Reawakening

Hibernation over winter has been enjoyable. I've taken an almost complete break from anything plant related, save reading other gardening blogs and books. 

It's not just the blog that has been sleeping for some months, I have done very little in the way of gardening since my last post back in November. 

The winter for what it was has been incredibly mild, but wet. Actually, wet is an understatement. Drenched, everything has been thoroughly drenched, that more accurately describes what's been going on for the last few months.

The recent addition of a new puppy to the household has also got me a bit concerned about how the garden will hold up. He's a chewer. 

As yet, he hasn't been digging but he has munched his way through a Schefflera delavayi and a Pseudopanax laetus. I may be able to salvage what's left of the Scheffy, I'm less certain that the Pseudopanax will resprout.

I'm hoping that when teething has finished that he will quit eating plants. Hopeful, but realistic.

The culprit. 

Sunny weather over Easter week got me thinking ahead, so I thought it an opportune time to try to resurrect my Ensete plants that I'd overwintered. 

I've been trying to keep them just ticking over, not growing, in suspended animation. It's a bit of a balancing act. They have to be very dry otherwise rot can set in at the base but as they're still small they don't have massive amounts of food reserves stored up in the corm so at this size you don't want them to go entirely dormant.

This one managed to keep some leaves, so I just chopped those that had dessicated.

The leaf bases are incredibly fleshy, storing massive amounts of water, they're satisfying to slice through.

The plain green Ensete ventricosum had lost all foliage so had to be drastically pruned, I may have to go lower to ensure any damaged material doesn't start to rot. 

New growth pushing up from the centre, with a bit of heat it should hopefully continue.

This one had lost all roots but I'm hopeful that with careful watering it will quickly produce new ones and power away into growth for the summer.

I took a gamble and didn't lift any Cannas from the ground. It's generally mild so cold temperatures aren't normally the issue, it's the combination of cold and wet that causes rot to set in. 

I decided to dig them up now, in order to start them into growth earlier so it's not the end of summer before they start flowering. This is a new shoot on 'Orange Punch', and there are more so things are looking good. I've potted a few (and will do the rest of my collection over the next couple of weeks) and have moved them indoors so the extra heat will kick them into growth. 

I think my winter hibernation in now officially over.