Making the Best of It... (Was 'Blog from an Untidy Garden')

[tonyg]

Daphnes can be propagated from cuttings.  As a rooting medium I use fine pumice over a layer of vermiculite in a seed tray.  The tray with holes in the base (coarse vermiculite stops the fine pumice from draining through) stands in another without holes into which water is poured, just enough to keep the mix damp.  Covered with a plastic hood and kept part shaded the cuttings can root quite quickly but woody daphne can take several months.  Potting on and keeping them growing can also be a bit hit and miss but I have had success with several different species/hybrids.

Here is a rooted cutting of Daphne x burkwoodii 'Somerset'; a six month old Daphne arbuscula and a two year old Daphne arbuscula.

[tonyg]

Driven indoors by the rain now - I spent a happy hour tidying up the greenhouse and frame area this morning.  The spring crocus frame looks much better except for the lack of flowers

[ChrisB]

It was autumn, Luc, Autumn 2008 to be exact.  Here is what it looks like now, something is chewing it a bit, but its full of buds:

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Thanks Chris ! 

[tonyg]

Having tidied the frame area I need to decide what to do with the Primula marginata looking rather sad in its frost damaged pot.  I have decided to plant it out ... will report on its progress in due course.  Having referred to using it for propagation material I thought I'd show you what I meant.

I take small pieces, usually single rosettes, and insert them in the cuttings tray recently described.  I take cuttings soon after flowering as a rule but they'll likely root taken almost any time of year using the methods I employ.  Taken in late spring/early summer rooting is quickest.  Once well rooted they can be potted up in a gritty mix and grow away well.  Pictured below is a late summer cutting from last year (potted up this week after the photo was taken), a cutting from 2008, a cutting from 2006 (now a good size).  Followed by two plants roughly ten years old planted in a 'hole in the ground' trough.

[Paddy Tobin]

Tony, what is a "hole-in-the-ground trough". It strikes me as a Geoff Hamilton idea.

Paddy

[Ragged Robin]

Great to see cuttings develop into fully flowering plants over the years and to have tips on how they were successful.  Your cold frame looks fantastic Tony - trying to think how I can incorporate one here 

[tonyg]

Hole in the ground trough.  No pics of construction as it was 20th Century trough .. BD .. before digital
Ingredients: A few spare hours.  Hypertufa (Sand, Cement, Soil-less compost .. I used coir).  Cardboard box, bricks, bits of wood.
Dig a hole in the ground a bit bigger than the cardboard box that will be the form for the inner surface.  Place one or two  blocks of wood / polystyrene at the bottom of the hole, they will leave the drainagehole when removed from the finished trough.  Fill the bottom of hole with hypertufa.  Place box centrally. Fill around box with hypertufa, you can use chicken wire to reinforce the corners (I did not bother and it has lasted OK).  Pack the box with a few bricks to prevent inward collapse, you could just fill with soil.  Leave to set.  Cover with ploythene if rain expected.  When set dig it out ... he says!  My trough was a bit thick sided .... so it was very heavy
The outer edges can have a very natural, rough finish when a trough is made this way.  The surface can be finished before it has dried completely.   I used a stiff brush and an old knife to good effect.  Also drilled out some holes for planting in the sides of the trough at this time.
It was fun to do (I was younger and had an assistant!) but its really too heavy.  The coated fish box method Ian advocates gives an end product less likely to lead to a slipped disc

[Paddy Tobin]

Got it, Tony. I use the double box method - one box within another and fill the space between with the hypertufa mixture. And, like you, I make them too heavy.

Paddy

[tonyg]

I have used the double box method too.  The results were very 'square', I like the rough, imperfect finish of the hole in the ground version.

[tonyg]

Here are a couple of pics of a trough Ruth & I planted up at the weekend.  The trough (double box) is about 15 years old and was long overdue attention ... the only plant in it was a dandelion!  Nice gritty compost, some old pieces of tufa (from the original planting) some of last years cuttings and seedlings plus sempervivums from a big pot which shattered in the frost.

Also another shot of that seedling pulsatilla - it knows the calendar and we'll see a flower for Easter.

[Ragged Robin]

A great project to do together - looking forward to seeing it develop as the seedlings, cuttings and Semps grow in that well seasoned trough 

[tonyg]

A few days off at Easter - a chance to get out in the garden?  Too many showers to dodge for major works and a lethargy relict of the hour change and too many long shifts at work have limited my efforts.  Also there has been family fun time around Easter.  Biscuits, buns, cakes iced and decorated with marzipan eggs, chicks, bunnies and all. 
However, I did attack the stump of an old eleagnus which needed removing.  I had not thought I would be able to get it out alone but perseverance pays ... as does having a short, sharp pruning saw   Oh, and I did have to dig quite a big hole around it!  But as you can see below I now have a planting space to prepare.  Facing West it is also part shaded by the shrubs to the South so I am planning a 'woodland margin' planting with some shade lovers towards the fence.  I already have a Hammemalis 'Arnold Promise' to be the 'feature plant' replacing the structure that the eleagnus was supposed to supply.  It did give structure for a while but in recent years it just got tooooo big, requiring massive and repeated pruning.  The work is not quite over yet though.  When we first moved in I planted Tropaeolum ciliatum in this area .... a BIG mistake.  I removed a bin-bag full of roots and tubers when I cleared the area for the eleagnus planting but a few pieces escaped.  For the last decade it has been twining up in and around the eleagnus, strangling the Daphne mezereum if given the chance and generally making a nusiance of itself.  I have been gathering up all evidence of it but will give it a chance to regrow (and be weeded out) before I add many new plants to this area.  I doubt I'll ever completely eradicate it but I live in hope.
Beyond the Mahonia 'Charity' and Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn', both planted over 15 years ago there is a patch of hellebores which have seeded to make a dense clump.

[Lesley Cox]

So your summer time is just starting Tony? Ours ended on Sunday morning so we are now 11 hours ahead of the UK instead of 13 as for the last 6 months. Yesterday seemed interminably long.

[tonyg]

Yes, Lesley, we put the clocks forward last Sunday morning.  Now just over a week later the childrens internal clocks seem to have adjusted ... indeed, even mine seems better tuned to the change today, just as well, work today