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Welcome to the Plants & Garden section

Now of course I should have lots of pictures of my plants about here. Alas I do not have a digital camera except one that is a web cam for my other system. (The motherboard of my main machine does not like my camera, so it is a royal pain taking many pictures.) Also dragging a computer into a wet and boggy garden does not seem like too smart a thing to do. I may get round to scanning in a few pics but for the moment you will just have to take my word for it.

Because of a request from a friend of mine in Texas I have added a few photographs to this page. Obviously things change very quickly when growing things so please be patient and more pics will appear.

Seed

Plant germination - The first few weeks and some more

Alstromeria (Peruvian Lily), Dr Salter's Hybrids, Count 1. Now I grew these from seed several years ago. I was very sucessful in fact. I have tried to repeat this but have failed quite dismally. Before I go and just buy the plants growing I thought I would have one last try. Last years attempt to grow these has resulted in one seedling so far. It remains to be seen if I can get some more to germinate though. I wish that I could remember what it was I did all those years ago. The seed is now in the fridge. Who knows?
Well the one from last years seed sowing is starting to grow away. I repoted it and discovered that the other seedling I thought I had was in fact a new growing stem from the first plant. I know that Alstomeria have a bit of a bad reputation for invading gardens but these are all hibrids and not the species thugs. I just wish that some more would actually decide they wanted to grow.

Asclepias, Gay Butterflies Mixed, Count 19. These seed can be quite tricky to get to germinate. The seed needs to get a cold spell to make the seed think that it has been exposed to Winter weather and that Spring has arrived. So the seed gets some heat for late Autumn, cold for Winter then heat for Spring. Unless the seed starts to germinate in the fridge, in which case it is removed and put into light and warmth.
Well these seedlings have been doing enormously well. I pricked them out tonight and well, the roots on these, I tell you. They seem to have a very long tap root. So I am not sure what kind of soil they like. Mine is a very heavy clay mainly. The soil at the front of the garden is much sandier so maybe they will do well in there? <shrug> We will see. :-)

Astilbe, T&M Garden Mixture. Not sown yet.

Eremurus Stenophyllus, Cathedral Mixed, Count 0. Like a lot of the seed I have picked this year it can take a long time to get this seed to germinate. If nothing happens the seed requires to be put into a fridge to chill it. Obviously if the seed starts to germinate in the fridge it must be taken out and put into good light.
Well so far nothing. After waiting a few weeks the seed was placed in the fridge. I guess this is to simulate some winter time. So after three or four weeks of that I have now taken the seed back out of the fridge and put them in the warm. But as of yet there is still nothing going on. More time I guess.

Californian Poppy. Not sown yet.

Helibores, Count 0. These were actualy sown last autumn. The seed requires to be exposed to cold before it will do anything. So I started these off and left them outside all winter to be chilled and frozen. Woo hoo! Another little seedling is begining to poke it's head out of the compost.
Well a bit of a disaster really. One of the seedlings died because it got too much rather hot sun. The other one is in not too good a possition either, so I might yet get none! The disaster is complete. The other seedling has died also. So back to the drawing board, or I shall buy a plany later in the year. Not very pleased with the way these seedling have turned out.

Gypsophila Elegans, Improved Mixed. Not sown yet.

Kniphofia Hirsuta (Red Hot Pocker), Traffic Lights & Species Mixed, Count 25. Well the seed was sown on the 3rd of March and began to germinate on the 5th of March! What a result seed freaks! I am very impressed also by the germination percentage. If I am right it is over 90%. I just have to keep them alive and not too drawn. The light levels are not very good today and it is raining with some hail thrown in for good measure. I am thinking about using artificial light to stop the seedlings from being to spindly.
These seedlings are doing very well and will need pricked out soon. Perhaps over the Easter weekend. I don't recon I will be doing terribly much that will need to be rearanged to let me potter about in the garden.
I have pricked these out and most of them are doing well. There are a few casualties from shock and slug predation but on the whole the picture is good.

Magnolia Wilsonii, Count 0. The seed needs to be treated quite carefully for this. First it must be chilled to simulate some winter conditions. Then it is brought nack out into the warmth to actually acheive germination. With this particular seed this is quite hard to get right. Also the tree takes quite a long time to grow to a good size. But maybe in four or five years I will have a few magnificent Magnolia in my garden. The seed has spent it's three weeks in the fridge and now has been sown in some compost and is being kept warm and moist. No sign of any germination but it can take years. So still plenty of hope.

Malva, Mystic Merlin, Count 10. I tried to get these to grow last year but the 40 degree heat in my greenhouse put paid to most of the seedlings. In fact only two survived. These actually grew pretty well and flowered for a month or so. I have managed to get a resonable majority of the seed to germinate. But as you can see in the pics the seed is teribly drawn and spindly. So good germination but very poor growth. Even artificial light is only so much help in these matters.

Well they are finally planted into the ground. I know that I should have done this some months ago but better late than never.

Nigella, Persian Jewels Mixed. Not sown yet.

Petunia, Prism Sunshine F1 Hybrid. Count 1. This is the first time I have tried to grow these. I have seen them in the garden centers for quite a lot of money per plant. Thus I am growing them from seed. This particular variety is a warm yellow colour. I just hope that when it does go outside that the rain is kind to it. I have seen gardening programs where the flowers have been destroyed by a heavy downpour of rain. But hey with the British weather it might not rain again for a couple of months and screw up everybodies gardening plans.

Well the seed has done nothing yet. I am not sure how long they should take either. The seed was very small, almost like dust. So I would have thought things would proced fairly quickly. But no signs of life have appeared. The other seed sown on the same day have started to germinate, so not sure what is happening here.

There are a couple of tiny little green tufts showing. Wither these are weeds or my petunias I really don't know. But they are just so very slow it is slightly anoying. Hopefuly once they get growing they will romp away.

As you can see from the photograph one Petunia did grow. From a packet costing three pounds that is not really value for money. I am not sure what went wrong. The seed is remakably small so I guess germination is quite hard to get right. Not sure if I will bother with these next year. Seems too much hastle for so little return.

Poppy Orientale, Pizzicato, Count 20. Last year I grew some of the Coral Pink variety. These did very well and produced some quite charming pink flowers. Almost all of them have started to grow this year. One plant does not seem to want to do anything but I have two plants still in pots so I have spare. I do like the look of the furry foliage. It looks very exotic and more interesting because of its fur.
I have now pricked out these seedlings. Alas I had kind of left this a little late. Ahem! So the roots of the seedlings had grown together. Seperating them out would have done loads of damage to them so I put little clumps togther into three inch pots. They are still inside as they aren't hardened off yet. But the seedlings are growing very well.
I have re-poted three of these and the rest need doing pretty soon.

Potentilla, Helen Jane. Sown 26^th May. Count 0. If last years germination rate is anything to go by I should get lots of these growing.

Sidalcea, T&M Special Hybrids. Count 11. Not really sure what to expect from these. There is no picture on the front of the packet and I don't have the seed catalogue beside my computer. Oh well I can expect a nice surprise, when they germinate.
Well, the Petunias have not started to germinate but these have. Only slowly. But it takes time for things to grow so I will wait and see how thing turn out. Well these seem to be doing quite well. Not certain how many seed were in the original packet but I think this is enough plants for one garden.

Sunflower, Teddy Bear. Count 7. I have not grown sunflowers since I was a kid. These ones caught my eye because of the name and because of the beautiful yellow colour of the flowers. I can only imagine, at the moment, what these will look like when they get growing. Also I beleive that you can cook or eat the seed that the plants set. It does mention on the packet that you can cook part of the buds before they open. Now I may be sounding stupid but surely you will lose the flower if you eat it? It might cause the plant to grow lots of smaller flowers instead though. So in the long term it might be fine to do that.

Well I have got a few growing now. And I must say they are not hanging about. After just two days the seed leaves are being overshadowed (figuratively that is) by the true leaves. I know that the plants will be roughly two meters tall when they start to flower but it is impresive the way these grow.

Sweet Pea, Antique Fantasy Mixed. Count 12. Because of the seed tray I am using to germinate the Magnolia I had some spare space to fill. Sweet Peas like a long root run and the Rootrainers pouches allow for this. So when the Magnolia went in I put roughly twenty peas in.
I have started to harden off some of the seedlings. The remainder of the seed has only just been sown so I don't expect to see anything for a while. Of the seedlings not all of the seed sown at that time has grown. I would have expected almost perfect germination rates with these seed, as they are so large. Maybe they will come up later.
Well I have planted most of these into the garden. It really is quite shocking how bad some of the soil is in my garden. The idea of a fertile loam is so far from what I have it begars belief.

Attraction Series & Fragrant Attraction, loads of different things. These seed packets (four in total) are for a friend of mine who is not into gardening at all. His, very large, back garden is covered in grass and brambles and not much else. I thought that sowing these seed mixtures would provide some colour and fragrance. The plants should also encourage some wild life to come into his garden. These will be scattered directly onto the soil when the weather is a little better. All the seed are Hardy Annuals so they should set seed and grow next year and forever more. Especially with some of the seed!

Bulb growth

My Aliums have started to sprout. The gigantic ones. I have never grown them before so it will be interesting to see if the slugs and snails will attack these. I am hoping that they will not as I have enough trouble keeping my Dhalias, Delphiniums and Lilies looking OK. I gave up having Hostas. Much too much like hard work. Slug and snail resistance is pretty high on my list of features a plant must have to please me. The picture on the right hand side is the early growth. As you can see from the other, later, picture they have grown well. In fact they really are HUGE plants. I am not sure if they will flower this year, but I keep my fingers crossed.

Well you know what they say... Erm, can't think of it right now, but anyway. I have seen that BOTH of the plants are going to flower. Not bad eh? When the flowers are a bit more to look at I will post some pictures so you can see them.

The Dhalias have started into growth. I guess it is because I am at home and the central heating is on. So far two pots have started to sprout. The problem is that I have no where to put them! If I put them outside they will die. It was negative five degrees C last night, so no going outside for them. Yea old, drat, drat and double drat. I suppose that I could heat the greenhouse. But that is a rather expensive option. Maybe I shall use the kitchen table and the window in the back door.

My Freesias are getting to the end of flowering. They have been doing very well this year. Feeding them after they flowered last year seems to have paid off. The house smells quite pleasant with their perfume wafting around. Fairly soon it will be time to stop watering them and drying out the bulbs. One thing that I have noticed is that the bulbs are quite a lot larger than the ones you buy from the shops. So once you have bought some Freesia don't forget to feed them to get an even better show next year.

It is now April time and I still have a few flowers opening up. So I must say these flowers do make winter seem a much nicer time of the year. Their perfume and colour is enough to cheer up most people. And as I have said they are SO easy to grow.

So my advice to you, grow some! That IS an order, people.

I stuck some Hyacinths in the front garden but forgot to put a link to the picture on these pages. D'oh! So here is the picture. Obviously you cannot smell the scent off of them and it was magnificent. I even managed to avoid driving over them. They are planted on the cerb beside the drive way. So there is a danger that any plant that falls too far over will get either hit by the car or driven over as I reverse out. So far I managed to avoid that. By the time you read this the flowers in the picture will be so much dead flowers but the memory lingers on.

I have some more planted in the back garden but they did not do anything like as well as the ones in the front. I am sure this is to do with the soil. Almost everything struggles to survive in the heavy clay soil at the back. While the soil in the front is almost good. By comparison at any rate. The ones in the green house also did very well. It was amazing walking in when the flowers were at full scent output. Almost overpowering, but in a good way.

My Crocus have done very well this year. As you can, I hope, see from my picture. I have not planted any in the garden yet. The soil is such a heavy clay I am not too sure if they will like growing in it. At least the soil in the back garden is a heavy clay. In the front the soil is much sandier and so most things will actually grow in it. There are some crocus planted between the conifers at the very front edge. Mixed in with them are some Tulips. I have trimmed the growth of the conifers to allow some light to get to the bulbs but I think either the conifers have to go or the bulbs will need to be moved.
The picture shows some of the crocus I have growing in a large pot in my greenhouse. They have done very well but the heat in the greenhouse meant that the flowers were gone almost before I had a chance to enjoy them.

I bought some Lilies from Thompson & Morgan when I ordered my seed. The difference between the ones in the shops is truly astounding. The shop bought ones were small and already growing with flower buds already visable. The tubers themselves were dry and shrivelled with scales flaking off. Not very nice at all. The ones from T&M on the other hand are beautiful LARGE bulbs. Firm with the roots still fat and moist. No top growth appart from a tiny little green stalk begining to show. What a difference from the shop ones. It all goes to show what chosing a quality supplier can do.

The lilies are doing great. There is only one slight problem. From what I can see these are definetly a stem rooting variety. Now what that means is the lower part of the lily stem actualy grows roots of its own. Anchoring the plant and allowing it to absorb more water and nutrients. But not realising this I did not plany them deep enough. Stem rooting lilies need roughly six inches of soil above them. And in these pots they really don't have that much space. I guess I will put them in deeper pots next year.

General Things

Aspidistra

This is a picture of my Aspidistra plant. The original one from which this plant was taken has been in my family for at least two generations now. My mother and sister both have their own pieces.

Three new leaves grew on it this spring. I had re-potted it last year and got no new leaves at all. I was a little worried that there was something wrong with it. Or that it needed to be kept confined in a small pot. At first I was pleased to see one new leaf but as time went on two more popped up.

As you can see some of the edges of the leaves have gone a bit brown and dried up. Even though I mist the plant once a day the atmosphere in the house is just a little bit too dry for this plant. The recomended place to keep an aspidistra is a cold north facing room. In this house I don't have such a room so it is beside the window on a book case.

I am not sure wither to re-pot it again next year. It just seems to make the plant grow lots of roots and not a lot of leaves. Although without more room I guess the rhyzome where the plant grows from will hit the edge of the pot and simply stop growing. I am fairly sure that is what happened before I re-potted it last year. The edge of the pot was being distorted by the force of the growing tip inside the pot. Mine has yet to flower. I did see that my mum's plant flowered last year. The rather small flowers were fairly tiny nestled down by the roots of the plant. If you did not go looking right into the pot you could have missed them completley.

Orchids and Air plants

I have not yet put up a picture of my orchids. I guess I was not that proud of the way in which they have grown. I have had them now for several years and have totally failed to get them to repeat flower. Now as you might imagine that is not the most rewarding experience to get.

So when at a show I did ask what to do with them. It turns out that the Cymbidium needs to be kept cool in the summer. They should also be fed with a quarter strength tomato fertilizer every other week. So this year I did feed the plant and it has put on an amazing amount of growth. The philanopsis or Moth Orchids I have also grown better with me feeding them. So I guess that I did learn something. One of the Moth orchids is growing some sort of a new stem. Wither this is a flower spike or just more leaves I am not sure. You cannot see anything from the photo but I can assure you that something is happening.

I also bought an air plant earlier in the year. Alas while I was on holiday the weather was very hot and the poor thing died. I have since replaced the one air plant with two new ones. The smallest ones you could get. The first one almost flowered but I think I missed watering it for too long and the flowers failed to open. I was a bit disapointed with that but hopefuly this time they will do well.

I do have a third orchid but I can't remember the name of it. Yes I know, what kind of gardener am I? I bought this one quite a while after the others and like them I have failed to get it to flower either. It has not died or lost any of it's bulbils. So I count that as a sort of success.

Well anyway I am trying to keep them all alive.

The War - On slugs and snails

Alas round one has been a resounding success for the enemy. I bought a couple of alpine type Sempeverum cheap in November. But during the very mild spell in late January some slugs have eaten them to the roots. So I am somewhat peaved but it is early days yet. Plenty of time for a recovery on the Home side. ;-)

My Greenhouse

This is a picture of the themometer from my greenhouse. Now I do hope that you can read the data from the scale. I bought my greenhouse in the Autumn of 2001 and then tried to grow some seed in it in 2002. I am sure that I have mentioned how hot it got and how few of the seedlings actually survived. Almost none, in fact. The 42^oC temperature that I measured did not do the seedlings any good.
Now the picure of the themometer shows a night temp of -4^oC and day high of 31^oC. Now I don't know about you but I would be hard pressed to enjoy that sort of tempetature range. And I am fairly sure that most plants don't enjoy it either. So this year I have kept all of my seed and seedlings in the house. This is purely an attempt to keep them all alive. So far it has worked. At least in terms of the temperature. Obviously I do still need to work on the Vine Weavil. <sigh>.
Talking of temperature, it has been very cold. More than is shown on the picture. It has gotten down to a chilly -6^oC over the past week. Now I was looking forward to my first flowers on my Wisteria. The cold has killed all of the flowers and a number of the growth buds. So it looks like this years flowers are all dead and the plant is going to suffer quite a setback in gowth. Again I am not too happy about this. In fact I am right royaly p*ed off.