Awesome succulent garden visit

I'd recently arranged a plant swap with a local succulent grower Christine (another Facebook contact...yay for Facebook!!), and on Friday past I got the opportunity to drop off the plants with her.

From seeing the pictures that she had shared online I was really looking forward with great anticipation to seeing what she was growing.

Arriving at the front of he lovely red brick house I was greeted by this planter, so I knew things would be good. 

These Echeveria stay out all year, and from what I could see they are also growing in shade which was interesting.

Christine has already started planting out her succulents for the summer, which has meant a bit of covering and uncovering with horticultural fleece to protect from the occasional low temperatures that we can still experience.
It was an incredibly sunny day (quite warm and sheltered in her walled garden) which made taking pictures on my phone difficult.

 Many plants are in the ground, but at least as many if not more are displayed in containers.

I'm not even gonna attempt to name most of the succulents, I'm never going to remember what they're all called, but I'll attempt some of them.

An upcycled display created to show off some of her collection.

Aeonium 'Zwartzkop' is so common these days it's easy to almost overlook it, but it's such a good dooer and a great dark colour.

'scuse my shadow...

Loved this container of Echeveria 'Purle Von Nurnberg'/'Duchess of Nuremberg'

Graptoveria 'Fred Ives', a new favourite of mine! These are a hybrid cross between Graptopetalum and Echeveria, chop the names in half, and stick then them together and you get Graptoveria!

One of the curly leaved Echeverias, stunning.

Rhodiola, a hardy little succulent.

Sempervivums

Echeveria 'Black Prince'??

The orange pot and steely blue leaved Echeveria provides an inspired colour combination.

Attached to the house is a covered growing area, in which Christine overwintere plants
including the Jade plant, Crassula, which is enormous, and I'm jealous!
Awesome choice of colour on the rear wall too!

I didn't leave empty handed of course, gardeners are such generous people.
So many young plants that I'm going to have great fun with this summer when thinking up uses and combinations.

I hope to be able to revisit again in late summer to see how the plants which Christine has planted in the ground have grown and flourished. 

I find that they relish getting their roots down into real soil and grow so much more luxuriantly than when confined to a pot.

I can't wait to get back!

Getting Canna seeds goin'.

Many Cannas, especially those bought as tubers in spring are infected with virus, which cause poor distorted growth, marked leaves and flowers. It'll spread like wildfire to any other Cannas you grow, if you're lucky enough to have uninfected plants. See this earlier post.

One way around this is to grow them from seed, though of course the plants won't be anything like the showy named hybrids, but the species varieties hold a certain charm of their own.

Last autumn I was sent seed of a species Canna from the states by a Facebook contact (what did we ever do before the time when the internet connected us with plant lovers all over the world??)

I held off planting them up until spring was well under wayas I don't have additional heat, seeds are started in the house where light conditions aren't brilliant.

It was supposedly given the name Canna compacta var. cinnabarina by Yuccado Nursery but is actually C. indica var. Maculata.

Canna seeds have incredibly hard outer coats, so tough that they have supposedly been used as shot during the Indian mutiny when the soldiers ran out of bullets. Urban legend? I dunno.

See here.

I used nail clippers to nick the seed coat, just enough so that some of the white endosperm can be seen, but not deep enough to cause damage to it.

I then put them in water and place in warm conditions, near the hot water tank in my house. I then change the water daily so ensure that it doesn't get the chance to go stagnant.

Within a couple of days many begin to sprout with a small white radicle (embryonic root) pokes through. 

After another couple of days when over half have sprouted I remove them from the water and plant them in modules

The modular seed tray then goes back into warm conditions for a few days, it's not long before they poke their heads through the soil surface.

It's then time to move them into bright conditions, so far I'd say I've had about 75-80% successful germination with this batch of seed.
A count yesterday showed 48 young seedlings. Plenty to grow on for myself, as well as loads to share with friends and use in plant swaps.