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| I'm a Bad Mother! BAD!; For Gardeners | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 12 2016, 01:47 PM (90 Views) | |
| Catseye | Sep 12 2016, 01:47 PM Post #1 |
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Pisa-Carp
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I have three darling forsythia shrubs. They have had a tough time of it since they arrived three seasons ago, mostly from too little sun. I gave a lot of thought to perfect placement and in fact their placement was perfect -- except I forgot about sunlight. Then a man came and cut down a tree and voila, sun poured into the gap and they ate it up and drank it in and their top halves turned absolutely gorgeous. The bottom halves, not so much. I learned that those dead bare branches you so often see on the bottoms of forsythia will not go away. Since they're ugly, I decided to do what some advice givers said and prune them down to the ground and let them start over next year. I put it off forever because it seemed such an awful thing to do to plants which are now unable to grow fast enough, it seemed. But anyway, I did it. Two of the three I had to leave bare twig; the third one had put out a new little bush at its base since the man cut down the tree, so I left that as the new main part. Then I selected 16 lovely clippings -- bouncy big leaves, deep green -- to propagate so as to have a new fourth shrub next year -- this one planted with access to plenty of sun. I redd many advice columns on the best way to do all this. They all seemed to have the same message: "Growing forsythia from cuttings is very simple, my kids do it" -- and then followed with a list out to yay with conflicting advice. So I did what I thought was right three days ago, and right now they are about 80 percent dead. My babies! It turns out those dirty lying @#!%^#! barstids underestimated the necessity for sterile conditions, rather leaving the impression that you could ram the cuttings into any old container with dirt, park 'em somewhere until December or something, at which time they would have new leaves and be ready to plant and be strong in time for spring. Or something. This didn't seem right, but what do I know. Anyway, I have rescued them from the pot, re-clipped their ends in case some fungus got in, or they fused shut from some other cause, and now I have them sitting in water, in a clean (!) glass jar. They still don't look good, but I figure if they don't drink the nice plentiful water and instead keep on dying, then they're doomed. I think they're doomed. Now that it's too late, I find I wasn't supposed to clip them until after the first freeze, i.e., when they're dormant. Oops. Then I realized I forgot to dip their cut ends into rooting hormone before planting them. Double oops. And so on, I can't bear to talk about it anymore. |
| "How awful a knowledge of the truth can be." -- Sophocles, Oedipus Rex | |
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| Mikhailoh | Sep 12 2016, 02:00 PM Post #2 |
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
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Wow. That is sadder than my basil. More dramatic, anyway. You are in VA. Plant Rhodes and azaleas. |
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Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball | |
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| Luke's Dad | Sep 12 2016, 02:04 PM Post #3 |
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Emperor Pengin
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"That Catseye is one Bad Mother..." "Shut yo mouth!" "What? I'm just talking about Catseye." |
| The problem with having an open mind is that people keep trying to put things in it. | |
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| Catseye | Sep 12 2016, 02:05 PM Post #4 |
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Pisa-Carp
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Too bad I can't plant rocks. The whole friggin' plot would be done already.
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| "How awful a knowledge of the truth can be." -- Sophocles, Oedipus Rex | |
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| Catseye | Sep 12 2016, 02:07 PM Post #5 |
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Pisa-Carp
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Too bad I can't plant rocks. The whole friggin' plot would be done already.
Edited by Catseye, Sep 12 2016, 02:08 PM.
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| "How awful a knowledge of the truth can be." -- Sophocles, Oedipus Rex | |
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| Mikhailoh | Sep 12 2016, 06:00 PM Post #6 |
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
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Rocks are a good choice. Beautiful in all seasons and very drought tolerant. |
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Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball | |
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