Veltheimia bracteata in full bloom - update

 

So here she is ! The Veltheimia bracteata that I grew from seed , in full bloom .

                                                       Gorgeous .

Also , by the way , I had my Covid vaccination this morning . Didn't feel a thing and two hours later I,m feeling just fine .  

Pottering about and sowing a few seeds

 What a beautiful morning , Spring is in the air . I,m off into the porch to prick out and pot on my Rainbow Mini Bell Sweet Pepper seedlings .

                       They all germinated ! So I will have some to share .

It gets lots of sunshine in our front porch and so the sack of compost which I store in there is the right temperature for these pepper seedlings .

I notice a little green shoot coming on the Dahlia in the pot next to the pepper seedlings .

                                 Very excited to see that little green shoot !

                               Meanwhile Benny is on guard up in the shed .

The Leeks are doing fine . Today I have sown a couple of little trays of lettuce . Lots of different varieties  , but mainly of the Romaine type , as we love our lettuces crunchy crisp .

I,m still just thinking about sowing my Tomatoes ...... I need to think about it a bit longer .  I have my seeds waiting in the wings !  Maybe tomorrow !

Poor Old Neglected Cactus !

So I was pottering about in the greenhouse  , looking for a cactus that I knew I had in there somewhere .

My brother had sent me a picture of an enormous cactus in his collection . An Opuntia consolea falcata . Huge , a veritable whopper , standing at about 5ft tall  and maybe even taller but he didn't get it all in the photo . Sadly I couldn't get the photo to upload on here . I will have another go later on . Anyway  , this is said to be quite an endangered cactus .

See this link for some more great info about Opuntia consolea falcata -

http://llifle.com/Encyclopedia/CACTI/Family/Cactaceae/9724/Consolea_falcata

So after admiring my brothers cactus , I,m now thinking to myself , I used to have one of these up in my collection . . . . 

If I still have it , then it will probably be in the furthest back corner with all the other most dangerous Opuntias  . In the sunniest place ,but well out of harms way !

Sure enough , there it was ! You might want to look away now .

Oh dear.... not good ...half of it is all dried up and half of it has had rain dripping on it from the slipped window pane above and is now a dark green squishy segment of mush .

It looks as if I have somehow just been missing this poor thing out every time and for goodness knows how long . 

I can see a very small segment in there though , which I may be able to save !

I pulled off the mushy segment and tipped it all out to get a better look at it . 

The main plant is very dried up , but still green . 

I gently pulled the nice green healthy looking segment away and was pleased to find that it has a couple of nice looking roots .

So after a bit of a rummage about , I gathered everything I needed together to pot it up . I usually use this " Levingtons desert cactus and bonsai compost "for potting up my Epiphyllums , they romp away in this , but other proper Cacti really need to have much sharper drainage .  However , this is all I have at the moment .

I mix in a good handful of horticultural grit .

                                    He's looking much happier already ! 

                                        Hmmm ..... what do you think ? 

                                       So I potted up the other bit too !

                                          Well , you never know !