Spring is gearing up in the basement greenhouse.

It was time to get busy with my plants in the basement again.  Some of the stock plants were up to the lights and ready for cutting.  Others were pot bound and needed a bigger home for their roots. Others were ready for a good cleaning again.  A few of them needed some insect control (white flies on the Lantana again).  The bench was ready for a good shuffling around and cleaning out of all the trays.  Everything was swept up and taken out to the compost pile if it was no long attached to a plant.
The Canna rhizomes were hadn't been cleaned and potted yet and it is getting a little late in the winter if I want good sized plants to put in the garden in June.  I also put my favorite yellow begonia tuber in a pot for the umpteenth time.  I never have successfully gained more than one plant from year to year, but it is such a sunny spot in the shade.  Promises to myself to buy more each year go unfulfilled. 

I divided plants again as I had last year so my Mandevilla vine is up to four.  I have not propagated it by cuttings, just divided the original pot each year as the four cutting became bigger and stronger plants each season.  It was fun to pull them apart and see what is going on in the pot.  The roots reminded me of dividing asparagus ferns when I worked in the greenhouse with their swollen, watery root nodules.  I also divided my Pennisetum grass into four.  All the dividing and new seeding means it was time to set up more areas for plants.  Some of them are in a sunny south facing window on the second floor.  I have never set up a table here before, but it was handy and easy to set up.  The small room is cramped for space now, but it is so pleasant to sit and look at all those plants and think about spring.

I also had to add the power cord to my kitchen window light and add the boot trays for catching the water from the cuttings and seedlings.  I have my second round of coleus rooting in jars and have moved my seedlings under the light as well.  I left the micro-greens in the basement since their was still room for them yet.  It is a nice problem to have when the space is getting tight.  For me it means that spring is just around the corner.  My next round of seeding is the first weekend of April for some of the early crops and longer season varieties.  It was good to sit down and get it all in order so I can see at a glance what is coming up.  Knowing that seeding is close meant looking at my supply of clean plastic trays and inserts.  I was low on some and had to run a bucket of hot bleach water to sterilize pots today, so some inserts also went into the soaking bucket for 10 minutes of sanitation time.

With the wedding last fall I did not clean up pots with my fall clean up last year as I did in  2012.  As a result, I have a shelf full of dirty pots, trays, and liners in my garage that I will have to deal with soon.  It is nice to not have to think about cleaning pots every time I want to do some upgrading or pricking out of seedlings.  My store shelves are empty and will have to be replenished.  Unfortunately, my garden gnomes have not been much help in this area.  I found a warm spot on the south side of the house and got busy cleaning a small batch to get me started.  The snow has melted here, but you can see in the background that there is plenty of white on the yards yet.  I am still looking at getting that cold frame put together so I can use this nice, warm patch of ground for an early crop of lettuce.  Maybe next weekend.