Free plants (well sort of), softwood cuttings

I love this time of year all the garden centres and nurseries are awash with bedding plants. This year I've toned down my bedding plant buying and have sown a lot of seeds and the plants I have bought have been from small local family run nurseries. I've decided to stop buying plants from big garden centres, I want to support the smaller places and not give my money to the big boys. So I'm avoiding the garden centres and stocking up at nurseries, gate side stalls and village fetes. I'm very lucky to have the amazing Hill house nursery close by and they sell the most amazing selection of everything all grown on site. Anyway I've veering of point.

So bedding plants, about now they would have put on a lot of growth, if you want really lush, full plants instead of long leggy thin plants, cutting them back with encourage lots of side shoots and lots of good growth. It may seem drastic to hack back your newly bought plants (especially if they have flowers on them) but trust me, you'll be glad you were brave in a months time when you hanging baskets look gorgeous.
Now this is the really cool part turning you little plant in lots of little plants.

Softwood cutting tutorial

Lots of people find propagating plants a bit of a mystery, something only old men in green houses do (I was always a bit daunted by it when I started gardening) but it's really easy.

So Here is a lovely little cherry red million bells, lots of nice growth perfect for taking cuttings from.

So you need to cut the plant near the side shoots (this will encourage the little side shoots to grow on the plant, giving you lots more flowers)

so this is what you have to work with.

Trim the bottom of the stem to just below the two side shoots, this is where there roots with grow from. Remove the leaves

Its a good idea to remove the top shoot, this will help the cutting put its energy into forming roots instead of top growth,

Then its a case of filling a pot with nice damp soft free draining compost (add some grit to prevent the compost getting waterlogged and the cuttings rotting) and making a little hole using a plant label of chopstick or knitting needle (something long and thin) and inserting your cutting, don't just push the cutting into the compost as its quite delicate and you can damage the base. I rarely use hormone rooting powder, but you can, it contains fungicide to help prevent the cutting rotting.

if you put the cuttings around the side of the pot they stand a better chance of the roots striking, as the roots hit the side of the pot they will branch out and grow stronger. Also you can fit quite a few in a pot and save on space. Try to avoid the cutting touching each other.

If you have a lot of large leaves on your cuttings (like with these mint cuttings) cut the leaves in half. This will cut down on water loss from the leaves (OK science bit coming up.... the cells in the leaves put a pressure on the roots to suck up water, respiration. buy reducing the surface area you reduce the force of the pressure.)

You need to keep your cuttings moist until the have formed roots (to check gently turn the pot upside down and you'll see little roots poking out the bottom) They need humidity to keep the leaves moist (look out more science.... the leaves in plants are surrounded by an invisible film of moisture, when this film is lost they put pressure on the roots to replace it and your little cuttings haven't any roots yet so it will be curtains for them) mine are in my little greenhouse or you could put a clear plastic bag over the pot kept secure with an elastic bag, make sure the cuttings don't touch it.

So heres my little collection which hopefully in a few weeks will be ready to be planted out.

I even used the mint leaves I removed on the cuttings to make a cup of tea
which was lovely except for the bits of compost floating about in it.

Jess x

Shamelessly self indulgent moi

Its my birthday today (hooray) I can no longer refer to myself as 20something (boo) so to celebrate I'm off later to my favourite place to buy plants Hill house nursery Where I intend to buy some beautiful hellebores to fill my disgraceful looking wildness of a garden.

That's so rock and roll.

jess x

Thursdays favourite plant

Scented geraniums

I currently have 2 of these fragrant delights but after browsing about on the interweb I've decided I want to start a collection (even though I have no room).
I have Attar of Roses and Prince of Orange which smell funnily enough like rose's and oranges.
There are so many different types ranging from mint to apricot. I've been told the Attar of roses has the best rose scent to it, I love picking of a leaf and giving it a scrunch. I use the leaves for drying and cooking, you can add the a couple of leaves when making rice pudding, ice cream, chessecake, pannacotta by infusing them in the milk/cream before mixing everything together. This is important: only use a scant few leaves as they can be quite overpowering.
I recently made some strawberry jam and added some leaves (rose) to the simmering juice and berries, taking them out before boiling. The jam has a very delicate hint of rose about it yum.

Scented geraniums are tender short lived perennials. They need protection over winter, I bring mine inside and put them on the window ledges. If I had a conservatory or greenhouse ohh I could fill it with them. They also are great plants to take cuttings from either mid spring or late summer. I nearly killed my Attar of roses earlier this year by putting it outside on a nice sunny day in march but forgetting to bring it back in that night . It got frosted and went black and looked awful, two days before I'd cut it back (to encourage healthy new growth) and luckily I'd stuck some of the stems I'd cut in a jar of water. So I potted these up and now have two lovely bushy plants and a smaller tied looking mother plant (never quite recovered.

Next spring when I go to Hill house nursery next spring I stock up on a few more (ssssh don't tell the husband).

(a late) Thursdays favourite plant

Melianthus major (aka honey bush)

picture via gardeners world

Now I'm afraid to say I bought a small one of these last year in late summer but I failed to protect it early enough from the frost and snow, thus I was found guilty of accidental plant-slaughter. I almost bought one yesterday at Hill House Nursery on my way back from the Totnes show, but decided that as they were quite small they might not establish enough before it gets cold. Also and in a rare moment of restraint I thought that I have enough plants waiting for homes in the garden that a melianthus would just get caught up in the backlog (although it didn't stop me buying a Japanese anemone.)

These half hardy plants are mainly grown for their lush foliage which is a glaucus (bluey-grey) colour, with a sort of waxy texture that holds water droplets like sparkles. It also has a curious smell to it which reminds me of my grandads shed, It smells like fishermens friends (cough sweets) and pipe tobacco. They do also flower and produce huge amounts of nectar (hence honey bush). But for me I'm interested in the foliage that will look stunning with dark flowers and my new dark grass (that's siting waiting to be planted.) So I think I'll wait until next spring until I get one.
You can find more info about them here, here and here

£20 is not enough

So at the weekend I convinced husband to take me bedding plant shopping, now I love bedding plants I get all excited at the beginning of April planning containers and colour schemes for the window boxes and baskets (hey it keeps me out of trouble) so off we went to (nearly) all the little local nurseries. One of my favourite places is hill house nursery. Its a fairly small place tucked away in the south hams with old greenhouse's stuffed with their own grown plants, total plant heaven. Anyway husband set me a budget of £20 to spent which was a nightmare because i could spend a fortune there. So i got my mix of bedding plants but sadly had to leave behind a Melianthus major that i really wanted and a clematis viticella "purpurea plena elegens" that i also really wanted to replace the clematis that the naughty puppy decided to chew through. So a return journey is on the cards.

so here's my stash of bedding plants

Now there are still a few more I need like some white and purple geraniums and some trailing plants for the window box and basket at the front door

this year I'm going to have yellow, pink and blue at the front. The sun disappears at lunch time so the yellow with brighten it up. In the back garden I'm going for pinks and purples mixed with lime greens and orange. I like a bit of clashing

I love these Nemesias aren't they gorgeous, berries and cream on the left and blue buttons on the right, and they smell lovely.