They may be smaller than the first, but they will taste as sweet and tender. You can store the pea sprouts in a plastic bag in the fridge for as long as a week and they will maintain much of their great flavor. However, if you want crisp pea sprouts you should use them with 24-48 hours from the time you have harvested them. Cooking these beauties up is simple. Fry them in oil with a lot of garlic, the way pea sprouts are cooked in traditional Chinese...
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