Transplant Shock

Even though the transplanted Violetto artichoke plants seem to be thriving, it may have been too much stress on the plants. No signs of artichokes on any of the transplants, even the parent plant is barren, so far. It seems too late in the season for them to start now, so I'm germinating more seeds and plan on taking good care of them in hopes of getting artichokes next year. Weeding and mulching need to be done and a rich compost top dressing should help with nutrients. Too bad, I'll miss seeing the artichokes that are pictured below.

Last week I bit the bullet and finally divided the Violetto artichoke plant, ending up with 5 "new" plants. My hope is that the original will produce larger artichokes and its severed brothers will survive to create progeny of their own. The recently transplanted plants are starting to perk up, no thanks to this gardener; I failed to give them B vitamins for transplant shock. They suffered for it, but life struggles to survive and all five are looking like they pulled through.

My hope is that a little top dressing with compost will help them thrive in their new locations. I deliberately placed 2 of them in a shadier spot to see how they do. It would be nice to make use of that spot and since these were "free" I'm willing to lose them to advance my gardening education.

Spring Is In The Air

My first indication of Spring in San Francisco is always the leafing out of my Violetto artichoke. It's been returning for at least 5 years and each Spring I keep hoping that this will be the year it produces more than one large artichoke. For 2008 I'm going to be more proactive in that effort and will top dress it with a good dose of compost. It may also need dividing.