Baby Blue Jay bird out of the nest

Yesterday I found this baby Blue Jay out of its nest.  It was within 10 feet of me while I sat on the deck and read after dinner.  The parents were not seen for a long time.  Eventually, when the parents flew by, the baby called for them.  The parents did find the baby Blue Jay and were swooping to the baby then leaving.  I assume they were feeding the baby Blue Jay as if it were in the nest.  If I could find the Blue Jay nest I would have just picked up the bird and dumped it back in as I have done with other baby birds.  I did not know if the bird would survive the night.

The Baby Blue Jay looked very wobbly on this little branch and eventually hopped up the tree to a more secure "Y" in the branches to spend the night.

I came out this morning and the Baby Blue Jay Bird survived!  Both parents were very active swooping by to visit the baby.  I could not see if they were feeding.  I was surprised that the parents did not immediately enter into the famous Blue Jay Mobbing behavior when I went onto the deck this morning.  If you have ever seen this mobbing behavior, you will remember it.  All Blue Jay birds in the vicinity start screeching and swooping and attacking.  Usually this is targeted at their natural predators such as cats or squirrels.

Male and Female Blue Jays are visually identical and can only be identified as the mom or the dad by their behaviors.  As humans continue to expand in North America, so does the Blue Jay.  Blue Jays live in human created habitat.  The tragic result of this expansion of Blue Jay territory is that they will eat eggs and hatchlings of North American Song birds.  As the song birds are losing their habitat, they also have the brash Blue Jay assisting in their demise

Spider Plants

Spider Plants are an easy to care for house plant which will live in any environment but thrives in a sunny spot with lots of water.  Spider Plants can be hung as a hanging plant or placed on a high shelf.  They do not need plant food but will produce more babies if they are fed weekly.  The botanical name for Spider Plant is Chlorophytum comosum. 

To force the production of babies, keep the Spider Plant in its original pot until it is root bound.  Constrained roots alerts the plant to work on its survival by sending out future generations over the side of the pot.  These babies will continue to produce babies until they hit the floor.  Of course in the spider plants natural state this would the be the floor of the forest. 

Spider Plants are such prolific growers that after a few years you realize that you are about to be in the news with the following headline: 

Spider Plants take over home - occupants found living in car. 

That innocent, cute little spider plant that you brought home from the garden center in the hanging basket will soon take over every inch of space that you give them.  Innocently you will pick a few of the babies and place them into new pots.  Soon they will be as large as the parent plant and demanding just as much room. 

Place spider plants outdoors for a hot and humid summer to watch them really grow!  Always bring them in before the first frost.  The leaves turn to mush at the first touch of cold weather or frost.

Look for upcoming blog posts that will detail nine specific varieties of Spider Plants.  Compare your Spider Plants to the pictures in the upcoming posts to determine the name of the variety that you have.

Gaillardia Gallo Red

Gaillardia Gallo Red is the perfect deep red flowering perennial for borders, edging features and as bedding plants.  Gaillardia Gallo Red is the most elegant of all Gaillardo perennials with its restrained size of a uniform and tidy 12 inch mound covered with large, Gaillardia flowers.  Both petals and eye are saturated with a deep red completely free of the more garish yellow and oranges found in the majority of Gaillardia flowers.  This elegant entry of a new Gaillardia plant on the market meets the needs of small space gardeners and others who want a care free, drought tolerant perennial that has a classy appearance.

I had preveiously purchased another type of Gaillardia Blanket Flower, Arizona Red Shades before  I found this one.  I wish I had found Gaillardia Gallo Red first....

Gaillardia Gallo Red is a perennial hardy in zones 4 to 8.  It grows up to a foot high and wide.  After the first year it is tolerant of drought and will thrive in any soil.  After the first frost, prune the flower down to the base.

While the flower of the Gaillardia Gallo Red looks much like the popular Gaillardia Burgundy, the small bush size distinguishes this from its taller cousin.

Gaillardia Arizona Red Shades

Of all of the Gaillardia fowers, Arizona Red Shades, is a bit more elegant in its presentation with its primarily red flowers that have just a bit of yellow around the outside tips of some petals.  I have loved Gaillardia flowers for years but did not buy them because their carnival masses of orange/red/yellow blooms were a bit much for my understated style.

This is the first year that I have seen two Gaillardia plants with deep red flowers, and both varieties are Gaillardia Blanket Flowers which only grow 10 to 12 inches high.  As the readers of this blog know, I am a backyard Gardner in an urban area which means that small plant varieties allow me to have a great deal more variety in a small space.

I will compare the habit of Gaillardia Arizona Red Shades to  Gaillardia Gallo Red through the summer growing season.  But let's start with an introduction to Gaillardia Arizona Red Shades.

Gaillardia Arizona Red Shades is a Blanket Flower variety in the Gaillardia plant family.  This means it has a maximum height of 12".  Different heights seen from different sources across the web say anywhere from 8" to 12".  This Gaillardia flowering perennial thrives in zones 3 to 9.  After the first year it is very drought tolerant and will grow in any soil type except for very heavy clay.  Blooming from May to frost, this long blooming perennial has flowers that are approximately 2 to 3 inches across, are primarily red with a red center but some flowers have yellow tips to their petals as they mature. 

Deadheading Gaillardia Arizona Red Shades is not necessary but will help encourage blooming.  This variety grows easily from seed and will flower in its first year (other Gaillardia's begin to flower in their 2nd year).

Full sun ensures ongoing blooms.  If placed in a spot that is too shady it will flop over and produce fewer flowers.  Place plants a foot apart.  Prune spent plant material just after first frost.

Great Cascade Wine Red Information

Introduced in 2003 Great Cascade Wine Red is showing up in many home gardens.  This vine cascades from hanging flower baskets or can be trained to grow up a trellis.  Growing up to 7 feet in one season, Great Cascade Win Red has dark pinkish red flowers and thrives in full sun.

Please leave your comments about your experience growing this plant.  We can all learn about your experiences in growing Great Cascade Wine Red as part of a container garden or when planted in the ground.

Great Cascade Wine Red resources:

1,
Excellent write up from a commercial greenhouse:
http://www.pineae.com/suntory_product.php?autonumber=80

See that note about it beginning to flower when the pot is full?  I am worried about putting in a 3 gallon container to grow on my deck.  Will this delay blooming?

2.
Comments from Gardeners on Dave'sGarden.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/160100/

Angel Trumpet

Angel Trumpet is a tropical tree with fragrant prolific large flowers.  Larger varieties where the flowers hang straight down are called Brugmansia, smaller varieties with flowers that face outward or up are called Datura.  I ordered a yellow Datura from a nursery last year.  First planted in a container garden in full sun, it grew, but the Angel Trumpet had yellow leaves which kept falling off.  After investigating for the usual problems, spider mites and overwatering, I decided to plant the Angel Trumpet into the garden soil.  The Angel Trumpet took off!  No more yellow leaves, no more slow growth. But no blooms....

Last fall, as I was bringing all of my plants in to overwinter I made the decision that it was not worth the space in my southern window for this non-performer.  Then one day in late October, it looked like this!

Needless to say, I researched the Angel Trumpet again on the Internet and discovered that the Brugsmansia and Datura do not bloom until it has formed 'Y's with its branches.  Once this happens it is sufficiently mature to bloom.

To overwinter the Angel Trumpet, I trimmed back the plant to just above the Y's in the branches and brought it inside.  It survived the winter with a few leaves and no blooms.  I put it in a northern window and did not give it any fertilizer.

This picture was taken this spring after it has been outside for 3 weeks.  You can see the Y's from last years growth that I preserved when I pruned it before overwintering the Datura.  You can also see the new growth that has started in the last three weeks.  It will be fun to see if it blooms again this year.  I have placed it into a container garden pot because I want it to perfume the sitting area on the deck in the evenings.

Willow Water Experiment #1: Day 14 FINAL REPORT

Willow Water wins!!

See the tips of the black roots.  There is visible white root breaking through the black sheath. 

But...  see for yourself and let me know if you agree.  Here is a picture off all three.

Then, make your own assessment of the spider plants and record your observations in the comments section below.

There are many more experiements to do.  Does a slurry of twigs in a blender with water make for better Willow Tea than the method used in this experiement?  Does watering a plant with Willow Water make for a stronger root system than a plant watered with regular tap water?  Please give me other ideas in the comments section for the next experiment.....

(Find more information about this experiment, the background, how it was set up and the incremental reports at the blog, Extend the Season . )

Great Cascade Wine Red: Report #2

Two weeks later this vining plant is almost two times in size!  I have clipped off the tip to encourage more branching.  It is in a 3 gallon pot as a container garden vine which I will grow on my deck.  We will see what will happen with this little thing.  It can grow up to 7 feet in one season'.  I will keep the pictures coming.  Have you grown this before?  Will it get full size in one summer?

Willow Water Experiment #1: Day 7

Willow Water Experiment #1:  Day 7

Results to report on both the Spider Plants and the Pathos. 

The Spider Plant in Group #2 with the Willow Sprig is again lagging well behind.  The Group #3 with Willow Water Spider Plants seem slightly more prolific and longer than Group #1 which is tap water only.

See if you agree with the findings:

The Pathos in Group #2 with the Willow Sprig appears to have more developed roots than either group #1 with tap water only and group #3 which was soaked in Willow Water.  I have placed orange circles around the roots in the group with the Willow sprig that I am looking at.  Look at the same place on all of the other Pothos and you will see little white nubs, but they are all smaller than the ones with the circles.  Do you agree?  Here are the results:

Willow Water Experiment #1: Day 3

Now I know why the scientific community teaches us to build redundancy into our science experiments.  Cats.

One of the Spider Plants in the second grouping (With Willow Sprig) was lost when the house cat used this experiment as a salad bar.  The tray has been moved to a room with a southern window behind a door impenetrable by the cat.

No worries - Kitty got his fiber and we had redundancy built into the experiment so let's look at the results.

Willow Water Experiment #1:  Day 3

Pothos - No root changes or new root growth on any of the 6 Pothos plants.  No report.

Spider Plants - Roots!!!  Wow!!!

There does not seem to be a substantive difference between the three groupings.  It appears that larger Spider Plants babies sprout roots at a rate faster and more prolifically than small Spider Plant babies.  This is good to know and will influence when we pick and grow Spider Plant babies but is an incidental finding to the Willow Water Experiment.

See if you agree with me.  Here are close ups of the roots. (I need to invest in a new camera with image stablilization, sorry these are a little blurred).

Group 1:  Control in Tap Water.  Larger Spider Plant baby has lots of roots, smaller Spider Plant baby is starting to root.

Group 2: With Willow Spring.  Larger Spider Plant baby eaten by monster cat.  Smaller Spider Plant baby is starting to root.  This one almost seems to have less root production than either the control (Group #1) or the Willow Water (Group #3).

Group 3: Soaked in Willow Water.  Larger Spider Plant baby has many roots.  Smaller Spider Plant has roots that are longer than either of the other two small Spider Plant babies.

Dude who ate the larger Spider Plant in Group #2, with Willow Sprig:

Good thing he is so cute....

Extend the Season of Bean harvests by planting every two weeks

Extend the Season of Bean harvests by planting bean seeds in successive plantings throughout the spring.  Planting every two weeks will stagger plant maturity and bean production cycles to produce crops that will produce over a longer period.  Planting all seeds at one time will result in all bean plants producing their beans at the same time.  Avoid this with staggered planting.  After the first Beans have finished their harvest, pull out the plants, compost and begin to plant fall crops in the place where the bean plants were removed.  This will begin a pattern to extend the season of the fall harvest because the fall planting is now staggered.

Great Cascade Wine Red: Report #1

Great Cascade Wine Red is a new plant I am trying this summer.  The plants were obtained from Park Seeds and on their website are named, Creeping Gloxinia Lofos™ Wine Red or the botanical name of Lophospermum Lofos Wine Red.  It arrived from a grower other than Parks and had the tag, Great Cascade, Wine Red.  I believe this is the same plant by another name. 

Here is my first report. 

Ordered in February and it was shipped at the perfect time for this area, they arrived the last week of April.  The plants received were a 6 pack of plants that ranged between 3 inches and 5 inches tall.  This plant can grow up to eight feel long climbing or cascading so I put these tiny little plants into 3 gallon pots of potting soil.  Container gardening increases the chance of plants drying out, so I try to assure a large amount of soil.  Admittedly these container pots may be small for this monster if it grows to its full 8 feet long.  Previously these pots held Petunia's or Verebena each year, hopefully they will be able to meet the water needs of this monster. 

I have placed four of the Great Cascade plants on the balcony and have placed two on the deck.  On the balcony my intent is for them to trail over the side.  Because there is a door under the balcony, I may need to trim these vines occasionally.  On the deck I am hoping that they interweave themselves through the railing to create a privacy screen.

There is not a lot of information about these plants on the web so I will record my experience throughout this growing season.  Gardeners have rated this plant a 4 out of 5 at the Proven Winners site. 

I grow flowers from the balcony every year and am happy to have a new plant to test!

Week 1:

 

Willow Water Experiment #1: Tap water vs. sprig of Willow vs. Willow Water

I love science projects and it is time to embrace or debunk the Willow Water myth.  This is the first experiment, the results of this willow water experiment may lead to more in the future.


•Title: Willow Water Experiment #1
 Plants will be placed in plain tap water, water with a sprig of Willow* and plain tap water after having been soaked for 3 hours in Willow Tea (Willow Water). 

•Hypothesis:  Willow Water will have a significant influence on speed of root production and increased amount of root production.

•Background: See previous post on the rationale for Willow Water and how to make Willow Water, otherwise known as Willow Tea.

•Materials:
Criteria for materials selection. Available and known to root easily.

-Pathos (common names: Golden Pothos, Devils Ivy. Botanical name: Epipremnum aureum).

-Spider Plant (Common names: Airplane Plant. Botanical name: Chlorophytum comosum).

-Willow - Salix integra 'Hakuro Nishiki.

-Willow Water or Willow Tea
-Tap Water
-Bottoms of used water bottles.
•Procedure:

Two of each plant varieties were prepared for each of the three groups (tap, tap with willow sprig, soaking in willow water before putting into tap water). 

Six Pothos were prepared by cutting a single Pothos vine and clipping the vine approx 1/4 to 1/2 inch on each side of the leaf node and root bud. Two were placed in the control tap water.  Two were placed in tap water with a willow sprig. The two to soak in Willow Water were placed immediately in the room temperature mixture and allowed to sit for 3 hours before transferring to tap water.

Six Spider Plant were prepared by pulling them off the mother plant.  Three smaller and Three larger 'babies' were selected.  Two were placed in the control tap water.  Two were placed in tap water with a willow sprig. The two to soak in Willow Water had a couple of the air roots trimmed (as per directions on the need to 'wound' the stem before soaking) and then were placed immediately in the room temperature mixture and allowed to sit for 3 hours before transferring to tap water.

Four Willow sprigs were prepared by stripping the lower leaves.

View of assembled experiment.   

•Results/Data: TBD (Look for upcoming posts!)

•Conclusion: TBD (Look for upcoming posts!)

*Willow water devotees are thinking, 'Huh? I have never heard of this?'  Well I have developed a lazy habit of just clipping a spring and putting it in the water when I root plants.  Have you ever noticed that when you have a jar of Pothos with mature roots and you put in a new sprig it seems to root much quicker than if you are rooting anew?  The Willow sprig roots right along with the Pothos and I hope it releases whatever rooting MoJo it might have.  I hope this option wins because it is the easiest and would validate the lazy habit I currently have.  Here is a view of Pothos with a few Willow sprigs that I started a couple months ago.  The small, fine roots are the Willow roots.