Six on Saturday 11 July 2020

This week our leader has topics of cuttings and divisions, not surprising his choice of The Propagator as a title.  No showers in buckets for him either.  I wonder how many people will have a little giggle at this.  We do however run off the 'first' water not yet hot when washing up, and pour it straight into the watering can by the back door.

Some links to techniques are embeded behind the blue shaded text below.  Sometimes the links are to previous relevant posts.  This is mainly for myself as I use this blog as a reminder and ideas catcher. Feel free to dip into these too.

(1) Nasturtiums:

I love salads, and they are a standard part of our lunch.  Mr S always asks for less lettuce, but bless him, he does eat whatever I put before him.  At the moment I am picking from two types of lettuce from the bottom, and have not had to buy any green stuff for several weeks.

They add that peppery note similar to radish, and mustard and cress, I love to add a few leaves and flowers from the self-seeded nasturtiums. These are third generation plants and just appear around the garden, in their own time.  They are very easily grubbed up, as soon as they get too big or where they may crowd out more delicate plants. In my garden nasturtiums are great little summer plants, good as cut flowers, and also in a salad.  My next lot of pesto will be made with nasturtium leaves.  I think a solid green variety would go better, so I shall look out for seed from friends later in the year.  Maybe a swap for this one.

Last week Karen explained about keeping favourite nasturtiums  going by taking cuttings. Something I had never considered.  However since I don't have a glass house, garden sown seed and self made crosses are fine, though I remember once coveting a double nasturtium. 

(2) Time to divide and replant auriculas: I used to have a thing about auriculas.  In this garden there is very little shade and the alley with a wall with shade is too narrow for any sort of auricula house.  I did find one amongst the plants I brought with me, planted it in the garden, and rescued it back into a plant pot last year.  I managed to get a few good shoots and have planted them up.  I chose to do this now rather than earlier, as it was too hot after they flowered, and quite perversely it is cooler with cool nights in July!  Next time I show these again will be next year when they are in flower.  Nessun Dorma is happy on the small shady wall for now. 

(3) Eryngium Planum Tetre Petra is growing rather wide, the bees are quite happy with this.

(4) Geranium Rozanne is adding a similar blue across the other side of the sitting circle.  I recently read that she came about in the garden of Donald and Rozanne Waterer in Somerset.  No wonder she is at home.  Divisions of the tubers taken in April this year are all doing nicely just a couple of metres away.  They are doing a good job of covering the ground where earlier daffodil foliage has now died down.

(5) The cooler weather and moisture has prompted this:  

The ripening and bursting out of cyclamen seed. Just look at that!  

That is how I started with my very first cyclamen, by sowing seed collected from a seed capsule.  I just left them in the gravel in my last garden and a fancy silver leaved form that I had never seen before grew.  These formed the foundation for my silver leaved C. hederifolium collection..  Since then I have acquired a few more, mainly from my visit to John Massey.  The seed can be prepared and sown straight away, with washing etc as explained by the embedded You tube video from Stinky Ditch nursery.  It was they would sent me a Geranium rubustum Silver Cloak.  It was only the surprise at the first blooms coming up along the shady alley, that alerted me to this. 

Further forays around the borders show new cyclamen blooms coming up around the garden.  Hurrah!

(6) Insect Watch: 

Over the past week the tall flowering stems of the Thalictrum delavayi, a little more blue, than in this picture, have been acting a sun filter early in the morning.  From the conservatory the blooms are just about at my eye level.  They are really pretty, and what a treat to get close up and peer at the blooms.  I started to notice a bloom with a brighter white centre...it turned out to be a spider waiting in ambush patiently for its prey to come to it. Over the week when I have been watching her, she appears to have increased in size.

The white crab spider seemed to sense I was around, and moved down onto the stem. The males are even smaller but not able to change their colour, and have brown legs and markings on the abdomen.

This is the week that saw us tackle some of the overhanging Oak branches when Mr S was a great help on account of his height, strength, and ability with tools.  Extendable loppers and saw kindly loaned by a neighbour.