No Stagnation in Lettuce

'Just saying'        Credit- Kevin Cohn

I’m always annoyed with doomsayers who say there is nothing new and ‘Let’s go back to the good old days’.  There is no stagnation in lettuce.  I have no relationship with greenhouse vegetables, but I find this story amazing:

         "BrightFarms, a leading supplier of greenhouse vegetables, is ramping up its expansions efforts with new greenhouses planned for New England (Central Massachusetts), New York (Hudson Valley), and North Carolina. The new greenhouses will each be 280,000 square feet and sit on 20 acres of land. According to BrightFarms, each greenhouse is expected to create around 55 full-time jobs.

        The greenhouses will each produce more than 2 million pounds of fresh, leafy salad greens and herbs per year."

The full story here:

https://www.greenhousegrower.com/management/brightfarms-announces-further-expansion-in-eastern-u-s/

Free enterprise at it’s best.  Is this a great country or what?

There should be a record of this...

String of Dolphins

            It is so rare that a small business gets national notice, that it should be recorded.

            Ellen Wells of Ball Publishing has been tracking a story about the new plant --- String of Dolphins.  She offered to help match buyers with sellers for this still rare plant.

            Here is the mention in the Feb 2019 Buzz e-newsletter.

Gary Hunter of Gary’s Specialty Plants in Drumore, Pennsylvania, responded to my request for folks who sell the very hot and trending dolphin succulents, also known as string of succulents. He ships within 200 miles of Drumore and is still accepting new customers. Gary says all “strings of things” are worth watching.

This is more than getting my name in the paper.  This is genuine recognition of what’s happening in houseplants and a boost for making sales happen.

         I appreciate this recognition and thank Ellen for her effort. 

Which are you?, O. T.

Just My Opinion

                                   Those who can, Do !

                                   Those who can’t, Criticize !

            There is a saying for everything.  I like sayings that apply.  It helps simplify the situation.

            Since I stopped watching TV news years ago, my life got better.  Bad news sells better than good news, so that’s what you get.  Bad News – Repeated.

            I keep up with what is happening in the world through internet news aggregators.  I look at several, so maybe by taking the average of the slant of the stories, I can get a reasonable impression of the facts.

            Many opinion pieces allow comments which I look at to help frame the topic. Now, I think that I will stop doing that.

            Random comments bring out the worst.  There are people with their own agenda, argue without fact. (They are welcome to start their own blog).  There is name calling which poisons any good argument.  There are internal cat-fights between screen names who have established their personalities or may even know each other.

Someone who is a professional news writer, who has the filter of an editor and who protects their reputation, does not need kibitzers criticizing them.  Thoughtful comments could be helpful if well-reasoned. However, thinkers who are capable of that, learn not to waste their time, because they get sniped at, as well.

Random comments serve no purpose to improve understanding of a public question.  I will stop reading them.  My life will be better.

Could Hemizygia 'Candy Kisses' be a Major Minor Crop?

Hemizygia 'Candy Kisses'

            A flowering houseplant that should get attention is Hemizygia ‘Candy Kisses’.

            My leading buyer wants plants that are variegated or flowering.  Why?  Because they sell.

            We get both with H. ‘Candy Kisses’ --- a variegated flowering plant.  It’s a guaranteed short day to flower plant, so it flowers in the winter time when we want some color in the house.  Self-branching and easy to propagate, it is easily programmable.  It could be flowered year around by artificially giving it short days.  It fits in small pots, so can be an affordable low-cost bit of color.

            We have two clones --- ‘Candy Kisses’, with white and green variegation and ‘Lemon Lime’, with light and dark green variegation.  They are interesting plants with a minty aroma when not in flower.  Both can be used in spring combination planters for summer patio growing where variegated filler plants are needed.

            ‘Candy Kisses’ and ‘Lemon Lime’ are worth producing in large quantities to gauge the sales potential.  Somebody should do that !

Hemizygia 'Candy Kisses' - Budded from short days

Another mystery of Lipstick Plants discovered

Young growth on old plant (R), Young growth on young plant(L)

We have hanging baskets of the common Lipstick Plant (Aeschynanthus lobbianus) in various stages waiting for them to flower/sell.

The group held over from their non-flowering summer are first to bud.  The group that were propagated from new growth – a pair of leaves that rooted and branched with new shoots are growing well but no buds.

The middle group are last year’s baskets, cut back short and allowed to branch with new growth.  These budded and will flower second.

So, in order to budding ---- uncut old branches, old growth cut back with new shoots, and last, new propagations.

The flowering response of Lipstick is not precise.  The only thing I know for sure is it’s a function of age.  Young shoots don’t flower.

But now I know that young shoots from old growth will flower sooner that young shoots from young growth.

So, how will this discovery help speed up production?

1.      If you have baskets that stop flowering in the summer heat, cut them back hard.  The new growth will flower by Christmas.

2.      If you’re propagating cuttings in cell packs, don’t worry about keeping them moving.  You can hold them in cell packs, which take less space, to let them get age.  The shoots will reward you with faster flowering when potted up.

If you are a homeowner with one Lipstick hanging basket, it would make sense to cut it back 1/3 at a time for three months so you would always have flowers forming.

      ---Too complicated?

Then, just know to keep your old plant and cut it back in Summer.  It will flower faster than if you start a new basket.

Old growth on old plant(R), Young growth on old plant (L)

What's the cultivar name going to be?

String of Hearts - Pink

            The trend for Strings of Things has been hard to detect.  For commercial houseplant growers who are paying attention and believe that there is demand here, the problem is limited plant material --- major propagators don’t have much available.

            String of Peas has a chance.  There are cuttings available from succulent propagators.  For others like String of Bananas, String of Beads or the elusive String of Dolphins, you are on your own to maintain your own stock plants.

            String of Hearts, the green version, is sought after but difficult to grow enough.

            With all these difficulties, why worry about the pink version of String of Hearts?

            It is a sturdy plant but grows exceeding slow due to pink variegation.  It’s going to be worth the effort, so we need a good name.

            Having found no established cultivar name, I declare that it should be ‘Pretty Pink’.

            Pretty has the double meaning of “mostly”, “pretty-much” and Pretty as in “beautiful”, “good-looking”.

            I propose Ceropegia woodii ‘Pretty Pink’.

Ceropegia woodii 'Pretty Pink'

What's the trend in houseplants?

Primulina 'Loki' living on the windowsill

            I was invited to give a talk to the Indoor Plant Society in Philadelphia, Saturday.  I had agreed to do this, thinking that I will learn more from them, then they from me.

            My talks are a ‘Show ‘n Tell’ about my plants.  So, ‘Mini’ plants for miniature gardens and your windowsill.

            The group of knowledgeable houseplant lovers had brought well-grown plants for their own ‘Show ‘n Tell’.

            To survey the crowd, I asked:  ‘How many grow plants at the windowsill? ----all hands up.  ‘How many have a miniature garden?  --- 2-3 hands.

            This confirms my impression that even though we sell ‘Mini’ plants for miniature gardens, almost nobody does that.  Our small plants are moving into houses to live on a windowsill.