What's sprouting on the propagation bench

Winter to early spring is high time for hardwood cuttings and starting seeds. I've got big plans for the garden this year, and I need a lot of plants. Propagating your own is a great way to save money.

Assorted Ribes sanguineum cuttings started out as leafless sticks two months ago. They started to leaf out last month, though that doesn't mean they're all rooting. I've tugged on a few though, and at least some of them are rooting. These are destined for the woodland margins and more open woods inside the deer fence. Now that the deer are shut out, I can go wild and diversify the flora in the natural areas. Ribes speciosum cuttings are also rooting in this container. Not native locally, but this west coast native will be at home in the dry areas of the garden.

Ribes x gordonianum is a hybrid between Ribes speciosum and Ribes odoratum. I'm really excited for these.

Inside the greenhouse, I've been making room for seedlings. The recent warm days with at least breaks of sun have warmed the greenhouse enough that I can actually water the plants inside, which means I can apply more than a foliar fertilizer to the seedlings. The heat and fertilizer have produced visible results. As you'll see, most of these are from local gardening friends. I'm so lucky to know so many great gardeners.

On the right, a tray full of Bupleurum fruticosum. To save space, I put 3 or 4 seedlings in each pot. These are still a bit floppy, since I took the photo right after potting them up.

Moving left. This summer I found out how easy Parahebe perfoliata is to propagate from cuttings. Later in fall I took cuttings at work, and they rooted even better in the cooler conditions of fall. I decided to try another batch at home around the end of January, and just a couple weeks later, they started rooting, the fastest batch yet. At the bottom of the photo are some odds and ends Arctostaphylos cuttings.

Next over is a mixed tray of Bupleurum spinosum and Glaucium flavum var. aurantiacum, both from seed. The former I got from Amy (who humbly writes The World's Best Gardening Blog) at the fall Portland garden bloggers' plant swap. The latter was purchased from Milton's Garden Menagerie on Etsy, run by Ann of the Amateur Bot-ann-ist. To the left of those is a flat of cutting-grown Santolina chamaecyparissus 'Lemon Queen', from Anna at Flutter & Hum.

Here's a close-up of the tiny Bupleurum spinosum seedlings:

Camassia quamash seeds are just starting to emerge. This photo was taken with my phone. If you can't make out the tiny bits of green starting to poke through the soil, you'll have to take my word for it until they grow a bit more.

Also from the fall plant swap, Alstroemeria isabellana seeds came from Loree of Danger Garden. One sprouted a couple months ago. Now two more are following suit. The first one started out with streaks of variegation, but they seem to be disappearing as it grows.

Also from Loree, Bocconia frutescens. I had three grevillea seeds germinate, too. I lost two to damping off, and the third looks to be succumbing as well. Oh, and behind the Bocconia is one Eschscholzia californica 'Mikado'. Is that sad or what? I got one California poppy seed to germinate. The damping off was pretty bad for awhile. But I ordered more seed (lots more) that I'll direct sow when it arrives. To the left is a pot containing a tuber of Smallanthus sonchifolius, the Andean tuber crop yacon, which I picked up from Raintree Nursery at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show.

From my own stock, Cryptanthus 'Opal' pups are rooting. My main plant went into a pupping frenzy after I removed the initial three. This cryptanthus has handled the cool, humid greenhouse conditions better than most of the other kinds I have. Hopefully these will be ready for the spring swap.

I also discovered a greenhouse guardian yesterday. I don't know how this little frog got in, but I'm happy if it's happy.

And that's it for propagation right now. I need to dig through the seeds I've got stored in the fridge and figure out what else to sow.