A New Passion

I am running a bit late this week – I spent most of the week working on my garden design for the RHS/BBC One Show garden design competition. I had an idea when the competition was first announced which featured birch trees, then I downloaded the plant list and found Birch trees were not allowed. After a lot of thought I changed my design to use fruit trees, although the effect is nowhere near as good. I don't have high hopes for my design because I didn’t have good software to create the design, I used programs I found online and they didn’t have half the plants I wanted so I had to improvise. I looked online to buy a garden design program but not only are there very few available but they are not very good and too old to run on windows 8! Well it kept me out of mischief for a while.

I am planning to get out into the garden this weekend, once I've done the housework! Now it is officially spring I hope the weather is going to start warming up properly, next week is looking hopeful but we've all been there before – alternating weeks of cold and mild weather. It will be good to get out there and get digging again. 

Phalaenopsis in flower now

Rescued from the compost bin

When I was at work recently I went to put something in the rubbish and spied something very lovely shivering on the top of the compost bag. A healthy Phalaenopsis Orchid. It still had the faded remains of a couple of flowers on it but the leaves and roots looked very healthy. I couldn't resist it so I gathered it up, saving as much special compost as possible, popped it into a bag and brought it in from the cold. I have cut off the defunct flower spikes, repotted it and now it is sitting on the living room windowsill next to another rescued specimen which is in flower. That's four rescued orchids I have now, the three older residents have all flowered at some point since last summer. The only down point is that they are all white and I really want a purple one! 

My best bloom

It got me to thinking about the rise in popularity and availability of orchids these days. Once the domain of specialist collectors who lavished care on them in specially constructed orchid houses they have now come into the wide world. Admittedly they are mainly the common Moth Orchid (Phalaenopsis) which are really easy to grow and look after (as I have demonstrated) but it could start  a new passion for plant collectors.

New Cambria Orchid

I splashed out on a new Cambria (Vuylstekeara) Orchid, with very pretty flowers and a delicate scent. This is another variety which is easy to look after, come in many different colours and are becoming widely available in high street shops. I have also purchased a book on how to look after orchids. I have found that although there are many which are difficult to look after, still the domain of dedicated specialists, there are many easy specimens available but I will probably have to go to an Orchid specialist if I want any of these in my collection. The problem is where to put them! Some like it hot, some cooler, dry, damp, bright light, lower light – this will severely limit the choice of new arrivals, not matter how lovely they look. I think we'll need a bigger house! 

Right now for  - housework, garden centre then gardening if there is time!