plant is inside. For many plants, gardeners like to smash the bottom with a hammer to maximize the amount of water that can get to the cutting. Graham likes to put them in room temperature water, and she prefers using clear glass vases. “I personally think it helps the light get through,” she said. The combination of extra water, warmth and light fool the plant into thinking it is time to blossom. She said that, conversely, if you want something to bloom later, you can keep it cool for a while. Graham uses lots of curly willow in her arrangements. The willow can give height to arrangements, for example for an altar in a church. When she force branches curly willow, Graham does not smash the end, because in water it will create new growth on one end and lots of roots on the other. “That will take root really quickly,” she noted. “You can just take it and put it in the
ground and start a big tree,” Graham said. “It’s an easy one to force.” Graham has given plants to many friends who have planted them and now have trees. One of the trees is “unbelievable” in terms of how much it has grown. “This tree — they’ve cut it back two or three times,” she said.
MORE COMMON APPROACHES A more common preparation for the spring garden is planting seeds in cups or other containers indoors so seedlings are ready for planting in the garden when the temperatures warm. Cowetan Neil Gage has been gardening as long as he can remember. He uses Jiffy greenhouses to start the plants for his vegetable garden. Around the end of February, he plants tomato seeds in the portable greenhouses that come with either 36 or 72 individual cells. “It’s in a little netting with peat moss,” he
said of the cells. Gage advocates using “a little bit of bottom heat” to keep the temperature about 68 degrees. Keeping the temperature up slightly will speed the growth process for the seedlings. “It is time-consuming,” Gage acknowledged. Since he does not save seed from year to year, the process allows him to have many more plants for a lower cost. Also, he can sometimes grow a variety of tomato from seed that he might not find as a seedling in a store. Dave Langhoff, the Master Gardener Extension Volunteer who is the greenhouse chairman for the group, grows plants for both the spring and fall plant sales and starts them early. “It’s cheaper,” he said. “You can get a whole pack of seeds for $2,” Langhoff said. Individual tomato plants at planting time can easily cost $3.50 each. The Spring Plant Sale will be held on
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MARCH /APRIL 2014
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