Floral Tribute

Wednesday, January 13 

My mother only had one species of house plant. A Zygocactus species, known as the Christmas Cactus.It, and its young ones, sat on the kitchen windowsill throughout my living memory - my mother has been dead almost forty years. The cottage was rented from Colonel Gough, the local landowner, by my maternal grandparents. When my parents married, my father bought their home, where both my mother and I were born,  for the princely sum of £100. Is the original plant that old? Did my grandmother own one?

When my mother died, I acquired the original plant, it's an offspring that we have now. As the plant ages, sections of leaf fall off and are easily propogated by sticking the bottom into some soil. This magnificent specimen is the result of a random drop-off being planted into the soil of another pot plant (invisible behind it).

 Plant care instructions state

Temperature: Maintain an optimal climate of 65 degrees. Watering: Keep the soil evenly moist while your plant is blooming, misting it frequently. Light: Place the cactus in an east-facing window for moderate light and some direct sun. Fertilization: Apply a high-potassium fertilizer every two weeks once buds form.

All our plants are kept in the utility room year round, irregularly watered and occasionally fed, cared for by Pam.

An alternative suggestion is, ' if you forget them,that's better than over-care'. Just as well.

Inspired by this, I decided to take a walk round the garden in order to see if anything was flowering.

The Gentian showed signs of frost damage, the others relatively undamaged by the recent long spell of sub zero temperatures. Pam tells me that there are some Snowdrops out in the front, in the shelter of next door's beech hedge, I didn't venture out there.

Gentian

Viola

Daphne

 

 

Viburnum Tinus

Cyclamen

 Our thirty year old Witch Hazel died. The new one is too young to flower this year. We usually enjoyed its mass of bright golden, lightly scented. flowers at this time of year. I miss it.

All three vegetable plots have been winter dug, the contents of our compost bins spread on the surface.

 

Leeks remain, to see us through until spring.