I have always admired the craft and people who do Bonsai and over the years I have dabbled a little . I usually end up letting my tree seedlings grow to full size and plant them out in the garden , but I thought I,d have another go .
I recently acquired some Acacia seeds from Scampton Succulents . They sell lots of rare and unusual seeds and have a good blog that gives you information about plants , cultivation , germination etc .
This is the link https://scamptonsucculents.blogspot.com/
So I,m growing Acacia robusta -the Splendid Thorn and Erythrina caffra - the African Coral Tree .
So I carefully scratched away a small area of the outer shell of these seeds with a nail file....mechanical abrasion...according to the instructions ... these seeds can lie dormant for years until the hard shell is broken or the germination inhibitors are washed away ...in their natural habitat these seeds germinate after bush fires ..so to imitate this , you can either soak in boiling water or chip, scratch away a little of the hard outer shell .
So here they are after being scratched ...
Having their soak in tepid water .
Leaving them to soak and swell up over night .
Next morning all but one of these have swollen to double their size .
Especially the Acacia robusta .... sorry slightly blurred photo..I ,m balancing up on a wobbly old step ladder !
Then off up to my greenhouse to sow them .
On the way , I am delighted to see all the Courgettes flowering already !
All male flowers at the moment though as is quite usual in the beginning .
My Mangetout peas have finally germinated ! I thought they'd all been eaten ..in fact I have sown a batch of French beans all along here now too !
The green plastic mesh that is covering them from the birds , is the last of the cheap , rubbish , broken fencing that didn't last even a year ! Most of it became so brittle in the sun that we just had to throw it away .
Yes the Runner-beans are up and French beans.I made a second sowing here too .
They are beginning to climb up the frame ....this is making me feel so happy , as I didn't have much success over the last couple of years .
Into the greenhouse ....where this old Opuntia has opened her flower .
I,ve had this one for about twenty years now , I bought it at Trevena Cross Nurseries over in Breage . It is quite a tough one , it can be grown outside and will happily flower outside too . If you are in the area and love Cacti you really should get over to Trevena Cross as they are really going Cactus crazy this month ! Oh my goodness ! CRAZY !
Delightful !
Back to the task at hand , using very sandy seed compost , I have put them into square plastic pots ,covering the seeds with compost . dunked them in a water bath ..let drain..and put each with a label , into a zip-lock plastic bag .
I will be keeping an eye on these until as each one germinates I will remove and pot up individually . Well that's the plan...fingers crossed .
(So ...message to Bob , its half the "sow into a tray method "and half "germinate in a bag of compost method " ) . Its very ,very warm in the greenhouse and steamy ...I open the windows and the door today.....phew !
We are still waiting for rain ....the water butts are empty ...hard work watering the garden in the evenings .
I haven't even mentioned the Tomato plants in the Solar Shed...but my husband did say that he is taking charge of the Tomatoes this year ..hmmm...I,d better check they are doing o.k ! :)..like water them maybe !
Enjoying all my birdies visiting the feeding station , especially the baby Wood peckers ! They have a nest up in our pine-trees . I keep topping up the water bowls and water the ground around the bird feeders so the woodpeckers can come and pull up worms and grubs easily out of the ground . They are a joy to watch , but very difficult to catch on camera ..but we have had some magical moments watching them .
I did the window basket in red , white and blue to celebrate the beautiful Royal Wedding of Harry and Meghan..we also put up the Union Jack flag .
That's all for now .....off to do some weeding ! Back soon ! :)
