Shifting from winter to summer

This weekend was another sunny one, so time to start unpacking the greenhouse and uncovering the succulent rockery.  It is a little earlier than I usually do this and still a little risky, but with no work trips in the next month I can move things back if any heavy frosts are forcast.

The succueltn rockery is planted to be hardy for London winters, this means the covers are more to keep the plants in top condition.  It therefore doesn't take long to take the two long vegetable cloches off.

There doesn't seem to have been any damage and if this summer is anything like last the growth will be amazing with such an early start. Most of the plants are well known to be hardy, like the yuccas, agaves and aloe polyphylla.

I was looking at the agave parryi hk1684 and like everything it has grown so much since being planted.  This has to be my favourite form.

Then you have the odd test plant.  In the Uk gastroaloes are becoming more common. These seem to be quite hardy and even in last cold winter they were all fine in my greenhouse so last summer one was planted out as a test, gasteria armstongii x aloe aristata.  It sailed through without problems.

There are a few major changes planned for the rockery this year.  Things have grown much quicker than expected and some of the plants have got too big, or just don't work in their locations.  So hopefully will have some good updates on the changes as we get into summer.

Plants are waking up

It's that time of year again, alternating between the joy of plants waking up and the fear of them rotting. The UK has had a very mild winter so hopefully this will reduce the amount of end of winter damage.  We just need spring to be not too wet and just for once to move smoothly from winter - spring - summer.

Anyway it's time to start waking the plants up and getting back into the garden and greenhouse.  This is about checking how the plants have done, removing any signs of rot and checking for bugs.  The greenhouse is looking good.

The manfreda / mangave bench is looking the best it ever has. I kept a closer eye on these this year having learnt that they do not like to totally dry out even over winter.  This made a big difference and even the small manfreda guttata offsets that I removed at the end of last summer, are not looking bad.  The mangave fans may spot some surprises / future posts in there.

The echeveria agavoides 'ebony' in the black bowl has formed a really good shape. It's lost some of the colour as expected, but will colour up as soon as it can be moved outside.  The large bowl is more established.

This year they seem to have held their colour much better than previous years.  Hopefully this will mean an even darker colour when they go back into their summer spot.  The bowl is now full, so it's going to be interesting to see what happens as they start to push up against each other.

It's good to be back in the greenhouse again and thinking about projects for the year. Lots in the pipeline, so hopefully we'll have a good summer.

The agaves

So the last post focused on the aloes and echeverias, this time it's the agaves.  Most look great, apart from suffering from the usual cherry blossom issue at this time of year. Starting with the biggest, the A. montanas have no damage at all.

The bud inprints on the largest are very defined, the blue powder gives them extra definition.  The smaller one is growing rapidly and is not so small any more.

The two A. filiferas were also almost totally untouched.  I did notice a couple of black spots on leaves, so cut these off.  I'm not taking any chances, and while there have been a re-emergence of major problems, better safe than sorry.

The largest is one the original plants from the old garden.  You can see one of the smaller ones behind, which seems to pup much more freely.  There is a much smaller third plant planted in another section of the rockery and that is not looking so good.

There are 4 A. bracteosas scattered around, no surprise that they are all looking pretty much prestine.

The newest agaves are the A. ovatifolias.  The largest plant has settled in and the new leaves were undamaged.

I love this plant, it is great to be able to sit on the wall and look down onto it, but it is probably too close to the wall, and ultiamtely may make sitting there a little dangerous.  My seed grown plant is still struggling a bit after being being moved.

It's not clear in the photo, but the lower leaves have a few black spots so these will be cut off.

The monster, A. Salmiana var Ferox, continues to grow at an alarming rate.  It's in the worst place, right under next doors cherry, almost hidden by other plants, but nothing seems to slow it down.

You can see how big the pup has got.  That would be a great plant for the new section if it didn't get so big. I am tempted to move the pup to the front garden and let it do it's thing, or maybe it's just a spare for swaps. In front of them is an A. gentryi, strangely it seems to have been missed off the photo shot.

The problem plants are the A. nigras.  They just look terribe at this time of year and enough is enough.

The front one is going to dug up,  any damaged leaves removed and then planted else where.   There are too many plants that want space to leave those that just dont seem happy.  It is such a shame, they were fine at the last house and should be here. Hopefully I can nurse it back into good health so it can shine elsewhere.

Another that has been slightly more damaged by the winter is A. parasana.

I'm torn what to do about this one. Big parasanas are amazing plants and it is one the edge of its cold and wet tolerance. Maybe it is one to be dug up, cleaned up and given a nice pot.

Last for planted agaves is the A. parryi HK1684. I love this plant, it is a strong blue, the teeth turn a fantastic colours in summer and it just looks good.

To the right is another agave parryi. I like the rounder leaf forms and after a few years that little one may finally be growing. Ironically this year will see the small one being dug up and planted on the green roof and an offset of the HK1864 that has been growing on in a pot planted in its place. 

So that's the planted agaves covered.  Looks like it will have to be the potted plants next. That post may be a little longer!

Front garden update.

There hasn't been a front garden update in a while.  It has all been a learning experience, with far more bulbs and traditional plants than in my usual rockeries. The mild winter means the bulbs are behaving very strangely; they are suppose to be a continous stream of flowers from the early snowdrops and crocus to the late anemones. While the crocus and snowdrops were at their usual Feb and march flowering, come march everything came into flower including the anemones which are not suppose to flower for months.

It does make it very colourful out there at the moment.

These iris are still some of my favorites

The alpines don't want to miss out on the party, at least they are flowering at the correct time of year.

The excitement in the front are the eremurus himalaicus. Three bulbs were planted, and I've got to say I was a little skeptical having had no luck in the past. Not only have all three come up, but all are sending up flower spikes. At a possible 6 feet they should look great in a few year when they have bulked up into small groups.

The little circular bed, is filling out, and the candytufts are a mass of white flowers.

The succulents had a mixed time.  The echeveria elegans are mainly OK, with only the odd plant suffering any major damage.

The echeveria agavoides were not so lucky, as in the back the main plants all died, with only offsets getting through where they were protected from the rain.

The agaves were all pretty much untouched which is good.

The large one, has a good blue colour to it and doesn't have a single bit of damage.  There is also a small one,  I really didn't need another (my fourth) but this one is a little different, big gummy teath and a good red colour.

I'm hoping now it's in the ground it should grow quickly. If it stays with those teeth and the colour it is going to be my best agave montana.

The advantages of cold.

There is not a lot to like about winter, but if the plants do get through the stress creates some great colour. One plant that is putting on a particular good show this year is the sedeveria letizia. You may remember one was planted out as a test and the main rosettes got through and have coloured up perfectly.

Good to see it is going to flower as well. It has very pretty pure white flowers and is one of my favourite flowers for this group of plants. 

The main plant was in the green house over winter, so not only got cold but was not watered. The double stress has made the colour even stronger.

The whole plant is a real feature at the moment and as the colour fades, the mutltiple flower stalks will take over to keep it looking good. 

Really need to give it a nicer pot and make more of a feature of it. I must find somewhere in London that sells really nice terracotta pots.

Reasons to be cheerful

One, two, three..

1........ The first of the eremurus are showing.

I tend to loose interst in plants (and the internet) over winter.  It seems to be a way to avoid getting depressed by the cold and short days. Then as the days get longer and hotter, suddenly the garden and plants start to look interesting again.  Time is spent in the green house, the garden, and waking plants up with their first water of the year.  At this time the Eremurus wake up, poking above ground after staying hidden over winter. E. oase is the first up this year.

In the last garden E. stenophyllus was planted in the dry bed and came back reliably every year.  Both e. stenophyllus and e. oase were planted in the new succulent rockery last summer, hoping that they would cope without problems.  The first winter with any garden is always worrying, so it is great to see E. oase showing.  It is the plant that tells me to get back out in the garden again, if I wan't interested in the garden before, seeing them appear gets me outside again.. Does anyone else have a plant that signals the start of spring?

2.........  Plants looking good.

So far (as it could still turn) it's been an incredibly mild winter, which is a big relief with the plants being in for their first year.  The whole bed looks good.

Many plants like this agave filifera don't have a single mark.

The echeverias have their winter colour, especially the e. elegans

Even some of the trial plants like this sedum mediterranean mystery look like winter never happened.

It is a massive relief to have got through the first winter without loosing any of the big plants or any of the plants I was worried about. 

3...... Determination to survive.

I wouldn't be pushing my plants is everything survived and there wasn't some damage.  Remember my variegated aloe saponaria, shown here at the end of the summer.

This was always going to be a test, even the normal form is very marginal here. It doesn't look quite so good now.

But these plants don't give up without a fight and look closely and there is hope. The main plant may be toast, but the two pups look like they are going to be fine. This seems to be true with most of the damaged plants.  The first view is of the damage, this is my echeveria deresina x agavoides hybrid.

After the damaged section were removed the tip seemed fine and there were undamaged pups growing already.

This could all change if we have a cold end to winter. Unlike the rest of the world the Uk does not move from winter to spring to summer in a nice predictable way. It was lovely today and the forcast for the next few days are suppose to be good as well. Then next week it could snow and we could go back to freezing night until April. 

For now I am happily singing, "reasons to be chearful, one, two, three".

It couldn't last forever.

Autumn is here and with it, the knowledge that the succulents need to be got ready for winter.  It has been so mild that it is tempting not to do anything yet, but this has caught people out before when a sudden cold spell appeared from nowhere.

The main succulent bed is looking great, things still in flower and everything looking like it has enjoyed the summer.  I am not going to protect much at all this year at least until forecasts confirm it will be a bad winter.

Can you spot the winter protection in the photo?  You need to look closely.  Maybe a close up.

This is one of the cloches I made a few years, back.  I can't believe how perfectly it fits there and not only that it looks like it will be bale to protect the agave parrasana for a few years yet. It is always a worry planting a new succulent bed up and getting it through the first winter.  It has been the perfect summer to get it settled so most of the plants should be fine.  If we have any cold weather forecast then I'll throw some fleece over everything, especially to keep snow off.

I have yet to decide if I am going to put the usual cold frame up, or where to put it up in the new garden.  It would be great on the patio by the kitchen wall, lots of extra heat but will be in the way.  In the mean time I have put a little greenhouse in the greenhouse. The main greenhouse is not at all insulated or warm it is mainly just to keep things dry, this will give a bit more protection.

There is still so much flowering in there it is lovely spend time cleaning up.  Currently these are plants that are either cold hardy if dry, or seeing if space will appear somewhere warmer. The lucky plants have been brought in.  It has still to be decided how to use the new bits of the house, plants wise that is.  Amazingly my lovely OH has agreed I can put this light frame up and put some more plants in front of the of the patio doors.

The lights allow me to store more echeverias inside, they tend to get leggy if not careful and the lights avoid that.  All of this looks very amateur compared to everyone else's amazing winter storage solutions and the amazing amounts they cram in your houses.

It's not to say there are not plants in the house, the windowsills are al full

One of the best things about the new build is that the windowsills are all extra deep.  This means I can get much bigger pots on them.  Mind you don't tell the OH that, not sure she would agree it was the best thing.

No doubt there will be a few changes between the different locations as the final set of plants get located.  There are always some that get missed and need more protection. Now all we need is a mild winter.

The winter health check

There has not been a lot of plant talk here lately. The works on the house dominates things at the moment, plus I have been in my winter disinterested period. Over the last couple of weeks things have started to change, and the greenhouse has been calling.

Today was a rare sunny day. After months of rain and storms, it was a change to be able to go outside and look at things in the sun.  So an ideal opportunity to do a quick check up on how the plants are coping with this strange winter.

The main cold frame was a sign of things to come, the plants currently look great, I can't remember seeing them look so undamaged at this point in Feb. The biggest problem seems to be that with the lack of cold, the snails are not totally gone and there is the odd bit of snail damage.

It is always good to see the echeverias doing so well.   Normally they suffer a fair amount of damage and take the first part of summer to recover. Hopefully this year they can start from a better point.

Then it was time to try and get to the greenhouse. The builders have totally blocked the front, so I had to squeeze through the side and then try and prize the door open.  With a little re-arranging I managed to open it just enough to get inside and again was thrilled to see everything looking very healthy.

I had left a few plants in here by accident and the fact that so far they show no damage is a bit of luck.

While it has been a stormy, wet winter, we have had almost no cold at all so far. The forecasts show no let up in the storms, but also no real drop in the temperatures.  I very much doubt we will get away without any real cold; one of the things that sets the UK apart from the rest of Europe and other parts of the world is the degree to which winter can go on. Hopefully the last part of the winter will be as mild as the rest, it will make a nice change.