Archive for May, 2009

Landscape designs can be planned out in many different ways. There is no right or wrong way to design your very own landscape. It is all about your dreams of a perfect landscape view. You do not have to be a professional designer to design a breathtaking landscape. Take a chance and be as creative as you can with your design.

Tips for starting your landscape designs

A beautiful landscape can be achieved with some imagination and a lot of planning. The one thing that you want to make sure is that you lay out the design of your landscape. Draw the project out on paper before you start breaking ground on it. This way you do not cause yourself more work then intended by later ripping out or rearranging your ideas.

Retaining walls

If a good part of your landscape is hillside, then you may need to install a retaining wall. This will not only add security but it will also add beauty and style. There are many different materials that you can choose from for your retaining wall. It is important that you have the proper materials and added help if necessary. Make a list of all the things that you will need and get them before you start your project.

Will a little creativity and some time, you will be able to turn any rough terrain into a beautiful sanctuary for you and your family to enjoy spending time together. It will also be an added value to your home for years to come.

Episcia

While this is a gesneriad, and so related to the Saintpaulia, it is not a “red violet.” But the common name of Flame Violet may stimulate sales. We can use it and still be ethical only by including the proper identifying word, Episcia, in all advertising and promotion. I know of no company that purchases episcia seeds by the ounce. I sell seeds in mixtures at $5.00 per thousand. One company buys about 20,000 a year, two others each 5,000. This amount of seed is taken from plants in two flats each measuring 14 by 27 inches.

The wooden flats hold the episcias for 2 years. Then I dump them out (in the fall), trim out dead pieces, and replant in

73, 74. Haemanthus Katherinae, with a flower cluster like a bottle brush, is typical of the many unusual members of the amaryllis family. By the simple act of rubbing your hand across the flowers, pollination is achieved. The photo at right shows the results, a nice “potential” cash crop of berries. (Photograph by Author)

fresh soil. By this time they have multiplied enough to fill 6 flats of the same size.

Episcias send out stolons (runners) very much like the strawberry begonia (saxifrage). Flowers are white, yellow, pink, lavender, and red.

Episcias seem not to have the flower-producing capacity of African violets. However, many growers reduce bloom unnecessarily by putting plants in a spot lacking sun. True, they make excellent cover plants for under benches and in shady greenhouse nooks-and the foliage on the hairy ones become deeper colored in shade. But flowers are always scarce on plants grown in this way.

Since I grow my episcias almost exclusively for seeds, I plant rooted cuttings of several varieties in each wooden flat of peatmoss, sand, leafmold, and light loam. The bottom of the flat is first covered with clay pot chips and charcoal pieces. All varieties except the blue-flowered ones are placed where they receive 1500 foot-candles of light at 12:30 P.M. on a bright summer day. They are always kept well moistened and-note well-they require more water than African violets. In this bright spot, they produce maximum bloom. After pollination, the seed capsules form; they resemble bunches of small grapes. The red and lavenders are most congenial, hybridizing easily one with another. Here are some of my favorites-all easy to propagate, all generous with seeds:

Episcia acajou; Chocolate Soldier; E. cupreata, which doesn’t take full sun, but without some sun will fail to flower, the variety, viridifolia, which must have a blaze of light to bring out foliage and flower color; Silver Sheen; lilacina; and the longtime favorite reptans (fulgida) - (which most people think of as the “red violet”).

Episcia dianthiflora and E. punctata are of easy culture but they have one point of difference from other episcias, it takes 5 to 9 months for seeds to ripen, whereas the usual ripening period is 6 weeks. Greatly prized among collectors is the reptans variety Lady Lou, a variegated pink-green and brown-leaved form. Most people find it more difficult than the parent plant, and it often reverts back to the brown and green leaf coloration of E. reptans. The brown-leaved, pink-flowered Pinkishia, fairly new, is easy to propagate. Tropical Topaz should prove as easy as the plants it resemblesE. viridifolia, but I have found it somewhat difficult (though it may be that I do not have the true one). My plant came directly from Panama, as did the one bearing the species name. If it does prove easy, it will make a hit with window and greenhouse gardeners.

Episcias are best propagated through stolons or seeds; leaf cuttings take too long to produce sizable plants. Plant the stolons directly into pots or flats of light soil-or any good growing media. You can sell them from 2- or 3-inch pots-several in a pot or hanging basket-or as cuttings. If you propagate through seed, you will get a variety of colors and forms from a mixed package. I have reports from customers of several pink-flowered sorts springing up among seedlings grown from my seed mix. And foliage is as varied as that of coleus. These plants are a hybridizer’s dream, and flowers come in white, pink, lavender, red, and yellow.

In the episcia blossom, pollen ripens several days before the pistil is ready to receive it. When the pistil elongates and shows beyond the petal edge, pollination time is at hand. Choose pollen from a one- or two-day flower, and apply it to the pistil with a brush or your finger tip. You may have to pollinate on two successive days to assure success. The rounded seed capsule ripens in 6 weeks. Each seed has attached to it a tiny blob of albumen which sustains the embryo. Seeds are larger than those of African violets but require approximately the same care and seedlings flower in about the same time.

Cyclamen mites are the worst enemies. Prevent or exterminate them through the use of sterilized soil and sodium selenate, or sprays of malathion.