Spring Bulbs for Color

Many of the most beautiful flowers in the garden are grown from bulbs.  Bulbs are dormant for most of the year, but emerge in spring to add splashes of bright color to your garden.  Generally bulbs are planted in the late winter, so it is a little late in the season to plant bulbs.  I am going to give it a try and see if I can get some bright flowers to grow in my balcony garden.  The bulbs can vary greatly, but generally look like small potatoes.  If you look closely you can detect roots at one end and a possible sprout at the other end.

The bulb in the shape of an onion below will grow into Freesia.  The bulb that resembles an octopus will grow into a Ranunculus Asiaticus.  It is important to plant these with the root side down.  If you plant them upside-down the flowers have a longer way to go to reach the sun and may not make be able to make the journey.  I have planted a grouping of red dahlias in this pot.

 I will show you their progress as they begin to emerge.

New Herbs Germinated in the Aerogarden

I used my Aerogarden, hydroponic herb grower, to germinate the seeds of several varieties of herbs.  These seedlings are now large enough to be planted in the garden.  I planted four varieties.  All of them sprouted with great success with the exception of the Nasturtiums.  Only two of the nasturtium plants grew from seed.  I've read that you can increase the odds of germination with the nasturtium seeds by filing an edge with a nail file.  Apparently the seeds have such a tough hull that the new seedling has difficulty breaking out.  I did not take this extra step, but it may have increased the odds.  While not many of the seeds germinated, two may be enough.  Nasturtiums are a fast growing vine that produces edible flowers.  The ones that germinated have done well.

 

The sweet basil grew into strong seedlings.  I have just planted these seedlings in a pot in my garden. 

I also had great success germinating the Italian Parsley.  This has been planted in a small pot in my balcony herb garden as well.

The thyme grew into a vine and became tangled in itself.  The vines are delicate, so untangling the mass can cause the vines to break.  I am concerned that the tangling may block some of the sunlight and prevent growth, but for now it is better for the seedlings to allow them to tangle.   It may untangle on its own.

Bougainvillea Recovering from Soil Gnats

In the process of eradicating the soil gnats, I sprayed my bougainvillea plants with a solution of dawn and water.  This effectively killed the soil gnat larvae which had been deposited on my bougainvillea, however my bougainvillea suffered.  Many of the leaves and flowers dried and fell off of the bougainvillea.  I fertilized the bougainvillea and watered them regularly and they began to recover.  Today I have begun to see fresh bright green growth on the bougainvillea branches.  I hope that with proper watering and feeding they will begin to flower over the next few weeks.

While many of the flowers and leaves dried up, the branches continued to grow in length and bright green new leaves emerged.  I hope to see these two bougainvillea flourish again.

New Aloe Plant

Aloe plants reproduce by creating little aloe plants at their base.  These can be removed and will grow into a new plant.  I received two of these baby aloe plants as a gift for mother's day.

While these baby aloe plants don't have many roots, the roots will grow larger when the plants are placed in soil and watered regularly.  Once the roots take hold, the plant will grow larger.  Aloe is a very useful plant and easy to grow.  It is not an antiseptic, but the juice from this succulent can be used to heal burns and expedite the healing of small cuts.  To extract the juice cut one of the leaves and slice down the middle.  You'll find a wet gel inside that can be applied directly to wounds and burns.  The cut leaves will heal and seal, but that branch will not grow back, so be sure to cut near the base of the plant.

Brown Spots on Oregano

I have two varieties of oregano, Greek Oregano and a milder oregano called Wild Marjoram.  As the seasons change in Florida we get more rainfall.  In fact, recently we experienced heavy afternoon thunderstorms for four days in a row.  My balcony is sheltered, but the rain blows in from the east and during rainstorms, my plants get a little wet.

Traditionally oregano dislikes water in the leaves.  Some people will water this plant from the bottom, soaking the pot in water for an hour to avoid getting the leaves wet.  While I avoid wetting the leaves when watering my oregano, I was not able to protect them in the recent storms.   After the storms I noticed that both varieties of oregano developed brown spots.  The Greek Oregano experienced a more dramatic change, entire branches began to dry and turn brown. 

The wild marjoram did not dry up, but did develop brown spots throughout.

There are three possible causes of these brown spots.  The first is a beetle.  The beetle is black with four yellow stripes.  This beetle drinks from the leaves and a brown spot develops from wherever they drank.  I see no evidence of this beetle in my garden.  A second possibility is scorching.  When raindrops fall on the leaves and the sun follows, the raindrops act as a magnifying lens and scorch the leaves.  Sun follows rain frequently in Florida, so this is a possibility.  However when the leaves are scorched, the brown spots are dispersed randomly at different sizes and are not prevalent on every leaf.  The brown spots on my oregano are evenly distributed and are equal in size.  The third possibility is a fungal infection.  When oregano leaves get wet frequently, they are prone to fungal infection.  I believe this is what happened to my oregano.

If you act expediently, you can remove the branches which are infected before it spreads throughout the plant.  If you use this method, be sure to wash your pruning sheers in soap to eliminate the possibility of spreading the fungal infection.  You should also quarantine your infected plants to avoid spreading this fungal infection to other plants.  I discovered and identified the infection only after it had spread throughout the plant.  I believe I am too late to save these oregano plants and I do not want the infection to spread to my other plants.  I have removed these plants and sanitized their pots.

A New Lemongrass Plant

Lemongrass is an herb commonly used in Thai food.   It looks just like it sounds  It is a grass with a lemony flavor.  I recently received a new lemongrass plant as a gift and added it to my herb garden.

The flavor of this herb is in the grass.  Lemongrass is wonderful with fish.  Try tying several blades together with cooking string and placing them on top of fish as you grill, bake or broil.  You can also chop the grass into fine pieces and season your favorite Thai chicken dishes.  The flavor is crisp and lemony.    

Hydroponic Seed Germination in the Aerogarden

I planted four varieties of seeds in the hydroponic Aerogarden:  Sweet Basil, Italian Parsley, Nasturtium and Thyme.  In order to increase the odds of germination, I planted several seeds in each pod.  This worked well for the smaller seeds, however Nasturtium seeds are unusually large so I was only able to plant one per pod.  Below are time lapsed photos of the seed germination in the herb garden.

Day 3.  Just three days after the seeds were planted I began to spot sprouting in most of the Sweet Basil and Thyme pods.  This is much sooner than predicted when planted in a traditional garden.

Day 6.  The Sweet Basil in the rear right and the Thyme in the front left have all sprouted and are showing significant growth in just 6 days.  We also begin to see a single shoot in one of the Nasturtium pods in the front right.

Day 8.  The sweet basil in the back has developed leafy foliage and is showing significant growth.  The thyme has sprouted many seeds in each pod and is growing taller.  There is now a second sprout in the Nasturtium pods in the front right.  The first nasturtium sprout, a late germinater, has grown taller than all of the other sprouts and has two large leaves.

    Day 10.  We now see Italian Parsley sprouting in the back left, with almost every pod germinated.  Many of the nasturtium seeds did not emerge.  I have decided not to waste the pods.  I planted some wildflower seeds I received as a promotional gift on earth day in the pods that did not sprout.