UC Gardening Blogs

A Bee Is a Bee Is a Bee...

Remember that line in Gertrude Stein's 1913 poem, Sacred Emily: "A rose is a rose is a...

One's a fly and one's a bee. Can you tell them apart? Honey bee on the left: syrphid fly on the right. They're nectaring on Mexican sunflower, Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

One's a fly and one's a bee. Can you tell them apart? Honey bee on the left: syrphid fly on the right. They're nectaring on Mexican sunflower, Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Not a bee. This is a bee fly, genus Villa. It's nectaring on Mexican sunflower, genus Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Not a bee. This is a bee fly, genus Villa. It's nectaring on Mexican sunflower, genus Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Posted on Thursday, November 9, 2017 at 5:00 PM

Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

A Gathering of Beekeepers

If anyone at Lake Tahoe has bee issues that need answering next week, they need look no farther...

Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño conducts a beekeeping class at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño conducts a beekeeping class at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Posted on Wednesday, November 8, 2017 at 5:20 PM

Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

It’s time for DPR license and certificate holders to renew—get units via online courses from UC IPM

November has arrived, and before you know it we'll be ringing in 2018! For those who hold a...

Posted on Wednesday, November 8, 2017 at 8:17 AM

Author: Cheryl Reynolds

Why You Should Read This Blog about Acute Kidney Injury Research

It's not an easy paper to understand--unless you're a scientist or a physician. Make that a...

Professor Jun-Yan Liu of Tongji University, Shanghai, China, is a former postgraduate researcher and assistant project scientist in the Hammock lab.

Professor Jun-Yan Liu of Tongji University, Shanghai, China, is a former postgraduate researcher and assistant project scientist in the Hammock lab.

Posted on Tuesday, November 7, 2017 at 2:58 PM

Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

Propagation Class-Solano Comm. College

Well, I've just completed Sandra Diehl's 8 week class at SCC on Propagation. This class hasn't been offered in over a decade so we were the “guinea pig” class. There were 24 classes 2 1/2 hours each. It was very fast paced, meeting Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 2 til 4:30. But truth be told we “A” types lined up at the door 1:30 to get our soils prepared and check on the progress of seed germination, etc. It was such fun to see our plants emerge from the the rich soil. Timing is everything, right!! Unfortunately we experienced record breaking heat late August just after we planted our seeds and cuttings in September. But mother nature does what she does, we tried to compensate the best we could with extra misting and strategic placement within the Propagation Room. It was a challenge, but lesson learned, you need to react to adversity, maybe replant, increase humidity, whatever to help the seedlings and cuttings survive and grow, it took me up to 3 times to restart some cuttings.

Our textbook, Plant Propagation, published by the American Horticultural Society guided us throughout our journey as we learned much about seed germination and propagation with cuttings.

Sandy arranged for a grafting expert and a cymbidium expert to give classroom demonstrations, we then had a hands-on lab with the experts to practice those techniques. Rose Lovell at Morningsun Herb Farm graciously gave us an insiders tour of her propagation set-up with much discussion about propagation room control systems and how she imports many cuttings into her nursery for stepping up.

Lesson learned: Propagation is a meticulous business and art that can be enormously fulfilling but there are many aspects to be controlled. Success rates are not 100% even for the experts, but it sure is fun to give it a try.

photos by Trisha Rose

plant prop book trisha rose 2017

Posted on Tuesday, November 7, 2017 at 2:17 PM

Author: Trisha E Rose