Today will see all the indoor plants (and we have many of them) celebrate as they are promoted to the next size plant pot, given a good feed and topped up with new soil. I even wipe all their leaves clean of the dust (what dust? aren't you a dust-free zone FF? ...). Some of these repottings are a real chore because a couple of them are vast plants and it really is a two-person job (but I prefer to struggle on alone, ah me).
Yesterday saw my birthday plant go from its original state into a cropped version for outdoors. I know it is lazy of me, but I have often talked about saving gifted plants and have never done so. I hope that this birthday azalea flowers for all my future birthdays.I bought a bag of porous granules yesterday which are meant to help with the drainage. I had to give an ironic laugh when I translated the packaging, as I read they were from volcanic sources (yes, there must be a lot of volcanic sources around atm*)
*apparently buffalo mozzarella is being given away in parts of Italy as it is unable to be flown to restaurants world-wide.
33 comments:
Ah green fingered work and horticultural endeavours... Spring is truly upon us. We're waiting for the "chance of frost" to go away completely so we can tranfer our seedlings off the windowsills and into the greenhouse!
I love gifted plants, both giving and receiving. In my old garden, most of the plants came from friend's gardens and it always surprised me that I could remember where they all came from. Yesterday, I got a note from a friend that said the pink tulips I gave her several years ago have once again popped...and it did my heart good. Perhaps our volcanic plume will get all your babies off to a good start!
Oh you are busy! Shame about the pots falling on your head...although I'm a little like this with my "high-up" kitchen cupboards and often experience something similar.
I actually took two large potted plants outside this morning, the leaves of which were covered in dust. I had started to clean the leaves individually but gave up and turned the hose pipe on them...job done!
FF, your one step ahead of me, I just leave my pots strewn around the garden, with dead plants in, I am now
dealing with them, but due to my laziness and the cold winter, I have a lot of casualities. Our house plants also have to be re potted and dusted! ready for a hopefully warm summer basking in the garden.
You've been working hard. In my world, dandelions are flowers!
Volcanic ash is supposed to be very good for crops and plants.
With such a lot of snow as we have had this year, flooding will be a problem or already is in certain parts of the country.
I wonder how many jobs in the mozzarella industry are affected by the break in the supply chain, ie they can't get rid of it. Similarly for Kenyan green beans. I never bought them myself on principle but it's sad if peoples' livelihoods are affected, especially in parts of the world where there may be few alternatives.
Potting on is very therapeutic, not just for the plants.
We are swamped down with idiots over here... don't think it has anything to do with the volcanic ash cloud though.
Sx
Ah, pot plants. There was a time when I too had a plethora of house plants. In the Uk this was. In the old days. Now I don't. But after reading your blog it has ocurred to me that since we have a roof on the house, then perhaps I could treat myself to a couple of plants for the house as well. And then I would feel like I really do have a home.
Thanks for the idea you have planted in my head!
Off to the potting shed...(Sorry to hear about the bump.) I think those indoor plants quiver with anticipation when their roots are freed from those constraining pots to find a new more spacious home.
Damn, I wish I lived in Italy!
Interesting that this cloud is showing us what life will be like once the oil runs out and we can no longer fly.
Those cheese farmers may like to diversify instead of placing all their cheeses in one basket, as it were.
Steve - I sometimes wonder whether to get a greenhouse. An English shop out here are selling them (it's not something the French do)
Delana - I'm not too lucky with cuttings from people's gardens. My m-i-l has just given me a load of bergenias so I've planted a few in the pond circle - let's hope, eh?
Ayak - Oh, that's a good idea about the hose. I think it's meant to rain at the end of the week so those that I haven't cleaned can be stuck out on the balcony
Dash - I've been told off a lot lately about all the pots that I've accumulated and that really I will probably never use again. I might take some of them for a drive to the local pepinieres.
Fi - the thing is that I've not worked hard at all. Everything is still laid out awaiting me to get started. Oops
Jean - Isn't it sad about all the crops just going to waste and people's livelihoods really affected. This is all going to have such repercussions.
Scarlet - Nonsense. Everything is to do with this volcanic ash. Everything. The media have said so and it must be true
Vera - go on, go and buy lots of plants. I can't live in a house without indoor plants - well, I'm sure I could but I wouldn't be very happy
Paul - I know they appreciate it. I'm from the Prince Charles 'talk to your plants' school of gardening
Sarah - A new world order will come from all of this I reckon.
Oh how I wish I was in Italy right now to receive some of that trapped cheese!
And I wonder what are they doing with all the spaghetti from their pasta trees?
I sort of try with gardening but seldon succeed.
Isn't it a glorious time when we can finally get out in the garden and rescue all the dead and dying? Plants that look as if they have given up the ghost send out new tendrils with promises of blooms to come.
*starts planning a diversion to Italy*
Happy Gardening!
I should send you Mr. Fly...he really swings into action at repotting time whle Irun the cutter with wheel barrow between his varying compost barrels and the scene of the action.
Hi FF
I knew you were up to something when you left that brilliant quote about seeds the other day.
Beautiful flowers! It seems I cannot escape volcanic ash anywhere at the moment, but it's interesting to learn that volcanos have some good uses too. I wouldn't want to be the poor person collecting those porous granules from the source!
Good luck with the re-potting. When I had plants I used to love re-potting...
My favorite thing about re-potting is buying the new pots. I know, I know, but I do wish I was more into gardening.
Ah gardenning, gardenning. Cathy potters around for hours, often getting a sore back in the process. I just don't "get it". It seems that so much is growing out there anyway, that there is little or no "percentage" for me to spend any time on it myself. But don't stop! It is the efforts of you and others like you that bring me more than half the delight I find in flora. I do fantasise about commercial planting sometimes. Christmas trees anyone?
Replanting houseplants is such a big job. Then the darn things just wind up getting even bigger.
Good luck anyway.
Hi, Just discovered your corner of the web in my never ending quest to discover people blogging about all stuff French. I like it. Talking about falling plastic plant pots - it doesn't get much more exciting than that! I've got a big smile on my face as I type that ;-) Nice to hear about what's going on around your place!
Oh, FF, I wish I could help you with those plants! Repotting sounds like a nice meditative task. We're fighting off rabbits from our lilies, whose stalks are just beginning to appear. Lots of chicken wire is in place now.
Laura - I suppose there must be lots of produce just sitting rotting
Mark - that April Fool was one of the most convincing yet
Moannie - I've done a big chunk of the weeding now and am currently having a bit of a break due to Gardener's Back Ache
Lulu - I wonder what bargains you will find on the roadside on your way to Spain
Fly - Oh I'd love Mr Fly to come and help. Free board and lodging.
Ken - isn't that a good quote. I can even still picture the bookmark it was on - all these daisies round the edge.
Carrie - how would someone even have figured out that volcanic debris would make good drainage. How on earth do people dream these things up?
e - they look so happy now - all big again in bigger pots. Not falling to one side or roots poking through.
Angie - well, you will know how happy I am to say I have to go and buy two new china pots for the biggest plants.
Mark - that was so funny and sort of how I used to be. Then it grips you and one starts to really enjoy making things grow
Dedene - it's all done now and they look so much better.
Hello Paris - and welcome to this little corner. I'll try and do some French things soon to keep you interested.
CT - we're lucky here because Mr FF puppy-proofed the garden and things can't get in to destroy the plants - well, the slugs and snails manage that without help from cats and rabbits
Plants make wonderful gifts but it has been my experience that you may as well gift with cut flowers as potted plants have, in my experience, virtually no survival powers. They are forced, often have lousy root-systems and tend to kick the herbivorous bucket when stuck in the ground.
I hope it was a truly enjoyable experience, dear FF. :)
Ian - well, I've replanted the gift azalea into the little blue pot in the picture. I've put good drainage pebbles in and I will nurture it and love it and in winter bring it into the cool basement with lots of window light. It had better bloody bloom again - I'd bloom again with all that care
Angie - I loved all the potting on, it's finished now. But I have got a room full of bedding plants for round the fountain - it's a bit too cold in the morning to risk putting them out now
Dusting leaves must be very theraputic.. and I so approve of keeping birthday plants, if only I had green fingers, I have to rely on my nasty gardener...
Dusting leaves must be very theraputic.. and I so approve of keeping birthday plants, if only I had green fingers, I have to rely on my nasty gardener...
I am most impressed with your greenfingerdness!! Me? I can cultivate a beautiful twig in a pot :-D
C x
NWLG - hello again. It is quite therapeutic actually but also a reminder what a slattern I am to have so much dust in the air
Carol - I've always been quite good with indoor plants - because I don't have far to go to look after them. The garden however is Out There
I have re-potted a lavender plant and dug up a herb that next door's cat used as a pissoire (often. That's me and my gardening done.
Now I'm off to Italy to get my share of free buffalo mossorella - however you spell it!
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