Hello and welcome to this weeks SOS.
The weather has been somewhat more settled this week with a lot of sunshine and some frosty nights and mornings. The nights are starting to get longer and this means that there has been plenty of opportunity to spend a little bit of time on the garden even if it has been some what cold at times. The garden is still bursting into life with all sorts of plants reappearing after a winter slumber. The weather forecast is favourable if not slightly rainy this weekend so I am going to spend most of the week planting.
Here is my six.
1. New Begonias
I have been growing begonias for the past couple of years but have only known them as yellow plants and orange plants. This year I have bought 3 new varieties Rosebud, Flamenco White and Flamenco yellow. I have already lined up some terracotta pots to plant them in. I seem to have an excess of medium size pots because I have realised that some of the succulents on to big a pots so I have planted these in smaller pots. I will probably wait until next week until I plant these.
2. New Alpines
I have bought 4 new Alpines so I can plant a mini trough ready for the spring/summer. I had to buy them mail order as both my local Alpine Nurseries have stopped their on site shops. Which I am a little bit disappointed about as I enjoyed visiting these niche local nurseries. I bought these 4 from Harperley Nurseries in County Durham. I had orders 8 plants to make 2 mini troughs but they only sent me 4 which is a little disappointing to say the least but I guess I shall have to make do with one for now. The plants that got delivered were Lewisia Little Mango, Lewisia Little Peach, Oxalis Ken Asslet and Rosularia Chrysantha.
3. Aeonium Mariner L’Apostlle
After a few disaster growing Aeoniums last year I seem to have grasped a better understanding of growing them this year. This one caught my eye when walking around the garden. The increased sunshine has changed the colour of it’s leaves to much darker shades and the crimson outline around the leaves are really starting to show itself more prominently.
4. Tulip Albion Star
This was my one of my favourite Tulip by far last year so I kept the bulbs in the same pot. Always a early flowerer this cheered me up this week when I saw they were nearly ready to open. I have several tulips this year and all are way more behind than these ones.
5. Echeveria Red Gilva
My favourite Echeveria. The colours are spectacular at this time of year and the leaves are vibrant, plump and majestic at this time of year. The increase in sun has changed the colour of the leaves from mostly green to a lovely mix of red and green.
6. Geum leaves.
I have got a couple of Geums in my garden. They are a hardy perennial and thus one of the easiest plants to propagate. I took some cuttings last year and I have now for 10 plants in total all over the garden. As you can see these plants not only produce multiple flowers in long stems but at this time of year them produce new, crisp, fresh and vibrant leaves that look spectacular in their own right.
That is my six for this week.
I am going to spend part of this weekend checking over some of the many succulents I have for any damage after winter and replace any missing labels if I am confident I can identify them with confidence.
If you want to write a SOS blog it is not that difficult. As always to find out how six on Saturday works please follow the following link The Propagator. The don of Six on Saturday.
Until next week goodbye.
Sedums, Dahlias and Hayfever 
The Echeveria Red Gilva is lovely and I’m looking forward to seeing the tulips in full bloom. I fancy an early flowering yellow tulip. I’m off to write the name down…
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Yes as I said that Echeveria is one of my favourites.
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Going around the garden yesterday afternoon to find my ideas for this week’s Six, I noticed that my lewisias had duplicated … I have 3 or 4 all around the mother plant. I will, I think, plan to buy more because I think it’s a very beautiful plant and these flowers are beautiful. Maybe I’ll take a picture of it to show it next week. Pretty tips of red leaves from your Echeveria Red Gilva !
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That’s great Fred. I wish my Lewisias would self seed. I agree and really like the Echeveria as I said it is one of my favourites. It is now one of my largest I have because I lost 1 to rot and had to split the other 1 which was rotted as well. I have started planting my Echeverias in much smaller pots.
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I love Geums and I honestly didn’t know that they were easy to propagate. I have two, but same variety – perhaps I should just have bought one of two types and tried propagating them.
The tulip Albion Star is very pretty.
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Thanks yes the Tulip certainly is a beauty. It has to be one of my favourites.
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The aeonium with the burgundy edge has beautifully arranged leaves – almost like a rose. Pretty tulips too.
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Thank you
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The tulips look lovely.
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Well done with your geum cuttings. I have never been able to get them to take. What did you do?
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I took them just after they stopped flowering last year and placed them in a partly shady area in the garden which was rich in compost this being a little bit damper than other areas. It was behind a North facing fence. I used a lot of compost and very little sand and gravel in this border partly due to laziness. I always lift plants and move if the garden is particular wet. So I guess it was wet one weekend and I took some cuttings and literally planted them in a small area in this border and forgot about them. I them moved them to other parts of the garden.
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Sorry for the grammar and spelling mistakes it is 2am amnesia sucks
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I have some Geums in my garden and reading that they are easy to propagate, I’ll be certain to give it a go. Yours look a lot healthier than mine which have had a struggle during the hot weather. I’m surprised they survived really.
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Yes I found it remarkably easy. I think it is because I lifted then and split them when they stopped flowering last year. I took the cutting as close to the root ball as possible and planted them in a dark and fertile place in my garden which was North Facing and did not get much sun.
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Thanks for those tips.
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Oh, a package in the mail. How naughty! At least you got something manageable, and pretty too. I So want to get seed for a few palms, but have not allowed myself to do so this year until I tend to the expired seed that are here already. I did happen to get ten scrub palm seed, which was actually more than a hundred when they arrived, but I tended to them right away. The ‘Flamenco’ types that I remember were white with a red picotee edge. Of course, that was a long time ago.
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New plants! Always exciting. I’m trying to resist at the moment until I can finish sorting through what’s out there already. It won’t last long though 🤣. The red edged leaves of the Aeonium set it off beautifully.
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The red tinge to both your echeveria and aeonium sets them off beautifully. I’m going to try succulents this year – they look fascinating…
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