i have waxed poetic on many occasions about my love affair with brown sugar. not the sugar sugar. the exotic hibiscus, whose petals have luscious metallic glints. mmmmmmm…
she has grown into a queen of a bush. at least 7 feet tall and wide with huge glossy leaves. apparently she thrives in the dappled light under the oak canopy.
i cut a handful of smallish green-tipped branches, cut off the buds, and removed all of the lower leaves, then stuck 5-6 of the cut branches into a 6″ pot.
looked like this when i was done.
then i watered really good, placed the pot into a giant plastic bag, and set in bright indirect light.
the leaves look squashed in the photo, but i made some adjustments and they aren’t now. if my experiment works, the new cuttings will root in a few weeks. if not, the small prune job i did is really good for the plant and will produce more buds. i’m no genius. i learned all about this by watching THIS video!
if all goes well, i’ll do another follow-up post in a month or so. exotic hibiscus are notoriously difficult to propagate so We’ll See.
i also got busy with propagating fred ives and another graptoveria, moonglow. started by laying the leaves atop a thin layer of soil, but now i’ve moved them to an ice cube tray and am trying a water method i read about. if you try this yourself, let the leaf callous before sticking it into water!
earlier this year i rooted some cuttings of a christmas cactus (i carried home from dottie’s house in albuquerque) in water and it worked great. i was highly doubtful since i thought the water would rot the cuttings, but wonder of wonders it was a very speedy method!
let there be roots!
in other completely unrelated news, or perhaps slightly related, since gardens are involved. i went for a walk.
in a sea of grass.
grass clouds.
in totally unrelated news, the last 2 audio books i’ve listened to have been unremarkable. here. let me warn you off of these:
exhibit a: idiotic
exhibit b: long-winded and annoying
hope your sunday is coming to a lovely end. i’ll just be here. drinking a nice cuppa tea and puttering around my patio until darkness falls. see you soon!
p.s. have you ever dreamed of living in a storybook cottage by the sea? me too!
Love Brown Sugar. How do you keep the whiteflies off? I am sitting on a jet plane in Phoenix heading home after visiting the Grand Canyon and Sedona. Absolutely lovely, except for the tourists posing on the edge of the rim in silly stances. Hard to get a photo without some duffus ruining it. Otherwise simply wonderful. Everyone should make the pilgrimage.
Good morning! I love the quick grow notes on the Christmas cactus. Mine seems to have disappeared in my remodel adventures. I’m hoping one will come my way soon. I’ve always heard the tradition is to give or receive. They are special! Thanks for the warnings on the reads. They won’t make it to my list. Now, I’m going back to reexamine the grassy walk. It looks to be so peaceful and lovely.
ps: Cute as it is, I might like a bit larger storybook house on the water with BIG windows.
Sorry to hear The Midwife’s Revolt was not so good. I have family in Boston and know if fairly well and loved my midwife in the UK. It sounds like this book needed a different author since the premise was so intriguing.
Best of luck with your propagation work. I should be ‘putting the garden to bed’ but when there are books to read, tv shows to watch and a colonoscopy to prep for, it’s just not going to happen any time soon.
hey nice new profile pic!
oh rats, I did recently download the first book of the midwife series….ah, win some & lose some, I guess
loved the photo essay (s) on plants & grasses
Holly
well i DID listen to the entire book, versus stopping after the first chapter and getting a refund (love that about audible dot com). you might very well enjoy it. let me know!
I really love the story book cottage!
Love that Brown Sugar!!!! Wonder if it freezes….
yep, all of the exotic tropicals will die if temps dip too low..def won’t rebound after a freeze.
Appreciate the audio book warnings, thanks… and I love that you’re propagating… your brown sugar is such a stunner, the world needs more… xox
Hi!
Went to the DIA on Thursday. They have a Monet show right now. Features his painting of his gladioli garden. They showed both the front and back of the unframed painting. It was fun to see what the back of the canvas went through, passing from one person’s collection to the next.
Here in Michigan, we have just finished cutting back all of our gardens. I love the color of your hibiscus. Can’t wait to see how your cuttings work out! Last week the frost finally got the leaves of our Hibiscus. They were covered in beautiful intense orange/red flowers. The deer came through and ate quite a few leaves off of one before I could put the fence up around it. Planting bulbs this week. It was a beautiful cold day. Yesterday, went for a drive on the “back roads” to see what is left of the Fall colors.
Have a good night.
Susan