Meandering Missive: Garden update: transplanting!

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Garden update: transplanting!

Today two "trees" in the patio enjoyed moving to much roomier, comfier digs today! I use quotation marks because one is a young Mexican fan palm (Washingtonia robusta) not more than two feet tall, so he hardly looks like a palm "tree" yet. His name is Winfield.

The other transplantee is a blue potato bush (Solanum rantonnetii, a.k.a. Lycianthes rantonnetii) named Phoebe. (More on these names later). Phoebe was already trained in the topiary style when we got her a few years ago, so I guess she's a tree. Left to go their own way, potato bushes -- whose flowers are way more purple than blue -- generally become tall fluffy bushes, which I prefer.

Winfield has lived in the same small-size oak barrel since he came to live here. He still hasn't outgrown it, but rather OUTLASTED it! The slats have been slowly but surely cracking, shrinking and rotting, causing too much water to drain out with each watering. Hence, I have to spend a lot more time irrigating him just to keep him from drying out.

Phoebe has lived in the same adobe-colored plastic (UGH!) pot for about as many years. She hasn't seemed as vigorous as she used to be, so I figured she was probably getting root-bound. Since potato bushes always grow best in the ground, I figured it was high time for her to get a new container too.

Many thanks and kudos (and I don't mean the granola bars) to Tony for bringing two LARGE-size oak barrels from a friend who gives them away, and also for helping transplant both trees. With my lower back and my chicken arms (both of which need a lot of strengthening! *chuckle*) it's hard for me to dig and/or pull large, awkward greenery from large containers. And my mom won't even attempt it! Of course none of this is difficult for Tony, who got both trees out of their old homes faster than Miracle-Gro dissolves in warm water!

Winfield's old barrel was in such bad shape it literally fell to pieces upon being picked up, so Tony placed it (and Winfield) inside the new barrel as he took the remaining slats apart from the metal ring. We poured about two bags of soil in and got the palm settled in his new home. I think I even saw him wave his fronds! ;D Incidentally, young fan palms can sit in containers (or the ground) for many years, slowly bulking up and becoming more wide than tall. Eventually, when they feel ready, they "bolt" and start growing a lot faster vertically. And yes: they can and DO bolt in containers; I've seen it myself many times!

Phoebe (for whom we also poured about two soil bags) was delighted with her new oak barrel as well. Not only does it "breathe" better than that yucky plastic pot, but she got the chance to straighten out, having shifted like the Leaning Tower of Pisa over the years. The feisty little Anna's hummingbirds LOVE hiding in the branches while guarding the hummer feeder, so I'm sure they appreciate the improvement too. Plus, now Phoebe has a chance to spread her roots. Hopefully the new growth below the soil will be reflected by new growth above (especially in flowers)! Then again, she always goes half-dormant during winter anyway (and is already), so I'll look forward to the most improvement come spring!

Both palm and potato bush got a thorough soaking after transplantation. I don't anticipate any problems with shock, since fan palms (and most palms in general) are very tolerant of transplantation, and the potato bush is already half-dormant. I'm a little worried about my 4 o'clock seedlings, however. (Click here for my most recent prior 4 o'clock update, with happy photos!)

Anyhoo, since Tony was doing grunt work with the trees, I also asked him to do some delicate work with the 4 o'clocks. I'm such a baby that I'm afraid to pull and transplant seedlings, even though growers do it as a matter of course. I'm too afraid I'm going to kill some and then feel guilty and sad. However, now that my fast germinating magenta-and-white fours have several sets of adult leaves, and my slow germinating magenta-and-yellow fours are making up for lost time, the one pot I planted them all in is WAY too crowded. I planted a lot of each because I thought some wouldn't sprout. Ding-ding, I was wrong!! *chuckle* My fours (both color varieties) had a nearly 100% germination rate!

And so, I found a pot about the same size as the one all the fours were in, and filled it with soil. In the meantime, Tony pulled up half of each color variety from the original pot and we stuck them in the extra pot. A few were destroyed during the pulling, despite Tony's best efforts, but most looked OK. The seedlings in the original pot can now grow larger because their numbers have been thinned, and hopefully all the seedlings in the second pot will also grow well, since they won't have as much competition either. (Fours eventually form large tuberous roots!)

Look directly below for the "before" shots of Winfield and Phoebe from my "before-and-after" series. I'll wait to share the "after" shots until we buy some festive annual flowers to plant around them. I think the trees look sort of lonely/lost in such big barrels alone, plus I love flowers anyway. More importantly, Tony said that because there's now such a large surface area of soil, planting some nice annuals on top will help insulate the soil a little against temperature fluctuations and moisture loss.

Today I am feeling tired but

accomplished.

Bet you thought I forgot about explaining the names of the trees, eh? No such luck! ;D But I'll keep it brief. Since Phoebe is a potato bush, the initials for that would be "PB", which my mom commented sounded like "Phoebe". It was a cute name, so it stuck. End of story. Winfield is named after Winfield Blvd., a somewhat long street here in S. San Jose. There was once an open area on one side with the cutest cluster of BABY Mexican fan palms, despite awful soil. They grew there because a tree used to grow in that same spot, and birds plant numerous fan palm seeds both by dropping them from their beaks, and by pooping them. *chuckle* Eventually, someone tore out all the palms, and I felt so sad that when we got our own fan palm, I named it Winfield in memory of the ones that once lived there.

posted by ScaryShari @ 11:10 PM

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