Did you catch Dr. Phil’s (McGraw) brief segment on the news this week? “Get up, get dressed, get active, get busy,” were his recommendations to keep from getting depressed during self-isolation.
“Find a project,” he continued, “something you can put on a timeline — and hold yourself accountable.” View Dr. Phil’s show at these links:
Early on, other reports advised doing projects you’ve been putting off, which captured my attention.
I document them photographically and file them in folders on my computer under Pandemic Project # 1 and so forth.
- #1 Dig out Bermuda grass and roots in driveway garden
- #2 Make protective “feet” for arbor legs; transplant vines, train vines up arbor
- #3 Pull out St. Augustine grass from back flower bed for buddleja plants.
- #4 Amend soil and water Armadillo den garden with rescued native plants
- #5 Vacuum spiders and webs from garage ceiling
- #6 Paint garage stool
- #7 Clean off garage work bench
- #8 Propagate copper plant bush, plant mountain laurel seeds
I know you’re wondering about Project # 6. I was inspired by our Webmaster Chet Mink’s artwork in the chapter’s March 2020 quarterly newsletter, the Chachalaca, https://rgvctmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-0320.pdf and recalling conversations with Chet about art. Perhaps I didn’t take his words completely as intended, but we all do what inspires each of us in an artful way.
The bench was a whim, a break from what, in normal times, would be considered chores. Another break from digging, clearing and cleaning is the theme of this post: Pandemic Project # 8 — propagating a shrub.
Sunday was a cloudy 75 degree day, coolish for a South Texas April morning. The mist was so heavy it felt like rain — oh, wait! It WAS rain — and perfect weather for propagating a bush I’ve wanted more of but was afraid to visit nurseries under our self-imposed isolation.
It’s a copper plant bush. One of the easiest plants in the world to propagate. Generally, all I’ve done in the past was to prune a shrub when it got massive, stick the cut branches in the ground, water them every day for six weeks and VOILA! I had multiple new shrubs.
Many years ago, in Key West, the medium strip along one of their boulevards was landscaped with mixed tropical shrubs of colorful crotons (Codiaeum variegatum) and tricolor copper plants (Acalypha wilkesiana). The colorful combinations created a stunning vista. I’ve had many copper plants since that first sighting but am down to one bush. I wasn’t ready for the watering commitment so I decided to put some of my schooling to practice and propagate via one of the ways I’d been taught.
This particular method is propagation from softwood cuttings.
First, I set up my pots. Some people recommend using coffee filters in the bottom of the pots, over the drainage holes, so you don’t lose soil. I recommend using something more expendable, such as chopped up palm frond fans or pages from the free weekly circular, unless that’s being saved for possible future uses . . . .
In a large tub, I mixed a couple of shovelfuls of yard soil with about the same amount of potting soil from a bag purchased prior to the lockdown. I packed the soil down pretty well and poked two or three holes in each pot — not clear to the bottom — with a bamboo stick about 1/8 inch in diameter. Since I’ll be using a rooting hormone (as suggested in my training, and already having it on hand), I made the holes a little larger than the stems so that the rooting powder isn’t wiped off when inserted into the hole in the soil.
Next task was to snip off branch tips from my existing bush. Although copper plant is not a native plant here in the Valley, this procedure can be used to propagate native softwood shrubs
Softwood stem is the stage between new, green growth and older, woody stems. I cut the branch tips from four to six inches in length for this experiment and immediately stuck them in a small bucket of water.
Back in the barn, where my gardening equipment is, and following protocol, I sacrificed an antibacterial hand wipe and kept my scissor blades wiped (disinfected) after each use.
Some say that rooting will occur from wounding the stem part that will be put in the soil. Some say that removing the bottom leaves at the nodes creates a form of wound. I experimented both ways. To create a wound, I scrapped the stem all around using the scissors blade to scrape. No matter the type of wound, I used rooting hormone on each stem before inserting it into a hole in a pot.
It is wisely suggested to put only a small amount of rooting hormone in a small container. This way the entire jar of compound won’t be ruined if anything goes awry. Swirl the wet stem in the powder, shake off excess and gently insert powdered end into the hole you’ve made in the soil. Pack the soil around the stem. Do this with each cutting.
I’ve heard tell that rooting compound isn’t water soluble. Those of that school of thought have used alcohol as the stem-wetting substance — alcohol, such as vodka. I’ve used that in the past. Successfully and not successfully. In my opinion, propagation is always a crap-shoot.
Once all the plant stems are solidly tucked into the soil, the next step is to step back and admire your work because next you need to trim the pretty leaves — all of them. This cuts down on transpiration loss; apparently, the leaves still perform photosynthesis even though there are no roots to suck moisture from the soil. The theory is that the plant will put energy into developing roots.
In the end, I put all the pots in a tray of water for several hours to saturate the soil. I’ll keep the tray of plants in a somewhat sheltered area that will get some morning sun, and keep the soil moist.
The existing leaves will die off the stems. A good indication of success is when new leaves begin pushing out of the twigs. This could take upwards of six weeks.
While I was cleaning the workbench in the garage I’d found an envelope full of mountain laurel seeds. During the year when I spy “red beads” on the ground near the mountain laurel, I pick them up and stick them in an envelope entitled mountain laurel seeds. The seeds are poisonous. I pick them up so they don’t accidentally get into the fish pond, the cats don’t find them to play with and birds don’t eat them. I may be overly cautious, but you never know.
Mountain laurel seeds are in the group that require scarifying in order to germinate, I think I’ve read. Generally, I take a butcher knife and nick off a portion of the seed covering opposite the embryo side like I do with coral bean seeds. Maybe I don’t because it was an impossible task and I gave it up before I injured myself.
Instead, I took the seeds back outside and smashed one with a brick. It looked like I’d smashed an M&M peanut sans the chocolate. I gently tapped another seed with the brick. Same result. They seemed to be dried up. Some seeds are only viable briefly after ripening and leaving the parent plant. Some can remain viable for hundreds of years.
Mountain Laurel seeds may be of those that aren’t good for any length of time. Even though some of these seeds were about a year old, I planted 21 of the best-looking and largest in four pots of soil and returned the rest of the seeds to the envelope, screwed it up and threw it in the trash. No worries about the loose seeds being accidentally found, and in a million years when another civilization discovers the seeds while digging around in an old landfill, and if they’re still viable, someone else can experiment with growing mountain laurel.
Please share what projects you’ve been doing — it may save someone else’s sanity!