After I finished sorting, I had 4 flats of dead cuttings, one flat of live not-yet-rooted cuttings, and half a flat that had roots. Percentages like this will NOT make for a good inventory next year.
I had hoped to have a good propagation this summer, so I wouldn't have unrooted cuttings to heat in the greenhouse over the winter (like I did last year). This, obviously, is not going to be the case. I guess the only thing I can do is to take more cuttings and see what happens. If I knew what went wrong, this would be a whole lot less stressful.
Alice, looking out the window.
On a brighter note, the kittens are settling in very nicely. I began their transition into the rest of the house on Monday evening. We sat in the family room watching TV, while the kittens explored and I reminded the dogs not to make eye contact with them. Emma and Daniel have always been supremely cat safe in the house, but I feel it's important to reinforce this. We don't want their instinct to chase taking over as a kitten goes flying through the room, like kittens do.
Dorothy, scratching on her cat tree.
We had them out again yesterday evening, with run of the family room and kitchen/dining room. The dogs are doing fine ... it's our other two cats who have their noses out of joint. We've had a bit of hissing and spitting, which is to be expected. Eventually, they will work out the house rules among themselves. As long as we take it slow with the introductions, things shouldn't get out of hand.
Thank you for all of your kind comments and emails about Emma. She had a really bad couple of days on Sunday and Monday, and she began to show signs of improvement on Tuesday. Our vet figured that she got herself all worked up and totally over-stressed when she was staying at our friends' house last week while we were out of town. Today, she is much better ... eating well, walking better, and is definitely on the road to being her old self.
(written by Hartwood Roses. Hartwood Roses blog.)