The calla lily is sprouting early!

This week I had a better chance to sort out all my seeds and set up everything for the spring. I did the planning for how the planters will be and also a buying list. But when I was sorting the bulbs I noticed that the calla lily bulbs started sprouting already.

The little calla lily sprouts are even turning green

It happened as one of the consequences of me being sick. Winter here is cold, but I don't mind as much, so I hardly ever turn on the heating. That means inside has good temperature for storing the bulbs. I had let them next to the window last month after collecting them. However, when I was sick, I turned the heating almost every night and I forgot to take the bulbs outside. So, they felt that sudden raise in temperature and decided to sprout. The biggest have a big enough start already, but hopefully they will be ok.

Now I have to decide what will I do. If I will keep them indoors until they gain strength and the weather is not as cold, or should I take them back out and let them fall asleep again. Any suggestions?

My plan for the calla lily is to grow it in the same planter as the tulips, so while ones grow in winter and spring, the others will do it in summer and autumn. Have anyone tried this before? I am not sure if they will be compatible.

My Calla lily blooming the past summer

Also, hope you noticed my internet tree got some snow on it. We finally had a couple snowy days last week but I forgot to mention on the blog until now. The plants did well, only the little peppers seem to have minded the cold. I wrote a little about it on my twitter. Follow me there for some tips and more about gardening. Also, there I write more about the things as they happen so it works a bit like a real time live news feed.

Aphids on my Komatsuna!

Aphids! they are back on my little garden. After I got rid of them last time with help from the ladybugs, I hoped they will stay away at least until the warm months, but no luck.

The komatsuna started turning orange

I had been noticing a couple of leafs on the komatsuna going brown and orange lately. Strange, but not that worrisome because the plants still looked healthy enough.

At first I thought they where just a bit dehydrated. . The wind usually takes away all the moisture on the upper planters and the days have been quite windy. So I just water them more and hope they will get better.

After a couple of days I noticed the leafs are still changing colors, so I blamed it on the cold. They are in the upper corner meaning they get extra wind and therefore cold. I wasn't worried because I have a lot of seedlings growing on the coldframe and also it will be time to change plants soon. I will have to harvest them anyways.

I wonder if I can still eat some after this, It still looks tasty

But then the other day, while I was sniping away some dead flower heads, I decided to take some komatsuna in to cook. There I found them. Aphids, a lot of them, going wild on the planter. Now I must get rid of them before they spread to all the other pots.

Lesson learned: I should have started paying a bit more attention from the beginning. I didn’t really check the plants until the end.

There are so many aphids in the komatsuna plants

Also, I found the guilty carrier this morning. I have been hearing some strange sounds on the outside lately but I wasn’t sure if it was just wind or what. Today I saw a big crow picking through the komatsuna. My guess is that the crow takes some leaves for making its nest and must have brought the aphids form some other place it visited.

Anyone with some recipe for getting rid of aphids?

The rosemary is blooming in winter!

Last December was a bit more warm than expected, and that brought a couple consequences to my little garden.

The main effect, I had already mention it, was the tulips sprouting way ahead of time. They have slowed down they growth now, but somehow it feels like a time bomb now. Hopefully they will be ok.

However the warm weather did came with other more beneficial results. The strawberries got a late, but much needed, last growth. They still have a couple leafs half out, but I think now they might be strong enough to hold on during winter. Another well received consequence was the flowers lasting longer. According to what I knew, a couple of the flowers in my garden should have gone to sleep by now, but they are still blooming nicely.

My rosemary is blooming in mid winter

And the final and least expected result was the rosemary suddenly flowering. The slight heatwave got to her. It starting forming a bunch of little buttons late December and now they are opening. It still has quite some unopened, but the cold weather is finally reaching us. I hope they get to bloom before the hard winter hits; They do look very pretty.

I added this entry to bloom day! at may dreams gardens

And remember, the carnival is on the 17th!

Be ready with a post about what do you plan on doing at your garden this year, maybe about one particular plant you want to have, a renovation you will do, a special patch you will grow, a new gardening technique you will give a try, or any other project you have prepared for this new year.

Tulips Sprouting in winter!

We had a rainy and cold November here in Tokyo, but this December has been a bit more mild. This had some benefits for my little garden. For example, the seedlings are growing nicely, the strawberries got some strength and some of the flowers are forming new buttons for a winter bloom. But, the weather has caused one more surprise.

My tulips are sprouting early!

While I was watering the plants the other day, I noticed a little green head poking out of the ground . One of the tulips decided to sprout! Now, being a first time tulip grower, of course I got a bit worried. They were not supposed to come out until next year. So I went on-line and check what I could do. It seems that is not that of a big deal. It happens some times, the leafs might grow and if they are strong they can survive, or if it is too cold they will go brown. But, if everything goes ok, the bulbs will not be affected and will still grow one more time in spring and bloom nicely.

For now all I can do is cover the little green sprout and wish the cold will stop its growth. At least now I know that they did not got rotten, and they are growing down there. Patience is key, I just have to wait and hope for the best.

Also, the other day while going to the garden center I saw some very beautiful autumn tulips for sale there. I was tempted to get some, but I know I would not have the space. Maybe next year.

Autumn Tulips from japan

On a different topic. I will take a couple days for going on a short trip to Hong Kong. So I will not post any until late next week.

I hope you all have a very nice holiday. Merry Christmas!

World garden, the best of your garden! My favorite plant now is nochebuena (poinsettia) and yours?

Time for the carnival. I hope we get a lot of nice plants to showcase.

My favorite plant now is nochebuena

First of all want to thank everybody! I started this blog just as a little journal of what my little garden has gone through, but I have gotten such a nice response and a warm welcome from fellow gardeners all around the world, that it have become much more.

I set some goals at the beginning, to be completed on three months. All to decide if I should continue, or if it was just a nice experiment. I hoped to have more than 1000 unique visitors, have one day with over 100 visits, pass the 10$ in advertisement (to cover what the domain costs ), and have 50 followers on Twitter.
I am very happy to say, thanks to you, pretty much all of the got accomplished. This blog is a bit past its three months, and so far we have 1,123 unique visitors, with the day with more visits being November 15 with 112 visits. We also reached the goal for advertisement, and are just two followers shy of 50.

My little garden in japan has grown so much because of your comments and your visits. It is quite an encouragement . I will keep up with this little project and I hope you will continue to follow my journey.
So, once again, thank you very much!

Here is my little attempt to give back to the online community. A little blog carnival so everybody get to know each other and show their beautiful gardens and plants.

Ok, here is my submission to the carnival. I hope is the first of many to come.

My little nochebuena

My favorite plant now is my nochebuena (poinsettia), which I got back when I got the rest of the flowers.

I really like this plant. First, because is native from Mexico, which makes me a little proud; second because it represent this winter holidays, which are one of my favorite seasons; third, and most important, because it makes me remember my garden in México. Back at home, my mom and I used to go get some nochebuenas every winter. They look beautiful at the entrance of our house. It was one of the little traditions of the holidays, one that I sure loved.

My nochebuenas back at home

We tried to keep some to last for next season, but they mostly burn down in the hot days of summer. They are meant to live in the colder weather of south Mexico. There is where they really thrive, I have seen trees of nochebuena (poinsettia) down there.

For my mom, our little tradition

Then, being here in a more tempered weather I had to get some. I also was fascinated by the many kinds of nochebuenas (poinsettias) they have here. They have some pink ones, some shaped like a tree, some mini ones, and some even are sprinkled with glitter.

Pink poinsettias are new to me

I don’t know if mine will last the season, but I certainly hope it does.

Now is your turn, which is your favorite plant?

I disabled the links temporarily to make room for the new carnival. Please wait while I upload the old links into a list.

For the blog carnival, please input a link to one of your posts on the little widget below. Just click the blue button that says add your link, add a comment if you like and let us see which one is your favorite plant.

Beetles!

Today I finally discovered what happened to my strawberries. Beetles ate them!

Beetles ate my strawberries!

I arrived from the garden center today, I had gone there to buy some tulip bulbs, and when I got back and put the things in the garden I discovered a little something crawling happily under one of the strawberry leafs. I look closely and saw that it was a green june beetle larva. I give it a very mean eye it and started to look for more.

I had dealt with green beetles this summer, they ate some of the strawberry flowers and even some of the leaves. It wasn't that big of a problem. I did caught them several times trying to lay eggs on the soil, and I thought I kept them from doing it, but I guess one of them managed to go unnoticed.

I found 10 beetle lava in the soil

I dug all the soil I could around the strawberries and I find ten of them, they seem to be very well developed, not rare since they had plenty of food from all the roots they ate. I will continue to dig around the strawberries to look for them over the next days, maybe I can get them all. I know it's silly, but I don’t want to give up on the strawberries yet. Their particular sweet taste and their ability to give fruit all year round is too special to lose. Now, since it was just beetles, and I caught them, there is a chance, a very, very small chance, that the strawberries will survive. It's much better than cero chance, so I will take it.

Hang in there you can make it

I feel relieved that it's only beetles and not verticillium wilt or other even worst fungus, now at least I know It wasn’t my fault, my watering is good, I did check for beetle eggs every time they dug, but I guess one sneaked up on me. Also in case I can't recover the strawberries I can reuse that pot and soil and the rest of my plants will be free of danger.

Green june beetles are not that dangerous to a garden, they do like to eat fruit and pulpy plants, which can be a problem, and the larva can eat the roots of some plants, but on a normal garden the damage they do is minimal compared to some other pests. However, in my case they were too many in a little container and no other food besides strawberry roots, deadly combination.

My advice to other container gardeners is simple.
Keep an eye open for green beetles, they usually go around early in the morning trying to get food or lay some eggs. And if you see a beetle sized hole that appeared overnight, check for eggs, it just might save your strawberries.

Strawberries in August!!

This weekend I harvested the first strawberry of the august batch!

my strawberry harvest of August!

I don’t know why, but my strawberries just keep on giving fruit. I was surprised when they gave a batch in November, but now they have been giving since may and again now in august.

I think they might be the ever bearing type, but the label they come with says it is a June bearing. Also they continue to give out many runners, I have to cut some out every week, and ever bearing are supposed to give very few runners. So it's very confusing.

this strawberry was getting big in mid august

Last month after the July harvest I thought that was the end. The plant had given out a very generous batch of several branches and then stopped giving flowers. But this time I noticed some new flowers were about to come out early august. Another week and they were at full bloom. I artificially pollinated the first flower and let the others be as nature intended.

Last week that one strawberry started to ripen and the rest started to get some volume. And finally this last weekend I harvested successfully that one strawberry. It had a very funny pear shape, very different to the ones I got this July.

Pear strawbery

Now the rest of the batch doesn’t look like it will grow more, and they didn't got enough pulp, so I guess I should have pollinated those as well. But well I'm very happy with my one pear shaped strawberry harvest, it was very sweet, one of the sweetest of this year.

I wouldn't be shocked if the plant will try to fruit some more this fall. Like i said before, of all my plants it is the one that continue to surprise me every time

It was very sweet