Scandal!

As it so happens, down by the county yard, there are plantings in the median strip. I noticed that they were red and white lantana. Now, these poor plants are doomed. They don't like snow. They don't like when the ground freezes. And they certainly aren't going to like snow plows and salt spray. That is if the city workers don't rip them out of the ground before all that happens.

So, where's the scandal? I think that would be me running out into an extremely busy intersection around 10 am on a Saturday morning with my trusty scissors to get some cuttings. We are talking high embarrassment factor here. I snipped two white cuttings and three red cuttings, before attempting to cross traffic again.



Safely at home, I further divided the cuttings while removing leave, so I had three white and four red. I dipped at least one node into Shultz's rooting compound, and sunk the stem into the dirt. I planted them into an African Violet planter. That's one of those pots that you put water in the bottom and it wicks into the dirt. I figured it would keep the cuttings nice and moist. I can move them later after the roots start.



I know that the white lantana is not the sterile variety. I got 3-5 berries off of the cuttings I brought home. I'm pretty sure there were berries on the red plants too, but I didn't grab any of those.

The two red cuttings that had the thickest stems, were wilting as of yesterday evening. I probably didn't remove enough leaves and flowers. I had only left them on for the picture. But I probably need to remove more leaves, so the plant can concentrate on putting down roots.

And this morning, there were two deer outside my house. A doe and a yearling were grazing in the grassy area across the way. I foolishly tried to snap some pictures. They probably won't turn out. I'll have to check this evening.

Of course, the real scandal here is the lousy internet connection at work. It's been wobbly for awhile, now, today, it's just down. :( I m