Most of the stuff is looking pretty good after a tidy up, except my 2 Alocasias - Alocasia Wentii 'Aline', and Alocasia Portadora. I'm quite dissapointed about the latter as it was doing extremely well and it's supposed to be one of the more hardier ones, but I'll be trying it again this year! The Wentii 'Aline' was a very jurassic plant, with speckled, red backed leaves. Not to everyones taste but I'm dissapointed to have lost that, although it is one of the more tender Alocasias. They were both bought from Akamba (see the 'links' section for their website), which is one of our localish nurseries, so hopefully they'll be stocking them again this coming season. Here's a pic of the Portadora in Summer;
And the Wentii 'Aline';
Still, Spring is drawing ever closer, and I'm looking forward to perusing the local Garden Centres for some lovely Dahlia tubers, as well as other exotic looking Summer bulbs. I saved quite a few Dahlia tubers of our own from last year, but it's always nice to add a couple more to the mix! Heres some pics of last years Dahlias (sorry if they haven't got a name, I lose track of all the labels!);
This one's called 'Pumpkin Pie'
And this one's called 'Fashion Monger'
Anywho, remember those seeds I planted last weekend? Well the first one came up yesterday, one of the Canna 'Crozy's Hybrids', so hopefully that will be followed by many more in the coming week. I'm also hoping to sow some Hedychium 'Carnival' seeds tommorow, and then that will probably be it until February. Hold on, what am I saying? Next weekend will be the start of February! Oh excellent, I can start sowing all the February seeds! I'll probably leave it a week or two actually as seeds I've started early in the last couple of years never seem to do well if I have too many on the go at the same time! It's supposed to be raining tommorow too, so we may visit the local Garden Centre in the afternoon. I must remember to restrict my spending this time!
4 comments:
Sorry to hear about your Alocasia's, what a pain. I must go and check mine.
You have a lovely selection of dahlias pete. I do like the Pumpkin Pie one best!
That one's my favourite too, we got it from Cotswold Garden Flowers last Summer. Fingers crossed it'll come back nice and vigorous from the tubers this year, although we won't know which one it is not until if flowers lol!
I was on the National Dahlia Collection website last night, they have a massive range of Dahlias for sale as rooted cuttings so it's quite an economical way to buy them, and they have some absolutely stunning varieties.
I've heard that one can buy Alocasias as bulbs from Afro Carribean markets in London. Piled high like common potatoes and extremely inexpensive!!! I'm still trying to track down someone who knows where these shops are!
Yeah I've heard that too - I live near Birmingham (although we don't visit that often) and apparently there's Afro Carribean shops there too, but I've never actually looked for one! Maybe next time we visit...you can also buy other plant tubers from those kinda shops too I think - Xanthasoma (Egg Yams I think they're sold as) and Amorphophallus Paeoniifolius (sold as Suran...) - let me know if you ever get any and how you get on with them!
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