Lucky dip.

It's a good time of year for growing echeverias, the garden is full of plants in flower.  Every where I look there are little spikes of colour vying for attention.

Normally I would be looking around trying to decide which plants to cross, but it seems there is a very good reason that experts hybridize in more control environments.

The bees have decided that echeverias are the flower of choice. You don't have to watch a plant for long before the next one comes along for a top up, often there are two or three on a plant at once. It is funny watching them trying to get into the delicate flowers, but they have worked out how to do it, going from flower to flower on a plant before moving off to the next one.

I am pleased to say that the garden is full of bees this year. Last year was terrible and it as noticeable how few bees were around, but they are back with a vengeance this year. It has been interesting to watch them with the succulent flowers.  Whenever I bring a new variety into the garden they usually take a while to work out what it is.  I would have thought that any flower would be attractive,  but right now they are all flying straight past the cactus that is as bright as can be.

With all the activity any selective hybrids are out of the question, so I guess I am going to have to see what nature comes up with, my very own lucky dip.

Some actual planting!

I may have managed to acquire one or two pots during my spiky obsession; some are plants that can not be planted, some are waiting for a spot and many more are plants being propagated.  Last year I used one of the old raised beds as a sort of prop / holding area, with the idea of keeping them out of the way.

I loved this little area, all the pots neatly lined up, the plants growing away, easy to see what I had spares off to give to people.  To me it worked really well, but it seems not everyone agreed. Apparently raised beds should actually be planted, and we don't need so many pots.  I know crazy talk, but my OH has been known to speak the truth at times. So this year, for several reasons, I am working my way through the garden sorting all the flower beds, trying to spend more time actually gardening and less concentrating on plants in pots.

Despite being distinctly fluffy, I had always thought this area would make a good fern bed, a few larger ferns that thrive in some sun,  with under planting of other shade loving plants.  It almost sounds like I know what I am talking about, but my record with plants that need care is not good. This is where friends come in,  and with a bit of help a few plants were selected that will give the look I am after and hopefully survive my lack of care.

Over the weekend the area was cleared,  all the junk removed, the soil improved and plants actually planted. This is such a novelty in my garden that my OH actually looked confused when she got home to find me putting the finishing touches to it. This is the only good thing about a small garden, in a couple of hours you can make a huge difference to the look of the whole garden. There is still space at one end for more plants, but it looks quite lush and has that lovely promise new plants settling in and filling the space.

Although it was lacking a certain something.

OK, a few pots may have sneaked back into the area, I am guessing that wont come as a big surprise.  In my defence, most of these are temporary as all these plants are just out of their winter storage and the leaves need protecting.  There is a myth that because agaves and other succulents come from hot sunny locations they can not get damaged by the sun in the UK. In fact like any plants, when you move them outside after a long period inside, they need to toughen up slowly. It is amazing how easily succulents scorch at this time of year and there is nothing worse than getting a plant through winter only to loose half the leaves just when you think they are safe. Every year some of my bigger plants get scorched and every year I swear I will be more careful next time.

So this year to avoid damage, plants are initially placed at the back in total shade,  then every few days all the plants get moved forward into more sun. The next set of plants can then be placed at the back.  The ones on the wall are almost ready for full sun. By the end of the month all the plants should be moved and there will be minimal pots on the bed.  So far it seems to be working fine and actually I quite like the two groups of plants all mixed in together a sort of lush-spiky.

The problem is now having said this, my OH is going to expect all the pots to move once they are able to cope with the sun. What do you think the odds are that I will actually manage to keep this area pot and spiky free?

Busy weekend

It has been a busy and productive weekend with a bit of everything, plant shopping, looking around a public gardens and a good amount of time in the garden. This is a lovely time of year, with all the echeverias in flower along with the aloes.  Over the last couple of days I have actually been planting stuff, which is unusual for me.  I am much better with plants in pots than I am at plants in the ground, to be honest I am not a very good gardener but that is for another post. 

I did make time to take a picture of this recent purchase in full flower.  As the day went on the bees were buzzing around it, although the ones in my garden seem to prefer the yellow flowers of the echeverias to reds and oranges.

I will have to go back to being lazy again, so I have more time to blog.

Unusual sign

We were visiting a garden last week and found part of it closed with this sign on the gate:

 

We had all sorts of images going around our heads of trees behaving inappropriately.

Another lovely surprise.

I have shown quite a few pictures of bromelaids so you may have guessed I quite like them.  For me they are one of the plants that symbolize jungle / tropical planting.  While I keep meaning to get more so far I have only bought one, blibergia nutans variegata. You sometimes see this touted as hardy in parts of the UK, so it seemed a good place to start.

I have had it for 3 years now and left it in the cold frame over the winters. It has coped without any problems, not even marking.  In fact it is more at risk from me forgetting that this is one plant that I actually have to water. I have been desperate for it to flower but nothing.  This year as it had formed a clump I split it, which will allow me to try some out of the cold frame next winter.  I have also made a concerted effort to actual water my plant this year, it feels very strange to be sayig that at the start of May, but it has been such a dry Spring and we have had no real rain at all.  Then outside this evening and I found this:

Looking forward to seeing how it develops.  With everything going on in the garden this year, it is rapidly becoming my best year so far!

Sempervivum virgil

I have had this sempervivum for a couple of years now and is one that I would highly recommend.  It has several things going for it:

1. It offsets like mad so you have a lovely clump in the first year
2. While it changes colour throughout the year it always stands out from the crowd
3. It doesn't suffer from major die back over winter, unlike many semps

Here is it yesterday and as you can see despite me taking countless offsets off already last year it has formed a lovely clump and will only get better through the summer.

Another weekend, another road trip.

The beautiful spring continues, this time it was a trip to Norfolk for a few days to see some friends, look around some nurseries and visit a cactus mart. Norfolk has two fantastic nurseries for the exotic garden fan, Amulree and Urban Jungle. There are always things that catch my eye at both, this year at Amulree it was these stunning agave ovatifolias.

At Urban Jungle, part of the fun is walking around their different planting sections, sadly it is totally the wrong time of year for the edible jungle, but it was great to see the planting wall had survived despite the terrible winter. The ferns in the gaps are mainly starting to grow again and in a month or so should be back to its best again.  This is a clever very way of creating a wall, with full descriptions on the blog of Jamie who built it before heading off on his travels (Tumbleweed Traveller).

Then it was off to see the friends which I will cover in another post as they deserve it, if for no other reason than the very memorable line dancing disco night they took me to! The whole reason for the trip was to join the local British Cactus and Succulent Society trip to a catus mart on the Saturday. There is always a difficult choice at these shows; do you walk around to see all the stalls before deciding what to buy, or do you buy as you go so you don't risk someone else getting their hands on the best plants. Normally when shopping, as my OH will confirm, I like to look at all the options, comparing them before finally making my decision. At the shows though there are far too many other eager shoppers and you can't risk someone else getting their grubby little mitts on that prized plant. Having got most of the way around, I found someone with two trays full of aloe hybrids. You wont be surprised to know that I spent quite a while on this stand going through them all, checking I hadn't missed any and which were the best plants. 

There is another great point at any event like this, when everyone re-groups and you all have a nosy through what the others are taking home.  There are the looks of envy that someone else got the one plant you were after, discussions about plants you don't know about and sometimes quick trips back into the show to try and make a last minute purchase. This cactus caught my eye in one of the members boxes,  it almost looked stitched and I had a feeling my OH would appreciate the patterns / textures.

After a very nice lunch, it was off over the border to probably the largest cactus nursery in the UK.  Only a few days before I had been talking with some friends about why we don't have any really large succulent nurseries in the UK.  They had just come back from Germany and shown pictures of these giant green houses full of succulents of every description. So walking into Southfields, I was proved wrong when I was greeted by this:

The place is huge, rows and rows of tables stuffed full of cacti of every form.  Anyone who things succulent gardens lack colour needs to visit somewhere like this:

While shopping at a show requires one set of tactics, shopping here required another, leaving plants until you have looked around risks you never finding the plants again. It was not unusual to bump into people wondering up and down the many isles muttering to themselves about why didn't they pick that plant up when they first saw it.

After a fantastic couple of days, it was back home to pot up my purchases, here are ones from Southfields and the show.

I think my OH is slightly concerned about the appearance of cacti on top of the agaves, aloes and echeverias, but she need not worry I more than enough to keep me going without getting interested in cacti as well.