Another day... another victim

 4th Feb (yes I have been slack... but at least i have some result photos on this one!)

Sometimes I look around and do the "hmm what can I try NOW"

Couple of silver trims sitting around - starting to get longer stems popped into my view.

Yep they will do nicely.

FIRST VICTIM

Yes I know people normally core, but I like keeping the growing tip, and attenuatas are VERY forgiving.

OFF With its head 😀

That's OK.... but nah needs more leaves removed.  Have to leave enough so that the plant still feeds.

Don't want it NOT growing.

Yep, happy with that.  OK - anything else.....

Oh yeh. this beauty!!!

And DONE.

Results... well its 6 weeks later.

Number 1 victim (much longer stem - but not great variegation to work with)

LOTS of babies.. but I don't know.... time will tell.

Victim 2 (MUCH better variegation to play with - but less stem)

Not much happening.  Removed that top leaf.... and hang on

OK when I zoom in I can just see a couple of bubs starting.  Cross your fingers!

Moral here might be - be more patient and wait for a longer stem.  Bad Liane!

A different angle on agave propagation

OK before we begin - this is my SPARE Snow glow. 

Not sure I could bring myself to do this to an agave it I had only ONE of them

Over the last 12 months I've been seeing more and more photos about this method of propagating Agaves.  Frankly I was someone skeptical.  Would it actually work ????

Anyway, yesterday coming back from a grueling 5.5 hours of driving my kids around catching Shiny Dratinis for Pokemon Go, and having recently had a batch of Victorinox Paring knives arrive from ebay [instrument of choice for frangipani grafting.... I will do a post on that another day]

I kind of looked at it, and went oh stuff it.  What have I got to lose (apart from a VERY nice Snow Glow [sob])

So I um did it....

The IDEA is to cut through the plant, straight through the growing point (thus stuffing around all those hormones in the growing tip that say "grow as a single plant only")

You try and leave the roots intact so the plant will continue growing.

OK.... yep got it.

Tried it (didn't cry while I was doing it....VERY proud of myself lol)

Also didn't cut my hand (phew!)

These knives are NICE cut through this thing like it was butter.  Seriously.

So then you have to wedge the gap open to stop it rejoining.

Hmm handy sprinkler spike does a good job for that! (I hope)

So now its a sit back and wait.

No overhead watering for this one from here on in.  

Try not to think about what you just did......

Oh yeh, Daughter deemed the Pokemon Go hunt a success.... Shinies!!!!

2 March Update

No need for a spacer anymore... it's staying open

Grafting my variegated eureka lemon

I've had this tree for I don't know - over 10 years now.  Back then it was "around' not easy to find, but around.  Price was about double that of a standard lemon, but hey with my variegated obsession I kind of felt I needed it.

Hang on - Lemon Tree pics FIRST

See beautiful!

Even the fruit are stripey

The fruit itself is your standard Eurkea lemon.  We do get bits that throw to white on the tree,  but not many, and we just chop those bits off as its draws nutrition out of the plant to have to support the "no chlorophyll bit"

OK - first the root stock.  A lovely gentleman gave us a few different ones to try.

Sorry - can't remember the name, think some were the rough lemon, and some flying dragon (dwarfing rootstock),  these ones reminded me very much of my old fingerlime tree.

So first victims....

Cuttings....

and a good friend with patience and a willingness to do the job FOR me
(yes in this case I woosed out)

These grey trunk ones were not kind for bud grafting - the bark just didn't want to come out cleanly, so we ended up just v-grafting onto these ones.

The flying dragon roostock however was nice and green and came apart nicely for a bud graft

And at the end of the day, a boot load of plants...

If this works, we'll do some more next year (we left it pretty late this year)

Just another variegated plant that I can help spread to other variegate enthusiasts around Perth 😁