2003
Early Winter:
I've been removing lots of seed from those vicious Datura pods and castor bean pods. I've gotten pretty good at handling
the Datura pods without losing too much skin from my fingers. The trick is not to let them get too dry. But even pre-dried
the Datura "UConn" is nasty to work with. But it gives me something to do while watching TV.
Surprisingly enough, the castor bean pods and shells are very irritating to the skin. They need to be dried before you can
get the seeds out of the pods, but the dry, brittle "fuzz" becomes like little needles.
I keep searching for Datura seed suppliers. There are so few species available and the seed is very expensive. I finally
locate a supplier overseas, which is funny because he gets his seed from the U.S.! He's very nice and I send him a photo
of my Datura "UConn" which I hope he can identify. He says it's Datura stramonium, although mine is white and usually it's
a bit purplish. I went through the adventure of importing 12 species and varieties of Datura for propagation in my gardens.
I sent him some of my atypical D. stramonium to grow at his place.
I've harvested a lot of D. metelloides, D. stramonium, a smallish amount of D. metel v fatuosa and just one single seed
pod of my Datura metelloides x metel v fatuosa (all from the summer of 2002 crop). I got a lot of castor bean seed, both
the red leaved and the green leaved varieties. In the spring I will plant only the red leaved variety since I like it better.
February / March:
My biggest Amorphophallus konjac tuber is showing signs that it's going to produce an inflorscence. I'm all excited because
this is it's first year to flower. As the peduncle grows, ever so slowly, I bring it with me to work, around mid-March.
When it gets to the office, where it's warm 24 hours, it really starts to grow fast. Over one weekend it grows 15"! Everyone
is amazed, as am I. People are accusing me of replacing it with a different plant because if they go a couple of days without
seeing it they can't believe it could grow that fast. In very, very late March or in the first day or two of April I bring
it home. I was frightened to death that it would bloom in the office.
April:
It's Friday, April 4 and I'm all packed for the Connecticut Cactus and Succulent Society's 20th Annual Show and Sale. I'm
currently the president, but we're accepting nominations for my replacement, after my two year term expires in June. I'm
bringing plants for the show (I take first place for my collection of 5 Echinofossolucactus species, beating out Jeannine
Loya, to my great delight - she has beautiful plants so beating her means I'm doing OK).
I'm also having a sales table for the first time. My good friend Shane has agreed to bear the boredom and man my table with
me. I'm selling mostly the Datura seed that I grew, plus castor bean seeds and trumpet vine seeds. Other than that I have
a few odds and ends plants that I've either collected various places or propagated for the sale. I'm bringing the Amorphophallus
konjac (that's ready to flower) along with some literature I wrote about it. I plan to sell my one-year-old corms at next
year's sale. When Shane and I arrive at the show early Saturday, we know well before we even got there that the inflorescence
has opened fully - PHEW, what a smell!
Sales of seeds and plants are pretty good. I had no idea what to expect and people were quite receptive. Seeds are a tough
sell because they're incredibly boring to look at. Luckily I was prepared with full-color photos of the Datura flowers and
the castor bean plants. Shane comments that I have the best marketing by far of any of the vendors. Well, people go absolutely
WILD for the Amorphophallus in bloom. It's weird, weird,
weird to see a 15 pound tuber sitting on the table,
no dirt, no pot,
no nothing, with a nearly 6 foot inflorescence coming out of it. If I'd had any corms for sale I
could have sold every one, easily. Alas, I won't sell offsets. I'll only sell a corm that's had at least one full season
of growth. Some outfits will sell you offsets. Don't buy them. A corm is
almost guaranteed to grow, while an offset
is quite a bit riskier. Some of them simply never emerge from dormancy. It's similar to a seed that doesn't germinate. It's
the way of the world.
I consider the cactus show & sale to be a success and I earned a bit of money. Not nearly enough to pay for my time, especially
after paying the club their 20% cut and after paying Shane a paltry sum for his time. I never could have done the sales
table without Shane's help. I hope I can convince him to help again in 2004.
May:
By the time I'm writing this some of the details are a bit fuzzy, but I sometime between mid-March and mid-April I planted
13 species of Datura indoors for a nice, early start. All of them will flower long before summer is over, but a few of the
species require a longish season to produce ripe seed.
The seed is in the basement under lights. It's been a long time. While Datura can be
notoriously slow to germinate,
this is getting serious. I fear that I've kept the seed too wet in a basement that's too cold and the seed probably rotted.
At some point I set up a bottom heat source but it hasn't helped. As soon as our nasty, cold, wet Spring allows I move the
seed trays into the unheated greenhouse where they'll get much more light and heat. Some of the species start to pop up,
but the overall germination rate is abysmally depressing. By the time I get any number of seedlings to sprout, the seed
that dropped on the ground last fall is coming up of its own accord in the raised bed. Not only that, but the root stock
of the Datura meteloides, that I thought I'd dug up, is putting up growth. I was extremely suprised to see that since we
had a very long, cold Winter. I didn't realize the root stock would survive, but now I know that it can, at least for D.
meteloides.
In the end, I'm able to plant loads of D. stramonium (a prolific seed-setter and easy germinator), plenty of D. meteloides
(a very slow germinator, but quite reliable), a reasonable number of D. metel v muricata (yellow), a tiny number of D. metel
v fatuosa (purple), and a very few D. discolor. This will be my first season to grow discolor and metel v muricata.
Also right around this time I made a mistake with my Castor Bean seedlings and killed most of them. I replanted directly
into the garden. Over the next week or two all the direct-sowed seed sprouts and the season will be more than long enough
to get ripe seed.
June / July / August:
What a crappy growing season in New England! First, it's rainy and cold, then we have over a month with no rain. I end up
with only
two Datura discolor, but boy are those some amazingly vigorous plants! They grow and start to bloom, and
the blooms are gorgeous. A medium-sized flower, as Daturas go, but the purple throat is beautiful. The plants keep growing,
and then they keep growing some more. They're loaded with flowers. They're setting lots of seed. The seed pods are absolutely
vicious looking, sturdier spines than D. meteloides and more spines than D. stramonium. Oh, I'm so looking forward to harvesting
seed!
I rescued a kitten from the Rockville, CT dog pound. I was looking for a gray tiger cat and I found exactly that. When I
first took him out of his cage he seemed happy to be with me, so I flipped him on his back in the crook of my arm, like
a baby, to see how he'd react. He just started to purr. I wanted a lap cat, one that liked to be with people. My previous
cat was like that, always in my lap or nearby. I walked around looking at all the other kittens for about 20 minutes and
this little guy just purred and purred and never wanted to be put down. As a bonus, he's double-pawed. I forgot my checkbook
- they charge $50 but give you a certificate for vaccinations and neuter/spay. I went back the next day to pick him up.
He's about 8 weeks old, estimated to be born on April 15, 2003. I guess I should have named him "Tax Return," but after
a week or more I settled on "Spike." He's nothing but a tiny ball of fur and a lot of attitude. The name fits him perfectly.
I named him after the vampire on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The day after I got him my dad came over with his 70 lb Black
Labrador. Little Spike totally stood his ground, never hissed or arched his back. Within 30 minutes he wanted to play with
the dog.
Everything at my house has to earn its keep in some way. Spike's job will be to catch mice, moles and voles. I have a very
bad mole and vole problem. I've tried many methods to get rid of them. An application of beneficial nematodes seemed to
work best. When I get to it I'll post the long, sad story of my battle with the moles. It's about 2 months before Spike
has all his shots done so I can finally start letting him outdoors. He quickly proves that he's going to be one heck of
a hunter. By later Summer I'm no longer even sure how many voles he's killed. I quickly realized, though, that he's scared
the birds away and I like to feed the birds. So I decide that I'm only going to let him out at night after the birds are
done at the feeders. His new nighttime schedule doesn't seem to affect his hunting at all. So, I've found myself a real
lap cat who's also a great hunter.
September:
The Datura stramonium stops flowering first and the seed pods start to dry quickly while on the plants. I don't want them
to drop lots of seed on the ground because it tends to germinate in the spring and I lose control of the garden! I've collected
quite a few seed pods from one of the garden plots, will finish them off before the end of the month, then get the back
garden done and remove the plants to the compost pile.
I've harvested a few pods of Datura discolor just to see if they're ready and to experiment with the best time to try to
remove the seed from the pods. The spination is especially harsh, I think more harmful to the fingers then D. stramonium.
I can't believe I ever complained about D. meteloides!
I'm going to get more D. metel v muricata (yellow, double flowered) than I'd originally thought, but not nearly as much
as I'd hoped. I think I'll have enough to sell. I also saw some pods on the D. metel v fatuosa (purple, double flowered)
in the back garden. I only got three healthy plants of that this year but I think I'll get a small number of ripe seed pods.
I don't know if there will be enough to sell but I'll have more than enough to plant next year. Luckily Datura seed is viable
for at least several years, so I can sell last year's seed with no worries that customers will have lower germination rates
than for current-season seed.
I've just noticed something strange up in the big garden. The Datura metel v muricata plants, which have been blooming profusely,
don't have a single seed pod - not one! The 6 plants growing outside the back door have ample seed pods. I'm at a complete
loss to explain why this should be so. There are a few D. metel v fatuosa planted right next to the v muricata, and they
are covered with blooms and a few seed pods. They got a very late start and haven't been flowering for all that long.
On the weekend of Sept 20-21 I was in Miami for the annual International Aroid Society's show & sale at
Fairchild Tropical Gardens. I met some very nice people and bought some plants from Thailand for sale and propagation.
I also got to touch Mr. Stinky's infructescence! New species acquired: Amorphophallus
koratensis, A.
asterostigmatus, and Pycnospatha
arietina. It was this last plant that won the "most unusual in show" ribbon. It's an aroid with an inflorescence
somewhat reminiscent of Arisaema, but has the unusual characteristic of lasting for several weeks. Most aroid flowers are
very short lived. I also picked up some small bulbils of Tacca
leontopetaloides (and
here) from a famous aroider who lives in the area. The leaf was
reminiscent of Amorphophallus but different
and very attractive. Apparently it isn't an aroid, but who cares. It's neat! I'll grow them next year, but I have no idea
when they'll start to produce offsets of their own. In the meantime, they are available on the Web if you search for them,
but they're VERY expensive!
October:
Sunday night, Oct 5, I get my first frost, waking up on Monday to 28 F (-2 C). Luckily I'd brought my Brugmansias
indoors for the night. The Amorphophalluses were outdoors, of course. I've been looking forward to their dormancy. On a
cold Monday night I unpotted the A. odoratus since I need to ship one as soon as possible. After digging my hands through
the cold, cold dirt and spraying everything clean with the cold, cold hose water, I was happy with the results. This was
my first season growing A. odoratus so I didn't know what to expect. I planted one small corm and several offsets (two of
which I planted upside down!) and harvested a much larger corm, plus the smaller corms - and everyone had offsets of his
own. The A. odoratus had an early start indoors so the results were good.
I decided to exhume the one A. konjac that I'd planted as a one year old corm (having grown it already one season from an
offset). The results were less than expected and the effects of our long, cold Spring were obvious. The corm had put on
decent size but I think it could have done better. It produced 5 offsets. I don't think they were completely ready for dormancy
and really would have benefitted from the month of growth they were cheated out of early in the season. Nevertheless, they're
healthy and will do fine next season. I guess I'm looking forward to a three day weekend with my hands in the dirt, harvesting
the season's bounty...
In an effort to expand my own collection, and therefore the number of species I can propagate and offer for sale, I'm making
several trades with other aroiders for species that I don't have. It's always exciting to get new plants in the mail, but
frustrating that I have to wait until Spring to see them grow.
:( Patience is not one of my strongest virtues!
Sat, Oct 11, Dad and I harvested the rest of the konjac corms. A few of them had a leaf but no new corm. The short
season was, indeed, troublesome for those few. Mostly, though, everyone was fine, except I think offset production was low
and they seemed small. My biggest and oldest konjac produced a 16 pound corm! It was between 10 and 12 lbs last year - I
don't remember giving it an official weighing. Next year I will fertilize more regularly. I need an official name for that
corm, like Mr. Stinky from Fairchild in Miami. I was thinking of "Jack" (the konjac), but that seems kind of sucky.
Mon, Oct 13 (Columbus Day), stupid weathermen got it wrong again - it's beautiful and sunny. The Connecticut Cactus
& Succulent Society's November meeting is at my house, so I need to get into declutter mode. Dad's over again so we hang
a few epiphytic cacti in the basement where Spike (aka Frecklenose Stinkybreath) can't get them, then we haul my brugmansias
and passiflora indoors for the Winter. Next it's up to the big garden to cut and harvest the rest of the castor bean and
Datura. Dad's cutting down plants (no easy task, Datura develop a very thick stem) while I hunt through them for ripe seed
pods and then haul the remains to the compost heap. Then I start digging out the stumps and roots so I can do the fall tilling.
We get everyone except for one species of Datura, which will probably have to wait until next weekend.
I cracked open the Datura metel v fatuosa seed pods and I'm not sure if the seed is ripe. I think I'll have to stratify
it and try germinating some to see if it's worth keeping around. There isn't enough to sell, anyway. My yeild on D. metel
v muricata was much better. I know that at least a few of the pods contain ripe seed and I think I'll have enough to sell
some.
Later October:
Since I grow the cacti and succulents indoors, in the basement, all Winter, I have to grow under lights. In the past I've
used flourescent tubes, but they really just don't do the job. In order for a cactus to get enough light from a flourescent,
the tube has to be within inches of the plant. That's OK for a few of them, but then I have a bunch of plants of widely
varying heights so the lights just have to be too far away from some of the plants.
The solution, I hope, is a High Intensity Discharge lighting system. There's a hydroponics store in East Hartford that sells
these lighting systems, so I stopped by to see what they had. I ended up buying a 1000 watt Metal Halide bulb, reflector
and ballast system with 9' of track and a little motor - so the light runs back and forth over the plants all day long.
I put it on a timer for 8 hours of daylight. I'm sure the plants would like more, but I'm the one paying the electric bill!
Most of the cacti and a few of the succulents went under that light. I can't wait to see how they do. If you want to know
how much this gizmo cost, send me an email. It wasn't cheap.
Later Fall and Winter:
I set the Datura and Castor Bean seed pods to dry. As it turns out I got rather lazy and haven't actually removed the seed
yet. That won't be a problem with the Castor Bean, but I expect to pay the price with the Datura, which will become
extremely
unfriendly to the fingers. I had also planted some Cannas in the Spring. These were some rhizomes that my dad was getting
ready to discard because they wouldn't bloom for him. He kept asking why they wouldn't flower and I told him I thought he
didn't have enough sun at his place. Ahhh, dad just won't admit that his yard might as well be in a cave. Too many big oak
trees and the south side shaded by a 15' tall hedge and the neighbor's house only about 30' away.
Needless to say, the Cannas grew great for me (upwards of 6 1/2' tall) and flowered just fine. Dad would come over just
about every weekend and check to see if they were flowering yet - then grumble week that they hadn't and how we ought to
dig them up and throw them away. I suggested that the plants would flower when they were good and ready and no amount of
threatening would speed them up. So, of course, they eventually flowered. I've not so far been a Canna person. I have nothing
against them, but you can only grow so much stuff! The foliage on these was very nice, dark leaves, and tall plants. Since
they were out in the big garden I didn't care how tall they got. The flowers were unspectacular, but many Cannas have unimpressive
blooms.
The nice thing is that we dug up at least 4x as many rhizomes as we planted. I'll see if I can sell some at the cactus club's
Show & Sale in April. I think I'll get a couple of additional varieties to plant in the Spring.
I also learned a hard lesson about Eucomis bicolor (South African bulb). I got 4 bulbs at Walmart in late Spring on clearance
for a very good price. I'd never heard of them, but the photo looked neat so I bought them. As they flowered I decided they
were pretty cool, and thought they'd look good planted around the much taller Crown Imperial. So in the Fall I bought a
Crown Imperial and planted in where the Eucomis had been. Here's the sad part. I'm a terrible procrastinator. I had left
the Eucomis bulbs on the railing of my deck to dry and we got an unexpected frost. A few weeks later, in the basement, I
found 3 of the 4 rotting, so now I'm down to one, unless I can find more in the Spring - and of course pay full price for
them!
Good news about the fancy lighting system I installed. The cacti really seem to love it. Several of the Mammillarias are
flowering, along with a Neochilenia and my Coryphantha elephantidens. The other plants seem to be much happier with more
light than they were in previous years. Of course I have to learn to water differently.