Seedlings!

Although the last few days have been a bit wet, this summer has been quite warm for Calgary.  Most of my seeds have already sprouted.  I'm still waiting on my banana and banana cousin but they can be a little finicky and often take a while.  I've been putting the pots outside on my balcony during the day and bringing them in for the nights.  It gets cool here in the evening and temperatures drop to about 12C some nights (or cooler) even though the days may be 28C or so.

Unfortunately I have them all a good soak right before we had three days of rain.  Most of the seedlings seem to be fine but I'm worried the Goji berries may be damping off.  Hopefully they'll dry out before I loose any more.  By the way, all of these seeds were stored in a fridge for over 4 months.  It doesn't seem to affect their vitality.  Anyways, without further adieu, here are the seedlings:

Eucalyptus pulverulenta (Silver Leaved Mountain Gum) - Most sprouted.

Brugmansia versicolor (Fragrant Peach Angel's Trumpet) - 1/5 I believe, just started yesterday.

Passiflora caerulea (Purple Passion Flower) - About 1/2 have sprouted.

Lycium chinense (Goji Berry) - Please don't damp off, please don't damp off...

Melissa officinalis (Lemon Balm) - Here's to hoping it's not just a stray poplar seed.  Ha hopefully I see some more.

Seed Planting Bonanaza & Happy Canada Day

Right before finding a job in Calgary I purchased a bunch of seeds online.  They arrived a few weeks before I left so I didn't have the opportunity to start them but I did take them with me.  Now that I have a balcony garden up and running I figured it was about time to fuel my tropical/rare plant addiction.

Now I didn't start all of my seeds, but there are seven varieties.  Two were impulse purchases I made while getting the pots and soil.  These include Ensete ventricosum (labelled Ensete musa which doesn't exist) and Melissa officinalis (Lemon Balm).  My seeds from before the move are Musa velutina (Dwarf Pink Banana), Passiflora caerulea (Blue Passion Flower), Lycium chinense (Wolfberry, Goji Berry), Brugmansia versicolor (Fragrant Peach Angel's Trumpet), and Eucalyptus pulverulenta (Silver-Leaved Mountain Gum).

Now I'm really hoping these seeds sprout and do well.  The climate is Calgary is cooler than southern Ontario and a lot dryer.  I'll have to pay special attention to watering and if they heat doesn't seem like it's enough, I might have to get some heat mats and grow lights.

To my fellow Canadians, happy Canada Day!

Greenhouse Plants Update

Woahoooo two blog posts in one day?  That's right, but I cheated and my first when was written earlier and just scheduled for today.  If you follow my blog, you already know that I left some plants in the local university greenhouses for the winter.  I visited them today and noticed that they haven't grown much since the last visit.  I ended up potting them all up but took a few photos first.

Banyan (Ficus benghalensis) - Now I thought I had F. religiosa but the seedlings look identical so I didn't take a photo and think they're just also Banyan.  There is however, something strange in these seedlings.  Notice how the back left pot has red in the stems and 'frilly' leaves with a different shape?  The pot on the right has a seedling with the same shape of leaves but minus the red and 'frill'.  Any idea what's going on here?  The round leaves seem correct for Ficus benghalensis, see here.  The others ones must be different, so can anyone ID them?

Desert Rose (Adenium arabicum) - I see flower buds coming! Hopefully they don't fall off this time. :)

Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) - They are towards the back of the photo. The one on the left is single stemmed but on the right there are 5 stems with a few more coming up! I wonder if this is because the fruit was irradiated? The young passion flowers are up front (Passiflora edulis).

Empress Tree (Paulownia tomentosa) - these haven't grown at all.  They must desperately need to be repotted.  I'll mention again these can be invasive in warm clients but are generally fine in zones 7/8. They should also be hardy in USDA zone 6 (my zone), but I'll keep these ones in the greenhouse for their first year.

That's all. I hope you enjoyed my seedlings! :)

Passion Fruit (Passiflora edulis) at 2 Months

First of all, happy Thanksgiving!  I have had a tonne of seedlings updates over the last few days.  This is the last one, I promise.  I started these seeds from fruit I purchased at a local market.  This is probably the most dramatic transformation of all the seedlings.  They were growing well outside but as soon as I brought them in the new leaves doubled in size.  When I check on them a week later it took me a few seconds to figure out what I was looking at!

Here you can see them just after I moved them outside.  They spent about a month outdoors and have been in the UWO greenhouses for about two weeks now.  This is not the hardy passion flower and doesn't tolerate cold well.  I actually have 6 pots worth but these plants are much easier to photograph individually.  Hopefully within a few months I'll be growing some fruit of my own!

Passiflora edulis Seedlings (Yellow Passion Fruit)

This summer I have been obsessed with tropical fruits. I've tried to start many seeds from these fruits. Some of them have been a complete failure and not sprouted at all or died immediately afterwards. These include Sweetsop, Cherimoya, Longan, Lychee, and Papaya. As far as I know all of these seeds were from irradiated fruit.

I also tried some seeds from those dried sugary Dates without luck. My experience thus far had told me that nothing would sprout. Luckily I'm addicted to germinating seeds and planted some from a yellow passion fruit anyway. Within less than a week the first sprouts were poking out of the soil. Like most of my seeds, they started in a south-facing window in a grocery store sushi container.

I moved them outside into partial sun and they kept doing well. I managed about 75% germination and had to cull the extra seedlings. One really hot day I accidently let them dry out. I figured I'd lost them for sure, but soaked them in the hopes of saving a few. To my surprise they all survived! A few days later I transplanted the largest into the pots below. They have since started putting out new leaves and seem quite happy.

This variety is not hardy at all. There are some cultivars that will die down to the ground in my area but you'll never see the fruit for sale. I'll have to bring these plants in for the winter. Hopefully I'll have some flowers by next year!

Blooming Thursday

Various flowers from around the greenhouses!

Impatiens hybrid



Schlumbergera



Passiflora Yellow (I think it looks great with the rusted chain in the background)

Miniature Orange & Passion Fruit

In one of the greenhouses we have several varieties of citrus plants.  I was surprised by the strength of the flower's scent.  You can easily smell the tiny little flowers from several feet away.  The plants are constantly in bloom and as a result always covered with fruit.  The fruit of the Citrus mitis looks very good but it is EXTREMELY sour.  By no means should anyone consider this food edible.  This is honestly one of the most sour things I have ever tried to eat.  I recommend trying it so that you can see what the most sour thing is you can eat without permanently damaging your taste buds.

These plants are mainly grown for their decorative value.  They are very interesting with their thin, delicate looking branches and 'large' fruit.  Unfortunately these plants tend to have a lot of die back.  When the dead growth is removed they then decide to die back even more, so we tend to leave it on.  Below you can see a picture of the one with the most fruit.  We also have dwarf pomegranates but they have an insect infestation right now.



I also noticed that one of our Passion Fruits (Passiflora) has actually developed a fruit.  Most of these are sterile hybrids so this was quite the surprise.  I think the fruit is still sterile because it felt a little deflated when I touched it, but I'm surprised it developed nonetheless.

Passiflora (Passion Flower)

Currently there are three different varieties of Passiflora flowering in the greenhouses. There are at least five varieties in total and I'll update if any more begin to flower. You can see the pictures I've already uploaded by looking for Passiflora in the labels in the right column.

Cream

Elegant Purple

Simple Yellow

Around the Greenhouse

I'm going to Toronto tomorrow so I won't be going in to work. I've decided to upload a few images from around the greenhouse that haven't really fit into other posts. Tomorrow morning I'll post the Hibiscus images.

Our fish pond is located in the tropical room. It houses koi and goldfish. The largest koi with the long fins is about 12 years old.

Although we have started several Barberry plants in the greenhouse, the nicest one is located outside. Then entire plant is covered in these red/pink/purple leaves.

Now for a Bougainvillea close up. You can really see where the nickname 'paper flower' comes from. The flower veins are also clearly visible and the inner portions are all in different stages of bloom.

A few days ago a second variety of our Passion Flowers began to bloom. There is at least two other kinds that should start blooming soon.

Greenhouse Blooms

Here's a quick update with the latest greenhouse blooms. I've uploaded several of them before but these pictures are better. I'll be sure to get the newest ones when I'm back on Wednesday.

Bougainvillea (now some orange)

Carissa grandiflora (the blooms only last about a day or two)

Passiflora (newest yellow bloom, the buds on the others are getting large but none have opened yet)

Hibiscus (yellow and red bloom)

I've also ordered some Synsepalum dulcificum (Miracle Fruit) and Adenium arabicum black RCN seeds. I'm very excited for these and they'll probably be the last seeds I start this summer. They should arrive within the next few weeks. The Adenium is actually related to Plumeria which we have at the greenhouses. None of the plants seem close to flowering though. I think they may still be too young.