SHOW US YOUR PURCHASES - 2022

It's a nice shape Victoria.

 

Agree ... can't wait to see it with leaves and of course flowers.

 

No doubt it will look lovely next year once the leaves start to grow again & the plant becomes established. Looking forward to seeing some pictures in the summer to see just how well it's done for you,@Victoria!

 

Obviously looking forward to next spring, but found this in the back of a greenhouse in a local nursery, not bad for 3 quid.

 

Got seeds today from Reunion Island for Jatropha Multifida. Might start a few right away to get a head start as I got 10 seeds.

 

@Victoria, it looks like a great plant! Hope you have luck with getting the seeds to germinate.

I'm reminded of the Bird of Paradise seeds my son brought me back from Spain. There were only 4 big seeds in the packet but only one germinated! Though that may have been my fault rather than that of the seeds as I put them in individual small plastic pots on our kitchen windowsill then forgot about them (you know how it is, "out of sight, out of mind!") The one that did germinate has grown into a big plant, too big to keep in the kitchen next year. It will have to be repotted & put out on the balcony for at least 6 months.
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They are hardier than most people think @Balc and only need 0c to survive the winter.
Lots of sun in summer though.

 

A recent delivery from J Parkers - a bucket of hybrid tea roses selected for their fragrance. A good soak over night and then into the front garden tomorrow. There are 6 different varieties. Always fancied a small rose garden. Will post up some pics when they are all in bloom next year.

 

@clanless Looking forward to seeing them when they come into bloom!

 

Adenium obessum arrived today having left Germany via DHL on 25 November! It seems okay except for most of the leaves falling off when the cellophane wrapper came off and it appears there are dead flowers on it so the colour will still be a surprise.t . It is now recuperating on a West-facing windowsill in The Baffa.


There was a silver foil pouch in it that says Warming Pack ... what is that all about?

 

I find Adenium quite tender, certainly wouldn't want to be below 7c for many hours, could possibly be why the leaves are falling off, unless its bone dry.

Not sure how a warming pack would work but it might be for that reason, it could easily get frosted in Germany in November.

 

@Victoria I hope your plant doesn't suffer any ill effects & recovers fast!

 

I got a present from my son of an Amaryllis 40 years after I was given my very first one by one of my sisters!
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I seem to have a problem uploading files from my mobile phone to the forum. This is at least the 2nd time when the photo I try to upload is added only as an attachment. There is no way of seeing the photo you have chosen has been uploaded or not. Only AFTER posting does the photo appear as an attachment.

 

There is a little story behind the Amaryllis I have grown over the years! Exactly 40 years ago - to the day (25th December) I was given my very first Amaryllis bulb. My sister gave me it as a Christmas present. It came in a box, inside of which was a a plastic pot with a plastic bag of compost. The bulb was ready to plant on opening the box. That very same day I planted it up & 2 months later - almost to the day - the first flower began to open!

Later that year we returned to live in Spain, to my wife's town, not far from Madrid. I took the bulb with me & thus began a lifetime of growing them! They multiplied in Spain & seem to like the climate very much. For the next 19 years we lived there we were never without a few plants, I gave some away when they started to become too many!

When I returned to the UK in 2001 I had to leave all my plants, as well as my Amaryllis behind. But I bought 3 mixed, unnamed Dutch hybrids from a stall at the first international market held in this town. After a few years I decided to try & grow some from my own seeds! I cross fertilized the bulbs & was lucky enough to end up with a few viable seedpods filled with SOOO many seeds I knew I could never use so many. Any way I sowed them on a tray of compost & put them in the siring cupboard - not expecting to see anything probably for weeks - imagine then how surprised I was when they started germinating after only a few days!!!

Well I potted a lot up in tiny 2 1/2" square pots. When I started I thought I would put 1 per pot - but after filling 15 pots & putting them in a standard seedtray I found I'd hardly made a dent in the original seedtray! So I put 4 in each pot & managed to fill up 2 seedtrays with 30x2 1/2" pots in each! & I still had seedlings left over!!! Having no more pots & deciding I probably had more than I could ever use I was forced to throw the remaining seedlings away.

As I grow tomatoes in growbags on the balcony every year I decided to use them the following year to grow on my Amaryllis seedlings. They liked the growbags so much they grew & grew till they were almost the size of Jack's beanstalk!

The following year I repotted them in 6" pots & they grew very well indeed. But the following year that started to flower for the first time. Some bulbs had become huge & produced 3 stems, (or scapes as they are properly called), each with at least 4 or 5 flowers!!!

That same year I was made redundant from the factory I'd worked at for over 5 years. Being unable to fined work a friend of mine from church asked me if I like to help him on his allotment. Never having grown any veg, other than tomatoes, I was curious & said OK.

Later in May having no room any longer for sooo many Amaryllis bulbs I took them down to the allotment & planted them out there. Unfortunately there were also Daffodils & Tulips dying down when I took my bulbs down. Some seedling bulbs that hadn't flowered in the spring flowered during the summer. But I also noticed some didn't seem to be growing very well while others had twisted leaves. When I dug them up in October to bring them home I discovered that some of the bulbs had a small hole in them, near the basal plate, these I threw away suspecting they were infested with some kind of maggot. Only a few years later did I discover that they had been infected with the Narcissus Fly!

The bulbs I brought home were unaffected & grew & multiplied over the coming years till I ended up with at least 100 6" pots full of bulbs. Note I say "pots" not "bulbs" as some pots had more than 1 bulb in them!

Many years ago I joined a gardening forum & among the first blogs I ever wrote was a blog on growing Amaryllis from seed. I ended up writing numerous blogs over the year & became know as the "Amaryllis expert" on there! I've only ever written from my own personal experience of growing them for myself. But it seemed I helped some members to get their Amaryllis to flower for a 2nd time after buying them for Christmas.

I'm going to leave a link here if anybody is curious enough to want to have a look:


Amaryllis from seed : Grows on You

A sequel:

Amaryllis seedlings : Grows on You

Should you fell so inclined I wrote more blogs on that site.
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