Geraniums and Flower Bed Clean Up

More  Geraniums

Slipped some more dark red geraniums today and also some of my favourite pink ones. I will be leaving these in the house to get roots, though. The ones that I left in the greenhouse look very winter. I might have to bring them all inside for a couple of weeks.

How to get slips/cuttings from a geranium:

It's a very easy process.
Using a sharp knife, cut some of the stems off your existing geraniums, especially those stems that are tall.  Let the cut geranium slip sit for an hour or two to let the cut part dry over.  Then just plunk them into a pot of dirt and water generously. Keep it well watered  for the next couple of weeks after which it should have a few roots. (It will root from the joints of the stems. ) You should be able to take them out of the pots and put them into your flower beds or deck pots in a few weeks, about the May long weekend or shortly after.

Do harden them off first. (Put them outside for a while every day to get them used to direct sun.)

Flower Bed Clean Up
My usual nemesis, the quack grass is at it again. It has sprouted quietly in my flower beds and is stealthily trying to take control again.

Today I dug a lot of grass shoots and roots out of the top of my rock garden bed. It was great to see that the tulips that I had so diligently planted last fall were sprouted in that bed. Unfortunately I think my Marmot buddy is back or the rabbits are getting brave enough to come up the steps to the top of the rock garden. It looked like "someone" had eaten off the stem and part of the first tulip blossom! I guess it's time to get out the Bobbex again and spray that peppery stuff all over my tulips to deter the "lunch crowd"! :)

After that I dug up another pile of grass sprouts and roots out of the east end of my Stackstone bed. The Lambs Ears look like they are trying to sprout now as well as some of the False Dragon Heads there . No sign of my Ligularias yet. They are slow to come up.

The very first thing to bloom in my garden flower beds is my Pasqueflower. I call it my 'tame crocus' as it has a similar appearance.

Pasqueflower

The tulips in the side of the house bed are about 6 inches tall now and are starting to get buds now. Some are the old red ones and at the far east end of the bed are the newer ones that I just planted last fall, a pink and orange combination. I planted 30 in all, some it this bed, some at the top of the Rock Garden and some in my Stack Stone bed.   I wrote the name down somewhere, but can't remember it off hand.

The peony that I had transplanted there from my small" Spruce Tree bed" has sprouted shoots already! Yay! I loved that peony, such a beautiful medium pink colour. It had pretty mud stopped blooming in its original location though. Too much shade from the trees now.

Peony shoots

I wonder if it will bloom this summer. It often takes a year or two after transplanting to bloom again, but the one in my triangle bed did, so who know!?
Gardeners are the perpetual optimists! We believe every year that we will have the perfect garden. :)

Greenhouse Gardening

Greenhouse Gardening

Left: Spaghetti squashes, Early Girl tomatoes, pink lavatara.  Right side: Mystery Day dahlias

The little seedlings have almost all started to sprout in their pots which I have transferred from the living room window to the greenhouse. We started up the heater and have it on a timer to come on at night. The night time temperatures are still single digits below zero, but during the day the sun warms the greenhouse  up to 30C or higher.

Tomatoe seedlings that have sprouted:
Purple Russians  (the first to sprout- produces oval purpley-red tomatoes)
Early Girls  (usually develop their fruit first)
Lemon Boys  (sweet yellow tomatoes)
Tumblers  (small thumb sized tomatoes)
Patio  (compact growth, good for small spaces)

The New Zealand tomatoes seeds have not come up yet.

Firebird Dahlias

Squashes
all 3 types of squashes have sprouted, spaghetti, Butternut and one lone acorn squash.

No English cucumber seeds have sprouted. Might have to buy a couple of bedding plants like last year.

I planted 4 more pots of flower seeds from flower seed packets that were in the greenhouse;  sweet peas, more cosmos, nasturtiums and some foxgloves.  Not sure if they are still viable seeds since they likely froze there all winter, but I thought it was worth a try.

Red "Thompson" dahlia

I had potted 2 more Dahlia tubers recently, a new two tone purple colour called Mystery Day which I bought at Wal Mart. Thought it was appropriate since I had taught elementary school for the Mystery Lake School District in northern Manitoba for many years. :)   They took about 10 days to sprout above the soil in our warm laundry room and yesterday I transferred them into the greenhouse to continue their growth.

Geraniums
I over wintered about a dozen geraniums from last years garden; some beautiful pink one from my flower boxes on the deck stairs landing, some perfect blue/red geraniums from the tubs at the far end of the driveway, a Samba red and apple blossom white from deck pots from previous years.

I cut slips from the apple blossom white plant, and from the Blood red plant which are all in the greenhouse.  I need to fertilize them to encourage them to root. (A fertilizer with high nitrogen- a large first number.)

Still to do : pink geranium slips.

New bird houses

Diligent husband has started building 7 new birdhouses in the garage. We have about 20 birdhouses on our acreage, but many of them are old and starting to fall apart. I'm sure the Tree Swallows and House Wrens that usually nest here will appreciate them. :)
Happy planting!