Anarchoflora

Yesterday while checking out one of the fantastic gardens near my house, I came across a pile of Oleander trimmings on the road. I decided I shouldn’t let these branches go to waste and decided to make an attempt at propagation. I trimmed off the lower leaves and stuck them in water. After I get about an inch of root I will transplant them.

I was graciously gifted a bunch of Lomatia tinctoria seed from Loree Bohl of Danger Garden fame. It took a while to clean them from all the debris but hopefully it will be worth it! Like every other Lomatia I have sown, the seeds are covered in yellow powder which stains the paper towel a pink color (pictured is immediately after sowing yesterday, today the paper towel is stained).

I collected some Embothrium coccineum seed from a tree here in Portland and have decided to attempt propagation. They likely will require cold stratification, so they are currently in the refrigerator. I cannot wait for the day that I have mature, seed producing plants that I may propagate from!

Today I sowed the 38 different species of cold hardy cacti and succulent seeds from Mesa Garden. I used two seed germination flats, with 18 cells each, as well as a small 2″ plastic pot. The medium was moistened prior to sowing, the seeds applied, then a biofungicide sprayed on the surface of each pot. They are covered and under a grow light, to encourage germination.

From the top left:
Aloinopsis Mixed species
Bergeranthus jamesii
Bergeranthus katbergensis
Bergeranthus (Hereroa) glenensis
Coryphantha scheeri
Delosperma aberdeenense
Delosperma ashtonii
Delosperma bosseranum
Delosperma crassum
Delosperma esterhuyseniae
Delosperma floribundum
Delosperma lydenburgense
Delosperma nubigena
Delosperma pergamentaceum
Delosperma sp
Delosperma ‘John Proffit’
Delosperma ‘Tiffendell’
Echinocereus russanthus
Hereroa brevifolia
Hereroa muirii
Nananthus aff broomii
Nananthus aloides
Nananthus margaretiferus
Nananthus pole-evansii
Nananthus transvaalensis
Nananthus vittatus
Nananthus sp
Nananthus x
Neohenricia sibbettii
Neohenricia sibbettii
Rabiea lesliei
Rabiea sp
Rhinephyllum muirii
Titanopsis calcarea
Titanopsis fulleri

The following are in the 2″ pot:
Titanopsis hugo-schlechteri
Titanopsis Mixed species

In an effort to expand my cactus and succulent collection, I have ordered a bunch of cold hardy cactus and succulents from Mesa Garden. In addition, I ordered a huge amount of potentially hardy succulent seed, which I will cover in a different post, once they have been sown. Even though many of these cacti can handle extreme cold, they tend to come from drier areas, and suffer with winter wet. I am hoping with very sharp drainage, I can get them to survive here in Portland.

From top, left to right:
Echinocereus triglochidiatus
Echinocereus engelmannii v. acicularis
Echinocereus dasyacanthus
Echinocereus coccineus
Echinocereus fendleri
Echinocereus triglochidiatus
Echinocereus reichenbachii
Echinocereus viridiflorus
Escobaria missouriensis
Coryphantha palmeri
Aloinopsis malherbei
Rabiea lesliei

I made my first order ever from The Desert Northwest. Though I had bought plants from them previously, at the 2019 Hortlandia plant sale. They have introduced so many unique plants into cultivation, including many from Australia and New Zealand. All of my purchases are from this region of the world.

I also received an order from Plant World Seeds. The larger seeds have begun a 24 hour soak and will be sown shortly.

I got:
Crinodendron hookerianum
Crinodendron patagua
Dierama ‘Blackbird’
Dierama ‘Blood Drops’
Dierama ‘Ray’s Red Giant’
Dioscorea araucana
Euphorbia melifera
Euphorbia xPasteurii
Euphorbia stygiana
Embothrium coccineum
Libertia chilensis
Melianthus major
Melianthus villosus

Yesterday, I received my first order from Far Reaches Farm. They have an impressive list of near impossible to find plants, though many are not currently available. To make shipping worth it, I had been waiting for enough plants I wanted to become available. This order included:
Schefflera sp. NV 021
Schefflera sp. NV 022
Gunnera prorepens
Nolina hibernica x3
Roscoea ‘Red Ghurka’ (not pictured as it has sprouted yet)

This order upped my hardy Schefflera collection to 6 and my Gunnera collection to 5. A while ago I ordered 15 Nolina hibernica from Sacred Succulents but was concerned they may in fact be a different species, as they seemed to have leaves which appeared more akin to Nolina nelsonii. When Far Reaches had plants grown from their own Nolina hibernica, I decided I had to have them, to guarantee correct identity. However, at this age they look like the ones from Sacred Succulents.

After dreaming of visiting the infamous Windcliff in Indianola, WA for quite sometime, I finally made a trip when I heard they were open by appointment. I also got a number of plants I hadn’t been able to find elsewhere.

One of the first giant Schefflera plants we saw was Schefflera trevisioides. This plant demonstrated well how the leaves become more split as the plant matures.

This maple-like plant is Sinopanax formosanus. It had this amazing brown indumentum on the underside of the leaves.

Fatsia polycarpa has been on my list of desired plants for years, after seeing so many amazing pictures from UK gardens.

On the way to Windcliff, we stopped at a random nursery to kill time before our appointment. I found this Fascicularia bicolor! Probably the hardiest bromeliad. There is a decent sized clump of this in deep shade in my neighborhood.

On the way back from Windcliff, we stopped by the house of Bryon Jones, who designed and maintains the gardens at Port Defiance Zoo. He had some spectacular succulents and Yucca available! I got Yucca linearifolia, Yucca schottii, and Agave parryi

 

Second post today because this social distancing has me limited in activities. So I figured I would use this time to get some seeds going!

This tray has a bunch of Sarracenia (the labels got messed up) so the resulting plants will be unlabeled.

I ordered a bunch of seeds, mostly various restio, from Silverhill a while ago. Today I collected some local Eucalyptus bark, twigs, and leaves and burned them to produce smoke water. Normally I would soak the seeds for 24 hours, however, many of the seeds were too small to feasibly soak. I just watered the seeds with the resulting smoke water.
Seeds sown:
Aloe striatula
Elegia aggregata
Elegia capensis
Elegia cuspidata
Elegia elephantina
Elegia flaccida
Elegia fistulosa
Elegia grandispicata
Elegia juncea
Elegia mucronata
Elegia stipularis
Elegia tectorum
Restio bifarius
Restio leptostachys
Rhodocoma arida
Rhodocoma capensis
Rhodocoma gigantea
Kniphofia bruceae
Kniphofia coddiana

I also took the time to sow some oldish seeds I got from Wildseed Tasmania. The smaller seeds which could not be soaked.

Anopteris glandulosa
Bedfordia linearis
Eucalyptus coccifera
Eucalyptus pauciflora
Eucalyptus rodwayi
Eucalyptus rubida
Olearia obcordata
Olearia pinifolia
Ozothamnus lycopodoides
Ozothamnus rodwayi

 

I placed a number of plant orders over the winter. Now that spring has arrived, so are the beginnings of these orders.
I got three plants from Plant Delights, Pleopeltis lepidopteris, Yucca linearifolia, and Asarum speciosum.

It is hard to find aril iris here in the USA. I love Iris stolonifera, particularly after seeing it bloom in the Denver Botanical Garden. I ordered 6 different varieties of this unusual iris. Clockwise from the upper left: Galba, Trajanus, Vespanianus, Tibarius, Vitellius, and Galba.