Geranium is a Fast Growing Plant.

It has been a little over 2 weeks since the last entry.  Geraniums are growing pretty fast!

38 Days after seeding, I found a tiny third true leaf coming out.  These leaves are quite small - even smaller than a penny.

4 days after the first picuture, and 42 days after seeding.  The newest true leaf is growing fast, and I see a new bud of leaf coming out of the tip of the stem.  They are tiny, but the purple markings are visible.

Blanket Flower Update!

It's been a month and half since the last entry on Blanket Flower.  That was when a few true leaves started to grow.  Let me show you how it looks now.

A few more leaves grew, and the plant is about 3-inches tall.  Not much progress in 45 days, but the plant is doing fine.  I am still hopeful that I will get to see the cheerful flowers by summer.

No, I Did Not Forget - Forget Me Not Update

I've been procrastinating and haven't made an entry for a while.  Although I didn't post anything here, it doesn't mean that my plants were also holding on.  One of the first seeds I sowed was FORGET ME NOT.  I lost a couple seedlings to snails and slugs - they vanished overnight - and gave some to my friends.  Now I have 5, and all of them are doing well although...FORGET ME NOT grows very slow!

 

A few days after the last entry on 10/25, I transplanted one of the seedlings to a small pot, and 10 days later, the number of leaves increased.  It seems the plant liked the upgrade :)

About 3 weeks later, I needed to transplant the plant to a larger pot again.  When I pulled it out of the smaller pot, the roots were tangled and obviously wanted a bigger place.  So there!  I hope I can grow it in this pot until it bears flowers.

Almost Good-Bye to Paperwhite...

This was the first flower that I planted that opened.  From planting to this 'almost-done' blooming stage, it took only less than 2 months.  According to what I have read, I am supposed to fertilize even after the flowers are done; it is to let the bulb absorb nutrients for the next year.  I hope it will come back!

Thank you for letting me enjoy the growth and the sweet fragrance!  Till next year!!

 

Texas Bluebonnet

I wanted something showy and slightly taller but not too tall.  I love the color blue, so Texas Bluebonnet seemed to be a good choice.  After I bought the seeds, I learned that this is the State Flower of Texas (thus the name?). 

These are Texas Bluebonnet seeds.  These are pretty large, and they are all in different colors.  Easy to see, easty to sow :)  I sowed them in peat pallets on 10-29-2010.

On 11-04-10, 6 days later, seedlings started to emerge.  Wow, these seedlings are large!!

I forgot to take a picture of the young seedlings :(  26 days after seeding, very very cute true leaves started to grow and the roots grew much fast, so I tranplanted the seedlings in the plastic sour cream tub.

4 days after transplant (30 days after seeds being sowed), the seedlings seem to be very happy - and the roots are already peeking out from the bottom of the plastic tub!

One month (31 days) after seeding.  Since I saw the root tips peeking out of the bottom of the plastic tab, I decided to plant them in my garden, their permanent home.  Geez, this plant grows so fast!   I scattered some snail baits as I've seen so many young seedlings vanished overnight in the past.  My fingers are crossed for these to survive the predators!

SEED INFORMATION:

*  Recommended planting season for San Diego: September -March - I planted in October

Seeds I bought: Ferry Morse's TEXAS BLUEBONNET 

Seeds bought from: Home Depot

Origination of the seeds: USA

According to the package:

*  Days to germination: 15-25 days - Mine took 6 days!!

*  Days to bloom: 60-90 days - Mine took 136 days!!

*  Plant height: 12 inches

*  Grows best: Sun/Partial Shade

Flowers, Finally!

30 days after planting the bulbs, my paperwhite has finally bloomed!  This really was a beginner friendly plant to grow.  It took only one month to see the flowers since I planted the bulbs. 

Thse flowers made me very happy!  I hope they last long.

Truely a True Leaf

4 out of the 6 seeds I planted survived transplant to bigger pots.  21 days later, one of the seedlings showed one true leaf!

The true leaf is tiny, but it has the distinctive marking already.  I touched the leaf and sniffed the smell...yeah, this is the smell I used to hate.  Now that I am growing it, I don't mind the smell anymore :)

Geraniums, 1 week.

One week has passed since the last entry, and all 6 seeds I planted germinated.  They are doing very well, and in fact, this plant seems to grow the fastest amont all other ones I planted.

Roots are already growing out of the peat pallettes, so I will have to transplant these seedlings to pots sometime soon....

Buds, already!

I kept busy planting other seeds and weeding after rains and forgot about Paperwhite for a few weeks.  Yesterday (10/30), I noticed some buds!

 I planted the bulbs on 10/3/10, so it has only been 27 days.

Today (10/31/10), white flowers were popping out of the thin skin.  If I am  lucky, I will probably see the flowers tomorrow.  How am I excited!

Other Plants In My Yard

There are some plants I planted before starting this blog, so unfortunately, I don't have record of them. 

These are Pentas, aka Egyptian Stars. 

These are Plumerias.  I heard it will take about 2-3 years to see flowers when Plumerias are grown from seeds.  Sigh-- it's a long wait, but I know I will enjoy seeing them grow every day.

Of course, I have a Japanese Maple (Bloodgood) tree. While I want to achieve the 'cottage garden' like setting, I want to grow plants that remind me of my home.  So there.

This is the top tip of my Avocado (Haas) tree.  It is about 5-ft-tall and planted on the slope of my hilly backyard.  New buds are coming out here and there, and the tree seems to be happy as far as I see it.

Forget Me Not is doing fine.

It's been 15 days since the last entry on Forget Me Not.  Thanks to the rare heavy rains we had in the last few weeks in San Diego, my plants are doing well. 

In this picture, the 2 middle ones and bottom left one are Forget Me Not.  They are doing pretty well.  I will probably need to plant them in the yard - I have to decide where.

Primrose (Showy Evening)

I've actually tried Showy Evening Primrose earlier and successfully planted it in my yard but forgot to keep journal of it.  I just promised my bestfriend that I would give it to her to fill her nearly 3-acre yard, so I sowed the seeds again.

These are the Showy Evening Primrose seeds.  Very tiny, but each seed can grow to rather a tall plant.  I sowed them on 10-17-10.

Today, 10-24-10, is the 7th day, and a couple of the seeds germinated.  Look at them - seedlings are as tiny as the seeds.

SEED INFORMATION:

Seeds I bought: Ferry Morse's PRIMROSE - Showy Evening (Oenothera Speciosa)

Seeds bought from: Home Depot

Origination of the seeds: USA

According to the package:

*  Days to germination: 21-28 days - Mine took 7 days.

*  Days to bloom: 120-130 days

*  Plant height: 8-14 inches

*  Grows best: Sun/Partial Shade

*  Recommended planting season for San Diego: February -March - I planted in October

Sweet William

I like fragrant flowers.  I've heard Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) smell nice, and I heard it is easy to grow, even for beginners.  Also, I felt Dianthus is a must-have flower for me because of my Japanese heritage.  Dianthus is called "Nadeshiko" in Japanese, and "Yamato Nadeshiko" (Literal translation: True Japanese Dianthus) refers to an idealized Japanese women.  So, why not?

These are Sweet William seeds.  They are not too tiny, so I was able to count and sowed three seeds in each peat pallet.

One week later, I started to see seedlings.  Stems are very long - why is that?  Is this normal?

Another week past, and the seedlings started to have true leaves.  Very cute :)

After a few days from the picture above, I planted the seedlings in the 6-pack container I saved from other plants I bought previously.  I hope the extra room for their roots will help them grow faster.
 

After about a month since the seeds were sowed, Sweet William seedlings are slowly but surely growing.  This picture was taken today, 10-17-10
SEED INFORMATION:

Seeds I bought: Ferry Morse's SWEET WILLIAM - Double Dwarf Mixed Colors

Seeds bought from: Home Depot

Origination of the seeds: France

According to the package:

*  Days to germination: 5-10 days - Mine took 7 days to germinate

*  Days to bloom: 60-90 days

*  Plant height: 6 inches

*  Grows best: Full Sun

*  Recommended planting season for San Diego: September - April - I planted in September

Geranium

My mom had Geraniums in our yard, and I didn't like the plant because the leaves smelled funny.  However, as I see them in my neighborhood, I must admit the flowers are pretty.

I bought a packet of seeds that was on sale from an online seed retailor called Thompson & Morgan.  

These are the Geranium seeds that I bought.  Don't they kind of look like little bugs?!  I will plant all 6 and see how many will germinate.

2 of the 6 seeds I planted on 10/17 already germinated on 10/22.  It took only 5 days!

SEED INFORMATION:

Seeds I bought: Thompson & Morgan's GERANIUM - Vogue appleblossom

Seeds bought from: Thompson & Morgan

Origination of the seeds: Holland

According to the package:

*  Days to germination: 7-14 days (at 70-75F) - Mine took 5 days (10-22-10).

*  Days to bloom: N/A

*  Plant height: N/A

*  Grows best: Full Sun

*  Recommended planting season for San Diego: January - March - I planted in October (10-17-10) 

Day 16 Paperwhite is growing fast!

Since the last entry a week ago, green tips of all 7 bulbs emerged from the soil.  This year, we are having much more rains (very unusual in San Diego), and plants seem to be very happy about it.

The tallest one is about 3 inches high; I am amazed by the speed of their growth!

Calla Lily

Calla Lilies look so elegant, and it must be one of the most popular flowers used for bridal bouquet.  I would love to have them in my yard, just because.  I planted 2 bulbs in the backyard (full sun) and 2 in the front yard (partial shades) and see how they grow differently.  It's too bad I forgot to take pictures of the bulbs, and I didn't note when I planted them (although I remember it was at the end of August).

 I waited for a long, long time to see this little guy!  I think I waited almost a month.  This one is from the back yard.

Once the tip was out of the ground, the Calla Lily started to grow very fast.  This was taken about 3 days later.

These are from the front yard.  They came out about a week before the bulbs planted in the backyard.  These are probably a week old after sprouting.

 A few days later from the picture above.  Being happy and growing fast!

 

About a week after the above picture (today is 10-17-10).  Look at them!  The leaves are open and big; I wonder when I get to see the flowers :)

More Gaura.

Two more Gaura seeds germinated, and I am happy about it.  The first sprouted seedling has grown a bit and even turned its color to green.

On October 16th, one week after germination (left seedling that was the first one germinated).  The right one has just sprouted a couple of days ago.

Blanket Flower Is Happy.

It's been about three weeks since I sowed Blanket Flower seeds.  Some never germinated, but thanks to the recent rain and the mild weather of San Diego, the ones that did are doing well.  It looks like plants love rain water much much more than city water.

It's about an inch tall and has 3 true leaves.  While other seedlings will eventually be transplanted in the ground, I want to keep this one in a pot so I can place it by my living room window. 

Hello, Freesia!

Today is the 12th day since I planted the Freesia bulbs.  Finally, I found a green tip out of the ground, and I got excited. 

Can you see it??  This is one of the three bulbs I planted in the backyard (Full Sun in the morning hours, North facing).

I am looking forward to more of this!

Day 8 - Paperwhite blubs emerged!

Day 8 after planting the bulbs, Paperwhite started to grow out of the ground.  This makes me very happy!

Can you see the new tips?  They are cute, aren't they??

Platycodon

Platycodon is beloved flower in Japan, and it is one of the Seven Flowers of Autumn.  In fact, my father's family seal contains Platycodon (is called as KIKYO in Japanese), so I wanted to grow it in my garden.

These are Platycodon seeds.  I sowed three different kinds: HAKONE BLUE, MOTHER OF PEARL and FUJI BLUE. 

After about 1 week from sowing, Platycodon seedlings emerged.  (I forgot to label which is which - I will have to wait for the flowers to know!)

After waited another week, I transplanted the seedlings from seeding pallets to bigger pots.  I want to see the flowers already!  I hope they grow fast now...  (10.08.10, Day 14 from being sowed)

Blanket Flower and Forget Me Not

The seedlings of Blanket Flower and Forget Me Not look very happy, and they grew a little since the last entries.  I decided to give them more room to grow, so I transplanted to a bigger container.

In the 6-pack container, I separated and planted seedlings of Blanket flower and Forget Me Not.  I hope they survive the transplant!

 Blanket Flower seedling with 2 true leaves (about 3 weeks after the seed was sowed)

Forget Me Not looks happy.  Also 3 weeks after seed was sowed.

Gaura

I bought a 2-gallon pot of Gaura when Home Depot had them on sale.  I planted it on the slope of my backyard, but the plant dried and died fairly quickly.  I read that Gaura will come back in spring, so I am hoping it will.  In the meantime, I collected the seeds and sowed them (the Gaura seed should only be placed on top of moist soil, never to cover them with soil as they need light to sprout).

 The Gaura seeds I collected from my dying plant.

 After 14 days, from one of 5 seeds, one 'hatched'.  A tiny red seedling emerged!