Hi from Wild Wet Wiltshire

[Arlon Tishmarsh]

I'm going to go and find the right forum for my cycad questions now.

Hi Mand
welcome
Perhaps if you put your question (s) again, perhaps someone can help

[mand]

What a friendly place I've found.

You could do with buying one to start the collection

That's what I'm researching! But they're a big purchase by my freecycling/charity shop standards so I'm going to research all winter.

Hi mand and welcome to htuk. Im just gettin'g into succulents for outdoors, currently trying to overwinter some in my unheated greenhouse, i have been doing some research for next year as hoping to buy more varieties, they scare me a bit as they look way to tender but i really like them and think they are tougher than they look. Hoping to buy a var named Flapjack amongst others next year so might be picking your brain

I tend to get all academic/bookish about things once bitten by the bug, so I can waffle on for ages about the narrow range I actually know anything about. I haven't got many outdoors mainly because I can't stand Sempervivum - have tried, honest! - but would happily fill the garden entirely with Sedum family.* Some succulents are extremely hardy, some come from above the snow line. I find Aloe doesn't like the cold but Aeonium is better wtih it. The rain's more problem (here) but again, plenty are fine with it.
* plus Euphorbia whcih I ddin't like until this year. And bananas but not sure I have enough garden to put one/many in, hence looking at dwarves.

Flapjack is a variety of what?

i like kalanchoes but the cat loves to test new plants here by having a chomp on them so unfortunately,like cycads etc,i cannot really afford to try them.

I don't need a cat for that, I kill them all by myself! Loved my K. tomentosa, velvety; I'll get another one day. My dog is too fussy to eat the plants - luckily.

That video makes me want to move to a desert... I thought she was about to give tips for getting it back into flower but no! That's why i got into kalanchoe, the time I had a phase of it - received wisdom is that you can't make them flower once they've finished, and so the gauntlet was thrown down.

Hi Mand
welcome
Perhaps if you put your question (s) again, perhaps someone can help

Yep, just noticed that you have done so off to that thread now!

[fern Rob]

Musa basjoo tends to be cheep, and a great plant.

[mand]

Thanks Rob, but isn't that one of the big ones?

[Deedee]

Flapjack is a succulent mand, Kalanchoe Luciae Flapack..



I love Semps. they are gorgeous when grouped together..like this.



I bought my first Euphoria last year and im loving it..

[GREVILLE]

I bought my first Euphoria last year and im loving it..

What are you on, Dee?

[mand]

That Flapjack is gorgeous. Looking very happy too. (I did guess it was a succulent, I meant which kind!)
Enjoy your euphoria...

The Euphorbia I'm currently in lurve with is my E. bupleurifolia x susannae which I got on eBay last year.
Really need to get my camera/computer cable sorted!

Sorry but I just can't like Sempervivum - makes no sense to me since I love Sedum and sometimes they look very alike. But so often, I exclaim how great something is and it turns out to be Sedum, or I exclaim how odd it is that I don't take to something even though it's Sedum-ish, and it turns out to be Semp ... maybe I've been a Sedum in a previous life.

[kata]

I love Sedums Mand,

I have one in a border spreading nicely towards a garage wall, its tight and no weeds got through yet. Another in a pot has nice red flowers.

Great for dry stone walls.

[mand]

Great for dry stone walls.

Yes - in fact do you know how to start them (or any plant) in a dry stone wall? I've popped Sedums in a lot of paving cracks / gaps / gaping holes(!) which is working well, but on a vertical surface I'm not sure how to keep them (+ soil) in there before they root, without blocking off the light.

I have a feeling this could be a kickself but as a matter of fact I never was a gardener, started with indoor plants solely, and have only become interested in the the actual garden out there during the years of not being able to get out there and garden in it!

[kata]

Put in your compost, then add the sedum, If you notice Sedum has very fine roots all the way up the stem.

I wish I could see the wall now. I moved out three years ago but trying to get my old bungalow back...could take a while.

I just used to keep taking a cutting and starting a new area of the wall. Make sure its the red ground cover Sedum type Mand.

[Deedee]

Double post. I might ask the same question of me

Hahaha Greville I do love Euphor B ia tho lol. (oops )

[mand]

Put in your compost, then add the sedum, If you notice Sedum has very fine roots all the way up the stem.

But the compost (and plant) falls out, because the entrance to the gap is vertical...

[redsquirrel]

gently tie a cocktail stick to the stem and poke it in further
once roots spread,it ought to cling on its own and keep the soil in with it,pack a bit of gravel in with that after,might help keep it in if it rains

[kata]

But the compost (and plant) falls out, because the entrance to the gap is vertical...

I used to put mine in overhead, maybe your wall has been 'pointed' overhead. Red has the solution.

I also found this.

Try stuffing the holes with long-fiber sphagnum moss; the kind you use in hanging baskets and such. Then stick the plant, with it's soil and rootball into the moss. Keeping them watered will be your biggest issue. The more moss you can get into the crevices, the better it'll hold moisture.

[mand]

Thanks both of you, I'll try those ideas / variants. I don't think watering will be a problem given our weather.

I know they grow once rooted properly; the village (including my wall) has plenty of stonecrop, moss, and ivy but all on the north sides and I want to have mine on the south, which faces out, partly for show but largely to hold the wall together until I can afford to have it re-walled.