Cheshirepalms blog - Planning for a new arid bed.

[cheshirepalms]

No let up in growth of anything despite much cooler conditions of the last few days. Brugmansia sanguinea is now in full flower too!

[cheshirepalms]

Well as its officially the last day of summer so here is a garden tour, hopefully in much better quality than the previous ones. Hope you enjoy it and that this fantastic summer keeps on giving!

[cheshirepalms]

A quick update on the Canary Island date palm spear pull recovery. It spear pulled on 13th June and it doesn’t look too bad 2 and half months later. First picture is 14th June, the second is 19th July and the third is today. Testament to a warm dry summer which has given me the chance to use soluble palm feed as a bonus. It was far to wet to feed palms with soluble feed last year.

[cheshirepalms]

Managed to pick up some unusual seeds that I've not come across for sale before, while I was on holiday. Anyone had any experience of growing any of these from seed. My girlfriend (from South Africa) has been desperate for a protea, and I've not been able to find anything till now.

[miketropic]

we have lots of datura over here but never tried the others

[cheshirepalms]

we have lots of datura over here but never tried the others

How do you look after those in Winter Mike? Ps I've sourced some Monkey puzzle trees, a group so there should be a greater chance of cones, although none yet.

[miketropic]

we actually grow them as annuals here they won't survive my winters but they might yours. Here with out heat the grow like mad reaching 5 ft in a season and bushing out and flowering well.. buy seed you never have to by it again, prolific seeders. I let mine die out so I have to get some more seed from a friend down the street. I've only seen them in white are there other colors available over there?

[cheshirepalms]

I'm sure there are other colours and its says mixed on the packet, so I'm hoping that means mixed colour as well as variety. We will see, I'm not going to sow them until February and it will be indoors, moved to greenhouse in mid April to May. Ready to go out in June.

[cheshirepalms]

This is probably as good as the garden will look now before next spring/summer, taken on Saturday before the high winds of today.

[flounder]

Managed to pick up some unusual seeds that I've not come across for sale before, while I was on holiday. Anyone had any experience of growing any of these from seed. My girlfriend (from South Africa) has been desperate for a protea, and I've not been able to find anything till now.

Just seen this so thought I'd give a mention to Silverhill seeds, Being in South Africa they have a good selection of SA plants!
Germinating protea isn't the problem, it's keeping them alive afterwards
I've had good results mixing some bonfire ash in water, soaking seeds in that for a few hours then planting in a moist, sandy compost mix. 25c ish they'll be up in a week or so.

[cheshirepalms]

Managed to pick up some unusual seeds that I've not come across for sale before, while I was on holiday. Anyone had any experience of growing any of these from seed. My girlfriend (from South Africa) has been desperate for a protea, and I've not been able to find anything till now.

Just seen this so thought I'd give a mention to Silverhill seeds, Being in South Africa they have a good selection of SA plants!
Germinating protea isn't the problem, it's keeping them alive afterwards
I've had good results mixing some bonfire ash in water, soaking seeds in that for a few hours then planting in a moist, sandy compost mix. 25c ish they'll be up in a week or so.

Thanks for the advice, I'll try to get hold of some in November from a bonfire site

[flounder]

Thanks for the advice, I'll try to get hold of some in November from a bonfire site

Be careful where you get it from, you don't want any ash from stuff that's had treated woods and old mattresses and like.
A lot of places sell smoke thingys, can't remember what they're called, basically a disc impregnated to put in the water you soak the seeds in. I'm tight so I don't invest in stuff like that, I prefer to get my hands dirty!

[cheshirepalms]

Thanks for the advice, I'll try to get hold of some in November from a bonfire site

Be careful where you get it from, you don't want any ash from stuff that's had treated woods and old mattresses and like.
A lot of places sell smoke thingys, can't remember what they're called, basically a disc impregnated to put in the water you soak the seeds in. I'm tight so I don't invest in stuff like that, I prefer to get my hands dirty!

Thanks for the heads up. I've got an incinerator bin so ill burn some wood myself and use that, no going to sow any of the seeds until February on a windowsill, so they should be some young plants come May, when we are hopefully frost free.

[cheshirepalms]

Everything is still actively growing and looking good, so late into the year. It was a late start to the spring, but its certainly made up for it with summer continuing into September and now October!

[fern Rob]

You're garden is looking great.