Frost Warning in May

Normally I don't worry about a frost but, after the beautiful weather we have been having in April the garden has really begun to sprout. The TRex, which had already been frosted earlier has really got going. The Canna, Dahlia, elephants ears, have really got going as well.
So we have a predicted low of 1C, Monday, 4C Tuesday and 2C Wednesday. But as you know living in a frost pocket I expect lower, quite a bit lower.

So we have been preparing, both the Paulowina's  growing tips of which there are a few, I usually let them grow until I decide the direction I want them to go.

 These would be easily frosted.

Canna and Colocasia (Elephant Ears) all covered, under the frame on the right which is wrapped in fleece is a Solonum laciniatum.

As you can see I have covers dotted round the garden.

Under this tarpaulin, is the Gunnera,

My Washingtonia filifera's and Cyathea are under the blue tarp. I would put them back in the greenhouse but there is no room!!!

I'm sure the arid bed will be fine  I am just being cautious.

The Trex, my lovely neighbour loaned me these fleece bags.

Looks funny from the other direction.

I expect, nothing will come of the frost, but I would be devestated if all the growing tips where damaged and set back the plants, especially after they have had such a good start.

We will have to see.

Summer, lots of changes.

The garden has been amazing, I have lots more flowers than usual, the nicotianas I planted I though would grow to about 12 inches have hit 3ft plus and to be honest are far to close to the path, but they give a fabulous closed in feeling.

This spikey leaved plant which I have totally forgotten the name of is huge, the one planted in a pot is far smaller.

It is covered in spikes from the trunk

to its leaves....

My new dahlia has excelled its self

the heads are about 6-8 inches across

and there have been loads.

All the dahlias I overwintered have not done so well, but the 3 new ones have done well this red/yellow one with the tree dandelion next to it,

and another new one the flowers change colour as they age.

Amaranthus Pointy finger, looks exactly like a pointy finger, makes me smile every time I walk past it.

some look better than others but you still get the idea.

Canna Cleopatra has not only got stunning foliage

 but stunning flowers as well, I cannot wait for this clump to get bigger, I think its my favourite canna.

Another Canna easily over 8ft beautiful leaves and yes it will flower if the autumn is mild.

 The Rincus in the new bed have reached amazing heights. Blue Giant on the left should reach 10ft plus and out sized New Zealand Purple easily, but New Zealand purple has reached heights I have never seen before in my garden the seed pack says it can reach 7ft well it is way above that. When I put the new soil in this bed I did add a lot of bags of farmyard manure which I think helped. (Note to self: bu more farm yard manure)

Canna Durban looking good against Ricinus Carmencita Red.

Landscape pic of this bed.

Stumpy, well that is what I have called this Maureli against the back drop of the T-Rex it looks quite good but should be 6ft plus, maybe I need more manure down here lol!!

Another landscape photo from the side bed. Butia with Ricinus communis zanzibarensis to the left and the Tree tomato to the right.

The Elephants ears, Colocasia Pink China have been amazing this ear and as far as I am concerned are the hardiest for me.

As a precaution I always dig a few up to over winter in the greenhouse. but the rest are left outside covered with extra soil or manure.

One of my baby Hiniba from last year.

At the back of the Hiniba is a new plant for me this year Manihot Grahamii, its the one with the very pretty leaves. I planted it here to give it protection from an expected hot summer which never happened, so I hope it has had the chance to get some good roots down to help it through the winter.

Now I am preparing for winter and have started to wrap up the greenhouse, more details in the next post.

I Love my Greenhouse

I can spend ages in it, I only wish it was bigger. That is what all greenhouse owners say no matter what size of greenhouse they have. I love the earthy damp smell in there.
I have surprised myself this year by only having a minimum temp of  5C, the thermostat was set at 7C which has given a very steady 5C continuously and so far everything has come through fine.

My Hiniba pups after a bad month, they all looked like they were going to die, but hopefully seem to be improving. It has been difficult trying to second guess what they needed, as too much water would just rot away the roots so a light liquid seaweed feed, seems to have helped.

 and there is rather a lot of them.

I have potted all my dahlia tubers up into damp soil, quite scary just how many I have.

There are also some Elephants ears (Colocasia) in amongst them.

This year I overwintered my Ensetes in two different ways, after listening to some 'tropical' friends. Usually I dry store mine, digging them up, trimming and washing the roots then storing them upside down so no water gathers inside and rots them. This has been successful for me over the past 10+ years, but latterly (The past two winters) when I have planted them in the spring to restart them they have either failed to get going or have rotted at the base.
This year bearing in mind I had some very newly grown Hiniba which only had a small trunk, (they say if you get your finger a thumb from both hands to form a circle around the trunk, then it is too small to over winter dry). So whether I wanted to or not I had to store some in their pots.

As you can see they have not done too badly. It has been relatively mild so they have had a small amount of water but not a lot.

I have just potted up the dry stored Ensete the two on the right

the one in the middle was stored in its pot and as you can see with just a small amount of water is already romping away. The one on the left of this is a dry stored one.

It will be interesting to log the difference in them getting going but already it looks like the pot stored ones will be the easiest. I have found in past years when I start the dry store ones off, in very slightly damp compost, they seem to have to think about getting going and it can take quite a few weeks. The problem here is you feel you 'have' to water them and this can be when they start to rot.

When I was digging out in the autumn my Fuschia arborescens was still flowering and it was such a pretty shrub, but sadly not hardy for me. This was the first year I have tried it, so as I had some room in my greenhouse, I cut it back severely  took cuttings and hoped.

Here it is today and the cuttings have done well too.

I also over winter Lobelia Tupa and took cuttings and you can just see them to the right in the photo above looking good.

I bought a beautiful Salvia Amistad from Sarah Raven, I really love her plants, always very healthy and although I am sure she does mass produce them they are of a far better quality than any of the other companies I have bought from, but they do come at a price. So thinking ahead (very rare) and trying to save a few pennies, (also rare) now hubby has retired, I took a load of cuttings, which have been doing really well until this month!

They are watered and I have given a very small liquid seaweed feed, mmmmm?? We can but hope.

Just to show just how mild the winter has been.... my Musa Basjoo are still upright! I never wrap them, I could and maybe should but bringing a bale of hay through my house (I have no rear access) does not inspire me to do so. If they die back they are root hardy and will soon romp away again.

The first frogspawn, a bit late, but we have some!

I am off to look at plant catalogues as I need to find something that will out do the bush sunflowers I had in the front last year,they were magnificent, continual flowering, the bees, loved them...

but they required more support than I had allowed for and so collapsed quite early (Sept), But they where spectacular and lots of people stopped and asked me about them. So we will see.........

Patience not me!

I am not a patient gardener, I think I am but I'm not.  How does this affect the garden well probably more than I think.

When I sew seeds or take cuttings, I am forever checking for root growth, thats why when plants/seeds do grow here they are very tough, becuase they have probably been popped out of there pots on numerous occasions.

The Hiniba are a prime example and could explain why only a few have grown instead of lots, serves me right really!

So can I really expect the tree ferns to be sending out new croziers bearing in mind I only blogged about it 5 days ago, I think not! I wonder if it is easy to learn patience (not the card game) I really ought to try harder.

I also change my mind a lot. A grand example here is my arid bed, July last year I plant two new cactus  Pachycereus pringlei and Trichocereus macrogonus, so they have a) survived the winter

b) look relatively happy.

So what do I do? Dig one up! to move it to make space for a new Agave!

it maybe small but I have high hopes,

this is what it 'could' be like. This is grown in the UK and more information about this Agave can be found here

Obviously if it gets this big, I will have to move more than one cactus, lol!

Meanwhile around the rest of the garden, plants I presumed where dead have come to life Colocasia Pink China, I had assumed had been frozen and rotted has poked through

As have 2 other Colocasia

another Pink China

In some way you hope the ones in the ground will survive, but what has totally stunned me is this

a pot on my patio that has had no winter protection whatsoever, was probably frozen through and yet look whats popped up, another Colocasia.
So how does a tiny little plant like this survive when a huge tree fern, that was protected doesn't?

That's gardening for you!