The Dragon Garden

A blog documentary of an attempt at exotic container gardening.

[dragon-garden]

Seeds and Beans!

I know I've been posting a large amount about beans lately, but this is only because there has been a multitude of things going on with them! As the above image shows, the Calypso beans have begun to emerge. I find it interesting that the cotyledons, or seed leaves, are additionally accompanied by the plant's first true leaves in the case of the bean; this isn't true for many other seeds. Here in a couple days, the cotyledons, visible as the thick lighter-green fleshy lobes, will shrivel up and fall off the plant, having sustained it long enough to allow it to start photosynthesis. As you can see in the photo, three have emerged already (EDIT: Actually, there are four; the fourth is in the middle of the rear box); I anticipate two more in the next day or so, with the final one, having been re-planted due to yesterday's chipmunk escapades, emerging next week sometime.

I've additionally been readying a new seed-starting tray for new seeds. This tray will have a heat mat situated beneath it to assist in the germination process of some of the seeds I have planned; it should greatly expedite and improve the overall germination. Following is a list of what all will be planted in the next few days:

Capsicum chinense, cv. 'Trinidad Moruga Scorpion': These are presently the hottest peppers on the planet. While Bhut Jolokias are the hottest readily-available pepper on the market, these doozies can get almost twice as hot, up to two million SHU. They're easier to grow by far, but because of this they are much, much more difficult to cultivate with appreciable heat; while their peak is something to strive for, they're also capable of being as "mild" as 500,000 SHU.

Capsicum chinense X Capsicum frutescens, cv. 'Bhut Jolokia': The famed Bhut Jolokia pepper. This was, from 2007 to 2011, rated as the world's hottest pepper, capable of producing a spice in excess of one million SHU (Scoville Heat Units; for reference, Tabasco sauce is around 2500-5000 SHU). Southern New Mexico, as it so happens, happens to be one of the best places for growing this strain to its hottest. Mostly, I'm growing these for fun; I will almost certainly never eat one. I might try to see just how hot I can get them, though.

Michelia champaca (Champaca Perfume Tree): This tree is native to the jungles of eastern India and southeastern Tibet; its flowers produce an exceptionally fragrant oil that is used in a large percentage of modern perfumes, most notably JOY by Jean Patou, and J'Adore, by Christian Dior. When in bloom, it can be smelled for hundreds of feet.

Oroxylum indicum (Midnight Horror): With a host of unusual nicknames, including the Broken Bones Tree and the Tree of Damocles, it would appear this tree struck every innate British fear when they found it on the Indian subcontinent. Often growing to towering stature in the wild, they truly are a sight to behold. At night, it is said the leaves resemble a perched vulture. Often, the plant will drop its branches around itself, making a pile of wood that is purported to resemble broken bones. Its seed pods, massive sheathes four feet in length, resemble hanging swords.

Solanum mammosum (Nipple Fruit): A distant relative of the tomato, this plant is relatively easy to cultivate (though the fruit and indeed the entire plant are quite toxic). As the colloquial name suggests (and its other colloquial names, the Titty Fruit and the Cow's Udder), the fruit of this plant is quite oddly-shaped --- where it attaches to the plant, it resembles a human breast, while at the bottom of the fruit, it looks like an udder. The fruit itself is a golden-yellow in color.

Trachycarpus takil (Kumaon Palm): A fan palm that grows natively at this altitude in the Himalayas. The most cold-resistant palm that grows a trunk, I could literally leave this plant outdoors for the winter and only expect defoliation. (Though I will probably bring it indoors, as it does not have a need for cold cycles.)

There is one more species of seed I am going to attempt in the coming week, but as it requires additional preparation and such, I will probably dedicate an entire post to it.

[dragon-garden]

Trying desperately to edit HTML in tumblr is apparently a waste of my time! Thanks tumblr, for being the pinnacle of "screw you, you don't get to edit your own stuff because our code is broken." I'm pretty sure I've thoroughly pissed off their support staff for calling them out on it.

ANYWAY.

Got a lot done today in the garden; the photos above are mostly for reference, but they help illustrate the work done! There is also some news, but I'll get to that. First, the work.

Transplanted the final of four tomato plants into a modified hanging container! This is something I had intended to do months ago, but kept getting sidetracked or making excuses for myself to not do it. (It's not exactly the most fun thing in the world, but I will say, the results are worth it!) This helps me out in a few ways: It makes sure I don't have to worry about staking or caging the plants; it keeps them safe from the various vermin we have running around out here; and it also looks neat. All four plants are Purple Russians, an heirloom variety originating in the Ukraine; they're great sauce tomatoes, and produce lovely purple fruit as the name suggests.

While I was transplanting, I figured I'd go ahead and do one more, another plant that's really been in need for some time now. Back a few months ago, I obtained a quintet of Adansonia grandidieri seeds, known colloquially as Grandidier's Baobab; I honestly didn't expect any to germinate, but within two weeks three had taken and a fourth was preparing. Unfortunately, fungal infection got to the fourth before it could fully emerge, and the third --- the one I transplanted today --- almost suffered the same fate had I not stepped in. Its trunk suffered mildly from the infection, but there was enough room for a branch to step in and take that role. In transplanting it this afternoon, I found a huge, healthy root stock, meaning it should be good for a while.

Last night, after getting out of work (where I wrote last night's post), I sowed a couple new seeds. Wisteria sinensis 'Alba', also known as white Chinese wisteria, was one of these; I'd had three plants last year, but not a one survived the winter. We had heavy winds and, as all my plants are in containers, those three continuously got knocked around and even had their soil completely dumped on a number of occasions. My intention for these plants is to train them into bonsai; they have amazing vines that resemble tree bark, and their flowers aren't half bad either.

The other seeds I propagated last night were Hordeum vulgare variegata; it's really a variety of variegated barley grass, but as it's a vegetation that's safe for cats to consume, it's marketed as cat grass. My own cat loves this stuff, to the point that he will kill it if given the chance. It's quite lovely though.

More work done this afternoon, which actually reminds me of something that happened: Recall how, in the last post, I'd expressed concern that the chipmunks might make off with my beans? Yeah, they did. Well, at least two beans anyway. Went out and found the window boxes pretty thoroughly hallowed. The two were replaced, and the boxes themselves are now on a shelf in one of my "greenhouses"; I was hoping I wouldn't have to put them there, but it's a raised platform the rodents will have a difficult time getting to. If nothing else, it will serve as a deterrent.

After this, I filled up my two remaining window boxes and planted the Dragon's Tongue and Purple Queen beans, four of each. I don't think any of them will have any difficulty growing, especially as we enter our local monsoon season.

Now, of course, none of this has anything to do with the top photo in the above photoset. That would be a hydrangea, specifically of the cultivar 'Taube'; I received it one week ago today in the mail, and as I hadn't taken any photos of it before, felt like sharing here.

Now, on to the news!

I have at present a believed total of twelve Nelumbo nucifera, or sacred lotuses, each in its own individual five-gallon bucket. Seven of these were started last year; there were four more in that batch, but they died of frost. I'd transplanted the remaining back outside about a month ago, and as not one had shown any signs of growth I was starting to get worried. This afternoon however, I verified new growth on at least two of the plants; we've got life! I'm hoping at least one blooms this year.

While that news is pretty exciting (to me, anyway), it barely holds a candle to this: I managed to get my hands on a sizable cluster of Amorphophallus sp. tubers!

I've already got one Amorphophallus growing (A. titanum, which I do intend to highlight in the near future if it lives that long), and I've been so fascinated by these plants that I've wanted to have my own collection for some time. Yesterday evening, I found someone who was looking to downsize their own collection; after some negotiating, I ended up purchasing a total of seven tubers:

A. albispathus: As the species name suggests, this particular Aroid has a white (albi-) spathe (-spathus), the skirt around the inflorescence when it blooms.

A. atroviridis: This species name also describes the plant, as it has black (atro-) foliage (-viridis). As these plants only bloom every so often, the look of the foliage is fairly important! To me, at least.

A. bulbifer: One of my personal favorites. While I'm pretty sure all the Amorphophallus species are capable of being reproduced through leaf cuttings, A. bulbifer specifically grows new, viable bulbs on its leaf --- genetic clones of itself that then propagate when the petiole, the stalk that supports the leaf, collapses as the plant goes dormant. It doesn't need to be pollinated to reproduce.

A. paeoniifolius: This particular plant is well-known in southeast Asia, where its tuber is regularly farmed to be eaten. Its bloom is particularly odd-looking, even for plants in this genus.

A. variabilis (Indonesian strain): It was actually the lack of general knowledge about this particular plant that struck my interest. Even the person selling it wasn't sure why it had been differentiated as "Indonesian strain", though my guess is it may have been grown from seed from Indonesia-native plants. I honestly have no idea. Should be neat to see, though!

A. yuloensis (x2): I ended up with two of these because I'd expressed interest in one; the seller had a multitude, one of which had only just begun to rot but was sprouting strongly. As a result, they decided it should be okay to send as well. I certainly don't mind! I've dealt with far worse than rot. As with the bulbifer, this species can be spread by bulbils produced in the leaf; however, these aren't nearly as pronounced as those in bulbifer. Furthermore, its foliage is something of a mottled white and green, rather lovely.

I believe that shall do it for this post. Wow, that was a lot of information! I'll try to be a little more concise next time, maybe.

[dragon-garden]

Huh, Tumblr's a touch limited in how it handles photosets. I'll have to see if there's a decent workaround.

These photos were actually taken a couple months back; the plant there is the result of that bean, but it died of a combination of cat attack and frost. I'm using these photos, though, because something bean-related happened today!

I'd placed an order recently for a number of heirloom bean seeds, specifically including Italian Rose, Dragon's Tongue, and Purple Queen beans; this order also included a more modern pole bean variety, Purple King. The photos are, of course, of the Calypso bean, another heirloom I've had for several months; I'd tried to germinate them back in March, but, as the previous paragraph highlights, they encountered several obstacles.

The beans I'd ordered arrived yesterday in the mail, and this afternoon I took the time to plant the Italian Rose. I only planted four beans, but as I live by myself, that's more than enough, especially considering how many other varieties I received! I intend to plant four of each of the others in the coming days, except the Purple King; I'm actually not entirely sure how I'm going to handle that one, considering it's a pole bean. I'll figure something out.

The Calypso beans, by the way, have been planted as well, six in total; however, they were planted last Thursday. We should be seeing new sprouts soon! Here's hoping the local chipmunks don't make off with them.

All of these beans are or will be planted in plastic window box planters; I live on the edge of a National Forest at the moment, and furthermore the land is owned by my bosses; I don't believe either entity would appreciate me putting anything of my own directly in the ground.

[dragon-garden]

An Introduction

I have a number of plants in my "garden" at this point; I've always wanted to start a gardening blog, but never really got around to it until tonight. I think the way I'm going to try and do this is, if there are updates worth sharing regarding the garden (something was planted, something germinated, etc.), those updates will definitely be made; otherwise, I shall attempt to give a daily post detailing the history of one of my plant varieties, as well as a detailed description of its species and such. This, to me, sounds the most productive. With no further ado, let us begin this journey!