The big move

I finally have a bit of time to sit down and post about the move.  We have been planning it for such a long time, then suddenly it seemed to go from nothing happening to actually moving overnight. It was a great relief when the previous owners agreed that we could have access to the garden a couple of days before we legally became the owners. This allowed all the plants to be moved over the weekend, with the actual house move happening on the Monday.

A while back I bought 10 fold up crates, the idea being that I could fill them with the small pots, and probably fit all 10 in one car. They were a huge help, the first consignment was packed up on the Friday night ready for the next day:

Each crate took on average 10 plants, so it was also a simple way to work out roughly how many pots I do have.  Come the first move day my sister-in-law and her two kids very kindly came over to give us a hand.  I was right, all 10 crates fitted neatly in one car, with space for a few extra pots around the edge:

With one car loaded with crates, the other was loaded with larger pots:

The new house is only about 10 minutes from the old one, so everyone jumped in the cars and it was over to the house, a quick unload, and back for a second load.  It only took three trips to get all the small pots over and it was very strange when we had finished to look back at terrace and not see a single pot!

The fence looks so orange without all the pots hanging off it. Not to mention the shed with empty shelves.  A lot of the plants in the shed were too delicate to go outside, so they were moved to my kindly donated parents shed.

Once the delicate ones were settled, it was back to sort the pots at the new house.  I had no idea where they were going to live, so was pleased to find a paved area. It was covered in weeds, and a quick clear up revealed the edge of a brick area. This is actually much nicer than the crazy paving, so not sure why they allowed the lawn to grow over it.  I hoped this would give me enough space for the pots until there was time to sort something more permanent. The first set of pots went in nice and easily:

Sadly it filled up more quickly than I would have liked:

It was a bit shocking to have the whole area filled and to turn around to find the overflow:

Given the old garden was tiny, I couldn't figure out where all these pots were stored before. Then it dawned on me that I used a lot of vertical planting, even just taking the two posts outside the patio doors that was 16 pots out of the way.  Thankfully I have a more space to play with:

The garden faces due East, so it gets the sun all day, which is great for my succulents.  At some point expect to see the whole left hand side of the garden with one long succulent bed. In the short term I need to think about this winter and where to house everything.  What you can not see from the photo is a section of garden about 7m x 5m behind the garage. My current thinking is to just stick a roof over the whole bit and everything can go in there. It will make the garden less interesting over winter, but will also keep everything out of the way while the current flower beds are cleared.

Now all I need is some time off from working on the inside of the house to get out to play in the garden.

It's been a while

Since my last post a lot has happened and so it it difficult to decide where to start.

We said good bye to the old house, not a succulent in sight.

London hosted the Olympics, which was amazing. It is a very good year to be in London.

I went to the British Cactus and Succulent Society (BCSS) national show:

We moved a lot of plants to the new house:

More Olympics events were held. To compete at that level you have to be obsessed so all the athletes deserve congratulating, as do all the volunteers and people who made it such a fun two weeks.

I bought some plants at the national show:

I started to find homes for the plants in the new garden:

Team GB finished 3rd in the medal table at the Olympics, who would have thought it.

We had to move all our furniture into storage while the builders ripped out the electrics and plumbing and bathroom in the new house.  Which means my OH and I are currently living with my parents! For those that can not remember what that is like, there is a very good reason we all leave home! Actually they have been brilliant and have let us take over part of their house so a big thank you to them. I may also have taken over their garden shed.

So  much to report.  I will do posts on the move, the new garden and the national show when things calm down.  In the mean time good bye Olympics, hello Paralympics.

Oh and to top it all we actually had a week of sunny and hot weather.  What more could you ask for?

Something pretty

After the less attractive photos yesterday and to celebrate the return of the sun, I thought I would post some of the cacti flowers form this year.  I only started growing them last year and was not sure how they would cope over the winter and if they would ever flower again.  I needn't have worried, and there has been a constant stream of flowers.

First to flower was also one of the best, gymnocalycium baldianum. Not the most prolific of flowerers  but very pretty flowers, which lasted for a few days.

I kept leaving taking the photo until the evening, which is my normal photo time, only to find they had closed up for the night. Whenever I see the next photo it reminds me of an owl. Sadly lost the label for this one

The more prolific flowerers are the rebutias.  This one is rebutia x aylostera 'Bo Jangles'. You get one set of flowers like this:

Then once those has all died back you sect a second flush.  Sadly not all of them flower that dramatically.  One of my favourites for the rest of the year is mammillaria bombycina, which looks amazing but has very disappointing flowers:

The latest to flower is another gymnocalycium this one with pink flowers:

There are plenty more in buds on different plants, so there will more more to come.

They announce a drought

and we get three months of solid rain. There I was thinking how having a succulent garden was going to be great when you are not allowed to water. Now I am just pleased that they didn't drown. The plants have mainly coped with all the rain without problems, but there has been one garden issue with the sodden summer: SLUGS!

Yes it has been a bumper slug year, I have never seen anything like it.  I don't like to use the old slug pellets as our little dog has a tendency to eat anything that looks food like.  Instead I go out after every rain fall and collect them and dispose of them in the front.  In normal years I would expect to find 5 or 6, this year I am collecting pots of 20 - 30 and if I go back out an hour later I can do the same again.

Slugs in my garden seem to have very expensive taste, they started eating all the new leaves on my Schefflera taiwaniana,

then moved onto tasting some of the new fronds on the cycads

Maybe a little agave

Finally settled on the echeverias

It is not all bad news as today we actually had no rain! The reports are that the jet stream has finally moved back to where it should be and we should start to get some sun again. 

It's a squashed spider

That was not quite the response I was looking for when I showed my OH the first ever flower on one of my manfredas.  I must admit that having waited so long for something more unusual to flower it is not the most dramatic flower ever. Being outside has probably not helped and it only have 4 or 5 buds.

The flowers themselves are quite interesting though, I love the dark colour with the yellow centres. This one has only just opened so I thought I would get a photo in while it was still fresh.








I did have grand ideas of getting some pollen off one of the agaves that various friends have flowering. The flower has opened much quicker than expected though so I will have to get a move on.  What would work well crossed with manfreda chocolate chips.

A little flushed

Cycads are a great group of plants that go really well with dry beds.  One of my favourite things about them is when they flush, putting out all their fronds in one go.  Getting them to flush is a bit of a trick, mainly involving lots of high nitrogen food and LOTS of water.  This summer we have not had to fake monsoon conditions as we are having so much rain.  As watering has not been required they have been fed less than usual so the big one (shown flushing this time last year) is having a rest.

I pleased that the smallest of my three is flushing again. This is the first time I have managed it in consecutive years . They seem a bit later this year, given that the first photo was taken exactly this time last year, they were already quite advanced, compared to the current flush.

As mine stay outside all year the main problem is frost damage to the young leaves.  Given how later these are I will pamper them a bit this winter, who knows maybe even move them into some sort of winter shelter (assuming I have one sorted).

The other problem I am going to have is that you can't move a flushing cycad otherwise the new fronds twist to re-orientate themselves. Not great to have two flushing when you are about to move house.  I am going to have to figure out some way of preserving the orientation of the pots to the sun, maybe using a marker in the pot to point due north, or to the sun at mid-day. No doubt I will post an update when I know what I am going to do.

 


The other one flushing is one that lost its last set of fronds over the winter and has been moved somewhere while it recovers. I go this one a couple of years ago with the idea of have them planted as a group. With the new garden I may actually finally manage it!

Now all we need is some sun, to ensure good strong growth and that they harden off quickly.

Second trough

Rain stopped just long enough to dig up some more of the small plants in the dry bed.  Have finished with the echeverias and it is onto the alpines.  I have built up a nice collection of sempervivums over the last couple of years.  I am going to have to decide if I take some from each variety or only those that have proved themselves.  I have used pups off some of the more prolific forms to fill gaps in the rest of the bed.

One more of these and I should have most of the varieties I am interested in and then it is just mopping up the odd plant that I have missed.