Quick start, indoors, with coleus


The coleus plants over-wintered and planted in May of 2020 are at left.
This photo was taken in July. The plants were tall and bushy by September.
Eight pots, with special seeding soil, and cuttings from the coleus plants. 
All winter the coleus cuttings were rooting in a vase.
I did trim the roots from time-to-time.

    The coleus plants grew large last summer, easily filling in spaces toward the back of a garden which receives afternoon sunlight.

     I took cuttings of some of the most colorful plants last September and made a bouquet which lasted all winter.

    Now, after an eventful March, I have returned home and rooted the coleus plants from the vase and into small pots. This is what I did last year and it was a great success. So it goes, once again.

    The coleus plant is an easy plant to work with. I trim off the leaves, and leave several inches of stem and roots (from its days in the water-filled vase). I bought small seeding pots and special seeding soil. I took a sharp scissors and cut the plants to size, sticking them in the pot and filling it with soil.

    Now, about eight seed pots are on a baking sheet in a bay window which receives morning sunlight. This front, "sun room" holds several plants that have done quite well, thank you, in this part of the house.

    I think this might save me about $40 when I start buying annual flowers next month.

    I also have saved a sturdy bloomer originally purchased at The Home Depot. This Rio Dipladenia plant is a strong and thrives in many areas of the yard; I bought two potted plants for our house in Eldridge and one for our daughter's garden in Ankeny, Iowa. 

    Next month I'll find a nice place for this plant in one of our gardens.

    Finally, for the past several years I've saved the poinsettia plant from Christmas. This year I'll put it in partial sun, out back, and I think it will flourish with regular watering and Miracle Grow fertilizer. The first time I tried this I thought it was amazing because poinsettias are known to be picky, and somewhat sensitive.

    All of this is a fun challenge for this gardener, and saves money, too!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I take on a huge porch plant, and win!

Image
The sansevieria at top is divided. The photo from it on the porch is before it was divided.        My father, Emery Cox Jr., passed away in 1989. It was a shock, of course, and we received many plants at his visitation and funeral.     One of the green gifts was a  sansevieria, also called a Snake Plant or "Mother-in-Law's Tongue." I took this and planted it in a pot. You can see from the photo that it has grown like Topsy over the years.     I knew I had to divide it this year, so a few weeks ago, my husband Steve and I wrestled the giant sansevieria on the porch over to the driveway.     It really didn't take long: I picked out part of the huge plant, and placed the other in one of those heavy paper yard bags, Boom! All done!      Sansevieria is actually native to the African country of Madagascar. It's in the genus of Dracaena.     My plant does bloom, because it is located in a bright but indirect light...
Read more

Autumn arrives: Water & plant suggestions

Image
Use a rain gauge to track rainwater in the garden  In a 10 day period of late August through early September, we received more than 14 inches of rain on our gardens at home. Fourteen inches! Yikes! Luckily, the plants are mainly in well-drained areas, crafted for the past 25 years. I carted away the heavy clay soil left during the (1992-93) home construction process and started with fresh, black dirt. I also add a number of soil amendments every year. But this year, garden work has been a little different: I'm home full-time and work outdoors in nice weather almost every day. On rainy days, I track the amount of rain we receive. Scott County got a lot of rain early in September but it's toned down a bit since. For example, we received 2 inches last week. Experts say Autumn is a really good time to sustain gardens. Some hardy perennials can be planted (think Autumn sedum, or mums); the nights are fairly cool and the days are still nicely warm. We also get rain ...
Read more

A culvert is tidied up

Image
  This is how the culvert looks now. Here's how it looked before.      Last week, my husband brought up a topic I had forgotten.       "Have you weeded the culvert?" Steve asked. I replied that I ran my small weed wacker in that area of the yard. But pulling weeds? No.     "Could you?" he asked, hopefully. Well, sure. That's what I do, after all, pull weeds all over our big yard.    This project actually went pretty smoothly. In about two hours I'd pulled all the weeds, cleaned off and replaced rocks, and got rid of the debris.      What is a culvert? According to The  Constructor.org , a culvert is made up of various materials, such as aluminum, steel or concrete, and generally runs underneath or near a road to provide a place for drainage, or to run cables.       The culvert near our house was put in place several years ago by Scott County, Iowa.       Before this so...
Read more