Monday, November 30, 2009

Xmas Plant Plans


Its the last day of November, and this Hebe is still in flower. It has these little pale lilac coloured flowers on the end of stems. They look like little purple bottle brushes.
Its Xmas in 25 days (scary) and I have not bought anything yet.
I saw today that the One Show (a thirty minute light entertainment program on every night during the week at 7pm) are encouraging people to try to make their Poinsettias flower again.
In my experience they look gorgeous in all their red and gold xmas finery, but within a short space of time they are reduced to bald stems with every leaf dropped off..
I will try to buy a Poinsettia to try and make it flower a second time. I'm not making any bets though about whether I will succeed.
The rain has stopped falling briefly after a wet weekend. The Spring Bulbs are nudging their way up giving flashes of green in the soil.
I have some Hyacinths in the kitchen cupboard trying to induce them to grow early. I wanted them to flower by Xmas day. They have formed roots, and have white leaf stems growing up. Once they are an inch long I will take them out and place them in a light room where they will rapidly grow, and hopefully flower.
The Hyacinths I'm forcing are a beautiful Red colour, and are strongly scented..

1 comment:

Sue Garrett said...

I managed to get my poinsettia to 'flower' a second time once! But what a song and dance that was - rushing home from work to cover it with a cardboard box and black bin liner!