GARDENER'S WORD

Cyclamen plants like to do things their own way.  The flowers on a cyclamen reflex upwards displaying the reproductive organs from below, giving easy access for pollenating insects .   Once fertilised, the flowers fall, the flower stem curls downward bringing the developing seed capsule into closer contact with the ground.  Clever stuff. Reflex petals on a cyclamen being visited by a Bumblebee  Cyclamen reproductive organs Cyclamen flower stem with developing seed pod starting to curl downwards Cyclamen seed capsule

Sometimes the little things in life that we have missed pass us by simply because we weren't paying attention.  Almost too late this season I discovered what a beautiful flower jasminum officinale is for flower arranging.  I've been growing it for years without realising!  I discovered this as I was ruthlessly cutting back this lovely summer flowering jasmine which has pretty flowers and leaves, and a glorious fragrance.  I noticed that a few flowers and buds remained among the cuttings, so I put them in a little crystal vase.  The buds are now opening, and the fragrance that this little arrangement exudes is amazing.  Just so you know, the vase is only about 5 inches high. Jasminum officinale (summer flowering jasmine) in a small crystal vase Jasminum officinale (summer flowering jasmine) in a small crystal vase

Did I say in yesterday's post that there is nothing much to do right now?  How I wish that had been true.  On checking the internet, I realised that this is the time to cut back summer flowering jasmine, Jasminum officinale , and the honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum 'Scentsation' .  I have three jasmines and I started by attacking one of them today, the oldest one, the one that tries to get inside my shed every time I open the shed door and then I end up fighting off the long twining stems when trying to shut the door again.  Some of the climbers have got out of hand and it's a jungle out there.   I went a bit mad cutting back the jasmine but I don't want to have to do this every year, bit by bit.  As time progresses, I find gardening harder and harder to deal with.  Anyway, the worst that can happen is that it has few to no flowers next year.  Actually, no, the worst that can happen is that my ruthlessness might just kill...

While my garden is winding down for the winter with not too much to do for the moment, my focus has turned to my indoor plants.  Of interest lately are carnivorous plants.  I know they sound rather grim, but they can be very beautiful.  My sundews, Drosera capensis and Drosera Capensis Alba , sadly became infested with greenfly and started to decline.  I tried to save them but as you cannot safely spray carnivorous plants with a pesticide (apparently), I threw them in the bin before the aphids attacked the rest of my houseplants.  However, the Sarracenia smoorii is doing tremendously and has about doubled its size.  I feed it recently deceased flies that had the nerve to invade my home and I have also bought the fish food, dehydrated blood worms (I did mention it was grim, didn't I?), which I rehydrate and pop with tweezers down the plant's greedy pitchers.  Yum.  My latest plant, Sarracenia flava is very pretty (the below photos don't d...

Recently I took these photographs of an insect hanging inside one of my Swingtime fuchsia flowers.  Although the insect looked alive, it was dead.  Thankfully so, as it turned out.  I couldn't identify it immediately but on doing a bit of research it seems to be a  hoverfly (it has short antennae), rather than a bee or wasp, which has succumbed to an infestation of Entomophthora muscae .  Entomophthora muscae is a pathogenic fungus.  What I found so disturbingly fascinating is that it looks almost like wax, and it has formed in a way that it seems like it is a natural part of the insect's abdomen.  I thought for a while that I had discovered a rare insect.  Even more sadly, the insect looks as if it also suffered from mites .  The poor thing.  Hoverfly infested with Entomophthora muscae on trailing fuchsia Swingtime - 26 August 2016  Hoverfly infested with Entomophthora muscae on trailing fuchsia Swin...

Like most people, I suppose, I hate the sight of cables running from electrics in my home.  A particularly problematic area, for me, is down the side of my television and soundbase which are sitting on a large coffee table which also holds, on shelves within the sides of the table, other entertainment equipment, such as a Blu-ray player.  Cables galore.  There was no way to hide them as they went on their way to the electric socket and so I put a large African urn (which I bought years ago in the Caribbean), in the corner and on top of it perched a spider plant in its own container.  Alongside I have placed another spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum), Phlebodium auream 'Blue Star' and the Philodendron 'Brazil'.  These plants are in hanging baskets and I can move them towards the window to get some additional light now and then.  Often I hang them on the curtain rails when the curtains are dawn back (obviously).   Not a cable in sight. Arrangeme...