Brahea Armata, dead? Well maybe not!

My eldest daughter was over today to help me in the garden now I have no energy to do anything due to the M.E.

She was going to dig out the 'dead' Brahea Armata which looked a lot worse than this picture. I forgot to take a before picture, but basically it was totally brown.

I knew I hadn't done anything so was wondering what had been going on. The plan was to dig it out, pop it in a pot, somewhere warm and out of the way and monitor it. So out it came, a little too easily for a plant that had been in the ground since 2015.

The roots had not really expanded from the size of the pot I got it in. which was a little surprising, that was until we looked closer and found.....

It was in a smaller pot which had been inside the roots of the pot I bought it in. No wonder it hadn't been growing!
So we managed to remove this pot and reveal some really healthy roots and it is now potted up and a nice big pot and sitting in the garden in a warm spot where it will stay for a few years i the hope it will come back.

These are renowned for sulking after repotting so patience will be my watch word!!! Well we will see, as I don't have a lot of it!!!

First Day of Spring, apparently.

I decided to unwrap my varying palms, the two trunked Butia has come through pretty unscathed but this is fairly well protected from the south westerly winds by the brand new fence. I always think a palm adds something to a tropical looking garden

The old Butia which has been planted out since 2014 and is the palm in the centre of the blog header, when it looked decidedly better is as you can see rather the worse for wear. I am gutted, that this and the ......

Brahea armata in the next picture look so bad. Having come through last years 'Beast from the East' winter, to end up looking like this after the mild winter we have had, I am quite gutted.

If it was me I would dig them out, I think they look awful. After asking my 'Tropical plant friends' advice they all say leave them in. One person said ' they will be fine and send out 6 fronds this year so will look better'? 6 Fronds??? 6 FRONDS??? I have never had 6 fronds grow in one year, all the time I have had them planted out!
The Brahea armata in 2015 if you look at the old photos of when they went in they looked far healthier.

The Butia was planted out 2014

 as you can see they both had far more fronds. I don't know, you will just have to watch this space!!

Unwrapping!

I am sick to the back teeth of rain, if anyone turns round in the height of summer and tells us we are having a drought and you can't use your hose pipe I will not believe them, the ground round here is saturated!

It seems to have been a long grey winter, we had sun one day last week and I would have got excited had I been at home, but I was up at mums.

So the weather forecast has threatened sun with temps up to 13C this weekend, so I have washed the bar b que (just in case) and unwrapped the palms.

My Butia, which is the slowest growing in the garden seems to have faired quite well.

I think wrapping it in a duvet in the really coldest period has helped, and its all looking relatively good.

My other Butia looks magnificent

as you can see the fence is still waiting to be repaired, we have the concrete gravel boards and the neighbours actually have had the fence panels in there garden for about 4 weeks now, not sure whats going on.


The Brahea armata  which I always though was relatively tender, seems to sail through winter.

I protected the growth point with a duvet and as you can see a new spear is growing away.

It seems to love the wet winters we have.

Compared to previous years we are well behind, I have my blog to compare, I find it really interesting to look back and see what was happening at this time last year. To save you looking I had already jet washed the patio and decking and it had been dry enough for me to treat the office and the decking!
And we had been having problems with Rats as well.

Back after the weekend to let you know what went on.

Wrapping for Winter.

Winter has passed, you may say. The Spring Equinox is 20th March, but winter still has a grip.

The other day I got an email from the lovely man at Hardy Palms where I bought most of my rather expensive palms from. He advised as we were due to have a long spell of extremely cold weather, we should wrap up our palms.

Normally they cope well, as the temps go down to minus something, then up during the day to single figures. But this next week we are due to have sustained minus figures day and night.

So a bit of work was needed today.

These are the covers that have got us through so far.

They have not done too badly.

So I unwrapped my new Butia and it is looking good. I have to protect the growing tip and Mr Hardy Palms recommended wrapping a duvet around it. I had a suitcase full of single duvets that we used to use when my sister and her 3 girls used  when they where little and came for a visit.

So being ingenious, I cut them in half length ways and sewed along the cut seam, which made them more manageable to wrap around.

Doesn't it look cosy now.

My other Butia, before

and then after..

and finally my Brahea Armata with a new spear growing

sadly I forgot to take a photo of it all snuggled up in its duvet, but it is.

My Olives have also been wrapped up.

All we can do now is wait and see if they survive.

Water v Rain

No amount of watering with a hose can do to a garden what rain can do.

I have decided that rain is the rocket fuel for plants. The pot above had been at the front of the house, since I moved it to the patio it has gone mental.

This year I decided to grow some of my Eucomis in pots. I am so glad I did as they look amazing and you can really see them properly.

Dahlia. When I was a youngster and mum and dad grew dahlias in their garden I hated them. They always seemed to be full of earwigs. But now I love them, and I don't have the problem with earwigs. You can get some really beautiful ones now, I just have to master the art of overwintering them.

The Paulownia is heading for the sky.

Stunning Cardoon, I have had loads of flowers this year, probably about 12, all the insects and bees love them.

The lower 'jungle' bed.

Looking back up the garden under the Trachy.

Phormium, must be close to 20 ft.

Evolving side bed.

The new Butia is still in its pot, I have to remove the large bush before planting it, but I'm tempted to keep it in a larger pot as I like the height it is.

The Arid bed enjoying the rain, I sometimes forget to water them during the summer. Living in the UK I assume that because its cooler they don't need the water as much. But you can literally see them grow after its rains.

Pond, don't you just love the Zebra grass.

The other side of the arid bed, so green.

In the process of dismantling the coal bunker.

Not had much chance to get out in the garden this week as I have had my mum staying. I do miss it.

My Garden .......... currently!

Sadly this is not 'all'  my garden, mine is the skinny bit down the middle, with the shed and the chimney in. The shed houses the biomass boiler and the 'runway' down the middle of the garden was my hubbies idea.
This is my bit of England, out in the middle of rural Wiltshire. I love it here.  We have no rear access, so everything and I mean EVERYTHING comes through my house.

Paulownia tomentosa  pollarded again and aiming high!!

Its amazing what a bit of rain can do?

Sonchus Arboreus in the centre

Sonchus Canariensis

Chenopodium giganteum, these have self seeded everywhere and can easily hit 6ft.  shall have to move these as they are close to the front of the bed.

My cardoon is enormous,  can't wait for them to flower.

Brahea Armata, strange palm, well I think so, should be a blue grey colour, never has been in my garden, still sending up new spears.

Ricinus

Dasylirion Serratifolium

remember I weed killered around this, you can see the damaged fronds, but the main plant looks fine  so I shall trim off the lower fronds and hopefully be able to see if the creeping weed (toad flax)comes back.

My beautiful Yucca Rostrata, how this has grown since I first got it.

This Agave goes from strength to strength.

what amazes me most is the fabulous markings which remain on the plant for years.

My passion flower, very hardy!

Well I could not finish this post without a pic of my Phormium lol!!! For reference I'm 5ft 9ins!!!