Taking care of the babies (propagating geraniums)

 

Back in August I took some geranium cuttings for next year. I usually take about twelve with one or two spares and I try to pick cuttings from the different colours so that I get a continuity. I currently have red, white, pink and peach. I am always on the look-out for that elusive blue, which hasn’t been invented yet (as far as I know).

The cuttings stayed outside until last week when I brought them in to keep them safe against the risk of frost damage. I put them on a window ledge. This one faces west, which is ideal because they get the evening sun but not all day sun. They all have well established roots now and every one has started flowering. You can see in the picture how they like to grow towards the sun. Each and every one is leaning towards the light and the sun.

So my babies are indoors now. I will water them once or twice a week until April when they will go back into the borders and make a colourful show. Yes, I could go and buy plug plants from the garden centre, but this way is just so much more fun!

The next stage is for me to bring in the medium sized plants, which were the babies last year. We have been promised frost! soon so I need to get on with it.

Oma

It’s pickle time at the cottage.

It’s pickle time at the cottage so I’m putting my cares and worries away for a little while to wallow in the smell of salted vegetables and vinegar. Yum!

We always make mustard pickle at this time of the year and I have to add here that this is really Jim’s forte. I am just a helper. The ingredients are mainly, shallot onions, cauliflower, marrow, runner beans, a little flour and mustard and vinegar. We use the ordinary sort of malt vinegar, not the one with spices in it, but that’s just a personal choice.

The vegetables have to be prepared and salted, then left overnight with a tea-towel over the top. This process extracts the excess moisture. In the morning, the vegetables are washed off and put in a large pan to cook. When cooked (imagine delicious smell), they are thickened with a flour paste mixture and then put into prepared jars for Christmas.

Here they are, all ready to give as gifts (just need the labels)  and to eat ourselves:

Now, isn’t that a nice way to spend an afternoon?

Oma

How do I prepare runner beans?

I’ve been asked many times how I prepare runner beans for the steamer and the table, so here is a little video showing the correct way to do it:

One thing I forgot to say on the video is ‘you need a sharp knife’.

Oma

Propagating geraniums (pelargoniums) – My baby geraniums.

Here are this years baby geraniums. I usually propagate them in August, so that they have a good month or two to get going before I bring them indoors for the winter.  Once indoors, they will stay on the windowsill until April. It’s a long time and I have to nurture them. It’s worth doing because they will be perfect for the borders next summer.

This year I took slips, two from each colour, red, white, pink and peach. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they will all take. I don’t use hormone rooting powder. It really is not necessary for these accommodating little plants. They root very easily; you just have to make sure that you take the cutting properly to avoid die back. (see my previous post, link below).

  I’m still on the look-out for a blue one! No luck yet.

Yesterday and the day before were very rainy here in my part of England and the little pots were up to their necks in water. That’s not a good thing because the roots will rot, so I brought them indoors just for one day to dry them out. I think they appreciated it.

The next step will be to bring in the plants which were last year’s babies and pot them up in larger pots ready to store indoors in a frost free environment (my back room).

If you want to read more about how I do it, you can click here and check out last year’s post, which goes into a bit more detail.

Oma

My English Garden in June 2014

These daisies come up every year and sometimes are just a little too prolific, but I like things I can get a lot of so I put up! with the profusion. Can you see the bee on one of the flowers?  Last year it was hover flies and I got stung twice on the arm on two separate occasions. I’m hoping that won’t happen again this year because I’m allergic to stings and bites and suffer miserably.

Here is the hanging basket just outside my back door. The nasturtiums aren’t flowering yet, but they will be soon I think. Just as soon as we get some sunshine.

On Sunday last, Larry cooked a tasty barbecue. We had steak and lamb chops. Next time I fancy doing kebabs of some sort so here he is making an addition to the grill to cook kebabs on. Does anyone have any good recipes for kebabs? I’m new to barbecues and could do with some help please.

Jim’s runner beans are all up, even the ones in the pots. Last year was a disaster to start with and he had to replant the lot. Then in the second coming (so to speak), they did so well that he had the best year for runner beans ever.

Here the ferns and in front the tomatoe plants. To the right is our camellia.

We had lots of beautiful clematis flowers this year. This one is called ‘The President’.

Last year I took care to spread around lots of the white nigella plants. We are rewarded this summer with some lovely specimens.  Common name is ‘Love in a mist’. So romantic, don’t you think?

The sweet williams are just starting to flower.

and we have lots of bright red poppies.

Lots of joy in the garden isn’t there.

Oma

 

My English Garden in May – Beautiful Clematis

 

It’s just so nice to see flowers blooming after our long, wet winter. Here on the wall is a beautiful clematis, which gives us much pleasure.

And here a honeysuckle, just waiting to open up…

Life feels good at the moment and here at the cottage we are all three enjoying our retirement.  There is time, at last, to do the things we want to do. Life moves slowly. We have learned to adapt and it’s good.

Oma

 

Sunday is gardening day!

We had some really fine weather over the last two days and my flame tulips opened right up. I’ve been watching them growing from my sun-lounge and couldn’t wait to see them open up. Here they are in all their splendour.

and the camellia bush is flowering early this year. That’s a bonus. There are lots of flowers on it and such a joy to see.

and before I forget, the butterflies are out and about too. I just managed to catch this one sunning its wings in the sunshine. It’s a peacock – gorgeous, aren’t they.

Have you seen any butterflies recently?

Today is Mothers’ Day in England. We are earlier than most places. I consider myself very lucky today. I have had two visits and a phone call.

Thinking of my own mother, who died in 1992, I remember a very Dutch lady who loved her tulips. So here is a toast to my mum and her tulips.

Is there a flower that you associate with your own mother? If so, which one comes to mind?

Oma

 

 

When should I plant out my geranium (pelargonium) cuttings?

Back last August, I took lots of geranium cuttings.  So what has happened to them since, you may be wondering. Well they are doing just fine thank you. The smallest ones have been on my window sill all winter and now they are bursting to go outside. Since we could still have frosts at night, I am waiting till April to plant them out and meantime I am enjoying the daffodils in the border first. You can see how big the cuttings are in the first picture above.

The rest of the plants, which I had in the back garden last summer, were brought in in October before the first frosts arrived. They have been sunning themselves in the ‘den’ at the back of the cottage all winter. Now they are getting a bit leggy and want to go outside, but first they must be hardened off. I shall be doing that soon.

Geraniums, or to give them their proper name, pelargoniums, are easy to grow and quick to propagate so they are ideal for beginners to gardening and for me because there is such a high success rate. I like to make sure that I get a continuity of colour each year so I take care, when propagating, to get an equal number of red, white, pink and peach plants. Each year it seems that one or other does better than the rest and, of course, I am always on the look out for new colours. I would love to have a blue one, but blue is not the most prolific colour in the plant world.

Like the primrose, the geranium is not particularly attractive to bees for pollinating. The primrose (which I wrote about yesterday) relies on small insects to spread its seeds and the geraniums need a bit of help from me!

This is one of the pink ones, which is longing to get outside. It’s such a delicate colour, isn’t it.

Millie thinks I’m mad, messing about with plants all the time; you can tell from her expression while she is watching me:

So today it is fine and sunny outside and so I may go out and poggle about with the fork! First I have to think about something for dinner?

What are you having for dinner today?

Oma

The Humble Primrose

I have just upgraded my blog to Premium because I ran out of space so now I return with some pictures of the lovely primroses and primulas, which have been growing in my cottage garden just lately. The first picture shows the humble primrose, although it is quite spectacular really especially after our wet and miserable winter. The next pictures are primulas, which have been cultivated by the growers from the original primrose into large blooms with brighter colours. I am not showing here today the other two members of the family, namely the Primula veris (the cowslip) or the Primular auricula (the auricula).

‘The Primula genus belongs to the Primulaceae family. In general terms, it is a genus of about 400 species, some of which hybridize very easily. They are deciduous winter-green plants, some of which are only half-hardy. All are perennial and produce flowers (often on long stems, sometimes on short ones) from central rosettes of low basal leaves.

The primrose (the Latin name P. vulgaris means ‘common’; sometimes this species is called P. acaulis, meaning ‘with stem’) is one of the first spring flowers to bloom and is a plant that is found throughout Europe.  It is a native perennial in Britain, found in woods, grassy areas and hedge banks.’

From Flower Wisdom by Katherine Kear

A Splash of Colour

My Christmas cactus has been blooming its heart out lately.  It’s a bit early but very welcome as we head into the dark days of November.  Last week we put our clocks back in England and I believe it’s this weekend in the U. States?  Winter has arrived.

We don’t make as much of Halloween over here as you folks in America and I was a bit disappointed with what was for sale in the shops when I got back.  I did get a lovely big pumpkin, but most of the rest of it was what I call ‘tat’ so I haven’t bothered. Now that’s over and our next event is Guy Fawkes Night, which is on November 5th.  This is the time when we ‘celebrate’ though goodness knows why! the attempt to blow up parliament in 1605.  You can read more about that here… It’s a big event over here with firework parties up and down the country.  My little cat, Patch will be frightened.  She will follow me around the house for two hours or more while the bangs and whizzes are going on.

Speaking about cats, what do you think of my scruffy cat, ‘Scruff’ see below.  I knitted him from some very furry wool, which I bought in a charity shop a few months ago. It’s Patons Whisper eyelash yarn. That’s a lovely name for it, isn’t it. The little cat even has real whiskers! Guess where I got those from?