A Gardener’s Diary
At this time of the year one is quite anxious about trying to get one’s hands on particularly choice plants now coming onto the market. What a festival. Where would children be without it? Certainly we would all be better off financially. Perhaps it may be the case that some of the spirit of this holiday will rub off onto the customs department or the income tax authority. Like believing in tooth fairies!
Of course it may be the case that the biggest present you can give your wife would be to give her a garden in pristine condition as well as something really choice for her alone, rather than give her a new pair of secateurs or a garden fork which she might well throw at you. She will want nothing that will remind her of the huge amount of work she will take on when you swan off to the golf course or the club. Kill the snake in your pocket and go for pearls, diamonds and gold.
One of my pet hates is watering pot plants with a garden hosepipe. In my days at Kew Gardens gardeners had available watering cans with extra long fittings so you could water plants further away and still have a measure of control over the amount of water they received. In those halcyon days only rainwater was used because water in the Thames valley was very hard. The gradual preference for the hosepipe was then, and is now, a poor substitute, especially in areas of fluctuating water pressure. It’s the lazy man’s option.
Watering with a hosepipe where you can get sudden changes in your ability to control water flow could easily result in huge amounts of soil being washed out of the pots you’re watering. I have mentioned before that plants which are allowed to dry out will drop their leaves and flowers, but they will recover. It is mostly the case that plants which are overwatered end up looking very sorry for themselves and may not recover. The golden rule is water little and often. It is safer.
Another important thing to bear in mind when your pot plants are in full flower is that you should not give them any fertilizer. It is an absolute waste of time. When plants like poinsettia and gloxinia have finished their flowering it is a good idea to gradually reduce the amount of water they get. Poinsettias can have their old flower heads cut off and then planted out in the garden and they will provide cuttings in the summer. Gloxinias are gradually dried out, but remember, not too quickly, because their leaves will still be producing food (which is stored in the tubers) for next year’s flowers. Dry the plants out under a bench and repot the new tubers in a sandy compost once they have shed all their leaves.
Ferns belong to an enormous family of plants. They are popular because they are beautiful and graceful. Many are like this on their own, but they are nearly always so when combined with other plants. With some exceptions ferns are not difficult to cultivate. You just have to get a sense of the conditions in which they grow naturally. Many luxuriate in soil with a high fibrous content in the shade of rocks and gullies or by the side of streams. So the gardener will grow them successfully in a shady, moist atmosphere with good drainage, and away from strong breezes. Most of them will respond well to those conditions. Meanwhile look after them all and yourselves and may your God go with you wherever you live in Guyana.