damenora's Journal

Was out with the dog this afternoon and thought to snap a photo of the current state of things.

Most obviously, the echeveria has grown. I thought it had, but when you look at the two pictures I’ve taken so far, it’s really obvious.

‘Voodoo’ has had kind of a rough start but there are a few little rootlings springing up so I have hopes it will pull through.

‘Variegatum’ is not especially variegated but it’s healthy and doing well, as are the others.

Yesterday, after I got home from work, I went to check on these little guys while I waited for the dog to finish poking around the yard doing his thing. We’ve had enough rain that I really haven’t had to water them, so I haven’t been watching them as closely as I might

The ‘Voodoo’ looks to have had a little trouble getting settled, but a couple of the longer stems have rooted down, so even if the central plant goes, the rootlings will spread around.

The other three sedums are growing and spreading and shifting around. Part of the charm of mixed pots is just how the plants arrange themselves, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they do.

And the echeveria seems to have increased in volume, somehow. I am not sure if it’s actually grown, or if the leaves have just spread out a bit, or what, but it just seems larger.

I emailed Janet Inada at Rogue Valley Roses last night. I didn’t know much about RVR other than they had picked up the Uncommon Rose inventory when UR stopped operating as a retail nursery, so I wanted to ask about whether or not RVR sold own-root or grafted plants, if they were grafted what rootstocks did they use, and so on.

Janet emailed back very quickly, condoled with my loss, and says that all the RVR plants are grown from cuttings and are own-root. They even have ZD in stock right now. So while I’m still upset about the loss of my rose, I’m feeling better knowing I can get another.

So here’s a not so funny story:

My mother arranged for her man-of-all-work to come and do some yardwork for me as part of my birthday present. He was mostly supposed to deal with the overabundant leaf problem. He was also mostly supposed to do this work last weekend when I would be home to supervise him, but instead he wound up doing it during the week when I was at work.

I gave him a walkthrough of my plantings, marked things I wanted him to be careful of with big, obvious bamboo stakes, and warned him specifically about the roses.

So, having done this, he manages to spray my Zephirine with … something. Maybe Roundup, which I didn’t really want him to use.

At any rate, Zephirine is dying. And I am furious.