💛Good morning ☺️🌿☀️
Butternut "Waltham" and Butternut "Hunter "...planted .
...... also three slightly more unusual squash ..the name of which escapes me !
I am aching too much to do anything else today . It is going to be very hot again .
I gave all the plants a good drink . We really could do with some rain .
A quick peek inside the greenhouse ......
Epiphyllum crenatum is the star of the show today .
🌿☀️🌿
Went in for brekkers......
....... and a flop .
.....remembered snails 🐌🌿
So I climbed in and snapped a couple of pics , almost hanging upside down . And found the label which says this is Epiphyllum var buttercup .......not E. cooperi .
Epie cooperi is in there , very close to it at the back . Looking very tatty . It needs to be pulled out and given some serious pampering .
. . 🐌.... and I can see a snail !
Bye !
This is how it looked yesterday evening . It has the most beautiful bud .
No fragrance detected just yet ...maybe later on . Oh my heart ! It is beautiful !
I couldn't reach to get a photo of it from the front side . I'll try and climb in there and have another go later on .
And then ...........
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Is your heart beating faster too ? 🤍 So lovely !
I acquired these many years ago from Mr Pilbeam of Connoisseurs Cacti . Many of my cacti came from him too .
( Ignore the yellow Hylocereus undatus label...it's in the big pot behind . This one is E. crenatum )
Hylocereus undatus - possibly the largest plant in my greenhouse .Very generously given to me by my botanical brother . In a massive tub and scrabbling along a branch . It grows very fast , it punctures it's way through the netting and continues along above it in the roof . I 'm thinking maybe it wants more sunshine than all my Epiphyllums can take . I've had it for years and years ...it has never produced a flower .
I have taken some cuttings from it and will experiment with them to find a better position for it . ☀️
Lots of lovely new Epi shoots in the morning sunshine .
Passiflora manicata and Passiflora mollissima .
I like my plants to grow the way they want to grow . A little bit of scrabbling about through my Epies might actually be cool .
but
.... then again , maybe these are beginning to run the risk of getting totally out of control !
I like a little bit of totally out of control . 🤔 Plants definitely like to be out of control .
🌿I have a feeling these might want to take over the planet ! 🌍
Make it a great day ! Sending love !
🌿☀️🌿
correction 🙄- So I climbed in and found the label ! It was not E.cooperi but E.var buttercup . 💛
Made a good start pulling weeds from the African Keyhole bed . This year I will only be growing my Butternuts "Hunter " and "Waltham " and another variety the name of which escapes me .
The idea of the Keyhole bed is primarily to help vegetable growers in more seriously drought stricken areas of the planet .
It is a circular raised bed .
There would be a large pot in the centre where you would water into and the roots of the vegetable plants are forced to reach deep down for the moisture . You can make a woven basket and"shade hat" to go around and over the watering hole in the middle ...to help stop the precious water from evaporating .
The idea is that you can walk in to the centre and pretty much reach all around to tend to the vegetable bed .
I have chicken wire all around mine to keep the rabbits out .
I forgot to cover mine over during the winter months . I remembered a bit too late .
I dragged off the cardboard which normally by now would have broken down . I'll use it somewhere else in the garden .
This took a whole long time of forking out huge thistles , grass , nettles and flaming bindweed !
I have raked in some chicken pellets .
It's not as perfect as I usually do it , but it will have to do for now .
I'll go around tidying the grass and weeds that are tangled in the surrounding chicken wire another time .
The incinerator bin was only put in there to stop it blowing away in the gales .
The Echium is a special one given to me by a friend of my daughter's Jess who grew them from seed . Actually there are three in there and I'm going to leave them where they are and enjoy seeing them bloom .
The rest of the bed is more south facing for the Butternuts anyway .
So there we are , my body is aching , my digging foot and Achilles tendon flaring up again , but I can rest it up now .
See what the weather is doing ..I really want to get planting everything out now .
Maybe more Epiphyllum news tomorrow !
🐝🐝🐝
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I only have the Pumpkin bed left to prepare . Been a bit tired , but maybe I will do it tomorrow .
I have been taking the seedlings , beans , butternuts , sweetcorn , nicotiana out of the greenhouse and bringing them all back in again at the end of the day . I want to make sure they are properly hardened off .
We had weather warnings of thundery showers , there were a few rumbles of thunder during the night here and my brother sent me pictures of the sudden hail storm they had this afternoon in Buckinghamshire . Great big seedling smashing , leaf shredding hail stones ! ⛈️⚡....and flooding !
We didn't get much rain here . My water butt is only a third full . I was really hoping it was going to be full to the brim . I am very grateful that I now have two water butts fixed up on the greenhouse .
The Tomatoes and Cucumbers are very thirsty plants .
Anyway , so I think I'm going to hold back on planting out for a few more days .
Beans ,Sweetcorn ,Pelargoniums , Nicotiana .
Meanwhile , I am giving some attention to my house plants .
Looks so much better in it's new slightly larger pot and fresh compost and a drink .
And this poor Cycad 🤩 which I snapped up in a local supermarket ! I just fell in love with it , you know how it is !
But ..sigh ...the pot is so small and some of the leaves are turning yellow . I suspect the plants were watered with tap water . They really don't like the chlorine in tap water .
Anyway ...... ✨✨✨
I hope I can turn it around .Just look at those crushed roots !
This one was perfect .
And a nice drink of water from the water butt . They both look so much better already !
The Cycad is living in the greenhouse ...for the time being ..... hmm ....
The Calathea on a windowsill in the cottage . One with indirect light . It really is a gorgeous plant .
More tomorrow !
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Epiphyllum var Buttercup is still looking lovely .
In fact I think her colour is a shade brighter today .
There is a second bud about to open , maybe tomorrow !
They are very green ....I'm thinking this one is E. crenatum ...but not sure . I'll see if I can find a label on it tomorrow .
A couple of Epie cuttings arrived in the post . Yay ! One of these was a free gift . Very happy me .
Potted these up straight away .
Also a cutting of Tradescantia fluminensis "aurea" .
It's gorgeous ! I do hope that I can get it rooted !
I couldn't go to Flora Day as I'm a bit poorly at the moment , but we did take in lots of greenery and flowers to help my daughter decorate her front door and gate .
I was very grateful to the Flora Day 2025 Helston Live Stream on Youtube , which I sat and watched pretty much all day ! It was wonderful , the band , that drum . the little children playing in the band were brilliant ! The teachers and the school children of all four schools hop skip skipping the Flora Dance for almost an hour around the town . The Hal an Tow was filmed brilliantly looking down on it from above , like I,ve never been able to see it before . All the dancers looked wonderful . The sun came out !
My brother gave me a lovely Lily of the Valley embroidery kit for my birthday , which is Helston's flower . So I really enjoyed Flora Day despite not feeling too good .
Back home we remembered V.E Day too .
So that's about it from me today .
This is the Sunset from the greenhouse this evening .
Sweet dreams all ! 💐☀️🦋🌿
