Rooftop horticulture in the City - My World of Plants

Plantlove in a cold climate

2010-12-09T00:34:00.000-08:00

Hello, I thought I'd change the title pic to remind all of us in the northern hemisphere that summer does exist and it isn't always -21.1C, as was recorded in the tiny Scottish village of Altnaharra yesterday, where residents haven't been able to get through the snow for three weeks. And here in London it's hovering around zero, which isn't great for tender plants but at least nothing's fallen out of the sky for a while and what did last week has melted.
As my regular reader will know (Hi James!) I won (yes, I know, I've got to get this under control!) several choice Lilies in a late flurry of bidding on eBay, paid a ridiculous amount for them but where else am I going to get L. henryi, superbum, oxypetalum var. insigne, pumilum and 3 more hansonii, as well as a free gift of a yellow impatiens, the name of which I keep forgetting (It has about 5) but the small operation is on the west coast of Scotland and the owner hadn't seen a post van for almost a week due to a huge fall across the central belt of the country so she is very kindly looking after them for me in case they end up buried under a mountain of Amazon Christmas parcels in a warehouse somewhere. I can wait, they're not going to flower for 5 or 6 months anyway!
So, despite the minor thaw, many of my pots on the roof (and there are only pots for roofs of course tend to be soil-free) are still frozen solid. My tender babies are crammed into a flimsy polythene mini greenhouse and so far it has done a sterling job of keeping things perky but I have to be careful to open it during any day it's safe to do so because with that volume of plant material comes a huge risk of the spread of pathogens and the dreaded Botrytis so I'm trying to give it a good airing daily.
There is a fly buzzing towards the ointment though: I received an email yesterday saying four sexy but tender beauties are on their way: Hedychium densifolium (the Ginger Garland Lily), Wachendorfia thrysifolia, Libertia Grandiflora and Dietes grandiflora. I know I have seed of the Dietes and I will sow it but I got a bargain on a plant and couldn't resist. The Libertia's from New Zealand so might be a bit hardier as they have a similar climate to ours.

The Hedychium is said to be hardy down to about -5C but that's an established garden plant, not a pot. I might have to get the bubble wrap out!

Wachendorfia from South Africa. Hardy to -1C. Shit!

After a bit of research it appears Liberteria grandiflora is a hardy cottage garden plant . Phew!

Dietes grandiflora. Apparently frost hardy but only just. At least all of it will be underground at the moment!
(Photo © pinemountainnursey.au)

So possibly not that much of a problem. I'll let you know when they die.

Oh, I know what I meant to tell you, I took delivery of half a dozen dwarf Rhododendron hybrids from Corwallplantoholics. Note the word "dwarf"! They came in 10cm pots and all were healthy and perky except "Giny Gee", which brown patches which look suspiciously like rust so I might chuck it. I already have a very healthy specimen of said variety (you couldn't choose, it was take what you were given). And I was given:

"Snow Lady"

"Blue Star"

"Wee Bee"

"Patty Bee"

"Little Ben"

And we might as well have a look at "Ginny Gee" again:

I nicked this picture from the Duchy of Cornwall. Do you think I'll end up in the Tower? I think the over-priviledged pillock can do without the repro fees and if he does come after me, just remember I'm a journalist and I know things about him he doesn't know I know...

Okay, that's it until it gets light and I can brave the roof to check up on things. I need to pot on Lilium Langkongense which is currently in a weeny square pot and that lovely bulb with the white flowers and red spots ... bloody medication... begins with an "O"... no it doesn't, Nomocharis.
I stood for a hour in the queue at the PO depot yesterday morning (It's a fortnight before Christmas, every other package was from Amazon and they had two members of staff on and a queue of over 50 up the street in -3C) to pick up two packages: one containing half a dozen tall, narrow Clematis-style pots which I plan to use for my Lilies so they fall over more easily, and a massive load of slow release fertiliser granules, essential when growing in containers. It's lucky there weren't any plants because they've been sitting there since Thursday.

Back in an hour or two!

Actually, not a lot to report. Cyclamens cilicium and coum arrived in the post today (two of each so I planted each of them an inch down in a woodlandy compost mix, they're bot quite hardy so should be fun, even if all Cyclamen look the same. I suppose it's a bit like Galanthophiles; I can understand why they have bulbhouses full of, to the novice, identical snowdrops but they and their kindred spirits can see the differerences.
With Cylamen it's mainly flowering time (autumn or spring) and leaved (rounded and unmarked or pointy and silvery. And the myriad shades of pink.

Potted on wee Rhodies and also Lilium Lankongense into a much bigger pot and I'm glad I did because in that one little square black 10cm pot were two flowering sized bulbs! So that was me happy enough to watch another leaf fall off one of the South African Pelargonium species I'd raised from seed. I suppose my grief was tempered by the knowledge that I've 12 species or 1st species hybrids coming in March.

Oh, and a lily's popped up, some gaudy trumpet hybrid, it's about 2cm tall.

Everything's still frozen solid by the way, makes potting on a lot easier!

May the weather not be really bad to you, the plantboy, and don't forget you can Tweet me (@theplantboy) for advice and abuse

Shopping around. And around. And around

2010-12-05T07:05:00.000-08:00

Well, I can't remember which of you told me eBay was a good place to pick up bargains but I wish you hadn't! It's a good place for any normal person to pick up bargains but for those with an addictive personality, it can prove very expensive indeed!

That said, I've picked up a lot of seed and bulbs that I would never have got anywhere else, including two honorary Irises, Dietes iridiodes and Belamcamda chinesnsis.

You can see where it got the name from, it must be a couple of strands of DNA from being the real deal

Ditto!

I've also been able to try things I would never have thought to touch before such as the dozen or so South African plants I went through a few posts ago. The seed has arrived, leaving me with the conundrum of what to do with it. I think I'll have to exercise self-control and wait until late spring before sowing them, it's not like they're going to flower next year anyway. The delivery also contained some very odd (but gratefully received) free seeds such as Okra and Capsicums! I really want to get the Gladioli going but in the meantime I have bulbs of G. communis ssp byzantinus planted up along with three other genus which are living at the bottom of the stairs: a genius solution to space/domestic harmony issues. It's not heated down there but it's indoors and it's a good deal warmer than outside or the (already full to bursting) bulb frame or polyframe. I had never heard of Dichelostemma ida-maia but it's gorgeous! Also down there is an Oxalis deppei I won by accident and Calochortus venustus, a pretty little thing.

Gladiolus byzantinus naturalised, not imprisoned in a pot like mine!

Dichelostemma ida-maia: What a remarkable and stunning plant! And I've got one! In fact I've got ten!

An Oxalis. Actually, it's quite nice really

Calochortus venusta. Not bad for less than £2 for 10

I can't remeber if I told you about the red Delphinium seed? Well, I've got some red Delphinium seed. I think I can safely sow that in Feb/March.

I went a bit mad yesterday in my pursuit of Lilies and ended up paying well over the odds for Hansonii x 3, Pumilum x 4, Henryii x1, Superbum, Oxypetalum insigne x 3 (£21!).

L. hansonii

L. pumilum (I'm really glad I won this one, I love it's vivid waxy blooms)

L. Henryii

L superbum

The dainty and very expensive (but worth it) L. oxypetalum insigne

In the meantime, there has been a steady flow of packages arriving (just as well I'm only working three days a week at the moment or I'd spend my life in the Post Office depot surrounded by staff, no not surrounded, separated by a glass wall from a maximum of two members of staff who radiate unhelpfulness. None of these cost more then £2.50 (until we get to the two bulbs at the end!).

A couple of Rhodys: "Ginny Gee" and williamsianum:

A very nice specimen of Williamsianum (above) below, Ginny Gee, which the late great Euan Cox considered the finest dwarf Rhododendron hybrid ever bred. And I don't think it's even once of his!

R. Williamsianum

Primula secundiflora (secund means held to one side. The flowers that is. That's some below.

Polyanthus "Paris 90"

Penstemon "Windor Red"

Alstromeria psittacina variegata (below in flower. Nice!)

Pelargonium dichondrifolium. A little bit feeble looking but the lovely vendor, wyll-o-wytch, added this for nothing;

Pelargonium "Lady Plymouth", which is scented of something although I'm not sure what, and will look like this:

Digitalis "Pam's Choice"

Primula chionantha

Primula waltonii

Corydalis flexuosa "Blue Dragon"

Phyteuma scheuchzeri

Clematis Napaulensis (see last post)

Narcissus humilis

Iris dandordiae just poking through yesterday

Iris Zenaidae (in flower below)

Snow joke

2010-12-02T12:21:00.000-08:00

Now it's getting silly! I can't find anything on the roof because it's all covered in several inches of snow! If only the cafe downstairs were open and badly insulated!

For the classier lilies I've collected over the last few months such as auratum and speciosum rubrum I've formulated my own compost with bark shippings meant for orchids, perlite, a bit of sandy John Innes and the bulk provided by a peat-free but identical in texture and character compost from Miracle-Gro (which also contains plenty of nutrients). The Lilies arrived from all sorts of sources in all sorts of pots or bare -root but the potted ones all came in a very open, woodland compost, hence my attempt to recreate those forest-floor characteristics (I did investigate leafmould but it comes by the tonne, not much use to me, I think that would mean the end of the roof and anything underneath!

Lilium auratum

Lilium Speciosum Rubrum. (© Edenbrothers.com)

I ordered some terracotta pots from crocus.co.uk a few days ago which arrived quickly via courier but had the most ridiculous packaging (I should have photographed it). For both orders, the first of 5 pots, the biggest pot being 20cm, came a cardboard box at least 75mmx75mmx75mm! And inside were two enormous, weird non-squidgy but foamy things that had been created to fit these little pots in the middle! It took a recycling sack and two bin bags to deal with the detritus. Nice pots though! Oh, before I forget, I've ordered a lightweight strawberry planter which has a dozen planting pockets. Naturally it won't be seeing any strawberries!

So the plan was to pot on some of the Lilies in smaller pots (such as the typical martagon, which had a leaf showing and it's too early for that, it was in a square 10cm pot and needed to be deeper). It took quite a bit of tracking down: all the bulbs have upside-down coir pots on them , making them look a little like Tommy Cooper but with the very important task of keeping the f***ing squirrels out of them. They've been at the Gladioli and Narcissus too but apparently Lilies are their favourite. Unless they have a blow-torch they'll go hungry at the moment.

Lilium martagon (the typical pinkish form, not to confused with the white form or the burgundy version, all of which I have in either seed, seedling or bulb form)

So, all set: new compost, finally located the Lilies and Nomocharis pardathina I wanted to give some room and of course the compost in the pots is frozen solid. Which makes re-potting rather easy as there is no danger of the bulb and rootball collapsing. I just knocked it out, place in the new pot at the required height and filled in around the side and top. Easy!

Nomocharis pardathina: there is so much variation even within species that there is no guarantee mine will be patterened anything like this. It could have fewer, more, bigger, smaller. Hey, it was a bargain. (Photo © SRGC)

It's odd but looking out the windows, the only things looking perfectly healthy are a Penstemon hybrid and a nice zonal, ivy leaf but upright Pelargonium which is even holding on to its orange flowers! Neither should even be alive! Perhaps that's their mistake: they stay upright and exposed until the cold eventually beats them into submission whereas things like the candelabra Primulas, which are from half-way up the Himalayas and spend winter under snow, insulated, have flopped to mush but presumably have a healthy crown just waiting for spring. I daren't check, although as well as four mature plants I also have (had?) more than 50 seedlings. (I have no idea whether they'll make it).

The white form of one of out two native Irises, pseudacorus or yellow flag (a bit boring to be honest). The other native is Iris foetidissima, a plant more famous for its aroma of roast beef than anyhting else. It also has perhaps the most underwhelming flowers of any Iris anywhere in the world. In fact I have to show you a picture now.

I think this is "Citrina", the more attractive "yellow" form. Face it, it's brown. Oh, and it has red seeds. You know they're really scraping the barrel when the colour of the seeds becomes the USP.

Seeds of a white form of Iris pseudacorus arrived in the post his morning along with some other goodies. A dwarf Rhododendron, "Ginny Gee", the aforementioned Lilium martagon, Lilium pardalinum, Clematis napaulensis and 10 bulbs of Leucocoryne "Andes", all of which I'd picked up on eBay for buttons.

Rhododendron "Ginny Gee", a compact little pinky-apricot thing. As you can tell by the Narcissus, it's not a giant, by any means, which is just what I want. I can't find the name of the photographer but thank you, it's beautiful!

I knew exactly where to plant the Clematis, in a trough with a trellis I'm using to screen the "greenhouse" from the side. I'm currently using embryonic examples of the luscious Lathyrus chlorantus, which have just put out their first tendrils so appear to be quite hardy. But it's an annual so will need back-up (although I plan to collect seed because a yellow Sweet Pea is a very special thing.

Clematis napaulensis, which I must admit I had never come across before. Looks a bit like a Fuchsia. It is also summer dormant so the combination with sweet peas will work perfectly as one takes over from the other

Lilium pardalinum arrived today. The bulb is surrounded by little bulbils like grains of rice. It was right at the top of the pot (although I think it had just been lifted from the ground) so I have replanted it more deeply

The weather is reminding me of my rather cavalier attitude to hardiness, assuming the London bubble (we're a couple of degrees higher than the coutryside) will come to my aid every time. I have an order of 12 species Pelargoniums arriving in March and have just bagged 10 mixed Regal Pelargoniums for 84p each. This is to replace the Tulips and Violas in the clay pots on the windowsills. But of course we can get frost well into May. It snowed the day I was born (April) (70s). But I'll worry about that later. I also bagged some seeds of Pelargonium dolmiticum (the Carrot-leaved Pelargonium) and Pelargonium radens, the Skeleton Rose Geranium today. I've also got a rooted cutting of Pelargonium Dichondrifolium on the way very soon with another mystery friend as the vendor thought it looked a bit lonely on its own. Nice person, hope he labels it though!

You can see why they call it the carrot-leaf Pelargonium! The flowers are quite attractive too and typical of many of the species Pelargoniums.

Pelargonium Radens. Nice pink flowers. The leaves probably smell of something.

Pelargonium dichondrifolium

Speaking of the inclement conditions, the Leucocoryne "Andes" are on the brink of hardiness (-5C) although I'm assuming a pot leaves the contents more exposed (unless it's made of polysyrene). Actually maybe I should have potted them in a coir pot. They're not exactly beautiful but theoretically it would provide some degree of insulation. Ah well, it's too late now.

Leucocoryne "Andes". Nice, isn't it?

Well, I hope your greenhouse heaters are working and you lifted the Dahlias in time! Until the next time, the Plantboy

Snow and seduction

2010-11-30T12:17:00.000-08:00

Iris Aquilifer

Well, the snow that has been creeping down Britain for the last week has finally reached the roof and it's a sorry sight. We had some hard frosts last week that didn't do any visible harm but an inch of snow and everything flops like a leaf that's had its cell walls destroyed by expanding ice.

Not to be put off, I've had Iris orientalis and more sibirica hybrids soaking for 36 hours so I really had to plant them, which is what I did.

Iris orientalis (syn. ochroleuca). A tall (1m upwards) member of the Spuria group and an excellent garden plant. The flowers often have whiter falls than this example but as with anything in nature you'll get variation.

My rules for success with Iris seed are incredibly simple and have yet to let me down: soak for 24 hours and sow thinly (they're quite big so easy to manipulate with the end of a label or something), cover with compost or vermiculite. And do all this in winter so they get at least two months of stratification. And come spring you should see little green swords scything through the surface layer. This has worked for Sibiricas, Spurias, Beardeds, Pacific coast and other beardless types such as maackii, graminaea, bulleyana, innominata, sintenissii, pseudacorus, etc, etc.

I haven't grown many beardeds from seed. For the uninitiated, irises are split into two main groups, the bearded, with big, showy flowers which have little fluffy yellow "beards"on the falls (the downward pointing bits) and dagger-like leaves, like this:

Everything else falls into the beardless, although there are many divisions within this, from the bulbous reticulata bulbs you see in Jan/Feb to the stoloniferous yellow flag of our native rivers, Iris pseudacorus.

At the moment I have seedlings of sibirica hybrids (crosses made by someone else, not me, I'll get to that in a year or two!) , douglasiana hybrids, ditto, and ungerminated pots of I. attica, orientalis and Pacific Coast hybrids.

Iris attica, at home in the mountains of Greece, is one of the smallest, if not the smallest, of the beardeds, and is also very variable in flower colour, asyou can see here. They get much bluer too!

I won't show you the sibirica or douglasiana hybrids because I'd just be guessing but these are the type species:

A really nice example of Iris sibirica, parent of everything from white and yellow to pink and even double progeny after the hybridizer has practised his art. Below, douglasiana, the tallest of the Pacific Coast group, is incrediblyvariable, as are many of the group . There are much darker blues and purples with white veining or without. and look, no beard, which would have been where that yellow patch is in a bearded iris

As there's nothing doing outside (it's all covered in snow!) I thought I'd take you through what I can expect Iris-wise next year.

First will come the reticulatas, indeed I have a pot of straight reticulata which has 8in leaf spikes but no sign of any flowers. But then it's only November. I also have a white for called "Natascha"

Iris reticulata "Natascha". Not totally white, a very pale blue. Exquisite! (Photo © SRGC)

While we're on the little bulbous ones, we might as well cover Iris danfordiae. This is an odd one, famous for flowering and then seemingly disappearing. One theory is that the mature bulb breaks up into lots of little bubils after flowering, as small as grains of rice, and just get lost. By growing in a small pot I'm going to find out exactly what happens by emptying the contents after the leaves have died back and going through them forensically!

I. danfordiae

Also in this group is an Iris I've wanted for ages. I remember the buzz when it first came into being in the late 80s and watched the price come down from £20 a bulb to about £2 thoughout the 90s as the cross was built up. It's now sufficiently numerous that I was able to but 10 for £2.99. So I bought 20.

You take one of these, Iris winogradowii (itself a real catch):

And cross it with this unassuming partner, Iris histroides

And you can actually guess the result. I don't know who 'Katherine Hodgkin' is/was but in plant form she is beautiful and hard working. Here she is:

Say the Pacific Bulb Society in the US: "A justifiably coveted reticulata Iris hybrid of Iris winogradowii and Iris histrioides. When it first opens, the flowers have an ethereal color scheme that's hard to describe; a tinge of sea-green suffused with powder blue and fabulous intricate markings.

From here it's into the bulb frame for the junos, named after a Roman God, In fact the first who species don't really need a bulb frame if you have a patch of well-drained soil that captures the sun. Iris bucharica is naturally found in country's such as Takjikistan and central Asia where the weather is considerablt different to London's. The flower early and then go to sleep (in dryness) until next winter. Get the watering wrong with junos and they will rot on you. And they ain't cheap. My most expensive cost me £17.95.

I.bucharica. And, yes, the foliage does look just like maize. Fortunately the flowers are more interesting.

I. magnifica, also quite an easy one and possible outdoors in the right place

Getting a bit trickier now! My first year with this one, Iris aucheri...

Just to prove they don't all look the same, here's one that's a but of an oddity:

The flowers, themselves atypical in the width of their falls are held high above the leaves of I. cycloglossa.

Next up are a couple that look similar but the first is new to cultivation, which is why it cost £20. In fact it's so novel I can't find a picture of it but Paul Christian, my dealer for Iris fixes says of it: "A wonderful new juno recently introduced from Continental Europe but originally native to Central Asia.

This has compact, stocky growths composed of short but broad, glossy green leaves clustered around the central tube which supports a large golden yellow flower borne very early in the year. In effect this is like a golden yellow Iris nicolai.

Sharply-drained, loam-based compost with good air circulation around the plant.

This is probably best under glass until its needs are appraised, but early indications are that it is probably growable outside in the UK once you have spares to risk!" (I don't). Hopefully I can show you my own photos in a few months because it already has the first signs of growth so the odd drenching, followed by a wait until it is almost dry, followed by another flooding etc.

So the last of the Junos is quite a common one, only cost about a tenner:

A rather poor quality picture of I. orhioides, which completes my juno collection.

So, on to the next scarily difficult type, the regalias. There is a really quite easy species in this group call hoogiana which I grew under cover in Scotland all those years ago and it a photo can't do it justice. An amazingly powerful scent from a beatiful baby blue bearded flower. I'm not growing it just now, I think because it looks too similar to the regular bearded hybrids, the finite space and the fact I wanted to try a different species.

I. Hoogiana. Relatively easy regalia Iris, possibly even outdoors

I. stolonifera. As the name suggests it spreads by stolons (not easy in a pot) and also not easy to work out which bit goes upright so I just laid the three 4-5in strips on the surface of the compost (plenty of perlite, sand and grit and slow release food granules) and decided to let gravity do the work. A light covering of compost and then grit. No water until the first sign of growth until signs of growth or January, whichever comes first.

The last little darling is an Oncocyclus, the hardest of the hard, although the one I chose is not the hardest onco. "Dardanus" is very typical, very little in the way of leaf but enormous bearded flowers that are among the most eye-catching in the plant world, never ming the Iris world:

Told ya it was eye-catching!

I'm also growing I. imbricata, a difficult but not bulb-frame difficult (I hope!), a bearded cream to yellow beauty of intermediate height which is a tricky one but given the right, free-draining conditions it's heck of a lot easier than the above. It doesn't really need a bulb frame or alpine house but it does help keep the showy blooms neat and tidy for longer.

The image right at the top of the post, "Aquilifer" is an arilbred iris (the aril is a little white bit on the seed, we don't need to worry about that). These are often stunning crosses between members of the Regalias or Oncocyclus and common bearded irises. Arils are generally not easy to grow in temperate climates, tending to be susceptible to rust and rhizome soft rot. Without a regular spray program, it is easy to lose them. I dust the rhizomes/stolons with sulphur, which has the benefit of being bright green so you know if you've missed a bit. It is particularly important to dust if you have had to cut the rhizome for some reason.

The Regalias and Oncocyclus have fine, insignificant leaves, in contrast to the lush green leaves of the standard bearded irises. But the flowers are spectacular, with interesting coloured patterns and shapes. The colours of the Arils can be very pure and clear, or the flowers can have amazing contrasting blotches on them. When crossed with bearded irises, some of these characteristics are retained and, in others, fascinating colours, streaks and patterns may emerge.

I have four, the above Aquilifer, Heimdahl, Jehosaphat's Reliance and a numbered but un-named cross the supplier gave me as a freebie. Images are impossible to find anywhere on the Web so we'll just have to hope mine make it to bloom so we can enjoy them together!

Heimdahl

Now I'll wrap up the other beardless specimens I actually have, as opposed to ungerminated seed, that being a white pseudacorus and the previously mentioned hybrid collections.

First of all is a little cutie called Iris ruthenica var. nana:

From Eastern Europe and Asia, it has fragrant violet flowers. Obviously "nana" means the miniature form and has nothing to do with its grandmother!

Next up is the rather similar I. colettii, the only difference being that this one's lovely flowers only last a single day.

Iris kerneriana is one that's causing me some consternation as I defininitely ordered it as such but the label says I.kermesina, which is an old name for I. versicolor which is, frankly, the second dullest iris in existance (after foetidissima, a UK native whose claim to fame is that its browny-yellow flowers smell of roast beef. Am I making sense?)

It came from one of my usual suppliers and I wouldn't expect them to get the order wrong or use an out-of-date name for versicolor, so I'm going to assume it is kerneriana, which has odd, thin yellow fowers.

An oddity and not necessarily beautiful but a lot more fun than I. versicolor!

And this one caused a stir last time I showed it, the humble Iris graminaea, or Plum Iris, not sure if that's because it smells like plums or has a plummy colouring. And I don't really care.

There's a couple from the Xiphium group I should mention, that's the onc known variously as the Dutch Iris, The English Irish, Spanish Iris and the Morocco Iris

I'm not, and never would grow this because I find the whole Xiphium Sub-genus dull. I did raise it from seed in childhood, not sure why or where I got the seed from. Hmmm, they should still be there actually... must have alook next time I go to see dad.

Anyway, I've got a couple, one that's part of an inspired planting scheme in a big terracotta bowl and the other I think was a free gift (spend more than £500 in our garden centre and get these, sort of thing).

There's Bronze Beauty

And "Eye of the Tiger"

And that completes the beardless, I think, although you will, of course, have spotted that both I. stolonifera and "Dardanus"have beards. But they just fitted better in there because now I'm going to go through the beardeds and it will be like a Monet painting.

These are ones everyone thinks of when you say Iris and are very easy to grow. They like a sunny spot and their rhizomes just on the surface of the well-drained soil where the can have the summer baking that will give you a great show next year. Lift and divide every fourish years as they tend to die out in the middle and you want to keep the vigourous new growth. Do this after flowering (obviously) but not immediately. First feed the plant well as this is when it's building next year's show in the outer rhizomes and let the sunshine do its work. Then, when the soil is still warm so the plants have time to establish, get the spade out and lift the whole lot, either chopping of a chunk with a few rhizomes for a possible instant replay next year or using a knife to cut off individual rhizomes. Whether replanting in the same spot or elsewhere make sure you prepare the soil well with good compost and and a handful of food. Give the leaves a trim to stop them rocking in the autumn wind and you may not get a flower next year but you will get a great show the next year.

I have 16, 14 imported from Cayeux nurseries in Spain or possibly France. The two others I got on ebay for a quid it two.

"Sunny Dawn" (or possibly not, but it's very close

"Red Zinger"

"Mistigri"

"Real Coquette"

Here they are:

"Hocus Pocus"

Dark Vader

Rare Edition

Green Spot

"Chanted"

Mocambe

"Extra"

"Finsterwald"

"Hoodlum"

"Tickled Peach"

"Bed Time Story"

"Joyful"

Plants have sex too you know!

2010-11-27T06:24:00.000-08:00

Good Lord, it's freezing out there! All the unprotected pots are frozen solid, which is just as well as I kept knocking them over as I slid about on the ice rink that is the roof. Had a look in the zip-up greenhouse and amazingly it is obviously several degrees warmer in there; I got a phyteuma scheuchzeri in the post yesterday and it was in moist compost and, not knowing how tender it is, I put it in overnight and this morning the compost was untouched by Jack Frost, which bodes well for getting my Pelargonium species through the winter. I've decided to leave it zipped up during the current cold snap but I'm aware that as soon as the sun shines on it I need to get it open and aired to prevent the evil Botrytis and his mates getting a hold because it is overstuffed and needs plenty of air circulation.

Phyteuma scheuchzeri. It was about a quid on eBay so I couldn't help myself

I won't bore you much longer with Lilies but I got a few things in the post this morning (at 8am! It usually comes about 11), including a very valuable delivery from Paul Christian Rare Plants. It was three amazing Lilies from the Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia area and while they all look similar, the difference in bulb size was amazing! L. ciliatum was HUGE! Bigger than a cricket ball. Despite the inclement weather I had to get them potted so ciliatum was first, in an old clematis pot (I've run out of decorative pots and it's all about the flower anyway!). I'll have to re-pot next year in a wider pot to allow it to produce off-sets (hopefully). Look at that colouring, it's like a Turk's cap L. nepalese!

Next in order of size was Lilium majoense:

Says Paul: "A superb plant with slender, yet robust, growths clothed in disease resistant waxy foliage below large, broad white bells with a large blackcurrant-purple zone in the centre. The white is sprinkled with imperial-purple. August. A very beautiful species.

Likes a sunny spot with only a little shade,but a well drained, humus rich soil where it can root down." Yes, It does look a bit like the above but I don't care, it's not sodding "Stargazer" or regale!

Also in the package was L. fargesii, a teeny-weeny bulb but what a gem!

So, three green Lilies with varying degrees of marking but a few months ago I din't even know these plants existed. They also came as bulbs which meant a bill around £50 but gives me something to look at when I'm faffing about with seed of other species and genera (which I actually enjoy but with Lilies there are so many kinds of germination - epigeal, hypogeal, delayed epigeal etc (I won't explain what they are because if you need to know you know already and I'm not sure I fully grasp it myself). Oh, also in the package, because it wasn't green enough and I'd overpaid the postage were two Fritillaria acmopetala var. wendelboi:

It was getting hard to write the labels by now due to the loss of feeling in my fingers but I had two more jobs: sow L. martagon (dark form) and L. Szovitsianum, I'm guessing a Russian species, hang on let me check... Hmmm, it's known as the Caucasian Lily and I've just seen a really nice photograph by a guy with an unmistakably Georgian surname so let's say former Soviet states. Just read this germination info: "The following specie lilies are delayed hypogeal germination. They will sprout their first true leaf only after a 3 month cold period. The true leaf will be put up within a three week period from the time the bulblet is planted out. It is well worth watching these seeds on a regular basis as some may germinate as immediate hypogeal and the very odd one as immediate epigeal. The species with this type of germination which I have grown will germinate as follows: Lilium szovitsianum - 50 to 80 days. The odd seed will germinate as immediate hypogeal.

EH? Does that mean that if I do what I'd naturally do anyway: stick them outside for the winter and expect some germination action in the spring, I'll eventually get some of these?

I like the backdrop almost as much as the Lily!

So it has gone outside basically until something happens (a surprisingly effective germination method with most seeds, honest. If you have patience, they will be exposed to everything in nature and one of them will be the thing it has been waiting for (no, not the squirrels eating them). As have L.martagon which requires the same treatment but seems much less of a palaver: sow, put outside to stratify, wait, admire seedlings.

And speaking of seedlings, I've been taking an awful lot of seed deliveries lately and thought I'd share them with you. (don't worry, no more Lilies). These are from my chums at Chilterns, if you haven't already, check out their on-line catalogue. It's partially illustrated and you can always Google image stuff. Let the show begin!

Dhalia "Bishop of Landaff"
(Good photo eh?, one of mine). Don't know how true it will come but worth a pop.

Lathyrus Aureus. A clump-forming, bushy perennial with upright stems, dark green leaves divided into leaflets, and racemes of yellow-orange flowers in late spring to early summer. Not a climber like that other famous Lathyrus, the Sweet Pea, but the flowers caught my eye.

Crocus Kotschyanus. An autumn flowerer, and not a favourite with the Pacific Bulb Society! "... is a somewhat weedy species usually flowering in October. It has a bad reputation not only because it is a rampant self-seeder, but also because many forms have flowers that are woefully undersized. There is a form in commerce that appears to be badly infected with a virus, as the flowers are not just small, but seriously deformed. A good form of Crocus kotschyanus with flowers of reasonable size is worth having, however. In some lights the flower color approaches a delicate pink, and one can forgive a self-seeder of such beauty." Well, mine will be from seed so the virus issue is not a problem and as I have no garden soil into which it can self seed, I'm looking forward to it!

Primula Parryi

Primula flaccida

Papaver pilosum (what was I thinking?)

Erythronium Revolutum

Lupinus versicolor. Why the hell did I order this?

Conanthera Bifolia. A Chilean bulbous plant with small panicles of blue, purple or white flowers in the Tecophilaeaceae family. They are not fully hardy in the UK and if grown outdoors should be planted in sandy soil in a warm sunny border and protected during winter from excessive rains and frost, or grown in a frame in colder climates. Propagate by offsets or seed for insurance! They prefer light (sandy) and medium (loamy) well-drained soil. They should be kept well watered during growth and then be allowed to dry off.

Gladiolus Palustris. Nice enough I suppose. Not sure why I bought it. Perhaps I had a crazy plan to cross it with G. tritis and make beautiful babies. You never know...

NEVER has a plant looked more like an Iris without being one. 'tis Moraea Huttonii, A South African bulb that blooms in summer and hails from the Drakensbderg mountains in KwaZulu-Natal, where it grows in clumps by the banks of mountain streams. It flowers at about 80cm but the leaves can reach 1.5m. Not fully hardy so best grown in a container or at least overwinter in a sheltered spot (garage or shed are fine) ans save some seed!!!

I like a nice Corydalis now that I've got over my fear of C. lutea, a pernicious weed in my part of Scotland second only to the dreaded Mare's Tail, and as these are seeds of a named variety there should be a little variation in the progeny, which I always like!

And my final packet from Chilterns: Delphinium, Unknown Variety. They must know what pushes my buttons!

Now, from elsewhere (not much longer now!):

Ferraria ferrariola or the Spider Iris/Lily. I'm getting this in my South African batch but its such a stunner , a bit of back-up is always handy, even if it is just five measly seeds.

Dietes iriodes: A very close relative of the Iris (duh!) that is hardy down to -5C. Should flower in its second season fro m seed

This is rather exciting, I didn't know there was a red Delphinium. Just think what I can do with my yellow D. Zalil and a cotton bud - an orange Delphinium! There's probably a chromosome mis-match or something otherwise I'm sure it would have been done by now but red will do just fine.

It's like a cross between an Iris and a Lily! Can I contain myself? Well, I'll have to bacause it takes two years to flower . The flowers are hermaphrodites (I don't really know what that means botanically). Apparently each of those orchid-like blooms only lasts a day and the plant itself needs regular division and moving to reinvigorate it

And here' the coconut-scented, Orchid-like Nemesia "Shooting Stars" ,my plan for the windowsill pots once the Tulips and Violas have passed.Well, one of my plans ...

Well, wrap up yourself, wrap up your plants, don't water in the greenhouse unless it's heated, and keep specimens in the alpine and bulb houses and cold frame on the dry side, unless you fancy a Saxifrage in your G&T. Happy gardening, my US and Aussie reaaders, and Brits, start at those parsnips with a pick axe now and they might be ready for the oven come Christmas!

The Plantboy x

Lovely Lilies and more besides

2010-11-25T09:39:00.000-08:00

It's part two of my reckless orders frenzy and their safe arrival. Fortunately the three Lilies that arrived today from Crug Farm (in a box big enough to breed rabbits in, but safe and sound, currently experiencing a Siberian front outside) are planted in a very loose, woodland soil so are untikely to tip the balance on the roof but I'm no structural engineer! I'll get to the Crug Farm delivery in due course but this lot got in first!

On their way/arrived are seed (boo!) of the following:

WOW! Lilium lophophorum, a very special plant indeed and photographed stunningly by someone uncredited. Says Paul Christian, he of the Rare Plants nursery, probably the best place in the UK to get things like this: "East to grow but very slow from seed, and infuriatingly these germinate within the green pod in our climate - you have to be alert to get this one sown! Short Stems, just 15-20cm, with disproportionately large yellow flowers with long twisted segmentsm initially joined at the tips. Likes cool, damp peaty conditionsbut good drainage. A lovely dwarf Lily which should be better known, especially in view of its strong but light fragrance of Lemons." You said it Paul!

Lilium Leichtlinii: An extremely variable species from Japan with reddish-purple spots grows in the wild only in central Honshu, among tall grasses in rich, moist, meadows. The stem is purplish; the buds (and the outside base of the tepals) are wooly. Height varies from 2-4 ft. The "ordinary" species is the one with the yellow flowers (below) and var. maximowiczii (above) is yet another orange Turk's cap.

Lilium Superbum: It can be yet another of those orange Turk's cap or it can be the wonderful specimen below which is just so much more interesting. I hope there's a variety across my 75 seeds, not that I've got anywhere to bring them on to flowering age. Grows from 3-7ft and can have 3-40 blooms per stem so I think the word "variable" best described this species. Native to the eastern and central regions of North America and happy growing in almost marshy conditions, although I imagine it would prefer a little more drainage but certainly not dry.

Lilium pumilum. A stunning, vivid red unseen anywhere else in the genus (feel free to prove me wrong!). This ia a particularly vivid example, it can vary down to a very deep pink. From North Korea (although I didn't see any when I was there), Manchuria and Mongolia. Apparently quite easy if well-watered.

Lilium "Fata Morgana" is an Asiatic hybris with a difference! This semi-double, with upward-facing yellow flowers will reach 90-120cm and likes full sun to partial shade. It's an odd looking thing but I rather like it for that.

Lilium Davidii. Yet another orange Turk's cap. A native of Sichuan and Yunnan in China, it will reach 1.5m when happy. There's no scent from the blooms, which emerge from July to August. The bulb is apparently edible (especially to squirrels) and sometime stoloniferous. It is stem-rooting so needs deeper planting than usual. It is named after David Armand

And from Crug Farms, a hithero undiscovered source of Lily superiority, came the following today (obviously not in flower, it's November and around 0C outside!.

Lilium pardalinum This is yet another of those orange Turk's caps that can vary to red with yellow throat markings like Superbum above. I'm just hoping I've got a red one! Sometimes known as the panther or leopard Lily, this is a native of Oregon and California where it usually grows in damp areas (hence the compost). Typically 2m high, unusually 2.5, it flowers in July and has many sub-species. The bulbs are small and many are usually clustered together on a rhizomatous stock. Which is new to me!

Lilium poilanei Thanks to Chen Yi for the image, there are not many about, photos or bulbs! To quote the grower "A beautiful highly scented species which formes slender stems with scattered lanceolate leaves, 1-2m tall, bearing 1-many large yellow pendant trumpet flowers with recurving tepals, stained red in the base August-October. From one of our 2006 seed collections from the Tram Trom Pass northern Vietnam, one of the few footholds that it had survived in, which unfortunately has since been devastated making way for a new road into China. Here it grew on shady vertical cliffs, rooting into cracks and narrow shelves. Best grown in a well drained fertile soil with plenty of moisture retention in part shade." Got in just in time then!

Lilium rosthornii Yes, it's another orange Turk's cap but what a flower! Over to expert Paul Christian: "A lovely Chinese lily which has become available only within the past few years, and only then after a considerable amount of confusion with Lilium henryi. It makes a splendid display with well packed stems of about 90cm holding several blooms of a softer tangerine than henryi. The petals characteristically have quite long papillae on them and this combined with the later flowering habit, some six weeks after, henryi is sufficient to confirm their identity. Easy and readily grown in light shade in a humus rich soil outside. Despite its rarity, this is not difficult." Good! A papillae, by the way, is a tiny outgrowth on the surface of a petal or leaf. ( I had to look it up too).

Also arriving yesterday were seed of Alstroemeria "Ligtu" hybrids:

Bit brash but easy from seed and should flower in two years. I can give most away if they're not justifying the space!

MORE Iris Sibirica mixed colours and Pacific Coast mixed hybrids too ( I just like surprises)! And 10 nice bulbs of Ixia "Bluebird"

It's very unlikely I'll get something as special as this but you don't know till you sow!

Thanks to Broadleigh who are famous for their work with Pacific Coast iris and have many named varieties. One thing: they don't like being split.

And finally, for today, Ixia Bluebird, an eady bulb ideal for pot culture (and dead cheap on eBay!)

Well, that's it for now. Already have more seeds and bulbs than I can put to paper (screen) arriving daily but I will endeavour to keep you informed (I'm so glad I did the South African stuff last week!) Happy gardening, look out for Jack Frost where appropriate and, readers in the north of the UK, remember snow is an insulator!) Good luck and happy gardening, the Plantboy

Seeds of doubt

2010-11-23T07:09:00.000-08:00

So, there's no room left on the roof although the natural winter die-back has created some temporary space. There's no alternative but to be ruthless next year as the plants (and hardware, ie pots, compost, etc) need to be concentrated around the edge as the the roof was never built to carry pots of soggy compost, it was built to keep the rain off the cafe next door! But as long as I make maximum use of the wide windowsills (which infuriatingly never catch the rain!) and keep the really heavy stuff, such as the Clematis tower, right at the edge, which it is, between two thin skylights which are very much in the way but very much useful for letting light into the cafe. Both my flat and the cafe are owned by the same landlord. The cafe (only open on Sundays) is run by his daughter and she's never complained other than about the time a very dehydrated pelarganium in a clay pot comnbined with a very windy day to almost kill a woman but ever since I've moved everything back and cleared the sills nearest the drop on market day.

So, no more room. I have trays and trays of healthy Lupins, Verbasucum hybrids, yellow dianthus (knappii) Primula candelabra hybrids and about a dozen pots of Digitaisis obscura, all of which I only need a few of and will give the rest away: My friend Linda M is overhauling a bramble patch into her back garden so free plants will surely be welcome, and my friend Linda Q might take a few off my hands too. I just have to grow them on a little more which I can do at Nicky's allotment (this is purely so I can choose the best colours - well, i'll only have three, they can have as many as they like, as can Nicky who has just bought a new house and garden.

Why then, have I been buying seeds by the ton (cos they don't take up much room, for a few months)? My new Twitter chums are to blame: pointing me to great but obscure seed suppliers (only kidding, I'd have dug them up myself eventually)!

So, here's the confessional (I was in a Liliaceae frame of mind)

From Secret Seeds:

Lilium ex Royal River hybrid I'm always interested in the progeny of hybrids because you have no idea what genes might be lurking in there from many generations ago. This is what the parent looks like, each of my 20 seeds will look quite different!

Primula paxiana (primulaJesoana) is a cute little primrose which I believe is from Russia, similar to our native British P. elatior (the cow or oxslip, can't remember which, the one that holds its flowers up in a ball, P. elatior, that's it). There's very little info on this anywhere so it's either very rare or very boring. Hopefully the former!

Primula prolifera Obviously I don't have enough candelabra Primulas so I got a few more, including this one. The Amber Candelabra Primrose hails from a wide region in nature: from the Eastern Himalayas to Indonesia and prefers a temperate climate (nice!). For maximum freshness keep seed refrigerated until it is time to sow. Hope they have but even if they haven't I'm sure my magical powers will extract at least a handful of usable seeds.

Digitalis thapsi Just when I thought I had the lot, along comes this sweet little thing, like purpurea but daintier. The flowers are flared and have a white patch on the bottom of the inside, very reminiscent of a garden centre hybrid Penstemon. Colour, like purpurea, seems to vary from magenta to pale pink. There's probably a white form around but I'll stick to my pink. It flowers in its second year from seed and, like most of the genus, is short-lived so seed collection is a good idea id you want plants the next year.

Dodecatheon meadia It's a while since I've grown this odd cross between a Primula and a Cyclamen (not literally). It made a good gareden plant in Angus and is a wooland shade lover (though not too much dark, obviously). It's a wildfower of the southeastern US, from southeastern minnesota and southern Wisconsin to Oklahoma and Texas and, and Maryland to Georgia and Alabama. So it's pretty happy anywhere and I know from experience it's fully hardy halfway up Scotland so should be fine anywhere in the UK (except perhaps the Cairngorms!)

Albuca shawii (syn. trichophylla) I must admit this is a total mystery to me. It's not the best pic but it's the one from the suppliers' site so I'm not treading on any toes. Google image it yourself, it's lovely! The flowers look a bit like Clematis tangutica from above. Flowers yellow and green, nodding. Leaves narrow, glandular, reputedly smelling of aniseed when crushed! Summer-growing/flowering, winter dormant.

Anthyllis vulneraria var. coccinea Another complete unknown which just makes it all the more desirable! "Commonly" known as red kidney vetch. An easy-to-grow alpine, this forms a low mound of downy silvery-green leaves, bearing claw-shaped clusters of orangy-red pea flowers in early summer. Blooming continues for many weeks, particularly in cool summer regions (check!). Tolerates poor soil and dry locations well, once established (check!). Plants often self seed: move seedlings to a new location while small, if desired.

Corydalis heterocarpa It took me many years to stop thinking of Corydalis as a weed as lutea grew in every nook and cranny, whether 20ft up or in a shady corner in Scotland and I hated it. It was only seeing some of the species in Tibet and finally flexuosa that changed my mind. It's a hardy biennial, bizarrely from the poppy family and in spring it thows up spikes of yellow flowers with brown tips. About 1-2ft in height

Oenothera campylocalyx Well, this doesn't look like any evening primrose I've ever seen, which is a good thing! It's a biennial or, if your lucky and it's happy, a short-lived perennial. Collect seed to be on the safe side.

Pulsatilla dahurica Well there is a huge amount of analysis of it's chemical composition and medical potential (the root is apparently ground and used for something but they're not allowed to say what because it doesn't work, like that rubbish where something is so diluted there isn't any of it left in what you take ... you know, Prince Charles convinced the NHS to waste all its money on it... homeopathy! It looks like a Pulsatilla, what more can I say?

Pulsatilla vulgaris red form Now this is more like it! Easy to raise, easy to grow (must get some limey compost) and unless they sell me a dud, lovely hot red flowers at a time when the garden is should be overwhelmed by Irises of many types and shapes but all a bit flower-on--sticky. This should go well with the various Meconopsis and primulas that WILL have made it out by then!

And that completes the order from Secret Seeds.

Still being in a Lily frame of mind I stumbled across a quirky little site, Sparra's Nest, where an Australian Lily breeder was selling the results of his experiments with the paintbrush. Interestingly most of his crosses were between varieties that looked almost identical. Perhaps he is trying to perfect, say, the orange trumpet by crossing two sturdy examples or perhaps he knows something about the parentage of each that I don't. So out of curiosity really, I ordred a bulb each of lilium davidii X Lilium leichtlinii var maximowiczii (RM10-188), RM09-8-02 X RM65-108-1 (RM10-247), L. davidii X RM09-1-17 (RM10-341), and Orange Monster X RM09-8-05 (RM10-175). I know all that doesn't mean much to anyone, even Ken Cox, so we'll just have to wait for them to flower (they come with phyto-sanitary certificates) so it all seems legit.

Then I turned to good old Chilterns after that rather other-worldly experience, even though that the sort of thing I intend to be doing soon, though not with Lilies, everyone's been there, done that.

Oh, while you were reading that the postie came with a bearded iris hybrid called "Mocambe" although a Google search throws up nothing (and it's not Morcambe), two x 20 Alstroemeria Ligtu hybrid seeds (so I can experiment with sowing, given my lack of heated greenhouse, and an amazing five very healthy Iris bucharica bulbs with so many off-sets I have no idea why they cost only £2.75. I know it's getting to end of the planting season but what a bargain from eBayer PukkaPlants.

Grit, slow-release granules, perlite, JI no 3 and peat-style compost, which should suit all three plants

Extremely good quality bulbs from the eBay seller, all 5 came with quite chunky off-sets which will flower themselves the season after next

The bearded iris is a bit weeny and won't flower this year unless a miracle comes along but the pan of bucharica should be show-worthy! Especially if I get round to taking the labels off the pot... I don't expect the Alstroemerias to germinate until well into spring but moist compost is as good a home as a plastic bag. STOP PRESS: Having got so enthused by Alstroemeria Hookeri (it's coming up), I decided to bring the pot in to the heated propagator, along with Nectaroscorum siculum and Penstemon digitalis.

I have so much more to list but I think I'm going to have to break it into stages for your contuned interest and my sanity. So perhaps we'll end, for now, on Chilterns order number five of the season (there's a sixth), so let's plunge in (it's very lily-based).

Lilium Regale: Not my favourite, I think because it's so common ( I mean prevalant, not vulgar) and perhaps because I can buy "Three bunches a Fiver on yer Lilies now girls" every Sunday from 8am.

Joseph Hooker must have been having a good day when he stumbled across Astroemeria Hookeri! One grower had it in pure sand in his greenhouse plunge tray, another plant, from from seed is growing in course sand, loam and pumice in am unheated greenhouse in Oregon, USA. (No the warmest state). I shall bear that in mind should my seed come up. I really hope it does because this is a treasure and I'll buy a plant if I have to!

Lilium Martagon var. Album. Some of the seeds may have a greenish hue. Well, the flowers, not the seeds.

Lilium Columbianum. Native of western North America. It occurs in forest clearings, grows up to 1.2m and bears from a few to many orange flowers with dark spots. The tepals are 3 to 6 cm long and the flowers lightly scented. Native Americans used it to make food peppery tasting. It prefers that ultimate oxymoron of growing media: moist but well-drained. And it rarely survives being moved.

Lilium candidum (popularly known as the Madonna Lily). It is native to the Balkans and West Asia. It forms bulbs at ground and, unlike other lilies, has a basal rosette of leaves through the winter, which die back in summer. A flower stem, usually about 1.2m but up to 2m, emerges in late spring and bears the beautiful, fragrant, flowers. It is particularly susceptible to viral disease and Botrytis fungus. Of course, growing from seed deals with the former. You could spray for the latter, depending on your stance on these things

Lilium bulbiferm var. croceum. Not my favourite style of Lily, the squat, upward facing ones. But the only one Chilterns had left of their book that I haven't already got!

Well, that's part one of a three-parter, hope you enjoyed it and enjoy your own garden. Brits, get the bubble-wrap out and turn up the green house heating cos it's about to get brass monkeys! Happy protecting! The Plantboy

The Cape of No Hope!

2010-11-20T04:42:00.000-08:00

Plodding around the Web trying to find some rare Iris or Lily seeds to get me going when spring and its cotyledons come around, I stumbled upon a South African site called BidorBuy, a kind of eBay for seeds. My success with Irises, Lilies and Gladioli has given me some much-needed confidence when it comes to bulbs from seed (I'm convinced 90% of what makes "green fingers" is confidence, the other 10% being knowledge and an innate feel for the plants).

It wasn't the easiest of sites to navigate but I found myself buying packets of 10-30 seeds of eight species I am completely unfamiliar with. I just went for the ones I liked the look of; did no research; and so am totally in the dark on how to treat them but with the Rand being quite weak I spent less than £20 so if even one or two of them come good it will have been worth it.

This is Babiana attenuata, a member of the Iridaceae (trust me!). Ten seeds cost about 70p

Another Babiana, odorata, which grows in clay soils in the northwest and southwest cape. The flowers apparently have a spicy violet fragrance! © Pacific Bulb Society

Cyanella lutea has the look of an orchid about it, although fortunately it isn't (a step too far, even for me!). Apparently the flowers can sometimes be pink but I'll be happy with anything. It grows on clay or limestone flats and grows over a wide area, from Namibia to Lesotho and Botswana. It also grows in areas of year-round rainfall, which bodes well...

Actually, I have heard of some of them, the genera anyway. This is Dierama dracomontanum, another Iridaceae , from the Drakensburg mountains. "From seed these can take seven years to flower," says one site, adding that the Dieramas tend to come from moist, mountainous grassland. Seven years is a long time but if I keep sowing and planting, each year will provide something new, so I'm not fussed. Honest.
Photo ©Wildgingerfarmcom

Dipcadi serotinum was chosen by me for its vaguely Lily-like looks but is in fact a member of the Hyacinth family. It likes a sunny spot and hates cold in summer (well, it's gonna have to get used to it!). The tubers appear to have a period of dormancy over winter when they should be totally dry, with watering gradually reintroduced in early spring (just like those pesky Oncocyclus and juno Irises I'm growing).

Gelssorhiza tulbaghensis, crikey what a mouthful! This is in the Iridacaea, hence the slight appearance of a fully open crocus. It's found on clay flats and banks in the north and southwest Cape, in fact the whole genus lives in winter rainfall regions and benefit from copious watering during growth in a pot.

Another genus I'm familiar with, having 100 inch-high seedling of G. tristis in a covered tray outside on the roof that all came up one night, as if reacting to a command from Mother Nature. This is a late spring/early summer plant of marshy sandstone in the southwest and northwest Cape. According to the Pacific Bulb Society, given the right conditions this plant can naturalise outside of South Africa. But before I get too excited they mean places like California and Western Australia, not London, E2!

G. tristis. There are dozens more now!

And lastly, Zephyranthes robusta, or the Rain Lily. It's also encouragingly featured on a site called easytogrowbulbs.com! Now that I've plugged them, I hope they don't mind me quoting them:"This plant has earned its name by blooming for a long season, beginning in June and continuing on and off through September ... This is a plant that asks for little, delivers dependably and should grace every warm weather garden.". It's hardy to zones 7-10 so might need lifting over winter. Or just chuck it in the greenhouse.

Back in the real world, there have been some frosty mornings but no damage so far, although Bishop of Landaff is beginning to fade. I've promised it to a friend so will have to work out a way of keeping it alive, ideally without taking it out of the out. I also ordered seeds of it from Chilterns last night to replace it many times. I've been planting a few seeds, Iris laevigata "Colchesterensis", that thing that used to be an Allium but now has a huge name beginning with an H ... No, it's an "N": Nectaroscordun siculum

I have also taken a shine to a Clematis flowering in the schoolyard next door. By dangling myself and my broken foot over the wall I was just able to grab a handful of fluffy seedhead. It's a blue/purple macropetala looking thing so quite what its progeny, if it comes up, will look like is interesting and exciting to think about (I'm so sad!).

Also sown, in the hope that they will stay put until spring, were Cyclamen pseudibericum, Clematis ladakhiana, Penstemon digitalis and Iris graminea (again).

Cyclamen pseudibericum

C. Ladakhiana. Not a thing of conventional beauty but I like it!

Rhododendron vireya "Saxon Glow" is about to burst into flower again! There are fully formed flower buds all down one side of the bush! Mad...

Out of season: "Saxon Glow" has rarely been without at least the odd flower since May

A few of the Frits are beginning to show signs of growth, as is Iris svetlanae so a tentative drink has been taken but I've got to remember that it's only November.

Well, sorry I haven't posted for a few days, got to pay the bills and it's dark when I get home so there's no chance on getting the snapper out. Have a great weekend and get out into that garden, even if it's just for a check up. The Plantboy

Lilies Duly Considered and Planted. And the Icing on the Cake

2010-11-16T06:45:00.000-08:00

Meconopsis suberba looking unfazed by the dip in temperature. But then his mum's from halfway up K2 so he's used to a bit of cold weather.

Frost has visited the roof for the first time this autumn. Or rather, I have been up early enough to encounter frost on the roof, a relatively rare occurrence in Zone 1. Or 4. Or anywhere in Greater London. Actually it was quite dangerous as there are no walls or fences or anything to stop me sliding all the way off after manoeuvring my disabled foot out the window first and letting the rest of my body just flail after it. But I hadn't expected everything to be so, well, frozen and slippy.

Notholirion thomsonianum is growing by the day. Frost is clearly not an issue!

I had gone out to do the morning rounds (I've been up since 2am due to chronic insomnia and night sweats - my pillow was so wet it was like someone had emptied a bucket of water over my head - thank god I don't have to go to work today) but I digress. So it was no surprise that I was first in the queue at the PO depot when it opened at 7am. Turns out it was a Tricyrtis hirta "Miyazaki" I'd ordered from Ebay. It's a beautiful specimen and even had a flower on it which fell off before I could very quietly get my photographic gear out of the bedroom. Still, not bad for a couple of quid and it's quite an unusual hirta hybrid, unusual in the sense that I'm sure mine had black spots but when I google it, it appears very varied, which it shouldn't be, they should all be genetically identical ... (does some quick research) ... Ah, it appears to be a named variant of T. hirta, and variants of variants are also called "Miyazaki". So that's clear then. You could read this http://www.paghat.com/toadlily2.html but it just confused me. Anyway, here's the little darling, sadly sans bloom:

The cold doesn't seem to have done any damage, although I did have the polyhut zipped up for the night but it's so draughty and crap that if Joseph Paxton were to travel forward in time 159 years he would cry, and not in the good way.

The good news is the Lathyrus chloranthus appear to be hardy, to a degree at least

Even a regal Pelargonium wondered what all the fuss was about

In fact all the bitty seedling i was worried about are fine, even Digitalis obscura and its 49 mates and if a Mediterranian native fond of sun-baked stoney hillsides can cope with sitting in a nodule of soaking, freezing peaty compost with only its cotyledons for protection then there's hope for us all.

Anyway, today was meant to be about planting Lilies and surprise, surprise, a juno iris and a Frit from the Romit Valley in Tajikistan. Well, it's from seed collected there.

It seems like months ago that I was struggling with four containers from The Very Expensive Garden Centre having been seduced by van Meuwen's half-price collection of 4x5 Asiatic hybrid Lily bulbs so I must have put the order in even longer ago but they arrived yesterday, all the way from Holland, mostly looking wonderfully healthy and already showing an inch of growth so It's just as well I have somewhere to plant them and took delivery of 150 litres of compost from Dobies mail order service weeks ago! (Which made moving around the roof even harder, what with all the plants and stuff. One of the Lilies is rather unfortunately called "Tiger Woods". So that's not a brand new introduction then!

Yes, there they are. I lined the basket with polythene and slashed holed in it, as well as punching holes in the two metal containers and then filling then bottom of each with gravel.

I had intended to underplant with double nasturtiums but I fear that might put too much strain on the food and, most importantly, water supply. Lilies are hungry, thirsty beggars but on the other hand like their lower regions to be kept cool and mustn't dry out, it's that classic oxymoron soil condition of moist yet free-draining (many are originally plants of woodland margins, which is why they do so well planted in a leafy soil under shrubs such as Rhododendrons, magnolias and more boring things. And I do have other things to do apart from potter about up there with a hose, like write this and oh, do my day job) so I can afford the plants - and the steel columns that will soon be required to hold it all up.

Also arriving with the same postman, who DID ring the bell!, was another small, in size at least, order from Paul Christian that the Royal Mail had managed to lose and so as soon as the 15-day "sorry, black hole" period had elapsed the great man himself duly dispatched a replacement order with no fuss and including the Irises orchioides (juno) and stolonifera (regalia) as well as Notholirion bulbiferum - a star of a plant - and Fritillaria bucharica because it wouldn't be an order from me without a Frit.

But back to the Lilies. I mixed up a compost of the Dobies base, perlite so that if it does dry out it doesn't become a cube of Weetabix never to be rehydrated and a season's worth of slow release food granules.

Take some decent quality compost

Add , er, some, perlite

Don't forget to feed them

Et voila! We're ready to plant

Don't forget plenty of drainage, you don't want rotten bulbs

The sizeable bulbs came individually bagged by variety

The bulbs had begun to sprout with roots like tentacles and the sizeable shoots made for a delicate cargo, one or two losing that main shoot but with time to catch up before next July!

Planted too close together, of course, but who has a container that can contain five bulbs (the recommended) 10 inches apart?

The same amount of compost, around six inches, above and below the bulbs will give plenty of room for rooting (these are potentially 2 metres high) and keep the bloody squirrels out, hopefully. They've already had a go at the ones I planted at the weekend. And I've only got one sieve!

And sit back and wait for green shoots followed, with luck, by this:

"Dutch Red"

"Muscadet"

"Tom Pouce"

"Tiger Woods"

As if that wasn't enough, that still left two Irises, a Frit and another Notholirion to get in the ground. Iris Stolonifera, a regalia type (harder than junos, not as hard as oncocyclus) and I. orchioides (a juno) both went into pots of sandy John Innes 3 mixed with a bit of perlite, and just a handful of the peaty stuff which is against the rules but provided it's mixed in well enough, I'd rather grow in it.

I've already covered planting junos in past posts, be careful not to break the chunky root(s) off the bottom but if you do it's not the end of the world; they'll grow back

With the stoloniferous varieties it can be hard to tell what's up and what's down but if you lay it across the surface and cover with a thin layer of compost gravity will do the rest. Top with a centimetre of grit and into the bulb frame until it's time to simulate spring!

The Notholirion has already sprouted fresh roots so I made up a compost mix of peat substitute, rotted bark chippings and the ever-essential slow-release granules and potted it up, leaving plenty of room above the bulb so the roots can get established before it sends up a shoot.

And that just leaves squirrel-proofing!

Well, sorry to those who have been sucking eggs, and thanks for reading. Enjoy your garden!
The plantboy

Rooftop gardening in the City: My World of Plants: Entering the Digitalis Age

2010-11-14T06:44:00.000-08:00

Entering the Digitalis age. From the humble foxglove to amazing Spanish bushes bursting with yellow-tipped red, a true burning bush, if it were actually on fire. Learn more than you ever wanted to from the plantboy

Entering the Digitalis Age

2010-11-14T01:09:00.000-08:00

Why would a man, who recently compiled his top ten species and packed it with bulbs, rhizomes and other things with stems topped by colourful, almost orchid-like, blooms – lilies, Irises and meconopsis to name but three, also have included a genus that is not only a British wild flower (usually a no-no for this snob) but also quite often brown, well, a sort of mustardy /tan colour.

Digitalis purpurea

Our native is Digitalis purpurea, which everyone will recognise as the Foxglove from its pinky/purple or sometimes white hanging bells which take up the top half or so of the flower spike, and which tends to grow in hedgerows (if you can find one), at the edge of woodland (if you can find any) and in clearings in said woods. It can reach 1.5m, is beloved of bumble bees and probably evolved those flowers to deposit pollen on the back of the insects so it is transferred from stamen to stamen. Digitalis is Latin for thimble and the whole plant is poisonous, although it is used in the treatment of heart disease (DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME, YOU WILL DIE!!!)

D. grandiflora

As a teenager I also grew two yellow forms from seed, which became weeds (happy days!) D. lutea and grandiflora, which seemed to like the same conditions as purpurea. Grandiflora is shorter than purpurea but has the same biennial/short-lived perennial life cycle (and where happy will self-sow endlesslessly so just dig 'em up and replant where you want them. It carries its pale yellow flowers down one side of the flower spike (there is a technical term for this but I've forgotten this) but otherwise they are quite similar to purpurea.

D. Lutea

D. Lutea is (obviously) also yellow but has much narrower flowers. It's about the same height as grandiflora, approximately 2-3ft, and also golds its flowers down one side of the stem in a secund (GOT IT!). Plant one of these in your garden and you need never buy another. so promiscuous is it, it will appear in paving cracks and carefully prepared planting beds alike, or it did in Angus, and that's not the warmest place in the worldd, or even Scotland. And no, we didn't have a woodland friendly soil, well, not then. Now that the saplings I planted almost 30 years ago in my little red wellies have matured there's a bit more of a wooland feel. But we're not talking about gardens, we're talking about a soil-free roof in London, everything in pots whether they like it or not and some won't but tough luck!

D. Obscura

So what am I actually growing this year? Well,

I'm currently nursing some seeds of D.obscura through the colder months. I pricked them out a couple of weeks ago in the hope that that would give them a little boost and while they're sitting up happily enough and have a decent root systems on them I think I might have made the compost a bit too luxurious, as this biennial/perennial where happy comes from the mountains of Spain so a bit more perlite and/or grit might have been in order. That said, their not exactly dying!

They come in a range of colours, some with amazing multicoloured flowers, not brilliant colours, but elegant and refined. It's certaintly an unusual and highly attractive foxglove. Shorter than the classic species, with narrow evergreen foliage; it bears handsome, pendulous flowers in burnt orange and beige with red veins. A second flush of blooms will follow if it is promptly dead-headed.

Also doing very nicely outside, I'll see if I can find a pic, is D. ferruginea var. gigantea, which my schoolboy Latin would translate as rusty coloured and big. But I could have told you that by looking at it. Makes a spreading perennial a little over a metre high (so not that gigantea)!

This also hails from Mediterranean climes so treat accordingly (ie, don't try to grow in a pot in on an East London rooftop), although at least I get plenty of sun. And wind. And rain. Below is about one of about 20 young plants that were sown a couple of months ago and look in fine fettle to get through the winter without any help.

And I have one more living Digitalis, which I must admit I bought, D. parvilflora.

It's another odd looking thing with brown lowers rising from the usual rosettes. It's another biennial/perennial if happy so seed collection would be advisable. I should reach a metre and do well in a sunny spot in half-decent soil.

Now, I have seed of another four species which I'm going to wait until March to sow. They are D. lanata, stewartii, nervosa and viridiflora.

Hmmm, a bit of repetition perhaps but that's what happens when you go through an unillustrated seed catalogue with a pen in bed!

Anyway, happy experiementing! The plantboy

Your Name's Not Down, You're Not Coming In!

2010-11-13T07:23:00.000-08:00

Crikey, in a week when I have been resting my broken foot I have taken an awful lot of deliveries! Regular readers will know a big box of loveliness came from Kevock Garden Plants (see posts passim) and yesterday my huge (I hope) Lilies arrived to complete my order from J.Parker. They look good but my only moan is they sent me 5 "White Triumphator" when I ordered pink but I'm not going to make a fuss about that. So, they've gone in to a large but squattish clay pot. I don't thing they will need more than the 8in depth altogether, above and below, slightly more room above than below.Bulbs have an amazing capability for finding their own level by using their roots to push or pull the bulb into its optimum level. They will, however, need supporting if they turn out to be the monsters (1.5m) advertised.
Also planted into containers that look like shiny metal wastepaper bins but which are in fact plastic, which came as a surprise when I tried to punch drainage holes in the bottom and instead of little circles I got great shards of plastic coming away. Fortunately nothing a bit of crock couldn't cover, so lancifolium "Flore Pleno", a strange looker but that's why I'm in this game. Give me a tray of bedding Begonias and six months later I'll show you a small compost heap. The third Lily is "Robert Swanson", a yellow with beautiful red throats.

I also planted the Iris laevigata "Colchesterensis" seeds that have been soaking for 36 hours to break down their rock-hard coating. You can also do this by "chitting" which invloves a sharp knife, a seed and a very steady hand, so I tend not to do this as despite (or perhaps because!) I'm tee-total, I have rather unsteady hands and even experts (or vaguely knowledgable amateurs?) can damage the embryo. It just takes a very light slit, just enough to let water in, and only to the seed casing, DON'T TOUCH THE LIGHY GREEN BIT INSIDE! THAT'S THE PLANT! Best to soak 'em, it works for all hard coated seed I've grown, from Lathyrus to Iris.

And then there was a delivery from the excellent Buckland Plants (no Keith, I'm not on commission from them either). Fortunately everything was already potted up and needed nothing more than unwrapping and one Iris, kerneriania potting on as I actually had do cut the pot open to get at it and have never seen so many roots! They always say in this situation one should tease the congested roots out but I had to do a bit of tearing and ripping. I did thing about splitting it but in the end I just gave it a considerably bigger pot and gritty, peaty compost. It will be fine.

More Lilies but of a more delicate type: Liliums langkongense, medioloides, pardalinum ssp. vollmeri and auratum, which actually came from Kevock but I forgot to mention it the other day.

Lilium lankongense, an altogether daintier lily that hold its blooms in a pleasing way that I'm struggling to put into words. Sort of like a cloud around the top

L. medioliodes, a dainty thing from Japan

L. pardalinum ssp. vollmeri

And L. auratum, which may or may not lookk like this as it is a very variable species (hope it does though!)

Otherwise I finally got my hands on a Nomocharis mairei (ex cld 1490) - the bits in brackets are code for the expedition where the original seed was collected. When I was in Tibet 10 years ago they had only just made GPS affordable which made height so much easier to record. In fact I don't know how they did it before: you can hardly use trigonometry when there is almost nothing on the horizon and you have only a rough idea where the sea is. Dad, you might want to comment at the end, I'm sure you'll know.
For some reason Nomocharis have been in really short supply this year, Glendoick had none big enough and several other sources said the same.

N. mairei. (Mine will look a bit different, the spotting and frilling is hugely variable but never disappointing! © SRGS

The rest of the bunch are a, well, mixed bunch in that they don't have long stems with pretty flowers at the top. Apart from Frtillaria affinis, which I've accidentally got two of but I'm not complaining!

Iris kerneriana, now freed from it's bursting pot

Iris "Green Spot". Only a few inches tall but a bit of fun.

And finally for this delivery, Glaucidium palmatum:

Not my usual style but the nursery had run out of Hellebores so I took this instead.

I also have a red postcard from the post office, despite two people being in when the mail was delivered, which is probably from Paul Christian, and I've got a load of seeds from Chilterns to sow: Digitalis nervosa, D. Lanata, D. Stewartii, D. viridiflora, Clematis LadakhianaPenstemon digitalis, Iris graminea (in case any harm should come to the plant I have), Cyclamen pseudibercum, Dianthus arenarius nanus, Impatiens balsamina.

But not today. Happy gardening, the Plantboy

The Black Primula and a Stinker out of Season

2010-11-11T08:23:00.000-08:00

Iris foetidissima "Citrina" blooming in mid-November? Have we all gone mad because that wasn't a one-off, just the nicest and least out of focus (I was bursting for a wee and even auto focus has its limits)

How is it that a plant nursery can be on the phone checking details of your order and have it delivered next day, yet the ones sent, by different nurseries, in August (!) and 17 days ago go missing? I know! It's because the nurseries whose large, cardboard-box-full-of-plants sized parcels, marked "Living plants, please so not leave in warehouse until November" used the Royal Mail. And the tracking number will only be activated in their system when the parcel is delivered. So it's not a tracking number at all, it's proof of delivery. And their website is the most unhelpful maze of shite with their virtual customer services assistant clearly having been trained by Tesco. And don't get me started on the phone, if you can find the number. It's like trying to call Ryanair!

Anyway, this is meant to be about the joys of botany, not the misery of shit customer services from huge, inefficient, need a lot of thinning out, companies. I got a delivery today: Actually, I got three so far. One was a CD/DVD drive for my new Macbook Air, so you don't care about that. In the post came some seeds ordered on ebay yesterday (top marks Plant World of Newton Abbott who included a free packet despite the fact I'd only ordered one other! Iris colchesterensis is not a new species discovered in a rocky ravine in Colchester but a pleasantly black(ish) and white form of laevigata (basically the sort of thing I was slagging off the other day. How true it comes we shall see in a year or three but Plant World Seeds seem like a pretty professional operation so I'm optimistic one of the eight will look like the pic that caught my eye. They are currently soaking in water anyway or we'll never know.

You can see why it caught my eye. A curio rather than a beauty. © Nicky's Nursery

Anyway, the main delivery was from my chums at Kevock Garden Plants. If you grow any of the sorts of things that get me excited you should check them out online. Well packed, as ever, I tore into the box of goodies...

First out was a funky little Iris, ruthenica var . nana.

It should, in a few months, look something like this. Nice!

Next up was a freebie (are there no ends to which these lovely people at this wonderful company will go to please?). It says "Iris chrysographes cf", so I'm assuming it's an unidentified species or hybrid that looks like chrysographes, which with clarkei, bulleyana and probably some I've forgotten (wilsonii, but it's very yellow and the rest are blue or purple but all have a distinctive flower shape with almost no standards and pronounced falls, almost perpendicular to the ground, like so:

I could have gone for the black form but that would have been too easy. Only next summer will tell, or at least provide an indication.

Next out of the box:

Lewisia "Little Peach"

And for my next trick:

Another! cotyledon "Bright Eyes"

And providing the collar of grit I'm about to put round their necks does its jobs and prevents any rotting they should end up like this:

Nice! I've kind of neglected foot level plants (apart) from copious amounts of bulbs and these should go some way to addressing that little oversight.

Dianths "Annette"

Next up: A dianthus. I used to collect these by the tonne, delighting in my 12-year-old ability to pronounce grationopolitanus (the Cheddar Pink). This is a little hybrid that just grabbed my eye in the catalogue because in the photo you couldn't see any foliage, just bloom. It looked something like this:

In fact, this is the very picture from Kevock!

Next out it's Iris Wilsonii which I've always wanted but never owned, until now!

That'll do nicely!

Anything else?

A healthy looking Iris graminaea, the Plum Iris. I grew this from seed but never saw it flower, my visits to Scotland never coinciding with it blooming and then when mum died the gardener didn't know it from grass and so...

Worth the 20-year wait. Remind me not to go on holiday in April.

Now this is a weird one: a black primula. Not like an auricula but a recently discovered species (2006!) called Primula euprepes SDR6036. So I thought, I'll have one of those.

Nice to end on a high note, no matter how weird!

Happy gardening folks, and don't forget to register if you like what you see! The Plantboy x

It All Looks Better in The Sun

2010-11-10T08:15:00.000-08:00

What a difference a day makes! It's the same collection of browning perennials and seed trays, pots with green bits sticking out and on the far side, trays of nodules filled with next year's bounty, pots and pots of Reticulata Irises and those Fritillarias that are made of supposedly made of sterner stuff so (touch crappy wood cold frame) there should be a riot of blue and brown. Along the house wall is said frame and "greenhouse". So, a bit like a very small and oddly-placed garden centre in November.

And that's largely what it is: The only mature plants are of the bulbous variety (i'm including corms, rhizomes, stolons and any other kind of underground energy storage device here, pedants) and a few Rhododendron hybrids. So, this being the nicest day until June, I decided to have a bit of a tidy up. I'm a firm believer in leaving the old foliage on to give over-wintering places for the baddy-munchers and also to allow any seed to drop where it feels, to be weeded out, moved or potted up as necessary. But I also have to take into account the diners at the cafe below on Sundays, having once almost killed one when someone, who shall remain nameless, decided to put a dried out Pelargonium in a clay pot on the windowsill on a VERY windy day. Apparently it was an inch from her head.

So here's the view out the main window (I'm not pixelating the faces of any schoolchildren, as the Press Compaints Commission requires. If they wan't to make that much noise and throw shit at my windows I don't see what harm it can do.)

Ignore the hose, dead foliage and lack of flora and it's full of potential. Oh, and the lack of soil and the fact that it's the roof of the cafe next door, which wasn't built to take mature trees, and it's the ideal site for my rooftop garden.

A few haircuts and tidy up the tender perennials so they'll fit in the little greenhouse without bringing in mouldy leaves etc and things will look much better. With a container grown- mature shrub I'd normally replace the top inch or two of potting medium and replace it with fresh compost mixed with slow-release feed granules to see it through the next year, assuming potting on is not an option. But with rhododendrons I would never disturb the topsoil as they root so close to the surface, spreading rather than going down in search of food and water. It's why a mulch would be a good idea, if there's room. Something like well-rotted compost or leafmould, which would really make it feel at home by recreating the forest floor. But it is low in nutrients so again, slow-release granules or blood, fish and bone. AND NEVER USE SPENT MUSHROOM COMPOST, it's too alkaline. If the plant is lacking specific minerals this will show up in the new leaves, just do some web research.

All at once, as if answering some mystical call of nature.

The Gladiolus Tristis, sown on 6/10/10, have all germinted in the last 24 hours, as if answering some mystical call from mother nature. I'm delighted , although mid November seems like a strange time to do it. I really hope they last the winter because G. tristis is a total stunner of a plant, hence my need to grow it! Here's the real deal:

It's a beaut! Somewhere between a lily and and Amarrylis

Back to the tidying up, the "Triphylla"-type fuchsia's well tender and needs looking after while the rest can fend for themselves. They'll get knocked back but recover in Spring unless it's a really bad winter.

Looking a bit sick already, and that's with it having been under protection and dry.

And after a short back and sides. Of course, there is always an insurance policy...

So the "greenhouse is filling up with rooted cuttings from Penstemons, Fuchsias, Pelargoniums and my perfect blue Salvia.

If it needs protection, this is the best I can do. I suspect the fridge will be warmer some nights!

Note the species pelargonia, big ones left, wee ones, right.

You may have spotted a lot of pots with the coir pots upside down on them, Fez-style. This is not horticultural, more practical; it seems to keep the squirrels from digging up the bulbs, edible or not.

This one's protecting a Lilium ducharai which muct be close to flowering size and its babies. And if you thought the Glad was a stunner...

The (mature) candelabra Primulas such as this one, Japonica "Strawberries and cream" have been taken out of the water trays they've been sitting in since Egypt. Ice is out enemy!

The Lupins will be the first tenants of my allotment space, allowing them to overwinter and then reveal all in early summer when I can choose which hybrids I want for the roof (max three, even though they're a dwarf strain.

The bulb house is packed to overflowing, but it's essential to keep the air flowing so the pots outside have been chosen for their suitability. The idea of the house is all about controlling water, not heat so it's wide open as often as possible.

Only a couple of seedlings so far from the Salvia, just an experiment to see if the amazing blue comes true

I hope it doesn't! I'll make my cuttings very desirable!

My Lewisia Cotyledon "Sunset Strain" seedlings are doing well, despite my inability to sew thinly and evenly! You may have noticed the rescue job in the greenhouse which got a bit wet in the middle and I was blasé, thinking, it's only coyledon, it's easy. Well, I have a very mature plant that doesn't flower and I would appreciate advice on perhaps breaking it up? Anyway, here's my insurance.

The Calochortus, which I have never grown before, is making lots if incredibly erect foliage. Hopefully to be followed by this:

Hmmm, quite different in the foliage department but very nice!

Well, I'd better leave it there, happy gardeing as ever and if you like what you see, join out merry band!

Wet and windy but think of next year!

2010-11-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

WA hearty Hello! to my seven dear followers and alright? to everyone else?

There's not a huge amount to write about at the moment, unless you like reading about heavy rain, broken feet and other such heart-gladdening things.

It really is tipping it down, making the few high points too wet to get off the ground. For example, the first of the four Clematis in my permenant-flowering Clematis tower, "Niobe", has two fully open flowers and many more to come, covering this tricky November-December period. But will it keep going until the alpina or macropetala one takes the baton. "Jacqeline du Pre", hang on, let me look it up ... It's an alpina, which, according to the article I Googled "C. alpina is highly suitable for sites which are cold and exposed." So that's a bonus! It should start flowering in very early spring so it might just work.

Look, I wasn't hanging around in the rain standing at an awkward angle with a broken foot to focus the camera!

There are a few other things to lift the heart, none on them flower-based. I noticed Hermodactylus tuberosa is breaking cover. For those of you who don't have it (and that's probably most of you, it's not a thing of great beauty, just a necessary curio for an Irisophile). It was in the past included in the genus Iris as Iris tuberosa before getting its own meaty mouthful of a name. Although according to an article from The Pacific Bulb Society dated 2009 it's back in the gang! Which doesn't make it any prettier, with green standards ending and black falls. The leaves are like those of the reticulata section.

The leaves of Hermodactylus (Iris) tuberosa make a break for the light. It is stoloniferous so don't expect the flower to come up where you planted it! Although confining it to a pot gives you a better chance of guessing

So I've got s few of these to look forward to in spring

A few other green shoots are poking through, including that already-growing Notholirion thomsonianum I planted just the other day, and also fritillaria assyriaca just poking through the gravel. So now I'm going to be checking the Frit pots daily, many of which I would prefer were under cover but there just ain't the room.

The Notholirion tests the weather. Expect to see it go back down into the safety of its bulb!

If this were InDesign or even Quark I would draw you a little circle or arrow to show you where the green tip is but it's about an inch down from the top of the pot and an inch in.

A rainy mess. This photo makes it look much bigger than it is by the way.

Trying to put a positive spin on thing, there are plenty of projects that were but seeds (geddit?) earlier this year. The Iris/antrrinhum combo I keep banging on about it coming along nicely, even if the irises are making a break for the moon.

I've pricked out the Antirrhinums as we go along but I think there may need to be a little redistribution, although I only need about six to get the desired effect.

I think they'll make a nice combination, even though I hate both plants individually. Well, I don't hate all the Iris xiphium, I just can't get excited aboout them, like those big floppy Japanese things, the ensata hybrids

Yeuch!, what do they see in them? It's like an upside down floor mop!

Having just slagged off the xiphium hybrids I have one (that I got free) called Bronze Beauty (so a sort of washed out brown then, what you get when you you mix blue, red and yellow). Repulsive as they may be (I suppose most people would find my Frits hideous) they are a least showing signs of life when little else is. I What I'm really looking forward to is filling the clay pan with something much more fun once the leaves have died down and I can take out the Iris bulbs and dry them out.

Peaeonia Mlokosewitschii was my first seed delivery of the year and came with all manner of warnings about immediate sowing to keep viability and fridges etc. So they spent six weeks in the salad crisper and then went outside for a warmish period (the end of summer, in fact). This should have caused a root to emerge and then we do it again but without the fridge cos nature can do it for me now. And maybe, just maybe, I'll get a few pairs of cotyledons in the spring. But just in case, I bought this;

I know it was a bit naughty but some plants are too precious to leave to chance. This came as a single stem with a few leaves on the end but has bulked up to two buds so I think I can safely hope for my first ever Paeonia Mlok... you know what I mean.

Of course , I could surprise myself...

But I wouldn't want to be stuck in there just now, I accidentally used a batch of compost with moisture retaining granules so It's a bit like mud and jelly. Not an ideal sowing medium, although I'm sure the candelabra Primulas would live it to grow in.

Other causes for optimism: I sent off a seed order to Chilterns for the spring (perhaps more on that tomorrow) and there are plenty of seedlings that look like they're meant to and look big enough to get through the winter

Lupin mixed hybrids, well on their way to adulthood

Digitalis ferruginea var. gigantea. I was a bit worried about these but they put on a last-minute spurt

Verbascum phoenicum hybrids, everything from white to magenta and everything in between

Candelabra primula species, also putting a late spurt on after pricking out

Mixed Lily hybrids, some are showing second leaves but I'm not pricking out this year

Iris douglasiana hybrids. There was nothing a fortnight ago!

The Czechs in the post. As is the Uzbek, Turk, north Amercan...

2010-11-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to do an inventory to see what I'm still waiting for orderwise.

This was prompted by an order from Paul Christian, sent to me on October 20 but yet to arrive, which has one of those useless tracking numbers that only work when the item has been delivered, ie, when it is no longer any use. And the value of the order is £48, £7 more than the PO's insurance, not to mention the fact that even if they turn up they will all be dead. This is annoying as these are plants I really want!

Iris Orchiodes dwarf form

Iris Stolonifera

Fritillaria bucharica, from the Bukhara (somethimes spelled Bokhara) region of Uzbekistan

Notholirion bulbiferum, which I used to grow in the open ground with similar results, despite it being a heavy clay broken up with the surprisingly successful compost we made from prunings/grass etc. Oh the image is copyright Paul Christian but they're in no position to complain!

The second order I placed with them (having forgotten about the first, was the one that came the other day with the Iris Svetlanae, Frits and Notholirion thomsonianum.

Now, I'm currently waiting for TWO orders from Buckland Plants, who have a phone but no-one to answer it during the day. One order was PLACED IN AUGUST. It turns out it was lost when they switched websites or ordering systems or something but the gentleman with whom I spoke was very nice and promised to get it off on Monday, while managing to sell me Liliums medeliodes and volmeri. He did promise to tuck a little something extra in by way of apology so what was about the be a vicious character assassination of the people behind Buckland Plants now becomes a cosy love-in. Although annoyingly the only plant on the original list they might not have is Lilium lankongense, the one I really wanted!

While the individual blooms are stunning, it's the way they are held on the stem that I love. Sadly I can't find any images by anyone I'm owed a favour by so but this one from The Scottish Rock Garden Club hints at it. Join their site btw, it's packed pull of information you don't need to be Scottish to find useful (I'm lucky enough to have an English Rooftop and a Scottish Garden

Nomocharis Mairei is extremely variable in its marking, making for a taxonomist's nightmare. In fact they all are. What's a hybrid and what's a species? No one really knows © SRGC

Already got this one but there's safety in numbers, Fritillari camschatcensis

Helleborus "White Spotted" ©plantes-et-jardins.com

Corydalis flexuosa. Perfect for Tayside. Useless for a baking roof in London! © MACGARDENS

So, that's what I've got to look foward to next week.

I am also awaiting a collection of 5 x 5 Giant Asiatic Lily hybrids from Van Meuwen, the planters for which I bought weeks ago! And these beauties...

Lilium Triumphator

Robert swanson

L, lancifolium florepleno

Lilies Triumphator, Robert Swanson and Flore Pleno have yet to arrive from J. Parker which was worrying as all the other bits of the order (including the 25 free mixed Narcissus that I can find no use for) but they were quick off the mark with an email to say they are just getting the Lily orders in now and they would be marking my order as urgent, so 5 stars there too.

I'm also waiting for a load of Frits from someone and Pelargoniums too which I only ordered after the revelation of my visit to the hothouse at Kew. They will handily solve the problem of what to do with the . And these are only the one I can find the email receipts for.

Oh no, here's another (in this order) : Lilium tenuifolium, Iris suaveolens, Nomocharis hybrids and Rhododendron radicans which will be coming from Potterton and Martin in mid-January

Take your pick!...

Gritty, Pretty and Shitty – a pity

2010-11-05T02:51:00.000-07:00

Oh I can't be bothered with this; woke up at 4am with an incredibly sore right foot where I had a "stress fracture". I decided to hobble to A&E (Like ER, my American friends, only free) because my doctor's surgery is closed on Thursday afternoons and I needed to see someone immediately.

The embarrassing thing is I'd had an appointment at the fracture clinic yesterday morning and without x-raying it or having a good poke and prod, the surgeon discharged me after a 90 second consultation, which I was happy with as I was no longer in pain unless I jarred it accidentally.

And then this: the whole foot throbbing like a cartoon thumb after a comedy incident involving a hammer. So I went to Bart's and didn't have to wait long to have an x-ray and a consultation with a nurse practitioner (kind of like a cross between a doctor and nurse, I think). She showed me the original x-ray and even I could see it was actually broken; snapped in two like a piece of unfashionable table leg at a bonfire. The pain was a delayed reaction to my little hike round Kew and our heavy duvet. So they apologised profusely for making such a fundamental error and sent me on my way with a "helpful" list telling me how to reduce the swelling (take ibufrofen and don't move ever again is a fair summary). This is not practical, so I am waiting for a Dr Marx, distinguished surname, to arrive at my house to prescribe some strong painkillers before the chemist shuts...

...Which he did, which is why the rest of this post probably won't have any punctuation or make much sense.

I got the irritating/exciting red card from the Post Office saying "You're parcel is too big to fit in the letterbox so we flogged it and went down the boozer". Actually, they usually don't say anything at all except the name. And they don't ring the bell, I know because I've stood at the window, beside the buzzer, and watched them fill in the card. Surely it takes longer to fill in the card than to deliver it?. Still, at least they didn't take what was obviously an LP and "fold" it so it would get through the letterbox, as happened to a friend. He's had that twice now and one of them was a very rare Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols from far flung lands. I know because I sent it.

A huge box for one tiny little plant!

So I was down the depot the next morning at 7am sharp since I'd been awake since 4 (not with excitement, with career-threatening insomnia. It had said on the card that it was too big for the letterbox which is a good sign (otherwise it's probably a new credit card). And it was a package from J.Parker, the Dutch bulb specialists, containing a hell of a lot of packaging and one plant, well packed, of Fritillaria assyriaca.

Almost there...

It arrived in a very open, peaty compost so if that's what it needs, that's what I shall have.

And a little shoot to prove there's more to come...

A top dressing of gravel to keep the stem dry and prevent ugly splashback when watering

And then another delivery today, this time from Paul Christian Rare Plants. Annoyingly this was the second order I have placed and I spent 45 minutes trying to get the Royal Mail (yes, those hopeless buggers again) to accept my tracking number. Quite how it kept thinking "A" was "B". They sound NOTHING like each other! It kept telling me to go to its website where all my troubles would be over (it's bleeding useless) and when I finally got the chance to speak to the only bloke in the customer service office he said to call back when 15 days had elapsed between posting and non-arrival (its currently 10, too many when we're talking about rare plants. He didn't care about that, only the 15 day mantra. I told him I was glad he'd lose his job when the service is privatised and hung up.

What did arrive was five tiny packets of joy.

So there we are, five little bags of beauty (well, not yet but in spring ...)

Iris Svetlanae, said to be quite easy but we'll see! Photo: SRGC

The Iris is a stunning new juno native to Central Asia. It has This compact, stocky growths composed of short but broad, glossy green leaves clustered around the central tube which supports a large golden yellow flower borne very early in the year. In effect this is like a golden yellow Iris nicolai. I'm going to grow it under glass until we become a bit more familiar with each other, and I've tried the planting method where the chunky roots sit in the compost but the bulb in a layer of grit. The idea is to protect the bulb from sitting in damp compost. it also has a thick collar of grit to protect the stem.

Start with plenty of drainage

The roots sit in sharp compost mix

So, we then fill to the top of the bulb with more grit, the theory being that this protects it from cold, damp compost, although those poor chunk roots have no such luxury

Fill to 1cm from the top with more free-draining compost and then top off with grit the height of the pot

Notholirion thomsonianum. With many thanks to the copyright holder, whose site is in Japanese, a language I don't read!

Fritillaria kurdica "Talysh"

Fritillaria kotschyana

So, what else is going on up here? We haven't had frost yet and daytime temperatures regulatly reacched double figures, which is good for the Afghani above. No, it's not the Taliban, its something you be far happier to find lurking in a cornerr of your back yard: Delphinium zalil, the only yellow specieso (I think). I've only got three, all seed raised but looking quite happy after the pot took a tumble in recent high winds.

Speaking of which: more tulip tragedy!

Another pot of tulips and violas hass taken a tumble

At least the tulips are getting a move on

Remember the pelargonium species I was so taken with at Kew? Well I got a packet of 12 mixed random species seeds a few months ago. Well, five germinated, (one is pictured twice for technical reasons) the two above came up together and have identical leaves and habit so I think it's safe to assume they're the same, followed by the other three, below

I have annoyingly mis-placed the very conveniently provided list of the ten species that the seed was collected from but the catalogue says only "mostly shrubby, aromatic - Some strongly so and with peppermint, lemon and rose among the scents - and much branched plants )18in-3ft. Peachy! It's more exciting growing from seed when you have no idea what is going to come up - as long as you can make a positive identification afterwards - I hate not knjowing what something is! That's why I'd rather have a label saying "unknown seedling" than admit it's probably a weed.

While we're on seedlings, the Iris douglasiana hybrids are coming up like cress now, they're are at least 20 s not all of which I'll have room to flower on Nicky's alllottment but they don't take up much room, horizontally at least, so I can keep plenty on the roof in plastic pots to help keep them in their beloved moisture, along with the assorted sibiricas.

You count the Iris douglasiana hybrids! I keep getting to twenty-something, and twenty-something else the next time!

Until the next time, the plantboy x

Pelargonium Smellargonium

2010-11-03T08:25:00.000-07:00

I promised you the rest of my pix from Kew so here they are, starting with the pelargoniums. Looking at the incredible variety of shape and form, particularly in the leaves, it's easy to see why the hybridisers have been fiddling with their cotton buds in the greenhouse for so long and why the modern varieties have so much ... variety. The genes for Ivy leaves, crinkly leaves, huge leaves and zoned leaves are all there in nature so it's no wonder we have such a dazzling array these days, from the subtle, scented-leafed jewels, through the zonal, ivy-leaved, uprights and trailers to the near perfect F1 staples of window boxes and bedding everywhere.

Simple but effective: Pelargonium fragrans (it has the scent of nutmeg apparently but there was so much to assault the senses I didn't notice. Stretch your imagination and you can see where today's "Geraniums" , such as the F2 hybrids from Suttons Seeds below, come from. Seeds are relatively pricey by the way because each flower produces just one seed, making production of F1 hybrids very expensive and F2s almost as bad.
ALL KEW IMAGES © CHRIS MACKAY. USAGE FEES APPLY

A beautiful Pelargonium with tiny flowers (these are bigger than life-size) and rounded foliage more like cyclamen coum than a modern Pelargonium. Unfortunately with the plants so rampant and the labels so well hidden I have this down as "old spice' but I am wrong: that is white. Whateveer it's called, you can see this being a very useful variety for the breeders.

Another nameless wonder, I'm afraid, but one that introduces red into the breeders' pallette

The exquisite veining of Pelargonium rubicinctum ssp. cordifolium. That's what the label said, I assure you, but try Googling it and you get nowhere!

Pelargonium crithmifolium. The flowers may look more like the parks' departments job lot but the stem is a bizarre thing that looks a bit like a Boabab!

This isn't one of mine so thanks and apologies to the copyright holder but I just had to show you the stems!

The aptly named P. grandiflorum. Google it and you will find several hundred images of Pelargonium grandiflorum that bear only a passing resemblance to the above, suggesting it is an important parent plant of hybrids. Or simply wrongly labelled.

P. acetosum, a bushy, well-branched small shrub with these gorgeous salmon-pink/coral flowers

That's it for the Pelargomiums (there were more but diminishing returns and all that). So here's a picture of a random orchid instead. They made it really hard to get anywhere near the plants (understandably) with little fences and "Do not look at the orchids!" signs everywhere. This was taken from about eight feet away with a zoom lens. I'm afraid my myopia, even with my specs on, means I cannot name this but it looks like a Paphyopedallum (or Paphiopedilum). Please correct me.

It's a Knifophia (Red Hot Poker), right? Wrong. It's actually Aloe ciliaris, the climbing Aloe. To be honest the plant itself is a bit ugly but the flowers stopped me in my tracks as I hurried out of the glasshouse, sweat dripping all over my notebook.

Back outside, a few more lovelies.

Gunnera manicata (I know I showed it a few days back but there's something so... prehistoric about it I can't resist it and its spiny everythings). Here it is in context (it's nice to know the world's leading botanists struggle with mildew too:

Seed heads of the very rare Paeonia obovata, a very variable woodland species from Japan with flowers from white, through to cream and almost yellow (we'll save true yellow for mlokosewtschii) to pink and magenta. The red seeds have to be collected now and either sown or refrigerated in moist peat or a simlar medium. Or they will die.

Back to the rockery for my last few treats, like this Nerine undulata from South Africa. I've only ever grown bowdenii, which I assume is the common one in British nurseries, and have a pan of them which I've ignored for the past few years because my mum gave them to me and I hadn't been able to take an interest in them, or horticulture in general, until this year because it was "our thing". I can't think of anyone else I could phone and say: "Oh my God, the Clematis integrifolias have germinated!" and get a response that didn't involve men in white coats! But the bowdeniis flowered out of the blue last autumn, having been utterly neglected for three years. So this year I took them out of the old compost, cleaned them of any dead bits and repotted them and heaps of little bulbils in a good 75% compost 25% vermiculite mix with slow release fertiliser granules. It was too much upheaval for them to flower this year but I expect renewed vigour next year or I'll want to know why!

Plenty of signage but none of it shows the correct information; those are definitely not Rhodohypoxis, a prety little bulb with pink, star-shaped flowers. It is, in fact, Oxalis massouiana, another South African growing happily outdoors like the Nerine,

If you associate Mimulus only with river banks and water, think again. This species, Mimulus naiandinus, is also known as the Chilean Monkey Flower, making sure South Africa doesn't have a monopoly on November flora. It's usually found at up to 2000m but looks happy enough here at about three metres above sea level.

And this little vetch doesn't deserve a name like Hippocrepis balearica but that's what they've called it and it has given a sizeable corner of west London that Balearic vibe!

And here's my last one cos it ten past two and I'm meant to be designing page three...

Tritonia laxifolia. Yep, it's from South Africa too.

Kew Two, Darlings I Grew

2010-11-02T07:57:00.000-07:00

Hello, good morning and welcome to the worst pun you'll ever read. And if you're not a British child of the Seventies you'll be even more flummoxed (unless Trumpton was syndicated around the globe). You'd never think writing headlines is part of my job - for a proper paper too!

Anyway, before we head back to west London and the alpine and glass houses at Kew (don't worry, no pictures of giant botanical penises this time), a brief update on things up here on the roof. The first blooms on Clematis "Niobe" are beginning to open, which is great, although the shade is very much purple rather than the red in the catalogue. It's a hybrid and therefore a genetic clone, so perhaps it reddens as it ages.

Clematis "Niobe", the first of four varieties to bloom on my Clematis tower

My project to own one of every species of Meconopsis (except cambrica, the Welsh Poppy, which I consider little more than a weed) continues apace with the germination of one seedling of M. integrifolia.
So I hope to go from this...

Can you see it? It's in the middle

To this:

I think this afternoon might have to be spent pricking out Digitalis obscura. They're still a little on the wee side but so were the Verbascums and Primula candelabra species and, while it was a horrible fiddly job to pot them on, the others went from sluggish to full of beans instantly.

I can just about handle these seed leaves with my great podgy hands and the pricking out treatment worked wonders for the other seedlings, which emerged around the same time

Instant boost: these seedlings have a much better chance of making it through the winter since they were revitalised by a change of compost and their own personal space!

Finally, a question for the bulb specialists among you. Is it normal for Iris reticulata to throw up huge leaf spikes before flowering? It's a good few years since I've grown them and while the posh ones such as "Katharine Hodgkin" and "Natascha" are showing nothing yet, the bog standard fellas are reaching for the skies but showing no sign of flowering (it is only November and I wouldn't expect to see even foliage until at least next month, even in a mild winter). I'm perplexed because the bulbs will have enough energy stored in them to flower without needing to build up puff with dirty, great transpiring spikes. Any advice gratefully accepted! They look like this right now:

Ahem, excuse the focus, I'm wearing my specs today which makes photography tricky

Part The Second: Kew Two

Right, this is the bit you've been waiting for: the rest of the Kew photos I took yesterday. As I recall we were in the alpine house and about to have a look at some crocuses and things ...

Ipheion hirtellum, from Uruguay and Argentina. A bit of a straggly mess of a plant but the individual blooms are pretty special!
ALL KEW PHOTOGRAPHS ©CHRIS MACKAY: USAGE FEE APPLIES

Yesterday we saw a form of Androcymbidium
gramineae with red veining on smaller flowers
(here's a little reminder). Below is exactly the same
species but a more robust form with far larger
flowers and no markings. I prefer the daintier
version but I wouldn't chuck either out of the bulb
frame for passing wind!

And finally, some Crocuses. This was labelled Crocus caspius "lilacinus" and while the first and second names are right, I'm struggling to see any lilac. My schoolboy Latin doesn't stretch to any other suggestions but it's lovely so let's just leave it at that

Crocus cambessedesii. A tiny little thing from Majorca and Minorca, it is in fact the smallest-flowering Crocus known to botany. It can be grown outdoors but is best kept in the alipne house or bulb frame where it can be fully appreciated. The petals have black stipes on the underside, sadly not visible here (if I'd known they were there I'd have tried to snap them, although the rarified atmosphere in the alpine house is a bit like a high-end jewellers where you're the only customer. Definitely no touching or leaning on the rock to get a better shot!)

Crocus goulimyi from sothern Greece (the Mani peninsula and Peloponnese)

Crocus tournefortii, also from southern Greece. It can be grown outside if you happen to have any rocky scrubland in your garden but is best under cover

Primula verticillata. I didn't know there were Primulas native to Africa but this is native to Ethiopia although was originally brought to the attention of Western botanists in Yemen in the 1870s. Also known as the Abyssinian Primrose.

Well, I've still got a few more to show you, including some amazing pelargoniums from the Diana glasshouse but they'll have to wait if I'm going to get those Digitalis sorted (and the Blogger software is playing up, which is why this is in the same box as the primula caption.)

Happy gardening as ever, the plantboy x

Phallus of forethought

2010-11-01T12:03:00.000-07:00

Well, that title might get me some passing traffic from Google!

Amorphophallus Titanum in bloom. The name comes from the ancient Greek amorphos "without form" and phallos (penis) and titan (giant). It is meant to smell of rotting flesh (to attract pollinators because it won't bloom again for many years) but wasn't very stinky today. Perhaps something more fragrant was masking the odour. Incidentally, the plant in non-flowering years looks totally different, a 15ft tree with a bare stem around 6in in diameter and a few branches of leaves at the very top.
ALL IMAGES © CHRIS MACKAY, USAGE FEE APPLIES

It's a reference of course to Amorphophallus titanum, just one of the many wonders I encountered on my trip to the world-famous RHS Kew Gardens this afternoon. And the sun came out just in time too, it looked like rain when I set off but as I had nothing else worth writing about I made up my mind to cross right to the other side of London. I live in the east, near where the Olympic site is taking shape, and Kew is almost as far west as Heathrow airport. In fact there is a constant, like one every two minutes, stream of jets flying over so low you can easily make out the livery and wink at the captain. Well, maybe not the last bit.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself in order to excuse my use of the naughty word in the title. Although the roof is barely ticking along, that means there is still the occasional good news and those of you who read the update to my previous post will be aware that my Rhododendron griersonianum seeds, planted with floccigerum, yunnanense and hyperthrum, more in hope than expectation, had all decided, as if responding to some mysterious call of nature (no, not that kind of call of nature, this post is smutty enough as it is) had germinated. There must be almost 100 tiny pairs of leaves above the vermiculite at exactly the same stage and they weren't there a few days ago because I check everything regularly, even the seemingly hopeless cases.

They're a little hard to see among the vermiculite but they're there and one day should look something like this, although hopefully there'll be lots of variety in the seedlings, ranging from dark pink to scarlet

I am absolutely delighted by this, never having succeeded in germinating Rhodies before. Now I just have to hope the others do the same, perhaps after the winter stratification?

And this morning's check-over revealed something almost as exciting: four or five pairs of fleshy seed leaves of Lewisia cotyledon "Sunset Strain". I have germinated a Lewisia before but purely by accident: the seedling appeared in the sand between the pots in my old alpine house. I had to go back to university before I could deal with it properly so I've no idea whether it was L. columbiana rupicola, nevadensis or one of the other species whose names escape me, or even a hybrid.

But that was then and these are now! I've already got two mature plants, one which is as healthy as can be but refuses to flower and another that has decided it wasn't going to be as easy to grow as L. cotyledon is meant to be and started to shed rotting leaves at an alarming rate. I've stopped the rot, literally and metaphorically, by removing all the affected foliage, dusting with sulphur and placing it on its side in the greenhouse. Anyway, here's one of the seedlings:

Note the fleshiness of the seed leaves, it's already preparing itself for a life short on water

And so to Kew, which was looking delightful in the late autumn sunshine. The first thing of interest I always come across ( I head straight for the alpine house every visit, the new one is a marvel of architecture and engineering which draws in cooling air on sunny days through a maze of pipes, providing perfect conditions for the gems within) is Gunnera manicata which one passes on the way. It's way past its best now but the flower spikes are a sight to behold!

Also on the way were a few more traditional winter warmers such as Viburnum x bodnantense, a shrub that, if it flowered in July, no one would care that much about. But at this time of year its powerfully scented little pink (occasionally white) clusters of tubular flowers are very welcome.

Also invaluable (before the birds eat them all) are berries and here's an example that held up my progress to the alpine house and all its exquisite bulbs.

Skimmia japonica var.reevesiana

And a few flowers...

Cyclamen cilicium looking great, has seeded itself around and there are various shades of pink through to white

Okay, we'll skip a few which I'll upload onto twitpic and facebook, and take a quick trip through the massive rockery, originally built in Victorian times and with great use of water that allows them to grow bog lovers alongside Irises from Greek mountainsides. A lot of the stuff in flower was of South African origin, where the bulbs seem to flower in our autumn, which is fine by me!

Nerine undulata, one of several of the genus sprinkled around the gardens

Another Cyclamen, cyprium from Cyprus, growing in a little crevice, looking for all the world like the seed was dropped there by a bird

Okay, I'll give you one more before we get to the alpine house. At first glance I thought this was Iris ochroleuca but that flowered months ago. So it must have been a Moraea, a member of the Iridaceae that often looks so much like the mother of the group that one wonders how the botanists can tell the difference. Just look at this:

You'd really have to know your stuff not to mistake this for our native yellow flag, Iris pseudacorus. Except that grows by ponds in Constable paintings and this brightens up the Cape of Africa

Right, we're there. Here it is, completed in 2005, the new alpine house provides a sustainable, energy-efficient growing environment. The glasshouse is conceived of two back-to-back arches which create a stack effect to draw warm air out. Below ground level, air is pushed into a concrete labyrinth for cooling and then recirculated around the perimeter of the house via a series of displacement pipes. Further environmental control is provided by a unique shading solution based on a fan-like form similar to a peacock's tail.

Cyclamen africanum looking flawless

Androcymbium gramineum, so rare even Google has almost nothing to say on the matter except that it's from Africa

Arisarum vulgare, a plant from Mediterranean areas such as Malta. And there's nothing vulgar about it!

Daubenya marginata, a bizarre little bulb from South Africa

And I'll give you one more and save up the rest for tomorrow, which include stunning crocuses and bizarre but beautiful pelargoniums (some of which I really hope are included in the species mixture I grew from Chilterns because they are amazing!)

Trollius chinensis, a bog lover from, er, China

Right, that's enough horticulture for me today. Have a lovely evening and I hope you like the photos and are looking forward to tomorrow's snaps. Happy horticulturing, the plantboy x

Tulips from Amster ... Damn!

2010-10-30T04:27:00.000-07:00

STOP PRESS...STOP PRESS... My Rhododendron griersonianum seeds have germinated, all at once, in the last 24 hours, after months of nothing! That means I've managed Rhody cuttings (vireya) and seed. My fingers are turning greener! Anyway.

Morning fellow gardening freaks, hope you're well (especially Keith).

I got home from work in the dark last night to find that one of the clay pots on the windowsill outside, containing tulips overplanted with winter violas had blown/fallen off and smashed, rather annoyingly. It did however give me the chance to have a nose at the tulips which are beginning to root (apart from the one that had rotted).

Oh well, I suppose I always need crock for drainage in pots....

All fixed, although whether the emerging tulips push the violas out of the pot we shall just have to wait and see

I also found two rather large bags, actually, sacks, of grit ordered ages ago from the same hopeless shower that provided the cold frame. The delivery driver had called me at work to say he couldn't get into the courtyard where I live and none of the neighbours were in. I asked if he could redeliver it on Monday when I'll be off work but he said it could be several weeks before he was in the area again! By sheer good fortune a neighbour arrived home at this point and he was able to gain access but I'd advise you to avoid Creative Garden Solutions with a bargepole, my experience of them has been an unmitigated disaster!

The Dianthus pipings are taking root in the heated propagator. It can't be more than three weeks since I struck them. Easy-peasy way to fill a lot of space in a new garden in a very short time while waitng for other perennials and shrubs to bulk-up

The Lobelia cardinale's taking a bit longer but the little roots can be seen starting to form through the clear pot

Better news now: the pipings from the old-fashioned Pinks I took a few weeks back have mostly rooted and the Lobelia cardinale cuttings taken at the same time and placed in a clear pot are starting to make roots (that's the beauty of a clear pot, you don't have to keep tugging at them, you can see what's going on as I find ccuttings root most successfully when places around the edge of the pot.

Definitely a primula!

Pricking out the candelabra Primulas was the right thing to do (phew!) and they are beginning to romp away, depite the chilly weather but then they are from a climate far colder than London's. The Verbascum phoenicum are also now beginning to look like the real thing (albeit in miniature). Still glad I left the Lilies alone as more are germinating by the day and the little baby bulbs are probably as safe in their pot as anywhere else.

And the Verbasums are beginning to look like, er, Verbascums. All 66 of them

This only really leaves me with the dilemma of the Digitalis obscura which, apart from having some night visitor trample on them (squirrel probably) are making achingly slow progress and might benefit from pricking out, despite barely having true leaves but it worked for its sister ferruginea var. gigantea so, as I have dozens of seedlings, I might try the incredibly fiddly task of transplanting some of them into nodules. This will require the purchase of a new watering can (I've always fancied one of those nice metal ones) as both my plastic ones have blown into the school playground next door and the kids are on holiday.

Digitalis obscura. A bit on the wee side for pricking out

Oh, back to the grit: there are two kinds; little cotswold pea shingle for top dressing alpines and bulbs and anything the squirrel likes the look of; and a chunkier version for drainage in the bottom of pots and also lining the floor of the bulb frame so any water can run straight through, rather than leaving the pots sitting in a puddle. It will also help add weight to the bottom of my Lily containers as I was a bit worried that plants over a metre tall (with luck) would be prone to toppling in high winds. I've also got a packet of Tropaeolum majus "Whirlybird mixed" (semi-double nasturtiums to you and me) which I was thinking of planting around the bottom or there will be a lot of green before you get to the interesting bit at the top.
I'm also aware that my planting is a bit spring-heavy this year after getting carried away with my Frits and Irises, so the nasturtiums will keep colour going up until the first frosts.

Oh, a couple of Meconopsis arrived midweek: napaulensis and superba, and Iris collettii. I know, I just can't help myself. Is there a 12-step programme for gardeners?

Meconopsis napaulensis. The rosette will continue to grow until it is several feet wide and then, after a few years and when it feels like it, a stunning metre-high spike of (there is some argument at the moment about this as there are so many almost identical species) huge yellow poppy flowers will rise and amaze you. And then it will die.

M. Superba will send up spikes of white flowers with distinct purple stigmata

Iris collettii. The lovely blue/purple flowers only last a day but fortunately the plant is perennial.

And lastly, my experiment with Antirrhinum "Peaches and Cream" under planted with Iris xiphium "Eye of the Tiger" might actually work. The seedlings are bulking up and have been thinned, while the Irises have slowed down a bit (at one point it looked like they'd be in bloom by Christmas) so, fingers crossed, as ever.

May the sun shine on your garden this weekend, and remember, if you're British, you get an extra hour in it (I don', I have to go to work tomorrow). The plantboy x

Love in a cold frame

2010-10-28T01:56:00.000-07:00

Morning! Now, I'm not the world's best carpenter and the closest thing I have to a set square is a CD cover but, having spent £70 on a (small) cold frame to use as a bulb frame from a company I'd better not mention for legal reasons I found myself needing not only the former but also an expensive electric drill on Tuesday.

Well, that's the first two bits hanging precariously together

Can you tell what it is yet?

That must be the roof: 4 bits of wood (no pre-drilled holes or joints or anything useful like that and a of sheet of clear plastic with the corner broken off

And, hey presto, dry bulbs. Note mess in bottom right corner where plastic had smashed in transit. Not what I expected and not even what was pictured in the catalogue which at least had pre-prepared joints to keep the roof square, rather than the four unprepared bits of unfinished wood I got. Rubbish! Actually, you can't libel someone by telling the truth: the company are called (pretentiously) Creative Garden Ideas. I'd go to Argos if I were you

When I placed the order I was expecting to receive a bit more than four roughly hewn, unfinished sides and four batons and a cracked piece of clear plastic. In fact I had rather expected it to arrive already built, what with it only being 50 x 80 x 50cm. I would have sent it back but my need for a cold frame to protect my juno, oncocyclus, regalia and other arilbred irises from the winter wet is pressing so I made the best of a bad lot and spent £30 on a drill and set about making a mess of this living room (it was raining outside, further reason for urgency as upturned clear plastic storage boxes are not ideal for protecting very expensive bulbs from Central Asia.

I didn't make a brilliant job but it seems to be holding together and, more importantly, keeping the elements off the bulbs, stolons and rhizomes so I can start a strict watering regime, the only problem being that I don't really know what that should be. The oncocyclus and regalia will start in January (they're dormant right now) and the arilbreds should begin then too although two of the hybrids have come out of dormancy in error so I think I'm just going to have to keep them ticking over with the odd water, probably when I do the Fritillarias which will be getting a good monthly soak until they begin to break the surface when I'll start watering normally. All have slow release feed in the compost but the Irises in particular are greedy so a few extra feeds with a tomato fertiliser will do no harm, and are essential after flowering if you want a repeat next year and offsets.

Well, I'm off to the Post Office depot to pick up a parcel that was too big to fit through the letter box. It's usually something really dull like a bank card but that would fit through the slot and the little red card that should usually read "We couldn't be bothered to ring your bell, walk miles to the sorting office, which is only open in the morning" but actually said "parcel too big for letter slot" so I can only assume it's more plants, possibly even a few more to squeeze into the frame from Paul Christian Rare Plants, I've gone for some of the reasonably easy (I use the word relatively, these hot-climate Irises from Turkey eastwards almost to India are extremely fussy in our climate and are very susceptible to pathogens that thrive in damp (and that's damp by Caucasian standards, not British!).

Iris stolonifera (yes, it spreads by means of stolon: long, root-like structures, not to be confused with rhizomes) is a fine looking regalia type (the group is marginally more easy to keep going than the oncocycluses, and consequently not quite as mind-blowing. Just stunning.)

Iris stolonifera

More precious than any diamond (and about the same price): Iris nicolai

With the juno irises it's price rather than space that's keeping my collection manageable: a flowering-size Iris nicolai would set you back the best part of £30 and that's quite a lot for something that will probably get botrytis and turn into a something resembling a seed potato at harvest time! I did however go for Iris orchioides at a more affordable £6.

Iris Orchioides

Fritillaria bucharica

Notholirion bulbiferum

So, hopefully I will shortly be the proud owner of the above (minus Iris Nicolai, sadly)...

... No, it was another order, a couple of Asiatic Lilies and Iris reticulata "Natascha" from J Parker. Not entirely disappointing; "Natascha" is a lovely little thing, an almost white version of the common spring blue job:

The post hasn't been today so who knows, perhaps the rest will turn up, I did get an email saying it had been dispatched so fingers crossed!

Stop press: Delivery from Blooms: Fritillaria pudica, F. Michailovskyi multiflorum and F. Davisii

Now where the hell am I going to put them?

Happy gardening , the plantboy x

Tibet or not Tibet (sorry!)

2010-10-26T00:42:00.000-07:00

It's a wet and windy late October day our there, not a great day to be a plant on a rooftop, unless perhaps your ancestors live high in the Himalayas - I know that when I was in the Tsari valley in Tibet 10 years ago I was wet and windswept for the whole three weeks, with only a tent and bag of clothes at varying degrees of sogginess to keep me warm.

There were about 12 of us, not including the "staff": our guides, drivers and Sherpas, without whom we'd literally have been lost, very hungry and probably arrested. We had one professional expert, a youthful Rhododendron experenthusiast from the RHS (the only member of the team anywhere near my age, mid 20s) and a lot of retired amateur botanists. I shared a tent with a 64-year-old solicitor from Edinburgh, who was nice enough although the air at that height was so thin we all snored like yaks. In fact, I woke up one morning with a frog in my throat - literally - he'd just jumped in in the night, found a nice damp, warm hole, the only problem being I needed said hole to breath.

A general view of the sort of terrain we were in, although it was a bit more colourful

Looking back it was an amazing thing to do at such a young age: I just contacted my chum Ken Cox at the world-famous Glendoick Rhododendron nursery and asked if there were any expeditions in the offing and it gathered pace from there. He didn't come but Janet Cubey, the RHS expert, was a more than ample replacement, despite her youth. I hadn't met any of them until I turned up at Heathrow laden with waterfroofs and reference books but we all got on pretty well.

The area was a very sensitive one due to its proximity to the border with India and I quickly lost count of the number of checkpoints we had to go through to even get to the valley. Before that there were two nights in Katmandu (hot, smelly, not the Shangri-La you might imagine) but even there there was plenty to see – huge swathes of Cannas growing in any boggy ground and along the Brahmaputra river, Cannabis (probably indica with much lower levels of Tetrahydracannabinol, not sativa, I didn't test it!) in every ditch and a whole range of other unidentified gems.

Cannabis growing EVERYWHERE

But it was once we got to Tibet (having flown directly over Everest) that things got really magical. The first night we camped in a field studded with tiny primulas, a bit like Primula scottica, and another we had to trample a meadow of the beautiful Primula sikkimensis to set up camp which sounds like a horrific act of vandalism but the fact is they were so prolific it was just like camping on buttercups in the UK. And I'm sure they've recovered now!

The very lovely Primula sikkimensis. Makes a great mattress!

I was running around like a hyperactive kid who'd forgotten his Ritalin, never having been in this environment before, scrambling up rock faces to get a closer look at some Rhododendron or Meconopsis argentea - not in cultivation (all of this thousands of miles from the nearest hospital, never mind one you'd want to be treated in!)

The unfairly named Meconopsis horridula (I think it refers to the spiky foliage)

It was quite remarkable to just go for a walk and spot a cypripedium, countless Rhododendrons, which formed the bulk of the tree cover, Primulas in crevices, a Meconopsis horridula growing deep inside a rose bush and Irises gionocarpa, chrysographes and clarkeii, Podophyllums and that was just finding somewhere quiet to answer the call of nature!

A Cypripedium

Iris Gionocarpa

We did find what Janet, the expert, thought was a new species of rhododendron but I don't know if that was ever confirmed. Obviously we couldn't just go around digging stuff up but we had permission to collect seed. I think that was the day the fitter amontg us decided to trek up to a glacier (fortuntely nobody suffered altitide sickness, I think because we ascended quite slowly, often on foot). I have two abiding memories of that day: one was a cliffside covered in red and pink (the guide insisted on scrambling up to collect leaves and flowers) think it was camtschaticum, which was a real treat because the season was disappointingly late that year and there weren't as many Rhody's out as we'd hoped. The second was sitting on a convenient tuffet to each my lunch only to wonder why my posterior kept getting nipped. Turns out I was sitting on an anthill and the residents had taken umbrage and were injecting by bum with formic acid. Painful and salutary but not fatal.

Many times, soaking wet, freezing cold and completely cut off from the world, I just wanted to go home. And then we'd turn a corner and see vultures the height of humans tearing at some unfortunate yak and I'd realise just what a privilege it was to be in this completely untouched terrain.

Janet sent me the plant list once we got back but it's on my work computer. Suffice it to say we saw every species of meconopsis except cambrica (which is a british native), countless Rhododendrons, many in flower and identifiable, many in bud and frustratingly hard to name, dozens of Primulas from genuine, crevice-loving alpines to luscious bog-loving monsters, Pitcher Plants, several species of Orchid and many Roses and Irises, one of the latter in full flower and very similar to clarkeii but not.

Buddha's house

And I never want to see another monastery again. the first ten were quite interesting but by the time we got to the Potala I just wanted a bath and to buy some new, dry clothes! We stayed in what was then the best hotel in Lhasa and it had (brown) hot water for an hour a day. That was the best bath I HAVE EVER HAD!

Anyway, my cold frame is due to arrive today but I have to nip into Harley Street at lunchtime fora blood test and that is of course when they will try to deliver it. At least it's not perishable...

Happy gardeing, The Plantboy x

Green Space and Rooftop gardening in the City: My Own Little World of Plants: Siberian irises - and temperatures

2010-10-25T04:03:00.000-07:00

Green Space and Rooftop gardening in the City: My Own Little World of Plants: Siberian irises - and temperatures: "Good morning! It's almost 6.45am here in London and the sun is already beating down with the thermometer touching 40C. Can you spot which p..."

Siberian irises - and temperatures

2010-10-25T04:00:00.000-07:00

Good morning! It's almost 6.45am here in London and the sun is already beating down with the thermometer touching 40C.

Can you spot which part of that introduction is true? That's right, it's dark and cold and I don't have to be at work for another five hours but I was awake so I thought I might as well get up and cheer us all up with a nice picture of a Crocus speciosus taken by my bood self yesterday.

The BBC are doing a feature on the morning news from Harlow Carr gardens near York, which I visited when I was about 7 seven yeard old and after which of course the strain of candelabra Primula hybrids is named. Apparently the have 250,000 daffs and tulips to get in in the next few days! I prefer to go for quality rather than quantity!

I caved in to personal pressure and pricked out the Iris sibirica seedlings as six came up in a few weeks and then nothing. This doesn't mean there aren't more to come and I was very careful not to disturb the pot too much and once I'd finished I covered with a .5cm of compost in case I'd brought anything to the surface that I shouldn't have.

An Iris seedling showing perfectly seed, roots and cotyledon (shoot), just right for potting into a 2in pot

Any ideas?

It will be dead in a fortnight (never buy orchids from outdoor markets that have had a life cycle of: test tube, Dutch greenhouse, Dutch flower market, British flower market, windy pavement, my centrally heated house, bin)

Oh, remember I collected some fresh seed from the stunning blue Salvia patems to see if it would come true (I've got about a dozen young cplnes from cuttings) but one of the seeds has popped up, hopefully to be followed by more.

The Lathyrus chloranthus (dazzling annual yellow sweet pea, distribution from Turkey all the way to India) has taken its place in a mini window box-style planter against the ugly polythene greenhouse and, considering the temperature last night, looks to be a fairly hardy soul which is good. I know you can plant the classic hybdrids in Autumn for an earlier show so I took a risk with this one too. If they don't make it I have another half-dozen in the greenhouse. It hasn't sent out any tendrils yet but the images of mature plants I've seen on the web do so hopefully it won't need any tedious tying in.

Look mummy, tendrils!

Otherwise everything seems to have gone into stasis as far as seedlings are concerned (to be expected with night temperatures just above freezing so I'm going to struggle to fill this every day without making stuff up. I could, but you'd probably want to see the pictures.

The Iris Douglasiana hybrids have taken the huff since I sprinkled a bit of perlite over them after spotting a few embryos on the surface as well as a lot of green spikes so I'd have expected to see a few through the white covering by now but as the temperature is rarely above 10C I can see its point, I'd rather stay down there too.

I'll have more time for a forensic (yes, I know that's technically a mis-use of the word, I do work for a newspaper you know) examination and hopefully wring some words out of that but in the meantime here's a nice picture to keep you warm. Except I can't cos they're all stored on my laptop at home. Well, just close your eyes and imagine a lovely Iris, or whatever floats your boat.

Till Tomorrow, the plantboy