Salet Rose is rooted!

Two of the Salet classic rose rose cuttings rooted. In the spring, I'll make more cuttings so that by May, I will have several reasonably stable plants. Salet is probably a specie rose from the Roman days so is pretty vigorous. In fact, it's still blooming a bit, in 50-some degree weather.

 

The night blooming jasmine is growing just as advertised -- new leaves, new branches... very satisfying plant. I might plant it outside where the lavender died. Lavenders are reputed to be short-lived, but that one was only 4 years old and I didn't think plants with small leaves like that were susceptible to fungus. Well, I guess I proved that they are -- it's dead as a door nail, half-inch thick branches notwithstanding. Dugging it out will be not fun.

 

My 4 rooted gardenia cuttings and about 10 rose-scented geranium plants seemed determined to take over their tiny piece of my tiny garden. What to do, what to do? Meanwhile, the white ginger isn't blooming. The things I want to do well don't, and I have a surplus of other stuff. Have about 1000 lemons but only 2 limes.

Over-watering!

I was surprised to see the brick path still wet at 3 PM and moss growing near the little bridge -- it's right out in the sun! I thought I re-set the automatic sprinklers back in September to only turn-on on Mondays. Then I saw droplets caught in the nasturtium leaves. This year, autumn in the Bay Area has been unusually dry and warm, so maybe more water is OK.

Of course, I turn off the sprinklers every winter, but it's so seductive to go out there and hand water, just a little, just to be sure, just to reach those little corners, in case a sprinkler head was blocked...

I was surprised to read* that the Bush ranch in Crawford (Texas) diverted gray water, water from the kitchen drains, from showers, the laundry, to irrigate the lawn. They must clean that water to get the salts and detergents out. I wonder whether some tireless MBA majoring in accounting has done a rigourous calculation of the net savings, including the cost to clean the gray water? Maybe it's just for show, even if it costs more than to use 'new' water, the PR value of 'recycling' makes up for it, huh?

As for my house and garden, a luxurious hot bath (with bath salts, or bubble bath, or essential oil, all no-nos for plants) uses maybe 20 gallons? 40? More? My sprinkler system is set for an average of 10 minutes for each of 4 zones, 40 minutes total per session; at the rate of maybe 2 gallons an hour, three times a week at peak usage (Do I have my numbers right?) Actually, some zones are on for 30 minutes while others are only on for only 5 minutes once a week... carefully planned for soil types, plant types (herbs need less water, fruits need more), depth of soaking, time of day... When will home gardening suppliers come out with sprinkler controllers that sense the average temperature and allow Boolean programming?

I'd like to give my sprinkler controller an IP address (and the appropriate mechanics) so I can control it from Singapore. Last year, when I went to Australia for 10 days, a power failure caused the sprinkling system to default to sprinking every day. My garden almost floated away before I got home!

Maybe I 'can afford' to be more profligate with watering the garden, but taking only occasional hot baths? Then there is the cost/benefit analysis to upgrade to a $1,000 water-miser washing machine, and the infrastructure cost to divert and clean that grey water (high detergent concentration) into the garden; would it be enough water, would it need supplementing... How many laundry loads would it take to depreciate?

Being analytical can be a drag.

* Tommy Franks, "American Soldier" (now only $7.99 from Amazon)

Lime is blooming AGAIN!

Actually, everything is blooming again. I thought with colder temperatures, the plants will be going into dormancy. But I see from my Google instant weather that the humidity has been high, around 80%. This was a few days before that little rain shower. That's even higher and calmer than in Lahaina, Hawaii, my favorite dive spot.

The lime was doing just great this spring -- loaded with flowers, then they all fell off. I have exactly one lime on the whole tree. But there's a small flush of bloom now, about 20 blossoms. Maybe I'll get some limes afterall? The lemons are ready though, huge clusters of them. My lemon is on a grafted tree with a grapefruit. I used EB Stone Organics for citrus this year and that seemed to kick the grapefruit to finally growing taller than the day I put the tree in, 7 years ago. Don't see any grapefruit on it, though.

The Asian eggplants are still blooming like crazy, but not forming fruit like they were this summer. Do they 'winter over' or should I pull them out and plant new ones next year? The French lavender is a gonner, nary a green leaf on it, as is the tarragon. I'll yank them out and put the citronella and rosa pelargonium(s) (true scented geranium) and echenacea in the lavender's spot. Hope they don't drown.

Moved the plumeria and passionfruit into the greenhouse.

The camellia are doing GREAT! I'll post some pictures assuming tomorrow is bright. Even the Peace Rose that nearly gave up the ghost to black spot put out one really big beautiful bloom. So they should all be OK next year! Phew!

Flower Fragrance, Memories and Their Emotions

The fragrance of Night Blooming Jasmine really 'takes me back' to Asia. Marcel Proust said smells bring back complete memories, including their emotional content, so we experience them as if we were re-living the event. I used to think Proust was exactly as satirized by Monty Python, self-consciously overly romantic and intellectual. I can never get through any of his books.


But the scent of Night Blooming Jasmine really brings back the nights my siblings and I sat on the balcony in Hong Kong, telling each other stories (and feeding the mozzies!).


I'm glad it's a tough plant that can take care of itself. For that same reason, I have cats for pets. They need food and water, but that's it. They never get out of shape so they don't need to be walked. They don't care what you think so you don't have to be attentive. And they're small enough that you can overpower them if you have to. :)


The neurologists now say that Proust was right about the close association of smells and memories because the smell sensors are right next to the primitive brain where emotional memories are stored, so we do associate smells with emotions.


Here in Western culture, consumer marketers think smells like cinnamon and pine are nostalgic. For us Asians, probably insense and hot garlic oil work better!

Night Blooming Jasmine is Blooming!

Whoopie! My sister sent me a 4 inch high, two twig Night Blooming Jasmine plant. It looked healthy but I babied it anyway. Re-potted it into lovely SuperSoil and added more perlite as well as vermiculite, added an earthworm. Dunno how well the worm likes living in a pot, but even if it dies, it'll still enrich the soil. Put a clear plastic bag upside-down over the plant that's held upright with a chopstick stuck into the side of the pot. The bottom of the bag is open for ventilation. I put the plant on a warm windowsill that gets only morning sun.

In a week, it bloomed! Really powerful fragrance coming out of the bottom of the plastic bag -- filled the whole kitchen! What a fragrance! Marcel Proust was right, the smell brought me right back to my childhood in the tropics of Asia with all those old emotions unchanged.

Now I've removed the bag and placed the whole plant in it so that the top is open to let more of the fragrance out, but the sides are right up to the top so the interior environment should still be very humid.

It really does only bloom at night. In the day time, the flowers are closed.