Propagation Month, Day 21: Sowing Salvia

In my continuing efforts to ingratiate myself with the local hummingbirds, I'm trying to plant some of their personal favorites. This Violet Blue salvia should keep them happy and it will make a great shot of color in both the front and back yards.

I sowed two six-packs, which should be enough to keep even the most gluttonous hummingbirds quite busy.

Propagation Month, Day 8: Gel-Rooting Cuttings

While shopping for some seeds at the terrific nursery section at Longs Drugs in Oakland, I came across packages of something called Gel 2 Root, little sealed cups of a patented rooting gel manufactured by Supa Plants in the U.K. I've never seen these before, but I had to give them a try. I got a box of two cups for $3.99; they also came in boxes of six for $12.99.

They couldn't make the process simpler. You prepare your cuttings the way you normally would, although there's no need to use any rooting hormone because there is hormone in the rooting gel. You poke a small hole for each stem in the foil lid and slide each cutting into the gel. Then put it in bright indirect light and wait for the roots to grow. You can see the roots growing through the clear plastic cup. (I also took the additional step of sealing each cup with cuttings into a ziploc bag, just to help the leaves retain more moisture.)

You don't need to water them--all the water and nutrients they need are in the gel. When the roots have grown sufficiently, you cut the foil lid open further to pull out the cuttings and transplant them. If a cutting doesn't root, you can replace it with a new cutting. (So says the label at any rate; I'm wondering if there would be any bacteria left behind by the old cutting that would contaminate the new one.)

I tried these tonight with salvia and catmint cuttings, both of which should root fairly easily. If these cups root cuttings faster and more efficiently than perlite or other rooting media, they might be worthwhile, at least for certain plants. But at two bucks a cup, that could get pricey if you have a lot of cuttings to root. Also, the package says they will not work with most acid-loving plants so that means azaleas and such need to be rooted the old-fashioned way. I'm really curious to see how well these work.

Now the Feds Are Coming After Salvia

As if it's not bad enough that the U.S. government has wasted billions of dollars in a hopeless effort to eradicate marijuana use, now it appears they're getting interested in a particular variety of salvia (Salvia divinorum). According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, the plant's leaves cause hallucinations similar to the effect of LSD or magic mushrooms when chewed or smoked. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has taken a sudden interest in the plant, which is native to Mexico but is now being legally grown here.

Now, I'm not an advocate of hallucinogenic drugs. Personally, I find reality weird and disturbing enough. I'm just hoping that this will not become another ridiculous target in the so-called war on drugs. It's bad enough that we are not allowed to reap the many practical benefits of hemp. It would be a shame if we had to worry about the DEA going after our salvias too.

Salvia chiapensis

I got this in a 4-inch pot last fall at one of the Merritt College plant sales. It's just been lazing around since then until it had a sudden growth spurt a few weeks ago. It's put out about five flower spikes since then and the color is really amazing--hot, hot, hot pink. The foliage (not shown in this picture; these leaves belong to the damn four o'clocks that I can't get rid of) is nice too--deep green and heavily veined.

I hope the hummingbirds enjoy this as much as I do.

More August Crap

Hanna of This Garden Is Illegal recently posted that her garden "looks like August crap." Well, to that I say, "mine too!" and thank goodness for the honesty of garden bloggers.

Hanna attributes her current situation to the effects of the summer heat and lack of planning. Both those phenomena have contributed to my garden's lackluster state. But I have to admit to a third category as well: gardener errors. In fact, I seem to spend a lot of my gardening time wondering what bonehead thing I'm going to do next.

One case in point is the sweet peas. I planted them late (error #1), I didn't pinch them back (just learned about doing this on a gardening show this morning--error #2), I let them get overwhelmed first by volunteer tomato seedlings and later by poppies (error #3), and I didn't act when I noticed that they were getting hit by powdery mildew (possibly due to being up against a stucco-covered wall that held on to the moisture--error #4). The result was this:

I had hoped this entire wall would be covered with sweet peas, but the results have been a few scraggily vines and less than a dozen blooms so far. I'll be ripping them out soon. I may try to grow a late crop of haricot verts in their place, although I may find that they will have all the same problems.

There are more problem spots I could show, and I will, but not today. It's too depressing. There are a few successes as well. The passion flower vine is now healthy and full and steadily putting out a couple new blooms every day. The salvia is growing like crazy (actually, it's taking over the strawberry bed) and it's attracting hummingbirds. The roses are blooming, not exactly abundantly, but better than in past years. The clematis is done blooming now but it was spectacular and I look forward to more of the same in future years.

Hanna listed three things she was going to do to try to correct her August garden situation in the future: 1) cruise the neighborhood to see what's blooming in the area and include those plants in her garden, 2) plant more annuals, and 3) incorporate more colorful foliage. Those are all good ideas and I'm going to try to follow her lead. But I also have to remind myself that I am planting more perennials in my garden each year, and that each year things will grow more established, more colorful, and eventually more lush.