My Moth Orchid (Phalaenopsis) collection.

New YouTube video

I've just uploaded a video all about my Moth orchid collection. Come along and see what I've got.

Love

PB x

Gardening Tools - Surprising Objects of Desire

Objects of Desire

When I was at Art College (centuries ago), I read a book entitled 'Objects of Desire - Design and Society since 1750' by Adrian Forty. I'd be lying if I said I remember it word for word, and could quote from it at the drop of a hat, but I do remember it changing how I felt about 'things'.

There is no getting away from the fact that as consumers we live in a 'throwaway society'. Businesses, economies, even world powers NEED us to consume, dispose and buy again. Stasis is no good, they need us to make them grow. Material and production costs are forced down as low as possible, advertisers tell us our lives will be revolutionised by this new 'thing', or we'll obsolete ourselves if we don't have it in our lives! As demand grows the end price drops, increasing demand again. Quality and longevity are expendable, and so we become surrounded by 'stuff'', consumables that we use briefly but can't bring ourselves to throw or give away, until our homes, minds, oceans and landfills reach a kind of critical mass, and something has to give!

Looking down on these landfill corpses are the design classics, the beautifully engineered pieces, built from exquisite quality materials, designed and manufactured to last, and give us as much joy from the day we first see them, to the day we die - because trust me, you're never going to throw these hardworking beauties away. Think of the Dualit toaster in all its chrome gorgeousness, heavy, solid, dependable. Built to make toast, and my goodness it does it well, with a reassuring tick, tick, tick as the knob rotates back to zero. Mine was a birthday present 20 years ago and it's as perfect as the day we got it., the chrome has aged a little, but that adds to it's looks and doesn't stop it working. Yes, it was a considered purchase in 1997, but spread over time it's cost less than 2p per day!

Now back to gardening...

Gardening Tools - Objects of Desire

I attended the Wealden Times Midwinter Fair in November 2016, held at the Hop Farm, Paddock Wood, Kent (UK). My friend Alisa and I had been scouring the stalls for Christmas gifts for our loved ones. Shortly after lunch, Alisa began chatting to a stall holder, and my eyes wandered round the hoards of people and brightly coloured goods for sale...

Then my breath caught in my throat...

I began walking trance-like through the throng...

And before I knew it, I was touching the most beautiful hand trowel I'd ever seen...

The Mira Trowel from Modern Mint

The stall was Modern Mint, and this was the Mira Trowel at £33.00

Modern Mint

The company was started as a resource for gardeners who wanted to work with beautiful things, built to last, and that would really connect them with their gardens.

They have sourced tools made from bronze (copper alloyed with tin), which look far too precious to actually use, but the guy on the stall said they are tougher and sharper than most tools, and deserve to be used for the purpose which they were made. Just like the Dualit toaster, their full beauty can only be realised when you actually use them.

I explained that my sub-soil was a delightful mixture of clay, flint and chalk which has defeated hand tools and full size tools alike (I have four forks all with bent tines!), and that I would hate to ruin such a thing of beauty.

The guy said that was definitely challenging, but was confident that the worst thing that could happen would be a bit of patina on the bronze.

Who was I kidding, this gorgeous Object of Desire was going to be mine! Whip out the cash already!!

The photo shows the Mira trowel in mint condition (no pun intended). I've used it all year, from the lovely light soil of the square foot garden beds, to the evil 'concrete' soil in the woodland garden, and just as the man said, the only sign of use is a little surface patina, it's as straight and sharp as the day I bought it.

Do you have a favourite garden tool? Maybe it's one you felt an instant connection to, the way I did with the Mira, or one passed down to you from a family member. I'd love to hear your story.
Love
PB xx

Introducing My Family Part 8 - Maisie and Cherry

The Day 5 Guinea Pigs became 7

I feel like I should be at some sort of meeting, or intervention. "Hi I'm Pumpkin Becki and I have a problem..."

I'm not an animal hoarder by any stretch of the imagination, I do know when the cut off point is. If I'm on my own in that "certain" pet shop, I'll go and look at the baby Guinea Pigs and hamsters, coo over them for a few minutes, check the adoption section to see who's there...and then walk away. Often I'll get home and tell MrPB all about the new friends I made, but I won't actually buy or adopt anyone.
Now if MrPB comes with me, that's a whole lot more dangerous!

I'd told MrPB about a big male Guinea Pig called Bruce that I had seen. Knowing he was a boar made it even easier to walk away, he would have to be neutered and quarantined before he could go anywhere near the girls.

Monday 13th November 2017

We popped in to the pet store a couple of weeks later, and as expected, Bruce had gone to a new home - Yay! We stopped and looked at the baby girls, they had lots of young Guinea Pigs in, which always worries me before Christmas. We watched two little girls, a long haired Abyssinian and a smooth short coated tri-colour being nice to each other, sitting together, grooming each other and following each other round the enclosure.

We walked away.

We came back

We asked each other some important questions; which one would we have (I said we'd have to have both as they were so nice together) where we would put them, what would we need etc etc. and after answering all the staff member's questions, these little girls became ours.

The Journey Home

Oddly, the staff member put each guinea pig into it's own travel box. Admittedly the boxes were quite small, I've taken double-boxed hamsters home in one that size before, but that still seemed a really odd thing to do. If guinea pigs are bonded to any degree then it makes sense to keep them together during a stressful event like moving to a new home, taking them to the vets, and so on. I humoured the store until we were safely shut in our car, then I opened the boxes and popped them both in together. They settled quickly, and we drove home.

Quarrantine

We set up the floor-time pen with food water and hay as soon as we got home, put the travel box in (carefully placing it on it's side to create a hidey), and left them to come out in their own time. Later on we put some Romaine lettuce in the run, plus a handful of ReadiGrass. The babies didn't brave the big wide world until night time, MrPB went downstairs to get a drink, and heard them scamper back into the box, and saw the lettuce and ReadiGrass had gone.

So lets meet them...

Maisie

Miss Maisie is a very fluffy Abyssinian Guinea Pig. Her coat pattern is described as broken, but it's hard to describe her colour accurately, she has white and lemon patches, but her main colour is somewhere between slate and chocolate. It depends which photographic resources you look at online, and which screen you view them on. grrrr!

She is very sweet natured, shy and wary, always in the background, but she will take food from your hand and enjoys laptime, she has also quickly has formed friendships with Phoebe, Daisy, Tilly, Molly and Emmeline. I think it's because she is so subservient, she is no threat to the others or their pecking order,

Maisie

Cherry

Cherry by contrast is a little pickle, one moment she's sitting quietly...

Cherry

The next she wants to know what's going on over there...

Cherrybomb

And over there!

You're my Ch Ch Ch Cherrybomb

She is a tri-colour, with chocolate Agouti on her rump, plus red and white. She is very very vocal, shouting louder than everyone else put together at teatime. She's confident, popcorns constantly, takes food from the others, grooms them, rumble-struts at them (which is hilarious! this little mouse of a guinea pig telling off Phoebe or Daisy who are three times her size - she's got pluck!)

What's the Plan?

We've already managed to integrate the babies in with Phoebe, Tilly and Daisy. We've also had all seven out for floor-time, which has worked really well. Maybe, just maybe we can connect all the hutches together and have a herd...I say that every time don't I! :D

The Magnificent Seven - Clockwise from top left: Maisie, Tilly, Emmeline, Daisy, Phoebe, Molly and Cherry

Succulents and Righting Past Wrongs with Houseplants

Three weeks ago I posted here about my new plant obsession - succulents.

Since then I've posted about it on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and I've also made a YouTube video on the subject - why?

Background

As I said in my last post, my history with houseplants reads like the plot of a murder mystery, except I'm clearly the villain. I've starved them of light, water and food, then drowned them for a while, and finally dumped their lifeless forms in the compost heap - dark eh!

When I rescued a sad Echeveria 'Perle Von Nurnberg' to try my hand at succulent propagation, I fully expected to fail, but I've learnt so much recently, from various succulent websites and YouTubers, that my crown cuttings have rooted and are growing, babies are forming on the rooted stems, and many of the leaf cuttings have grown roots too.

Now

Spurred on by this success, I bought some more 'Perle Von Nurnberg' from the reduced section of my local DIY store, bought some unidentified Echeveria, a Graptopetalum 'Opalina', and some Pachyphytum oviferum (aka Moonstones) cuttings, plus some mixed cutting from Little Bunny Lilac's Etsy store. My collection was growing fast

Then I realised I had a problem -  I'd run out of window sill space!

We had a large plastic shelving unit going spare, so I decided to invest in some grow lights, and fit them to the shelves for a fancy grow-station.

After lots of research, I went for the Sunblaster Nano Tech T5 light combo kits. They come with the full-spectrum light tube, a reflector, fittings and fixings, a power cable and a double ended cable so you can connect two lamps together. If you would like to see me installing the lights, then do watch the Youtube video, I'd appreciate the views (and don't forget to like,share and subscribe while you're there ;-) )

I started with four lamps, enough for two shelves...then I went on a shopping spree at Surreal Succulents, and had to buy two more for a third shelf - Oops

Succulent Grow Shelves

So here we are just three weeks down the line, and I have already had to expand my infrastructure twice over. I'd better not do it again in three weeks time!

Let's give you a list of the plants on the shelves, as far as I can, many plants are supplied unlabelled, and Echeveria for example come in hundreds and hundreds of hybrid varieties. Unless you have bought a named variety, grown from a named variety parent plant by a reputable source, you will be unlikely to identify it with any certainty.

Echeveria	Runyonii ‘Topsy Turvy’	‘Perle von Nurnberg’	prolifica
Graptoveria	‘Opalina’	‘Debbie’	acaulis	‘Pik Ruza’
Sedum	morganianum burrito	Rubrotinctum ‘Aurora’	‘Sandra Mottram’	clavatum
Crassula	ovata	mesembryanthemoides	ovata ‘Gollum’	‘Horn tree’	perforata	tetragona
Sedeveria	‘Leitzia’
Haworthia	cooperii
Pachyphytum	oviferum
Kalachoe	pumila
Senecio	rowleyanus
Cremnosedum	‘Little Gem’

My succulent journey is well and truly on the way, I'm looking forward to propagating lots of young plants so that I can start making projects with them all. Keep a look out for upcoming posts and YouTube videos.

Love
PB xx

Molly Mumma's 2nd Gotcha Day

What's a Gotcha Day?

A Gotcha Day is the day an adopted creature comes into your life. You may not know the day they were born, but you can celebrate the day that their life and yours changed forever.

Molly is the second guinea pig to be adopted by us, and she is a very special girl indeed. Her full story can be read here, but on this her second Gotcha Day I made her the star of her very own YouTube video

Come along and see my beautiful, sweet girl having cuddles (and lettuce) with me.

Happy Gotcha Day Mumma!

Love PB xx

The Start of a New Obsession - Succulents

You know when you get that 'feeling' about something or someone, and you just know it's the start of something big? Well recently I got that for an Echeveria at the local DIY superstore.

Echeveria - Isn't it pretty!

Historically, I've not had huge success with houseplants, and after a while I get annoyed with crusty looking soil, dusty window ledges and sunlight being blocked from rooms. Not to mention my extreme clumsiness - potted plants and cream carpets do not mix!

Then I was given a Moth Orchid (Phalaenopsis), then another, and another...I've got about 10 now (I think), they really love my West/ Northwest facing kitchen window. Then someone gave me their ancient Hoya (Wax Flower). I was terrified I'd kill it, but it also adores my kitchen window sill!

As I watched more videos from my favourite YouTuber (besides myself of course lol), Laura at Garden Answer, I realised how diverse the world of succulents is, the stunning arrangements you can create with them, and the propagation techniques you can try and (hopefully) master. My interest was piqued, but I wanted to start gently. So I got myself some Sempervivum (aka houseleeks, Hen and Chicks or Ice Plants), and created some exciting outdoor planters and projects.

Sempervivum are a brilliant way into the world of succulents

Sempervivum are completely hardy in the UK, and will survive down to zone 4 in the USA (−34.4 °C (−30 °F)) - That's pretty darn cold!! The range of colours and textures is lovely, and they are so easy to propagate. When the 'mother' plant (or Hen) grows baby offshoots (chicks) on thick fiberous 'stems', you can either gently pull them off the hen and plant them somewhere else, or allow them to form a beautiful clump. Eventually the hen will die (after about 3 years), and you can take that opportunity to renovate the clump, or just position some of the chicks on top of the brown patch the hen leaves behind.

The large central 'Hen' surrounded by her 'Chicks'

They are quite the most forgiving succulent, and being outdoor plants are much much less demanding than indoor (tender) succulents.

But then I saw it...shriveled and stretched out (etiolated), planted in a chunky glass container with no drainage and marked down from £5 to £2...

The true state of this poor Echeveria

So I thought, I could use this poor sad creature to practice propagation etc on, the worst thing that could happen is that I kill it outright, and lose £2, but potentially I could have 10-12 leaves, a crown and a rooted stem to grow new plants from - isn't that a really exciting concept?

In fact it was so exciting that the following day I went back and bought the other 3 discounted Echeveria and created this...

Leaf cuttings and Crown cuttings read to get growing

80 leaf cuttings, five crowns, four rooted stems (not shown), and an experiment with an unrooted stem, which unfortunately started to go mouldy, so I threw it away for the health of all the other cuttings.

I should mention that there is a really important step in between taking the cuttings and laying them on damp soil to form roots, and that is to allow the wet wounds to dry out and form a callous. This prevents the cuttings soaking up too much water and rotting off. It can take 3-5 days for this to happen, and smaller wounds will callous faster than large ones like crown cuttings.

In this photo the cuttings and soil surface had just been damped down with a spray bottle, I will now leave them alone for a week or so in a bright location, but out of direct sunlight.

This is a brave new world for me, and you can fully expect more blog posts, YouTube videos, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts on the subject.

Do you have a passion for succulents? Have you had a go a propagating them? Leave me a comment below and lets have a chat :)

Love
PB xx

Carnivorous Plant Updates, New Arrivals and Seed Harvesting

Carnivorous Plant update:

It's been a really busy summer in my Carnivorous Plant collection.

Sarracenia var. unknown has had it's best year EVER! I've never had such big pitchers on it, and never seen it with such an intense colour either. That means I can stumble towards a partial identification, it's probably a rubra hybrid, though I couldn't be any more specific than that.

Sarracenia rubra ssp unknown looking amazing in July

Sarracenia rubra ssp unknown 2017 brings the best size pitchers and colour yet

My Venus Fly Trap (Dionea var. unknown) has grown well too. Some of the traps achieved much stronger colour than this photo shows, and it fed regularly on all manner of things including craneflies and earwigs!

Dionea var unknown growing well

I've never seen a Venus Fly Trap in flower, many experts say the flowers are dull and it is better for the health of the plant not to allow the flower stem to develop...but I really REALLY wanted to see the flowers, so I let it carry on.

Dionea flowers! So pretty!!

I wasn't disappointed! The white Dionea flowers are tissue paper delicate, with fine veining that looks like neat pinstripes extending from chartreuse green centres. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
 Moments after I took this photo, I snipped off the flowers right at the bottom of the stem, allowing the plant to use it's prey to feed up for the winter.

And now the Newbies:

For my birthday in June, my best friend bought me two amazing beasts from Triffid Nurseries (he had to be pointed in the right direction, but the choices were definitely his own)

Sarracenia rubra ssp. gulfensis 'Yellow River' Florida

This delicious specimen came to me in full flower, with pitchers over a foot tall. It's been feeding gluttonously in the greenhouse over July and August, to the point where there are small 'burn' marks on the pitchers, and you can just see the dead insects through it.

Sarracenia rubra ssp. gulfensis 'Yellow River' Florida

It's so massive I couldn't get it all in one photo and do it justice. The flowers are the most alien I've ever seen on a carnivorous plant. The clever landing pad forming a cup to collect pollen and seed.

Sarracenia rubra ssp. gulfensis 'Yellow River' Florida flowers are spectacular

Drosera binata dichotoma 'Giant'

Photo to follow! This Sundew is very aptly named. It's a huge, forked variety that attempted to take over the world shortly after it arrived. I ended up having to stake the 18" tall limbs to give everything else breathing space! It is sliding into dormancy now, so I'll have to take photos of it's fresh growth in Spring/Summer next year.

Seed Harvesting

As the Sundew flowering has been so spectacular this year, so I decided to collect the seed with a view to growing it next year.
Once the flowers had finished and the seed pods had turned brown, I labelled some small brown envelopes similar to this listing on Ebay. I wrote one envelope per subspecies of Drosera, then carefully cut the entire dried flower stem off each plant, as close to the plant as I could. Trying not to shake the stem, I opened the envelope with my left hand, and tipped the flower stem upside-down into the envelope with my right.
Drosera are very generous with their seeds, which look like fine, short clippings of hair, so dropping a few won't hurt! Believe me!!
I left the stems in the envelopes for a couple of weeks, until the seeds had fully ripened and dropped into the bottom of the envelope.
The next job was to clean the seeds.
I tipped the contents of the envelopes out onto a sheet of paper (one envelope at a time - don't mix the seeds up!). Then I carefully picked out all the bits of stalk, petal and seed head. Fine tweezers are invaluable at this point, and try not to sneeze or sigh heavily, or you'll be left with all the chaff and none of the seed!
When the seed is as clean of chaff as it can be, carefully pour the seeds back into the correct brown seed envelope, and seal it.
Seed from some species of Drosera need a period of cold stratification to germinate, others can be sown as soon as they are harvested.

Here are the requirements for my collection:

Drosera Species	Subspecies	Native Region	Stratify Seeds?
capensis		Tropical	No
capensis	Alba	Tropical	No
binata	dichotoma ‘Giant’	Temperate	Fresh – No /Stored -Yes
spatulata		Subtropical	No
filiformis	filiformis	Temperate	Stratification required
hybrida	filiformis x intermedia	Temperate	Stratification required
binata	T Form	Temperate	Fresh – No /Stored -Yes

As it happens, I haven't had time (what with starting my own YouTube channel - did I tell you about that? ;-) ), so everything is being stored until Spring, and I'll stratify or not, depending on the variety and it's requirements.

I'm really looking forward to sowing them though!
Have you ever tried growing Carnivorous Plants from seed? Tell me about your experiences in the 'Comments'
Love
PB xx