Once you prop you just can't stop

I am, of course, referring to plant propagation. I had planned another post for this week, but just in selecting photos it turned into a rather unwieldy beast that needs to be trimmed down a bit and I haven't had the time to tackled it. So instead we're taking a quick peek in the greenhouse to check up on some of the plants I've been propagating.

The tomatoes are growing rapidly. During the recent heatwave, with temperatures in the 80's, I set them outside to start acclimating to life outdoors. Then temperatures cooled again, so I've been keeping them in the greenhouse. This year I'm growing four varieties: our old standby, Sungold; Orange Paruche, a cherry tomato that won the in-house taste test at Territorial Seeds; Beaverlodge Plum, a highly productive and well-rated, fast-maturing variety; and Genuwine, a hybrid between Genovese and Brandywine, two highly-regarded heirlooms. Remarkably, Genuwine matures two weeks earlier than either of its parents, according to the description.

Warmer temperatures and a few applications of fish fertilizer have seen the baby Cyathea dealbata I grew from spore last summer put on more rapid growth. As you can see, though, they are still quite small. Hopefully they develop faster than my Cyathea dregei, which took a couple years just to get into 4-inch pots. I didn't have a good fertilizer regimen when I started out with those, however. These will probably be ready to pot up separately by the end of summer, if not sooner.

Dahlia tubers taking advantage of the extra heat in the greenhouse to wake up while I procrastinate on finishing the border and preparing the soil in their planting area.

Look at all that empty space on the benches! Many things are outside for good, now that the weather has warmed.

It didn't last long, though. That big bag of soil in the previous photo was quickly opened up so I could do this:

Not too bad. There's still some clear space on this bench.

And this:

Then there's this bench...

That's 72 Plantago major 'Rubrifolia', 29 Carex virgata, 20 Alstroemeria isabellana, 9 more Dahlias, and 6 peppers.

It's not all baby plant madness in the greenhouse. The dwarf red epiphyllum has buds swelling. I can't wait for these to open! At least one of the other epiphyllum is showing signs of developing flower buds, as well. These are still young plants that I grew from cuttings. They will bloom more as they fill their pots and become root-bound.

I was going to get rid of this Platycerium veitchii 'Lemoinei' because it was just too unwieldy to keep in the house over winter. Instead, I decided to see how it liked spending winter in a 40F greenhouse. It surprised me by thriving, growing two new shield fronds with dramatic antlers over the course of the winter, and it's working on a third. As temperatures warm, I expect it to switch over to producing the other fronds. It gets to stay, because it's obviously happy staying in a cool greenhouse for the winter.

I'm always excited when one of my tillandsias bloom, as it doesn't happen with any great frequency in my climate and under my care. This is Tillandsia leonamiana.

During those days in the 80s, I moved my culm divisions of Chusquea gigantea out of the greenhouse. This plant doesn't like hot soil even when it isn't a pair of tenuous single-culm divisions. They made it through with a little bit of leaf crisping. I think the one on the left is starting to produce a new culm. I keep digging the soil away to check and it seems like the bud at its base is swelling, albeit slowly. I had planned to give it away or sell it if it survived, but I've found a spot where it should be happy, out of the way, and help block the view of the neighbors. Suddenly I care if it lives!

That's it for propagation updates for the moment. On Tuesday I visited Bamboo Garden in North Plains, Oregon, and did a little back-house trading at Cistus to bring home these beauties:

Left to right (roughly): 3 Trachycarpus fortunei 'Wagnerianus', 1 Aucuba japonica 'Overlook', 1 Fargesia robusta 'Wenchuan', 1 Schefflera delavayi, and 2 Indocalamus tessellatus.

I am so excited to have these plants. I've been planning to fill in a bed that's stood mostly empty until now and I've been accumulating plants for the project since March. I couldn't start until now because the plants I got first, pictured below, were the fillers that need to go in after I put in the larger plants in the photo above. Guess what I'll be doing this weekend! Hopefully I'll get the results posted here next week.