Day five of Fog

 Yep day five of fog . We need the sun to come out now and dry out the hay .

Our  Cornish Elm has really gone downhill with the Dutch Elm disease  ...sigh....the leaves have only appeared on the lower  half of the tree .

On my way to the greenhouse this morning , I'm thinking how lush everything is today . We had torrential rain over-night  . No need to go around with the watering can today .

Incy wincy has made a new web , but he's hiding , just watching and waiting .

So , in the greenhouse we go ......

                                         Oh yeah !  ☺️

                                           Oh yeah !  ☺️

      Oh my goodness !  Here come the Sweet Peppers !

  This year I'm growing one called "Snackbite Red " Sown in February .

           I am quite impressed with these so far . Looking good !

                      Cucumbers 🌿.......

          ........just doing what Cucumber plants do 🌿🌿🌿🐝

The Primrose like leaves coming up in the Ledebouria pot has not gone unnoticed .

I will have to sort them out later on .

This old Epiphyllum needs re-potting . 

  I think it is a gorgeous red flowering one .

This was from my mum's plant , who in turn had a piece from my Grandmother's plant .

 I have no idea from where my Grandmother acquired it . No garden centres back in her day . 

                   🌿🌿🌿            🌿🌿🌿           🌿🌿🌿

 I'll take off that yellowing Phylloclade . Not strictly being a leaf as such .....rather a modified stem having the function of a leaf .

I will make several cuttings from that .

 

                           Epiphyllum Curt Backberg ....broken ....grrrr.....  🐈‍⬛

 

             Epiphyllum Curt Backeberg flower .

🐈‍⬛I suspect a neighbour's cat has been in again and broken off a couple of branches from this Epie .  Grrr ......( it's not really a very safe place for a puddy tat in a cactus greenhouse ! )  🌵

      Oh well !  I gave these to a couple of friends at church this morning .

 I only give cuttings to people who I know have green fingers , will love them and can make them grow ! 

I fixed up netting to stop the cat coming in . I have also had to usher out the Robin who follows me everywhere .

   I rescue bees and butterflies with the aid of a children's rock pool fishing net .

                                      Oooh !  ☺️

   Kalenchoe ..I have several varieties and can't remember their names . 

               Mother of Thousands is it's more folky name . 

She is flowering right now and there are thousands of babies !

                  Gawd ! What am I going to do with them all !

      Let me know if you'd like one !

     Selenicereus chrysocardium ....... I call it my Whale's Tail Epie    🐋

It lives on my bathroom windowsill .

 It had some mealiebugs . I treated it and left it outside last night in the rain , to rinse it off .🌧️ Lordy didn't it rain hard last night !  🌧️🌧️🌧️

 It looks so much better this morning .  Refreshed !  

 I think the sun is trying to come out .☀️ Time for lunch and then off for a walk .

               Love and Peace 🕊️ Go and make it a great day !

                                         Love Debbie 💐x

Pottering about in the Greenhouse

I had planned to pull out my sewing things and do some patchwork , but I went up to open up the greenhouse window and ended up taking down the insulation from the greenhouse rafters and pottering about watering and checking on things and marvelling at things and making fresh plans and and and ... you know how it goes !

                      Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri 

 This was a small cutting from my mum's plant over twenty years ago ....and hers was a cutting from my grandmother's plant . 

It has been a blaze of red flame-like star flowers for several weeks now ! 

I think most people know this as an Easter Cactus .

 With those flame like flowers it is more of a Pentecost Cactus than an Easter Cactus . 

Up in the greenhouse the Tomatoes need watering , they're doing well .

 

  I am feeding them now at about every other watering .

I want to make sure everything has been watered before the up coming warmer temperatures this coming weekend .

 If we get more rain , that too will be good to refill the water barrels over night .

I may have lost one of the ferns under the end bench .  I need to pull that out and see if I can revive it . I have a very delicate Epiphyllum under there ... can't remember what it is . Might be Epiphyllum oxypetalum  🤔I need to pull it out and check the label . I'll do that tomorrow .

 

I still need to get my little fountain going in there ! That can be a job for my grandson when he next comes to visit .....also to see if there are any potatoes in my spud-tubs !

Everything is looking healthy and lush .

Bowiea volubilis is going crazy now along with my one remaining Passiflora manicata . The others were/still are outside , not sure if they survived the winter , need to check on them . Meanwhile Passiflora manicata in the greenhouse is very happy and I will sort out a more permanent place for it in there in due course .

So at the moment , everything is scrabbling about together happily ....and I don't mind !

                                  Plants of all nations !

                Polacanthus dinosaur on snail munching duty 🐌

Cucumber vine sneaking across to say "hello" to the Sweet Peppers . 

I took down the winter insulation from along the greenhouse rafters . That is now  rolled up and stored away to be reused next winter . 

 I leave the shade netting up along this side of the greenhouse , for the Epies , ferns and the more shade loving plants .

  This will give more light in for the cacti , sweet peppers and tomato plants on the other side .

The Cucumbers are doing brilliantly ..all over the place !

 I'm waiting for the postman to deliver a nice bundle of paracord . Then I can fix up some gentle support for them .

But it's o.k. I can still get in and move around in there to tend to them all .

I forgot to take that Cucumber today . I'll take it tomorrow for our salad .

A huge Nasturtium has popped up in one pot . Where have you come from ? 

I didn't sow any Nasturtium seeds ..I wonder what colour that will be ?

A few more Agaves to  tidy up and re-pot .This one is Agave americana .

 This is a beauty ! I don't know which variety it is . It is a very slow growing one .

But then Agaves stay small until you repot them and then they quickly grow to fill the new bigger pot ! 

  I might take this one out and give it a much grander size pot . 

If you plant them out into the garden ......

                       ...they can quickly grow to the size of a mini car !

                 That's all fer today folks !

               🌿🕊️  Love and Peace and a bit more sunshine ☀️💐🌿

                                          love Debbie  x

                                                🌧️🌦️🌧️

Epiphyllums in the Greenhouse - update

 

                Epiphyllum Curt Backeberg beginning to fade now .

I always feel a bit sad when these flowers begin to fade and wither away .

                    Epiphyllum Clown

However , it will be exciting to see what comes from having crossed these two beauties .

The flower is withering away , but the seedpod is swelling .

                                       Epiphyllum Yellow

I also pollenated the bottom two flowers of this one . Named and sold to me as being E.Yellow , although it is actually very pale yellow on the outer petals and more ivory on the inner petals  .

  I would like to rename it Epiphyllum  Cornish Clotted Cream !

So I pollenated it with this one below ......

.....which was sold to me as E. Acapulco Sunset .  Sadly, as it turns out , I don't think it is Acapulco Sunset .  It is a Giant variety for sure and these giant ones are hard to find here in the U.K.

  These were the only flowers open at the same time .  I only pollenated the two bottom flowers of the one on the left. Epiphyllum Yellow . There was plenty of pollen .

And here are the seed pods forming .

The two unpollinated flowers dropped off completely . 

Very exciting to see these seed pods swelling !

The ripening can take between six and twelve months . Exciting ! 

 To be updated !  

                                          🌿💚🌿

Epiphyllum Curt Backeberg Flower

 

                                              I am in love !