Years ago a gardening friend gave me plants of both pink and white forms of Begonia grandis. It would appear that the correct names for them are Begonia grandis subsp. evansiana and Begonia grandis subsp. evansiana var. alba hort. The white form has proved the more robust but both are good performers if grown in…
Author: Jim Stephens
Episode three.
An October edition of the television programme that I mentioned a month ago has now gone up on the Cornwall Stress Free Television Vimeo channel, should you have seventeen minutes and 52 seconds to spare. Bobbie the cat is clearly the star.
Six on Saturday – 8/10/2022
It's all still growing! The garden is becoming impenetrable, the paths disappearing under lush vegetation. Will it get stopped abruptly by cold or storm, or collapse under its own soggy weight? I'm tidying the bits that have really had it, but so far that's not much. The glasshouse tomatoes copped it yesterday but those in…
Six on Saturday – 1/10/2022
October, and the summer heatwave is a distant memory. Not that it's really cold and so far the garden is holding up well; he says as the rain comes down and the wind builds. No more than a fleeting shower in a breeze, by the standard set by Florida this week. Why we in this…
Six on Saturday – 24/9/2022
Here we go again, six on Saturday episode 280. Things just keep on happening in this garden of mine, which is just as well, that being the point of The Propagator's excellent Saturday soiree. One.Amaryllis belladonna. Again; not quite a repeat of last week as it's a different clump of them, in the back garden…
Six on Saturday – 17/9/2022
Even though the weather has returned to normal the fallout from the dryness and hot spell is still playing out. Some things are growing like it's spring; ferns that had shrivelled and gone dormant are greening up, Fuchsias are making new growth and flowering profusely, Corydalis flexuosa is re-emerging in fresh greenery. Winter may be…
A Natural.
They're gonna put me in the moviesThey're gonna make a big star out of meWe'll make a film about a man that's sad and lonelyAnd all I gotta do is act naturally Back in mid July I received an email from someone called Joe Driver, from Cornwall Stress Free Television. They explained that they were…
Six on Saturday – 10/9/2022
Last weekend we went down to the plant fair at Tremenheere, which netted me Begonia koelzii. On the way back we called in at Trevenna Cross Nursery where I found a reasonable plant of Begonia 'Garden Angel Silver'. There were other purchases, mostly for Sue. I came home significantly poorer. Since then it seems mostly…
Six on Saturday – 3/9/2022
The switch from summer to autumn happened rather abruptly but since summer ended in blazing heat and parched soil, there is a sense in which autumn represents an upturn in the garden's fortunes rather than the beginning of a steady decline. A lot of things have perked up greatly and late flowerers like Fuchsias and…
Allotment update – 31/8/2022
It is very frustrating that I have so many problems with direct sowing on my allotment. Most things seem to germinate then disappear, presumably due to nocturnal predation by slugs. I dare say there are other culprits too, voles, snails maybe, but it hardly matters. I managed to grow carrots successfully this year by direct…








