Monday, April 30, 2007

Of pots and plants







The Asiatic Lilly I bought from Shelley nursery has gone mad in the ceramic pot. It has put up four leafy stems with the leaves falling outwards.


They are so soft to touch when you run your hand up the leaves. A very tactile plant.

There are flower buds now at the top of the stems, nestled between green leaves like eggs in a birds nest.

You can see the buds on the second photo.You can grow Asiatic lillys in a pot on a windowsill or table nearby to the window.

I hope to photograph the pink flowers, assuming it flowers like it said in the pot.

The other bulbs that i have put in pots have all come up. The oriental stargazer is developing slowly, but are not exciting enough to photograph. One plant has grown faster but the leaf development is much slower than the asiatic ones.
The Acidanthera I planted in the large pot have grown really quick. 11 out of 12 bulbs have grown stems that are pushing there way up. I hope they flower as they are scented and have beautiful white and black flowers. The lovely named peacock Orchid.
The only casualtys are the Nicotiana which i am thinking will all keel over soon, two of the rescued fuschias have died (from their treatment in the shop where they are displayed and left in heat and fluorescent lighting.)
The tomato plants seem to be struggling as well.The soil is moist, the light present.The lower leaves seem to get droopy, then shrivel. The upper leaves seem to curl up at night, then relax during the day.I wander if the temperature variations are hitting them.Warm during the day then cold at night.They were on the kitchen windowsill but have now moved to the bedroom table about a foot and half away from the windowsill on my black table.
My Dicentra Alba (bleeding heart with white flowers) has rallied around and has lots of new fresh green leaflets growing all over.I hope it might still flower, but maybe it wont untill next year.It is good to nurse an ailing plant back into health. Especially when it might reward you with showy flowers!!
My plants have one month before Hils Charity plant sale.I expect to have more room then on my windowsills. I want to make hanging baskets to for workmates. Angela has a caravan which she visits regularly and i want to do a couple for her to hang there.
Fran also will take some of my excess plants.I love growing them, but they want to be in gardens really flowering away.
I am back on nights this week, seven nights again. Its been four weeks since the last set!!I will post photos and a few words. Hope all your gardens are growing on well!

1 comment:

KC MO Garden Guy said...

I share your enthusiasm for growing and nursing plants back to health. Growing up my sisters would give me plant that were on the edge of dieing and I would bive them a little tender loving care and they would come back. All I would do was repot them, water them on a regular basis and make sure they got enough light and most of the time they would come back.