2012-05-17 Plant Update
Post date: May 17, 2012 8:52:46 PM
Here we are... the first official plant update! Forgive me, I’m hoping this will be the longest of the plant updates!
I think the way I will carry these out will be by starting each separate species with its own header, I don’t want you all to get bored before you even try reading what I have to say! I’ll even alphabetize it so you can easily find the plants you are most interested in.
We received 5 paintbrushes as 1 year old plants on May 4 from Wild About Flowers. To date, we have had 4 come “back to life” and begin to grow leaves and gain some height. Last week, I was excited to find that there was a caterpillar that seemed to be cocooning in one of the plants. Unfortunately, he consumed the entire plant and disappeared over this past weekend! Shoot. Luckily that plant has sprouted a few new shoots, so it should be fine. Another caterpillar (or maybe the same one...) appeared on a different paintbrush plant yesterday, but he is nowhere to be found and thankfully he left most of the paintbrush intact.
Otherwise, these are doing very good so far! Not quite large enough to transplant into a larger planter, but soon enough.
We also received 4 these grasses as 1 year old plants from Wild About Flowers. They are all doing great so far, although they do appear to be gaining height at quite different rates. They were all transplanted to a larger container today!
Quick Fact: Blue-Eyed Grass is not actually a species belonging to the grass family (Poaceae), but is really in the iris family (Iridaceae)!
Again, we received 4 bunchberry plants as 1 year old plants from Wild About Flowers. These so far have been doing great, and the photos to date have seemed the most impressive with the rate of growth! They were also transplanted to a larger container today.
This, on the other hand, was planted from seed by the Science minors class. So far, 2 seeds have germinated and broke through the soil. One is fairly large, but has not really grown since I have been here. I am thinking it might need more room to spread its roots, so we have transplanted only the one to a larger container.
The other is very small, and also doesn’t seem to be growing much. One seed in another planter is starting to germinate just below the dirt, but it seems it has been in the same state for about a week now. So no exciting growth here, other than the small flies that seem to enjoy the soil of this particular plant!
The sage was received as 4 1 year old plants from Wild AboutFlowers. It has grown to incredible heights in the past few weeks! The one plant that I have been photographing is tied as the tallest plant so far! These were also transplanted to a larger container today.
Prairie Sagewort
This was planted from seed by the Science minors... sadly only one sprout has turned up so far. It is doing very well so far though, so fear not!
These plants were planted as seeds by the Science minors. Numerous sprouts had popped up around final exams in late April, but somewhere between then and May we lost a few plants. Three have managed to stay alive and perk up a bit, and just on yesterday a new sprout has popped up from the soil. All three have been transplanted to a larger container.
None of these seeds, planted by the Science minors, seem to have popped up for whatever reason. The soil has been saved, so as to not lose the seeds in case they decide to germinate in the next few months. Potential plan for incorporating this plant into the garden coming soon!
The story is the same with these... none of the seeds germinated! Potential plant for these Asters is coming soon.
Again, same story. Some of the seeds were removed from the soil (as they are fairly large and were planted close to the surface) and Tracy and I attempted to germinate them in moist paper towel, but no signs of life. Potential plan for this plant coming soon as well.
This was also planted from seed by the Science minors class, and we currently have 1 sprout. It has grown a bit in the past few weeks, but is not nearly big enough to be transplanted yet. I am hoping in 1 or 2 weeks that can happen, though!
These were planted by the Science minors class, and they are doing the best of the seed plants BY FAR. As of today, we have 64 small sprouts, and this number is growing every day. It will be interesting to see how large they get in the next week or so... but until then, we wait I guess!
This was planted from seed by the Science minors class as well, and we currently have 1 sprout. It existed when I first took the plants into my care at the beginning of May, but has not really shown many signs of growth over the past few weeks. A new leaf has grown, but it is very tiny yet.
The Yarrow was also planted from seed by the Science minors class (I actually planted this one myself). It is doing very well in the planters with 13 plants growing. This isn’t surprising, since it enjoys growing in most conditions and is actually a common weed in this region! So I wouldn’t be surprised if you have encountered it in your own garden, but we are actually meaning to grow it here.
And that’s it about the plants for now! Take a look at what all was transplanted this morning:
