Orange-tipped oakworm moth

Orange-tipped Oakworm moth

I have to admit I was surprised to find the name of this one. Usually I do a search and can never find anything that looks like what I'm trying to identify. I popped in "red/orange moth with two spots" and didn't expect to find anything. Found it pretty quickly.

Purple Mom/Black Dad cross-pollinated bearded iris

Oops. Totally slipped my mind. I took a picture of the cross-pollinated iris this afternoon and meant to go out to take a better picture when the sun wasn't as harsh. Totally slipped my mind and it's dark outside right now. Ah well...

The first flower of the Purple Mom/Black Dad bearded iris cross. More purple! hehe.

I guess purple is just incredibly dominating as a color so far.

Cherub's Smile not so pink afterall...

Ah, Cherub's Smile (Van Zyverden) has bloomed at last. Do you remember the personal note I left to myself to remember the name of the iris and a quick update when I was excited they were actually still alive?

04/19/13 - One bloom coming up

04/22/13 - Mostly white with a tinge of  very faded purple

04/26/13 - Opens to white flower

04/26/13 - Close-up of faded pattern

I tried to track down the original tag that came with it so that I could contact the company but failed to find it. What I did find was an interesting thread: Irises cubit: General Discussion forum: Bargain irises

It was pretty nifty to find a thread where a handful of other people also shared their experience of purchasing Cherub's Smile but also ended up with these white irises.

First cross-pollinated iris bloom

I wasn't going to originally post any pictures until all had bloomed but, man, it's taking forever. Some of the flowers have been peeking out while waiting for days on end before they want to open. We keep getting cool temperatures. According to the forecasts, we're to expect another period of cool temperatures again at some point. The Black Mom/Purple Dad Iris bed has 3 rhizomes that are blooming. The Purple Mom/Black Dad bed now have 6 rhizomes that are sending out flowers.

The first BM/PD iris has finally opened today and I hobbled together this quick picture of it. So what happened? [Black Mom + Purple Dad = ?] Apparently the father had most/all of a say when it came to the color. The mother, I suppose, made the falls wider. The standards on the child took on a dark purple color while the father's are very light purple.

Can't wait to see the others.

Jade Plants in Gritty Mix

Besides having a ton-bunch of bark mulch and oil-dri sitting around after repotting my adenium obesum, I had some poultry grit left over in the small bag and decided to repot some of my jade plants.

From left to right:
1. Hobbit Jade.
2. What's left of Ms. Jade. I purchased her shortly before Christmas 1996 and she grew very big but has dwindled since then to just that one. Some people identified her as "Crosby's Compact".
3. I bought this from eBay in 2007 because I had never seen anything like it before. I asked about it after I got it and it seems to possibly be some sort of Gollum/Hobbit hybrid since the leaves are varied.
4. Hummel Sunset. The leaves are supposed to turn red at a certain time of the year but usually the leaves get very yellow with red edges.

I had to use a stick to prop up the Hummel Sunset but now that I think about it, I am seriously considering a hard prune since a lot of the branches got wiry. Might relieve some of the weight on it.

I plan to get more poultry grit and repot some more of my jades. I have a Gollum jade that's desperate for a repotting!

It'll be pretty interesting to see how well they respond to the gritty mix, especially when it gets hot. I'll have to keep an eye on it and see if it means frequent watering and get it down to a routine. Last year it rained regularly all throughout summer and it ended our nasty two year drought. So we'll see what happens this year.

Repotting the Desert Rose

I finally got a Desert Rose (Adenium Obesum) from Lowe's.

March 29, 2013 - Desert Rose

After doing lots of research on the gritty mix, I gathered some stuff together and made a batch. I washed off the old dirt.

One side

Other side

 Then I repotted the Desert Rose and lifted the caudex as well.

One side

Other side

So fingers crossed that it responds to the gritty mix. I just hope the plant is patient with me as I figure things out. What I absolutely love about this plant is how the suggestion is to lift the caudex every time you repot, to keep exposing the thicker roots every time until you get this big pile of roots.

Cross-Pollinated Iris Update

I was asked about how well my cross-pollinated Iris were doing. In 2011 I had finally successfully cross-pollinated a purple iris with a black iris, and vice versa. Tons of them germinated in January of 2012 during the mild winter, a lot more than I ever expected because I was told that it's very difficult to get them to germinate.


For a quick refresher on what the parents looked like; Purple on left, Black on right. I know it doesn't look anything black but that's the name that was told to me - probably because when the flowers are emerging, they appear very black before it opens.

The bed above contains "Purple Mom / Black Dad" iris. Very bad angle, I know. I found that the seedlings from this batch of seeds grew very big. A good number of them have started setting off new rhizomes.

This batch above, outlined with black border, is the "Black Mom / Purple Dad" batch. The seedlings from this batch are much smaller and I'm not sure they're being as prolific with rhizomes.

It sort of surprises me on how genetics play a part. The black iris is very quick to grow new rhizomes and bloom a lot. The purple iris seems to be very slow in wanting to grow new rhizomes and don't bloom as often. So it seems the fathers are influencing the seedlings very much...

There's no flowers yet. Last year I reached out to a guy who crossed irises and he warned me that if any pops up this spring, not to get attached to the flower as it meant that it focused on developing a bloom instead of forming new rhizomes. He did warn me that there will be blooms, though.

Anything's possible. Ever since the seedlings popped up last year, they've been growing since. The 2012/2013 winter was not cold enough to kill them down so they're still going ever since they popped up.

Winter's here and still lingering!

It's funny. We barely had winter during winter, and now winter is clinging after spring arrived. What's up with that?

03/26/13 - Koda by the birdbath

The greenhouse looks pretty sad, I know. We're expecting a week of really cold temperatures at night. It's quite odd. The lows are like 37, 38, 35? But when I wake up in the morning, everything's frosted over and water has frozen to ice. We didn't bother with putting the plastic on the greenhouse this winter because we barely had freezes - but it seems spring is a little odd this year. The heater has been turned on for a total of 5 times thus far? Also, the annoying thing is that a little bird moved in so I had to leave a little hole at the top for the bird to fly in and out. The tarps are temporary and I usually open it up for the sun before closing it up for the night when temps drop low again.

Also, before I forget - I believe I may have roses growing from a discarded bouquet. My father bought my mother a valentine's day bouquet and after she finished enjoying the flowers, she tossed them over the porch. I gathered the roses and stuck them in a neat little row in my bed. I totally forgot about them until it was pointed out to me that some of them were growing. Totally surprised me because I figured that after a few freezes since then, that the roses must be long gone. I'm trying to ignore the roses, except to water them here and there, because I don't want to invest any 'emotions' into them. I hate it when something shows a little sign of life and I get excited and then it keels over. It looks like three or four of them have shown signs of life.

I can not teach Koda to stay off the beds. It was fine at first because I figure once everything grows in, he won't be able to run up and down the beds. Then he resorted to digging holes in a couple of the beds so I had to slap up a bunch of fences to keep him off them. Ugh.

I miss when winter used to be winter. When winter came around, everything died down. Then when spring was coming, all you had to do was rake junk off the beds to make everything look fresh again. Instead it's just chilly with a frost once in a blue moon. The weeds are frost resistant (some with thorns!) and the amaryllis - the poor amaryllis - keep trying to grow. This spring, they've been stung down by the frost over and over. They're going to look pitiful once warm temperatures are on the way. I already lost one flower bud that was coming up. I just worry that some of my seed-grown bulbs might have a maiden bloom trying to come up and that the frost destroyed it.

Panteramaryllis, Hippeastrum pardinum

Panteramaryllis, Hippeastrum pardinum, a photo by Rottismix on Flickr.

Oh man, I would love to get my hands on this one! Can't seem to find anyone selling one...

If this is actually a hippeastrum, I wonder how difficult it would be to try to cross-pollinate and see if those spots would pass on.

Via Flickr:
Panteramaryllis, Hippeastrum pardinum

Happy New Year!

Happy 2013! :)

It's been a relatively mild winter again - for these parts. I know the north is suffering with a lot of snow from those ridiculously named winter storms. Here, though, not so much. Normally when temperatures are freezing, I fire up the heater and then the schlumbergera plants (Thanksgiving Cacti, Christmas Cactus) freaks out and aborts all their buds. This time around, their buds are blooming like crazy. To be honest, when we have a 'once in a blue moon' night where it drops below 32 degrees, I sort of... haven't been firing up the heater like I should. Then I always assume all the plants in the greenhouse have to be dead by now but they ride it out just fine. In November, there were two nights of 20's, back to back, and the plants were fine in there. I was so surprised.

12/18/12 - Schlumbergera blooming

I purchased a Hippeastrum Papilio bulb from 'East To Grow Bulbs' and I was given an Apple Blossom bulb from a Van Zyverden kit. The flowers finally opened after a month of waiting for the buds to open.

12/31/12 - NOID Red

The 'Apple Blossom' turns out to be something else, which is not unusual. When you buy bulbs from those kits, you never really know what you're going to get. I'm assuming this is Red Lion or something of that sort.

12/31/12 - NOID Red

I am really happy to see that the Papilio I ordered from ETGB is indeed Papilio. Very happy. Even though the blooms weren't big and fancy (which is understandable as it didn't have roots), the flowers are still cool to look at. When spring arrives, I'm going to get this bulb into a big pot and let it grow in there.

12/31/12 - Hippeastrum Papilio

12/31/12 - Hippeastrum Papilio - flash on.

12/31/12 - Hippeastrum Papilio