ruminate vb. to chew (the cud)
The American Begonia Society maintains a list of unidentified species of Begonias in cultivation, allocating each a number consisting of the letter U followed by three digits. The whole number should be italicized, turning Begonia U614 into Begonia U614. U614 was originally introduced to cultivation by the late Michael Wickenden, then proprietor of Cally Gardens…
There's an area at one end of my allotment which has got away from me; it is just a patch of nettles, perhaps 20 x 10 feet in extent. I console myself with the thought that nettles are the food of choice for some of our more prominent butterflies. Sadly there are no caterpillars; there…
Every year there is a day that stands out as the pinnacle of the Cactus display in Sue's glasshouse. Some cacti have flowers that last only 24 hours, opening in the evening to be pollinated by moths, then fading through the following day. They tend to be very large and showy flowers, usually faintly but…
I went out looking for things to include in this week's six not having seen much of the garden in the past week. It has either been raining or I've been off doing other things. I was slightly taken by surprise by a few things, which makes a change from watching them emerge day by…
In one of the clips of video from my trail cam it was apparent that the hedgehog who had recently started using my newly installed hedgehog home was trying to climb the railway sleeper wall behind his home. I constructed a ladder and when I checked the camera this morning, discovered that he has found…
Ten past seven on Friday evening and I think the weather has just made an about turn. An hour ago it was 0.3°C and now it has gone back up again to 1.9°C. First thing this morning I recorded -6.3°C, which for Cornwall is exceptionally cold. Hopefully the greenhouses stayed above zero and most things…
Winter equinox is now history, the days are getting longer, currently about a minute a day longer. I went out with my camera to look for positivity, signs of growth in the gloom. I'm very pleased to say that I found them, so, notwithstanding the fact that they are not at all photogenic, I picked…
I'm not sure how this ended up being so long. If you get bored part way in you might want to skip to the last 30 seconds before you quit. I don't seem to be making much headway with the technology; coping, but only just. https://youtu.be/Q1l6jj54ihU
A monthly video ought not be too onerous, and probably wouldn't be if I was more familiar with what is involved. Here is a mere nine and a half minutes of me doing a quick circuit and stopping off at the odd interesting plant. The footage dates from 17-19 August 2023. I am already planning…
I seem to recall that the RHS say summer pruning should be in the third week of August and all laterals cut back to one leaf above the basal cluster. My experience is that if I prune at that time, the terminal bud, and sometimes the one behind it, will break and make an inch…
garden ruminations 