#kihakugardenposts

F*CKING MASSIVE ROSE

Ignore unhinged jaw of my face I wasn’t planning to be in the shot. Y’know when I said “the Canadian Explorer Rose will be the T-rex of the plant relocation/rescue project” I DIDN’T REALIZE HOW ON THE MARK I’D BE ON THAT DISTINCTION! She’s fucking HUGE! Also hellishly thorny just like grandma rugosa, I actually had to get my gloves out to be able to lug her up (I was stubborn about NOT getting the gloves till that point. Much yelping had ensued beforehand). A lot of her full size was concealed by the overgrowth of weeds where she resided. Such a contrast to the other hybrid rose (which is a Hybrid Tea) which barely reaches my knee, THIS rose could reach my waist+ if propped up. In Canada this size is not unusual for many species roses, but for a lovely hybrid rose this is something I am not the least bit used to, even after having this girl for as long as I’ve had.

Unfortunately as you may have noticed from the photos though; not a lot of roots came up with the rest of her, which is bad, really bad for such a monster (ESPECIALLY if one is transplanting in MID FREAKING SUMMER). So after these photos were taken I took to pruning two thirds of her (which may still not be a liberal enough of a prune-out) which should hopefully make up for lack of roots. I’m hoping her Rugosa background gives her the edge to take to the new flowerbeds (more on that another time) and bounce back, though that does not entirely keep my confidence as I have never had luck with transplanting Rugosas either.

Fingers crossed she makes it through the summer, but if not I at least know which group of Rose hybrids I will seek once again; Canadian Explorer roses all the way.

GO AWAY SNOW I CAN’T HAVE YOU RIGHT NOW O-O

You KNOW it’s getting hot when you can walk outside with a T-shirt and still feel not a lick of coldness. The greenhouse was far worse inside, being as warm as a sauna. Even when I opened the doors WIDE OPEN, it is still much too warm inside.

Luckily I had a large large fan stored in the greenhouse in preparation for this happening. During the summer it’s usually used to circulate/cool the air in the barn for the cattle, but with it being winter it can be used for other purposes. It’s helping a little, which is better than nothing.

I also had to guzzle the seedbed with water to try to keep it moist (IT KEEPS DRYING OUT ARRGH). Since it’s particularly hot in the greenhouse I left the watering sprayer inside so that I can quickly water later today.

This isn’t even supposed to be the hottest day this week..... GO. AWAY. SUN. Unless it’ll be actually spring I want you BACK BEHIND THOSE CLOUDS.

HERE BE THE PURCHASED/COLLECTED MERCH! First pic is of the merch I bought (I told myself I wouldn’t buy seeds this year... buuut that flunked. Can’t blame me though some of those seeds are rare/uncommon to find), second is of the merch my dad bought (jams? very much dad. Lavenders products though? A little more surprising. I DID influence the soap part of his purchases though), and the third is of ALL THE PAMPHLETS, BROCHURES, CARDS, BOOKLETS AND OTHER PAPER STUFf that we both got throughout in festival’s stands. I think we’re getting better at the self control of the paper-collecting methinks.

Still might buy an actual potted plant when I go back to the Stratford Garden Festival on Saturday (or so I keep telling myself), so this MIGHT not be the only stuff we buy for this year.

The alpine strawberries I look forward to growing. Cause I LOVE strawberries, so even if the raised plantlets-to-be don’t sell in my greenhouse I can just keep them for ourselves. Win-win.

Indoor Jungle Tour 2015! Can’t call it the “apartment indoor jungle tour” no more, as my days of living in an apartment have long ended, and my life living and growing plants in the farmhouse begins instead~

This tour doesn’t even include the additonal piano/growlight room which is currently plantless.

Many of the houseplants have settled in just fine (like the Marble Queen Pothos from @omgplants to name one plant of many), while others have been languishing since the move (like my Jade plant, very strangely enough). Some like my Tarzan Dragon Tree declined and got so sickly and full of bugs that I had to sadly throw them out! I’ll have to arrange some plants around and see if they do better in other rooms.

In preparation for the cold temperatures coming in the near future (the farmhouse doesn’t get as heated as the apartment did) I’ve been testing out the two heat mats I have for the plants that need it most (which would currently be my late-in-the-season cuttings of various annuals). Those will be later used on plants like my Dwarf Bananas, Bougainvillea vine (that SOMEHOW bounced back from near death), Begonias, Rabbit Foot fern, and African Violets. Hopefully with those heat mats the cold-intolerant plants will survive better in the farmhouse than they have had in previous winters.

The cannas are surprisingly small this year. Their rhizomes hardly grew from the size they were when planted which is pretty unusual with their previous track records of being MONSTERS. My guess is that it’s due to the fact they were planted into a drier, poorer-soiled gardenbed this year. Previous years they were always planted in the moist manure/compost-rich vegetable garden, and Cannas being cannas would grow and thrive on that. So long as they can still overwinter fine in storage then smaller is actually more beneficial for us when it comes to storage space.