General Subjects > Flowers and Foliage Now
July 2022 in the Northern Hemisphere
Graham Catlow:
A couple of troughs -
Maggi Young:
--- Quote from: Graham Catlow on July 04, 2022, 06:17:10 PM ---A couple of troughs -
--- End quote ---
You can grow almost anything in a trough - no wonder they are so popular!
Robert:
I have been thinking about Ian Young’s remarks in the last Bulb Log about photography in the garden. Stepping back and getting a wider photographic perspective of the garden helps me understand if the garden is responding to my long term vision of how I want the garden function, look, and feel. I wish to transform our oasis garden into a paradise filled with flavorful fruit to eat, the sight of beautiful flowers, and wonderful scents. Food production is the core goal of our garden, however without flowers and scents the garden paradise is not complete.
It is amazing how quickly plants can adjust to adverse conditions. Various mosaic viruses can adversely impact many of the species I grow in our garden. I am saving seed from this Lebanese Light Green Squash, Curcubita pepo, which appeared in this season’s Summer Squash trials. This plant has many attributes that exceed those of even the commercial hybrid plants in this trial, such as productivity, disease and insect resistance.
Plant breeding is advancing on all fronts: fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals.
This new F1 Tomato hybrid, Solanum lycopersicum, is highly productive, however flavor, disease resistance, and other qualities need to be evaluated and considered.
Flavor King Pluots are delicious, however I have very compelling reasons to breed my own fruit varieties. This process is now advancing.
Robert:
I start most of my seed in a very simple cold frame. I like simple - a tool or devise that anyone can make or use. New peach seedlings can be seen in the foreground. In small containers are new persimmons, citrus, and avocado plants. I am conducting a trial with 6 Salvia species, to see if any will work in my garden scheme. Germination tests are taking place with some of the Meso-American Salvias that we currently grow in our garden. There are also new Strawberry hybrids and the next generation of Dahlia hybrids. I do all of this in a tiny space and it works extremely well. Breeding is a numbers game, however quality; know-how and a bit more time can bring excellent results.
There are still pansies blooming in our garden, however my goal is to create more flowering diversity during the summer months.
Dahlias will bloom all summer into the autumn. I like tall, single-flowered Dahlias that produce a light canopy of foliage that can accept an understory of other flowering plants. I guess I could just buy Dahlias at the local nursery. They sell many different types, however they have nothing that fit my needs. So I create my own varieties to fit my needs.
I started my Dahlia breeding project back in the 1990’s, however I had to abandon the project shortly after I started it. I was able to resume the project about 3 years ago and excellent progress is now being made.
I end up with many Dahlias in the garden. To avoid clutter, eventually some will be replaced with better forms.
Robert:
I wanted to acquire some Meso-American Salvia species that were missing from our garden and I knew would fit in well with our garden scheme. I found Salvia sinaloensis at a local nursery.
I started Salvia gesneriiflora from a cutting.
More Trumpet and Oriental Lilies will look good in our garden and will provide sweet scents. This is Lilium sargentiea. I do not want a collection or to clutter the garden with too many Lilies, so I will be very selective as to what I bring into the garden or keep as part of a breeding project.
Gladiolus, both species and hybrids, have potential to bring summer flowering into our garden. I have a few new hybrids coming along and will likely do more. I want versatile garden plants, not something bred for the cut flower trade.
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