Monday, June 27, 2011

What's the name of this flower?

unknown flowerI felt it lazy to transplant flowers every season every year, so I just seeded "wild flower" in which some kinds of flowers seed were. One of them still gets in bloom every rainy season at this time of the year. But I have no idea the name. Does anyone know the name of this flower? Thanks in advance.

Hayaokidori website

Friday, June 24, 2011

Delfiniums against strong wind

DelfiniumsIt's rare to have this strong and warm wind here in Hakuba. I guessed maybe a typhoon was getting close but it did not seem like that when I checked weather forecast.
But anyway this strong wind would hurt delfiniums especially tall ones. As you see, some are now taller than 2 meters tall but poles are only 1.8 meters and some part of them - probably 30cms - are in the ground. So I can not help being kinda nervous when the wind goes strong. I have already moved delfiniums in pots to my house side to avoid wind.

Hayaokidori website

Saturday, June 18, 2011

How to grow delfiniums

P6160321.JPGPeople sometimes ask me how I grow delfiniums. Not an unique way, just how people do when they grow flowers. I seed some delfinium seeds in autumn ( I used to seed some in spring before ). And transplant them again and again to do #8-#10 size pots or into flower beds. This pic shows the pots I seeded some into last autumn. Depends on each and ever delfinium, some grow faster and some do slower, so some of them still stay in the same pots even now.


P6160320.JPG Transplanted once into a bit bigger pots. I did it in this spring.





P6160319.JPGSome that grow faster are already transplanted into #6 size pots. Probably they don't get in bloom this rainy season yet, but may do in autumn. More than 1 year needed for delfiniums to be in bloom after being seeded judging from experience here in Hakuba. In average, let's say 2 years needed for it.
In cool place like Hakuba, delfiniums survive for some years, but they are not strong enough for hot and humid weather, so if it's along the Pacific ocean side western than Kanto region, they survive less than a year. Every year you will find some of them don't germinate, maybe 20-30 per cent of them don't.

If you would like to seed some delfiniums, pay attention below. 
#1- Choose when it's around 15-20 C, it's the best temperture for delminiums to germinate, but if it's over 23C, they don't.
#2- Their seeds don't survive long enough.

With reasons above, if you can get some fresh seeds, I recommend you to seed them in autumn. But if you "buy" some from seeds shop etc, probably it's harvested at the previous year, so maybe you are to seed them in spring.


Hayaokidori website

Friday, June 17, 2011

Delfiniums are in bloom

P6160318.JPGFinally delfiniums are in bloom now. Just a couple of pots are in bloom now, hopefully it'll go one after another soon.

Hayaokidori website

Friday, June 10, 2011

Delfiniums are ready for bloom

P6100290.JPGAt this time of the year - just begining of the rainy season - delfiniums grow a lot to get bigger and bigger. Some of them reach 2 meters in height. Now they are ready for bloom, many buds are put around. I love their blue-azure color which changes time to time and angle. No other flowers can look like them.

I tried to seed them in autumn last year for the first time. I always did it in spring but found their seeds didn't survive long so I just tried and got better result.P6060276.JPGThe pot in a black one is what i seeded last year and already replaced from a small pot. Now i have to transplant it to the bigger unglazed #6 size pot. With this way you can make a strong pot because when you transplant a pot again and again making the pot bigger and bigger, their roots grow constantly. Probably it takes around 2 years for delfinium to be transplanged in a flower bed by me. while they are small, I don't think they can survive in a flower bed.
I look forward seeing the blue-azure color this summer as well!

Hayaokidori website