#kihakugatooriginalposts

Christmas Greetings from the December blooming Schlumbergeras Photographed December 7th, 10th, & 13th, 2017

Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) Germination Photographed 2018

Hatiora gaertneri flowers Photographed February 16 2018

First Houseplant rebloomings Photographed November 31st 2017

Tired plants in the New Living Room in the new House addition, Photographed October 9th 2017

No watermarks, no super high photo quality (from here on out I can no longer guarantee my “update” photos will be perfect quality, the phone isn’t exactly a stellar platform for quality over here), but I said I’d post my own content so posting I am.

Badly photoshopped (or technically fireaplaca’d but w/e) ideas/brainstorms for my now empty canvas of a shadowbox (cleaning it out of gross jarred insects was so overdue). Thinking fruitiforms to make most of the space while following a botanical theme. In order with pros/cons of each organizational idea;

Picea (Spruce) Species

Pros- Very easy to acquire said fruitiforms. Very clean and easy to dry.

Cons- Least decorative/interesting, the majority of Picea save for P. abies cones are very small so detract from such a large shadowbox display without adding multiples to balance it out.

Pinus (Pine) Species

Pros- Moderately to very decorative, moderately easy to acquire.

Cons- Very few species acquirable in the locality outside of P. sylvesteris, P. nigra, and P. strobus (last being actually moderately tricky to acquire intact cones of though trees are common) so not a lot of variety for the display. P. strobus cones while decorative are also quite messy. Most Pinus species’ open cones are much too wide to easily fit into the box.

Magnolia Species

Pros- Very variable fruitiforms making for a very unique/exotic display. The rarity of such of a display of species would be worth getting smug about.

Cons- Difficult to acquire (majority only accessible via distant arboretums & botanical gardens). Depending on species the fleshiness of fruitiforms (M. macrophylla in particular) may be very difficult to dry. Seeds which could make the display even prettier both difficult to dry as well as too valuable to leave in a shadowbox when they could be cleaned/sown instead.

Mixed Species

Pros- Can cherry pick for most decorative/dryable species of each group.

Cons- Thematically chaotic/miscellaneous in a negative way. This is a bigger deal to me than it sounds.

Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) seed sown into a Windowbox planter, Photographed January 7th 2018

Have I mentioned that I’m surprised I got any seeds at all from stratford cause of how late in the season the harvest was? Cause I’m still floored I even got so many seeds. Little behind schedule again with seed sowing (I was gonna sow these guys back at the start of 2017 Christmas holidays) but nonetheless in the window of time I’d still prefer to get them their kickstart. Katsura are reputably tender to winter freezes/frosts when young so getting them started now will give them a better chance of survival for the next winter. Window boxes to put it bluntly have very poor drainage for seedlings so most window boxes I’ve been using I’ve been drilling holes into them like patterned swiss cheese to give lots of consistent drainage for when I start watering the trays more routinely. Ngl I’ve been doing the “is there sprouts yet?” checking ever since I sowed these up.

Bigleaf Magnolia (M. macrophylla) Seed Cones Collected Oct. 13th Photographed Oct. 16th 2017

In the past I’ve done Magnolia acuminata, M. tripetala, M. virginiana, and even M. soulangeana, but Magnolia macrophylla is a first for me (honestly save for M. acuminata, I’ve attempted to grow all of these listed species only once with varying success).

This was actually the only species Magnolia in Cuddy Gardens that still had seeds in their cones this year! It could very well be that some of them just weren’t gonna fruit this year or had otherwise long since dispersed their seeds. I feel like a doof to not have recognized this species w/o help but now that I’ve seen it I won’t be forgetting the distinct features again.