Gardening

[Joe]

It is a treat. Very fine scent first thing in the morning, more like an ordinary rose after sitting in the sun for a full day.

I love roses. I have a horrible memory but I DO have a memory of smelling a rose bush and pricking my finger on a thorn.

How would they smell if distilled—assuming you have enough flowers?

 

[Mr.P]

I love roses. I have a horrible memory but I DO have a memory of smelling a rose bush and pricking my finger on a thorn.

How would they smell if distilled—assuming you have enough flowers?

Well I have smelled Bulgarian Rose oil and I have grown the same strain of Rose so I assume it would relate in a similar way as the oil to the flower with this one. Some of the fresh scent coming through, but also transformed by heat. A mystery because producing the quantity needed to get any kind of oil out of this is probably impractical other than by solvent extraction.

 

[Mr.P]

Lavender (angustifolia), poppies, and catnip coming in here. The neighborhood cats haven't found this catnip yet, but they've gone scorched earth on some of the others in my yard 😂 . They are welcome to them that's why I put the plants there, and so far I'm winning, I've got more cat nip than they can destroy.

The Lavender in this climate really just seems to struggle. On the West Coast the plants grow quickly and formed large mounds that flowered evenly all at once. Around here branches are constantly dying off so the shrubs are stunted and irregular, there are diseases, the flowers come at different times so any particular harvest includes young and old flowers (in order to have enough to do something with). I don't know how the fact that the plants are struggling will affect the oil that they produce. I had been hoping to have enough to distill but there's been so few warm days that all of my plants are struggling... just dying for some hot dry weeks.

I'm trying to figure out when the right time is to gather up these flowers. I want to give the smaller ones time to mature but I don't want the old ones to get to old and I have to collect them all together to maybe have enough to distill. I thought I just needed to let the plans I have grow, but it seems like I need to have more plants.

 

[Joe]

Lavender (angustifolia), poppies, and catnip coming in here. The neighborhood cats haven't found this catnip yet, but they've gone scorched earth on some of the others in my yard 😂 . They are welcome to them that's why I put the plants there, and so far I'm winning, I've got more cat nip than they can destroy.

The Lavender in this climate really just seems to struggle. On the West Coast the plants grow quickly and formed large mounds that flowered evenly all at once. Around here branches are constantly dying off so the shrubs are stunted and irregular, there are diseases, the flowers come at different times so any particular harvest includes young and old flowers (in order to have enough to do something with). I don't know how the fact that the plants are struggling will affect the oil that they produce. I had been hoping to have enough to distill but there's been so few warm days that all of my plants are struggling... just dying for some hot dry weeks.

I'm trying to figure out when the right time is to gather up these flowers. I want to give the smaller ones time to mature but I don't want the old ones to get to old and I have to collect them all together to maybe have enough to distill. I thought I just needed to let the plans I have grow, but it seems like I need to have more plants.

View attachment 47863

So much work! But you seem to really love it. That’s awesome.

 

[Joyoud]

It’s really a pain when I have to wait a whole full year to see a flower for only few hours AFTER MIDNIGHT !!!
I think tonight is the night for my Domino Cactus, the blooms look like will open tonight.
Usually after midnight and they die off at sunrise 😤.
It is worth it ?
Definitely yes.

 

[Joe]

It’s really a pain when I have to wait a whole full year to see a flower for only few hours AFTER MIDNIGHT !!!
I think tonight is the night for my Domino Cactus, the blooms look like will open tonight.
Usually after midnight and they die off at sunrise 😤.
It is worth it ?
Definitely yes.

Ain't Nature grand? So inspiring.

 

[Joyoud]

Isn’t gorgeous ? That’s last night.
Now I have to wait for another year 😂.

 

[Mr.P]

Isn’t gorgeous ? That’s last night.
Now I have to wait for another year 😂.

Wow! Gorgeous - I love the idea of bristling night flowering desert plants trying to lure moths and bats. There's a poem in there somewhere

 

[DubOudh]

Wow! Gorgeous - I love the idea of bristling night flowering desert plants trying to lure moths and bats. There's a poem in there somewhere

I have a few cacti around the house and they usually put on an attempt at flowering around this time. Sadly nothing is attracted to them as they need desert insects. The flower lasts a very short time, sometimes only a night and then gone.

 

[Joyoud]

I have a few cacti around the house and they usually put on an attempt at flowering around this time. Sadly nothing is attracted to them as they need desert insects. The flower lasts a very short time, sometimes only a night and then gone.

Yeah I have other ones and they do flowers throughout summer, only this Queen 🤣flowers at night because as Mr.P said: it’s all about pollinators.
Most of the Cactus if not all have a very showy flowers and for a short period of time unlike my Orchids, the flowers spike on some of my Orchids since end of March till now and still giving a beautiful smell every morning.

 

[Mr.P]

This little cottontail was traveling with a couple of larger rabbits last week and decided to stay - seems to have moved in underneath the small sunroom (it's an addition and has a little crawlspace under it). Most mornings this week when I'm sitting soaking up the sun and having a cup of coffee, it pops out and starts nibbling on the plants in my garden. It's a good match because it seems to like crab grass and clover, and it doesn't seem to like the aromatic plants I'm growing. In the second picture it's nibbling on some weeds at the base of a lemon thyme plant. I actually have held off weeding the garden bed where it likes to browse because it's a safe place for it to find food. It is pretty young - I hope it does not get taken out by the cats that sometimes come to my yard to get catnip.

It's a pretty charming experience sitting there in the morning sun everything sparkling with dew, birds chirping, this little critter trusting me not to eat it. It comes pretty close but definitely stays out of arm's reach.

 

[Joyoud]

Enjoy the peaceful time Mr.P , there’s nothing better than this ,when I am not working at the weekend I drive 15 minutes to the lake before the sunrise with a good dose of Oud and coffee to watch the wildlife and enjoying the best part of the day lonely nothing but the singing of the birds and the sound of water.

 

[Mr.P]

This is a small fire pit, surrounded by fragrant herbs: thyme, sage, catnip, and oregano. Mostly thyme because this variety is super tough and those pillows that it forms are good places to rest your feet while sitting around the fire. I still need to get the seating figured out, working on building a couple of benches from salvaged stone... works in progress.

The larger plant that needs to get cut back is oregano, I'm trying to let it get nice and big so I can perhaps remove enough to distill when I cut it back. It's a very mild type of a oregano so I don't think I would be able to get much oil from it.

 

[Mr.P]

My new friend, kindly ignoring my small potted herbs and nibbling on the invasive violet leaves instead.

I noticed something was knocking those little pots over but not eating the plants now I know whom.

 

[Mr.P]

my chaotic gardening strategy is kind of working here. Attached are four photographs of plants that I brought into my yard because of their aromas and their ability to deal with the climate of the NE united states. What is special is that I didn't plant these - they are volunteers - offspring of plants I planted one or two years ago that dispersed and established themselves naturally in my yard.

First is a shoot of bog Rose growing in front of my garage, a rose with a lily of the valley scent as one of its identifying features.

Second is valerian, stinky cousin of spikenard.

Third is elecampane, its root is said to have some very interesting aromas that sounded worthy of pursuing to me, I have yet to smell it.

Fourth is tobacco - I believe this is burly by the looks of it but it could be Aztec.

Anyway it is nice to see these useful fragrant plants taking on some of the burden of populating my yard. I really have very little patience for plants that don't have a basic will to live so I only brought in things that I thought would be aggressive spreaders - my friend likes to make fun of me because some of these plants would be a nightmare in a normal garden and she thinks I'm crazy to have put some of these (especially mints and catnip) in deliberately. I'm just glad to have some plants that can pull their own weight. I would rather have to fight them then have to coax them along. The valerian is a menace to society though. It invades lawns very quickly

 

[Mr.P]

Sunflowers are amazing - I have over a dozen large ones in my yard and it's weird walking beneath the huge flowers I feel like i've dropped into this video game i used to play with my kid a bit. Quite a lot of food in that flower as well, that's oil rich seed! My daughter s hamster will be eating well

 

[Mr.P]

i've got all of these mix and match recombined sunflowers growing - it's fascinating. I'm sitting under two that got the height gene from the gigantic variety I planted - one of these has a single flower at the end of the stem like the original. The one next to it is a recombinant type that was a result of pollination by one of the shorter multi flowering varieties and it's now producing small sunflowers (not yet opened) all along it's stem even though it's just as tall as it's single flowered sibling. I didn't plant either one of these they both came from seed that fell to the ground last year.

 

[jbs1]

i've got all of these mix and match recombined sunflowers growing - it's fascinating. I'm sitting under two that got the height gene from the gigantic variety I planted - one of these has a single flower at the end of the stem like the original. The one next to it is a recombinant type that was a result of pollination by one of the shorter multi flowering varieties and it's now producing small sunflowers (not yet opened) all along it's stem even though it's just as tall as it's single flowered sibling. I didn't plant either one of these they both came from seed that fell to the ground last year.
View attachment 49531

I thought it was supposed to be Jack and the Beanstalk.
I see you're catching some shade from your Sunflower Tree.

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

So, I actually just bought myself an A. Crassna tree! Seems they are finally being made available to the public. I'd love some tips on how to grow? This is purely for the love of growing unusual and rare plants. Not for any real desire of making my own oud (although that would be very cool). I live in sub-tropical Queensland Australia. Any ideas on what would be the best conditions for the tree to grow?

Agarwood Tree | All Rare Herbs

Agarwood Tree (Aquilaria crassna) is a prized medicinal and aromatic tree known by many names, including Eaglewood, Aloeswood, Gaharu, Oud, Agar Tree, Ca...

allrareherbs.com.au

 

[Mr.P]

So, I actually just bought myself an A. Crassna tree! Seems they are finally being made available to the public. I'd love some tips on how to grow? This is purely for the love of growing unusual and rare plants. Not for any real desire of making my own oud (although that would be very cool). I live in sub-tropical Queensland Australia. Any ideas on what would be the best conditions for the tree to grow?

Agarwood Tree | All Rare Herbs

Agarwood Tree (Aquilaria crassna) is a prized medicinal and aromatic tree known by many names, including Eaglewood, Aloeswood, Gaharu, Oud, Agar Tree, Ca...

allrareherbs.com.au

How cool is that?!