Fuzzy Feline Friends

Recently, after returning from vacation, I discovered that my plants were being guarded by some tiny little fuzzy gargoyles. It seems a mother cat found my yard to be an ideal location to keep her litter of five kittens safe. She wasn't wrong, but I made it a priority to get them fostered/adopted before they grew to a size that would allow them to scale the walls and fences and leave my yard. There's just too much traffic and too many large dogs for me to let them just grow up and move out. So, I arranged to have the five of them picked up. In the end only three were fostered out because two friends from work ended up adopting one each. It has a been a couple of weeks now and they're already growing like weeds. Anyway, the mother (and as of a couple of days ago, the father) are still prowling around and I'll keep trying to catch them to have them fixed and adopted too.

Mossy Mulligan

I had to redo the back yard. Either the shade or the dryness or something else altogether made the thyme that was planted there wither. So, I pull all of the stones, regraded the soil, put the stones back, and then replanted in two successive weekends. It sounds like work, but it's fun for me. I think with a regular watering schedule the Irish and Scottish mosses should get established in time before the heat of the summer comes. Fingers crossed that all of this is true because the two-toned look is working for me. It's somewhat whimsical.

Update:

March Madness

I have a pretty good collection of plants this year...

I moved all of my Epiphyllum from the wall, were they were growing, but not really flurishing or covering up the blocks and fence. In there place I decided to relocate a bunch of the smaller species. I have one open wall planter that will probably be the home of something in the greenhouse in a gallon or 4" pot soon.

P. holosericea and P. serrato-digitata and P. trisecta were all cut back really hard, and now they're starting to recover. I made cuttings of course. Speaking of cuttings, I'm trying my hand at P. cirrhiflora yet again. Several species have rooted well in the little aeroponic propagator, and it's warm enough now to try it. P. cirrhiflora is blooming and I've tried to bud pollinate it with P. loefgrenii and P. caerulea. Tried. 

This year I have a good number of mature plants so I hope to get some serious blooms this Spring and Summer. We will see what those seasons hold. Meanwhile, I watch P. 'Erl' my first hybrid jump back to life in the sunshine. I am anxious to take cutting to give it away as a gift, but I can't be harming the plant like that just yet. 

My Astrophea are growing well too, so maybe I'll actually get to see those bloom this year too. I always have more species in that group on my wish list. They're so hard to find though. 

Large Containers:

• P. holosericea 

• P. × belotii (P. alata x P. caerulea) 

• P. antioquiensis

• P. gritensis

• P. trisecta 

• P. cirrhiflora 

• P. membranacea 

• P. serrato-digitata

• P. macrocarpa

• P. 'Erl' (P. 'Blue-Eyed Susan' x P. 'Blue Bouquet')

• P. 'Manta' (P. xiikzodz × P. coriacea) 

• P. racemosa 'buzios' 

• P. glandulosa

• P. membranacea (Strybing variegated)

• P. loefgrenii

• P. caerulea

• P. malacophylla

• P. pyhrrantha

• P. macrophylla

• P. lindeniana

• P. pittieri

• P. 'Ex Menton'

• P. vitifolia 'Scarlet Flame'

• P. tucumanensis 'alba'

• P. x decaisneana  (P. alata × P. quadrangularis)

• P. misera
• P. guatemalensis

• P. nigradenia
• P. tarminiana 'Bailadores'
• P. tarminiana

In the Ground:

• P. edulis 'flavicarpa'
• P. caerulea 'Constance Eliot' x P. loefgrenii 'Iporanga'
• P. 'Raspberries and Cream'
• P. caerulea

Gallons:

• P. subrotunda
• P. 'Purple Hippo'
• P. discophora
• P. bicuspidata
• P. poryphretica var. angustata
• P. 'Blue-Eyed Susan'
• P. ornithura
• P. racemosa 'buzios'
• P. malacophylla
• P. macrocarpa
• P. membranacea (Strybing variegated)

On the Wall:

• P. morifolia
• P. gritensis
• P. cintrina
• P. exsudans
• P. sublanceolata x P. foetida

Plants in 4" Pots: 

• P. gritensis 
• P. tarminiana 'alba' 
• P. lindeniana  
• P. morifolia
• P. antioquiensis
• P. tarminiana 'alba'
• P. tarminiana
• P. helleri
• P. sublanceolata
• P. sublanceolata x P. foetida
• P. setacea
• P. 'Raspberries and Cream'

Scarlet Flame Burning Bright

Spring is nearly here in Redondo Beach. There are some warmer days mixed in with the cooler ones. Today was cold, and I was feeling emotionally hung over from the early loss of one of my two cats. Trying to keep myself busy, and still nursing my surgically repaired arm in a sling, I was poking around in my mini greenhouse. In it I found a P. vitifolia 'Scarlet Flame' blooming bright. After my emotional stress, it was nice to see that flower. There's no over wrought analogy to make. It just felt good to see.

Doppler used to pull the screen door open so that he could slip through, and when I turned around to see that there was now a cat sized gap, I would always find him just lying in a spot of sun on the brick patio or on a chair rubbing his head. He loved being a semi-indoor kitty that could prowl through the bamboo culms and stalk butterflies without any real outdoor threats. He was a good boy, that minded his parents, loved his hairless brother, and filled our lives with 5 years of silent meows and head butt.

Rest in peace Doppler Cheese. I miss you, and I'll never forget you.

New Passiflora Additions, Present and Pending

I'm planning the pruning for the end of February. Many of my Passiflora vines are looking scraggly right now, but at the same time there is some new growth. I'll be cutting back to stimulate spring vigor, and hopefully a nice full canopy of leaves and flowers in the summer.

To add to that canopy, I'll be reintroducing some late Astrophea plants, but also some new seedlings like P. antioquiensis, P. cintrina, P. sublanceolata x P. foetida (and its inverse), P. vitifolia, P. bicuspidata, and P. tarminiana 'Bailadores'. I plan to remove (but share first) P. bogotensis and P. poryphretica, two Decalobas that just don't do it for me. And I might replace my Epiphyllum with Passiflora as well, but that depends on their blooms this year.

I have hopes of getting P. parritae back into my collection and maybe a couple of Astophea...I have to find those first. A couple of trips to San Francisco might help with the former. Soon I'll be making my inventory post and see just how out of control my hobby is.

Smiles for Myles

I went to the dentist for my 6-month checkup. When I was escorted to my reclining chair I quickly noticed the monitor cantilevered on a boom above it. The background was Passiflora foetida, which I quickly blurted out like a child naming all of the dinosaurs in a natural history museum. My hygienist said that I sounded smart. True or not, I was happy to tell her about my collection, and how I happened to have that species in it. I think I'll take a cutting and bring it to her in 6-months more as a surprise.

New Year Travels and Trials

It has been a regretably long time since I wrote in my blog. Not terribly much has transpired over the last couple of months. The days have been short, and the nights have been cool. Still, my collection is alive and those in the greenhouse have been growing including P. cirrhiflora, P. pyrrhantha, P. macrophylla, P. lindeniana, a tray of little seedling P. antioquiensis, and a variety of other "back up" plants. Outside, P. loefgrenii and P. poryphyretica have been blooming despite the season, and P. racemosa 'buzios', among others have been steadily growing up into the bamboo. I think everything that was alive in the spring will survive the winter. If that's true, or even if it's partly true, then it might be a very exciting spring and summer 2015. Add to that the potential for some new and very rare seeds, particularly in the Astrophea and Deidamiodes groups, and it should be a fun year.

This year I'm also traveling to Grand Cayman, and I'll make a point of going to the Queen Elizabeth Botanic Park there. I've heard that it's a very nice garden. Also, I'm traveling to Indonesia, perhaps Bali, where I'll have to keep an eye out for potential Passiflora finds. Last, I'll be headed back to San Francisco for the PSI annual meeting and/or the Strybing spring plant sale just like I did last year. That should keep my year interesting.

My newest addition to my collection is a little P. cintrina. I spotted it at a local garden shop as I was leaving and I couldn't just leave it. This little one plus my order of P. luzmarina and P. reflexiflora will probably only be the tip of the iceberg for new plants in Pergolatory this year. We will wait and see!