So… we now know that sparrows will eat tomato seedlings. (These trays used to be full.)

Herbs, rooting on the heat table

Geranium bay: geraniums planted, still have room for other things.

Seedlings spread out (left). They start out in the seed room, most on the heat table. After they sprout we move them off the heat so they don’t stretch.

Herbs in progress

Aloe will spread by runners; all these little baby plants are ready to be dug up and transplanted. I’ll have aloe available in the herb section this year, all thanks to three very productive stock plants.

Mixed baskets for shade

Nonstop begonias

All sorts of ivy

Entry bay

First flats! Remember last week, when all you could see were supplies?

Seedlings

Coleus

Petunias

Freshly planted spikes

Really cool succulent

Dorotheanthus baskets

Rosemary blooming

Taking cuttings from the stock herbs– a lot of nice lavender and rosemary, plus some new kinds of scented geraniums.

First batch of lavender: growing nicely!

Scented geraniums

Pallets loaded high with various sizes of pots, full of soil and ready to plant

New Guinea impatiens

Coleus that have been cut back– you can see where the new branches are forming (the tiny leaves).

Petunias beginning to branch

Tricolor sage.

New Guineas, just beginning to peek over the edge of the basket.

12″ mixed baskets are looking good!

Another slew of 10″ baskets

Succulent; the old plant died back this fall and new growth is emerging.

Herb bay. Before I plant the herbs, the tables hold a batch or two of baskets. These will get hung out in the now-cold section, once it’s a bit warmer.

Herb stock plants. It’s just about time to take cuttings from these, and plant up some larger pots of lavender and rosemary.

More baskets, ready to plant!

Succulents

Scaevola

You can see gaps opening up on the table! Planting the hanging baskets takes a huge amount of cuttings, and as space opens up we move things off the heated tables to make room for more unrooted cuttings. We’re still getting (smaller) shipments of various things, and making our own from unpatented varieties.

Basil– ‘African Blue’ and ‘Dwarf Purple’

Spider plants

Petunias, freshly cut back. Taking the tops off encourages them to branch and form bushier, branchier plants.

Same goes for this Calibrachoa

Wandering Jew cuttings

New Guinea impatiens planters

Portulaca baskets

Geranium baskets

Space really is at a premium (a theme you’ll see more of in the next few months). Eventually these baskets will get hung up, and we’ll set up temporary tables to hold cutting trays or trays of pots.

Main entry bay

While most things can go through the flat filler, plug trays for seedlings have to be filled by hand.

Succulent plug assortments

New Guinea impatiens baskets, hung up this week! This section is officially warm enough for that.

‘Perle von Nurnberg’

More large baskets, waiting to go on the tables to be planted. All of the succulent plugs will have to be picked up and put on carts first.

Mixed bowls

The cooler air and sunlight really do amazing things for color with the succulents.

Perennials– mostly dormant for now.

Many many soil bales.

Snow on the roof

Getting bigger!

New Guinea impatiens

Coleus

Succulent baskets

We have removable rails that we can add to the front and backs of the tables– the aisles become incredibly narrow, but we need the extra table space!

Baskets get hung off the tables. As we heat additional sections, they’ll get hung up, but we have to plant them now so they’re ready in time.

So many cuttings… Hard to believe everything will get planted! Many of these are for our big mixed baskets.

Everything starts off so small.

New Guineas

Succulent cuttings. Some are so small or slow-growing that we put two in a cell. This helps them root faster, as they respond well to a little crowding.

Baskets in the process of being planted.

Everything that was on tables has to be picked up and stored on carts once we start planting baskets.

Dad sets up carts for the girls to plant from.

Each girl moves along, planting her cuttings in the correct spot.

Eventually the basket gets filled up.

We arrange the carts so that different color or plant combinations occur. There’s also a little overlap because some trays are short a few plants, so we end up with a majority of planned mixes and a handful of oddball mixes.

These baskets will stay here until they’re a little larger and the weather is more cooperative, then we’ll move them to the cooler section of the greenhouse. They can take it cool, but not too cold.

Putting handles on is good busy work, and can be done when anyone runs out of work.

I’m propagating Aloe plants to sell in the herb section this year. I have a few large stock plants that keep sprouting babies; when they’re big enough, I separate and pot them up.

Lavender, mostly dormant right now.

This won’t stay empty for long.

We’re building new tables in this bay! So far we have holes drilled in the floor for the legs, and that’s it.

Main entry bay.

Cold section; storage right now. Front left: new shopping carts!