What's Their Hurry?

My azalaes germinated already!

I'm a little shocked at how fast they've decided they needed to start.

Anyway, it was only 8 days ago that I sprinkled those tiny seeds from The Willow Garden onto carefully prepared peat/coffee ground soil. Maybe they're happy with the soil, maybe the containers.

Years ago, My Aunt, aka The Plant Lady, showed me how to make these self-watering pots out of juice and soda bottles for rooting cuttings. Or, any kind of container you could cut through that would work. (Hacksaws are a grand thing to have hanging around!) She showed me this because, dummy me couldn't figure out the "moist, but not too wet - moist, but not too dry" formula for making cuttings happy.

It's very simple: You cut something in half, like a 2 liter soda bottle (which is perfect), flip the top upside down into the bottom (making sure the cap part-that's now inside- hits the bottom), fill upside down one with soil, make sure the bottom (under the upside down part) never runs out of water, and voila! You can either pull the top edge of the bottom piece out and squish the upside down side in to add water (whew! Did anyone understand that?) or just cut a hole a few inches up on the bottom piece and water through that. The whole setup works perfectly for keeping soil moist, but not too wet, as it wicks up from the bottom (where the screw-cap was).

Making a fill hole sure sounds like the easier way, which is why that's exactly what I do. lol. But to each his own.

Well, it hit me that it would be the perfect environment for starting rhododendrons and azaleas! Duh! Just add a clear storage bag over the top with a rubber band around the bottom of the bag, and perfectly moist soil with 100% humidity!

Well, the seeds obviously like it.

Tinker with the idea. I bet you'll like it and get some spectacular results. I do!