Around the Greenhouse March 28, 2016

Here are a few shots from the greenhouse today. Most of the plants shown below are for our plant sale fundraiser coming up in May.

Coleus:

Echinaceae from seed:

Setcreasea pallida:

Alternanthera:

Pseuderanthemum:

Hypoestes:

Oxalis:

Iresine:

Hypoestes from Seed

I am growing Hypoestes 'Splash Select Mix' for our plant sale. It is always popular because it is such an unusual looking plant. They take quite a while to bulk up, so I started these quite early this year. I love how you can almost distinguish the different colors very early on.

After a couple of week, the tiny seedlings show above were large enough to transplant out into flats.

A few weeks later, you can really start to see the polka-dot pattern. These are great little plants for fairy gardens, can be grown as houseplants, and do well outside in shadier conditions.

Butterfly House Opens Soon

Our butterfly house is about to open for the year. This chrysalis fell down while we were misting the rearing box (the maintain high humidity). It seems very upset about us trying to help.

Around the Greenhouse March 2nd, 2016

Here are a few shots from around the greenhouse. In the next few weeks things will be filling up very quickly.

Annual ornamental grasses:

Various annuals, mostly young seedlings:

Houseplants:

Succulents:

Transplanting Geranium Seedlings

I started the geraniums for our plant sale two weeks ago. It's now time to transplant them from their seedling tray into a flat. We use a special dibble board to punch holes into the soil of our 48-cell flats. Then I separate the seedlings and lay them across the holes. Next I use a chopstick to push each seedling into their hole.

People are really surprised by how little we fuss with the seedlings when we transplant them. The less they are handled, the better. All we really need to do is get their roots in contact with the soil...they do all the rest.

What I'm Sowing This Week

Here's a list of what I sowed this week (and the last couple of weeks, since I didn't think to do this earlier). The names jump around between common name and Latin name, depending on how the companies submit them to us. 

Sown Week 6 (this week) :

 Gerbera Jaguar Lemon Dark Center

 Gerbera Strawberry Twist

 Hypoestes Splash Select Mix

 Alcea rosea Spring Celebrities Crimson

 Coreopsis Sun Kiss

 Strawberry Delizz

Sown Week 5:

 Trifolium rubens f. album

 Heliopsis helianthoides var. scabra

 Heliopsis helianthoides var. scabra

 Solidago canadensis

 Solidago virgaurea ssp. Minuta

 Geranium Pinto Premium Deep Red

 Geranium Pinto Premium Salmon

 Geranium Pinto Premium Violet

 Geranium Pinto Premium White to Rose

Sown in January:

 Calamintha nepeta Marvelette Blue

 Cosmos atrosanguineus Maroon Crimson

 Echinacea Cheyenne Spirit

 Echinacea OP

 Echinacea PowWow Wild Berry

 Echinaceae Feeling Pink

 Echinaceae Feeling White

 Helenium autumnale Western Mixture

 Lupin Mini Gallery Blue

 Strawberry Toscana

The Lupinus was sown just a couple weeks ago and you can already recognize the unique starburst-shaped leaf.

Early Season Seed-Starting

We're already starting to sow seeds here at the MSU Horticulture Gardens. Perennials take an especially long time to grow from seed, so I usually start them early in the year. This tray was sown on January 18th.

On the far end of this tray are about 6 varieties of Echinaceae including an unreleased variety for our trial gardens. The tall guys in the middle of the tray are Cosmos atrosanguineus, or chocolate cosmos. This is the first seed-propagated chocolate cosmos ever developed, also an experimental variety. In front of the chocolate cosmos is Calamintha, with Lewisia in the extreme foreground.

Greenhouse Critters

We often find gray tree frogs in our greenhouses. We're not really sure how they get inside. Maybe they come in on plants we overwinter in the greenhouses (like this banana, below), or maybe they slip through cracks. No one knows. In any event, this is the third one I've found this year, which is way more than normal!

This little guy was sitting on a metal bench in a greenhouse used by a crop and soil sciences class. I moved him into our children's garden greenhouse. We don't use pesticides in that house, and there are some larger plants (like the banana it's climbing on) to hide in. Hopefully he'll survive long enough to move back outside this spring.

Here's another one I found a few weeks ago. This tiny guy was hanging out on a philodendron in our houseplant production area. I assume they must be eating fungus gnats, because that's the main insect we have in the greenhouses right now.