Successes and Failures: The Garden Edition

This summer I experimented a lot with propagating different plants from cuttings. I was successful with the tomatoes, hydrangea, and Roman chamomile. Not so much with the rhododendrons or roses... I'm still trying though! My rose cutting ended up rotting, so that was sad. But I adjusted some things and planted a new one. I'll let you know how that goes!

Propagating plants takes patience...

...Because it can take FOREVER. Apparently rhododendrons can take several months to root from cuttings. I didn't realize that when I decided to give it a go. I have one that definitely started rotting, but three more that seem to be doing well. They've been planted for about 6 weeks now. I'll have to let you know how that goes too. For now, they are all hanging out together under the grow light.

Hydrangeas

My hydrangea is one of my more surprising successes. I literally took a piece about 2 inches big that I had pruned off my plant and stuck it in a pot. It had a couple small leaves on it, so I figured it was worth a try. And look at it now! It's almost as big as the mother plant! I think it took around 5-6 weeks to get roots, but I can't remember for sure.

Hydrangea I grew from a cutting

The original hydrangea plant. It's still a baby itself!

Pumpkins and Squash

We've had a lot of rain lately, and it's caused our pumpkin/squash patch to take off. I thought we would only get three big pumpkins this year, but today I noticed two more big ones and a few more coming in! And the vines are starting to move into the yard... Here's a panorama to give you an idea, but the picture doesn't do it justice.

Tomatoes

Due to the rain, my tomatoes are pretty much done. The cherry varieties have grown into monstrosities again, and have now flopped over and begun to rot. They didn't produce much fruit, but that's ok. I realized I'm not a huge fan of cherry tomatoes anyway. I like them, but not enough to justify growing them (anybody want the two I propagated? Lol).

The romas are (surprisingly) still going strong! I bring in a few half green tomatoes every couple of days to save them from the wetness and slugs. They ripen on the counter and then I throw them in the freezer. Once I get enough, I'll make a big batch of homegrown spaghetti sauce ?

Sunflowers!

I thought my sunflowers would hate all this rainy weather, but so far they seem just fine! They are almost as tall as me! I wonder if they will bloom properly, or be weird looking like all the other ones I got this year... I guess we'll have to wait and see.