New year, same resolutions

January can be a bit depressing; the celebrations are over, the days are short and the worst of winter is still to come.  While all of this is true (and given our winter so far this is a little worrying) I actually love the start of January as I have fun planning what I want to accomplish in the year. I don't do resolutions as such,  more things I would like to do. I may decide what countries I want to visit on holiday, or something new I want to learn. This includes my plans for plants and garden and I think this year will be the year of the mafreda and mangave.

I have been interested in this group of plants for couple of years now,  and have slowly been building my collection. I have already posted a photo of the manfreda/magave tree which contained most of my plants last summer.

The good thing about manfredas is that they don't die after flowering. This yearly flowering means they are often in flower along side agaves and so mangaves are created.  Every year there are more mangaves becoming available and you never quite know how they are going to turn out.

This year I plan to see how many more I can track down and try a few more from seeds. I have said before that I'm an old hand at killing seedlings, so maybe that is one thing I will try to change this year!