Meanwhile, indoors...

Propagating African violets

Temperatures this past week have been consistently below freezing. Outside, we've got snow lingering on the lawn and an icy stalagmite slowly forming on our back porch. inside, it's a different story:

1) Last weekend, I took some African violet leaf cuttings that I brought home from California and started trying to grow baby plants from them. I'm really excited about this project. The leaves are tucked into moist vermiculite in clear plastic cups sitting in my kitchen window, where I can keep an eye on them. I have to admit, the plastic cups are starting to grow on me-- they make such cute recycled mini-terrariums.

2) Back in November, a local store had packages of hyacinth bulbs on the clearance rack for under a dollar. I made up some improvisational forcing vases from empty Maille dijon jars, filled them with enough water to keep the base of the bulbs moist without touching, then wedged the bulbs in the openings and stored them in the refrigerator for six weeks. They're now out in my front window, and the leaves are starting to fan out nicely. I love the scent of hyacinths! I can't wait until they bloom.

3) Here's the not-so-pleasant one: back at the beginning of November, I packed my dahlia tubers away for the winter using a new method. In the past, I've always packed them loosely with leftover seed-starting mix. It's always worked; toward the end of winter, the tubers start to look a bit shriveled and pick up a bit of mildew, but I've never lost a tuber to either dessication or rot. This year, I went the professionally-recommended route: bleach wash, dusting sulfur, moist vermiculite. The process took about three evenings, all told. And last week, I discovered that about half of my packages had developed a major problem with mold. So I spent an evening re-washing, re-bleaching, re-dusting, and re-packing. It was about a 66% loss, but luckily, I still have at least one salvageable tuber for each variety. I'm pretty sure the culprit was excess moisture combined with insufficient sulfur dusting.

4) On a happier note, my Territorial Seed order arrived last week. Territorial is a well-respected company, especially in the Pacific Northwest-- they offer high-quality seed, run their own trial grounds, and publish an incredibly informative catalog each year. So I've moved on to planning the layout of the vegetable garden for the coming season. Sowing season feels so close at hand!! but my sowing chart tells me otherwise. It'll be a month before I can start planting seeds-- until then, I have to content myself with indoor pursuits a while longer.

Somehow, though, I don't think I'll be bored waiting ;-)

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Cross-posted to Vox.