Blog – Page 3 of 5 – Raging Rosarian

11Mar 2018 by RagingAdmin

The Waiting Game

One of the best parts of planting new roses is watching them emerge from twigs (especially if you started them as bare root/own root plantings), and gradually build up into much more substantial shrubs. This is, of course, also a lesson in patience, even among the most vigorous examples. As I have commented elsewhere in this site, Graham Thomas was my first. It has also been among the fastest growing of any variety in my garden. When it wakes up in the spring, there are times when each cane grows as much as 4" per day -- downright beanstalk-like performance, which led to my original example growing multiple canes in excess of 12ft tall. This will be its third spring. As it approaches mature size, I can't wait to see…

11Mar 2018 by RagingAdmin

LED Grow Light Update

Plant Care, Planting

In previous years, I used a fluorescent fixture (with T5 bulbs) as a grow light for my seedlings. This year, I've tried an LED grow light -- partly just for the sake of comparison. I wish I could say I've seen a difference, but so far, there hasn't been one. I can assume there is an improvement as far as energy efficiency. However, since the scope of my gardening has increased, the old T5 unit is still in use. Thankfully, a pair of fluorescent bulbs would hardly be capable of exciting the electric meter to where the house might be turned into some sort of residential equivalent of Airwolf. All in all, the LED light works fine, I'm just not so sure that a modest increase in efficiency is worth…

06Mar 2018 by RagingAdmin

The Attack of the Aubergine: Chapter 1

Uncategorized

While it's too soon to get ready for the parmigiana, this happy little seedling is the largest of anything I've started for the coming season. A Pandora Striped Rose eggplant, its fruit will look like the second photo, and is said to be as delicious as it is beautiful. At this rate of growth (the seedling is only two weeks old), one wonders if the mature plant will attempt a hostile takeover...

28Feb 2018 by RagingAdmin

Office Tomato Plant Update

Uncategorized

For those into such experimentation, this is a glimpse at the tomato plant I've been coaxing along at the office. Previously featured in flower, with its view of the Empire State Building in the background... we now have 10 fruits, each of which are growing larger by the day. With selective pruning, I've been hoping to keep this variety from outgrowing its admittedly too-small container. Given the strong sunlight it receives in this location, a larger container may be necessary regardless, as it breathes heavily and tends to dry out its soil quickly. Variety: Azoychka Type: Beefsteak Color: Yellow Flavor profile: Sweet-tart, with citrus undertones

25Feb 2018 by RagingAdmin

Good Morning, White Triana!

Fig

The first of my three fig trees was this White Triana. Originating in Tuscany, this is a robust variety capable of growing 25 feet tall -- which won't quite be happening here, as I keep mine in a container. That said, I did just up-size it to a much larger home, prior to bringing it out of its winter dormancy. I have never been quite sure of how winter hardy this variety is, so I treat it like a more tender variety. It typically lives on our back deck. Each fall, I leave it outside through November, when the gradual cooling and onset of frosts bring it into dormancy. It them goes into our (detached) garage for a spell. By late December or early January, when we seem prone to…

24Feb 2018 by RagingAdmin

A Legion of This Year’s Troops

Tomatoes, Uncategorized

Even in the dead of winter, there are a great many garden related tasks to occupy one's time. If you happen to be a tomato addict, one of the most enjoyable of those tasks is the process of deciding which varieties to grow in the following season. 2018 will be my most ambitious year yet, featuring 12 varieties of tomato and a total of 24 plants. This year, at least one of each variety will be grafted onto Estamino rootstock, which performed exceptionally well in last year's experiments -- finally allowing me to harvest some tomatoes from the more disease prone varieties, while dramatically boosting vigor even on the varieties that do not succumb to bacterial or fungal pressures. Managing all these seedlings is part of the process. In this…

19Jan 2018 by RagingAdmin

More biological warfare: nicotine

Pest Control, Tomatoes

I love evolution and phylogeny. With animals, you can see how similar traits were adapted over time given different environmental pressures or happenstances. Now that we know T-rex was feathered and mitochondrial DNA has suggested its closest living relatives include the common chicken, that trip to KFC has new meaning. With plants, it's especially interesting because closely related groups often, as with animmals, retain the genes responsible for the production of certain chemicals. This is the reason many roses have scents with fruity undertones -- just examine the leaflets of a rose and compare with those of a blackberry, and you'll see how close these cousins really are. This is also why rose hips are so high in Vitamin C. And again for the same reasons, it turns out that…

09Jan 2018 by RagingAdmin

It is important to always give your tomato plants a good view

Tomatoes

This happy little plant, already in bud a week into January, is the result of the latest seedling I brought into the office. My team's side of the floor has a southern exposure and all-day sunlight. Tomatoes may not love growing in pots, but they are strong and adaptable plants. What a potted plant loses in root roaming, it may partially make up for by not having to contend with insects and extreme variations in temperature. This particular plant is an Azoychka, a bright yellow Russian beefsteak variety. I last grew it in my garden during the summer of 2016, with mixed results. My plants were strong and early producers, but the tomatoes never quite obtained the sweet citrus undertones for which this variety is known. I thought it was…

05Jan 2018 by RagingAdmin

Biological warfare: unleashing the hounds

Diseases

Seriously, aside from grapefruit sized mosquitos, is there a more annoying insect than the common aphid? These voracious pests can decimate an entire collection of plants, seemingly overnight, leaving the innocent gardener more melodramatic and distraught than Mel Gibson's Gladiator. This was me in May. And let me tell you, I was pissed. worse, the malevolent critters were only attacking the newest growth, so even if I went out twice a week with a spray bottle of hot pepper sauce, they'd be back and munching away again before I noticed it. I realized at that point I had two options: bomb the yard with the strongest DDT I could find, or unleash my own legion of high predators (um, mantiples with mandiples?) to keep the aphid population under control. Enter…

31Dec 2017 by RagingAdmin

Zone stretching: the great experiment

Plant Care

With temps dropping to the single digits, easily the coldest weather we've had in years (especially after last year's non-winter), I am wondering how things look inside the garage. Clustered around a chicken coop heater in the left rear corner are my Gloire de Dijon, Papa Meilland, and the other potted plants. I now doubt the heater has been enough to keep them more than ten degrees warmer than the outdoor temperature, but we'll see how hardy they really are. [caption id="attachment_2698" align="alignnone" width="640"] Gloire de Dijon in mid-November, and still not dormant[/caption] Despite repeated frosts in October and November, this caged lion not only refused to go dormant, it actually was still growing, albeit at a slower rate. Impressive from one of the only plants in my collection that…