When you go to a nursery to purchase shrubs in containers you will, of course, have to establish that they are not newly potted before you plant them into the garden. If they have just been potted up by the nursery then you will have to wait until they have produced a young root system that is to be seen when you knock the plant out of the pot to have a look. When you choose plants for the garden you will naturally make sure that they are not only young and healthy (rather than old and out of shape) but are not pot-bound (that is not a mass of roots). Root-bound plants often have great difficulty sending out new roots from the root ball, and the growth of new roots if there is a very tight mass of roots will be strangled.
Have you heard of ‘puddling’? I may have mentioned it before, for it is an age-old technique used by men of the soil to help in the establishment of plants, and especially those plants set out in the garden at warmer times of the year. What happens is that a mixture of soil and water is mixed into a rather sloppy paste into which the roots of the plants are dipped so that they are covered with mud when they are planted. Plants are ‘puddled’ at the time they are planted, and usually don’t require any watering for a few days afterwards. Of course, in a climate like Guyana’s, they ought not to be exposed to direct sunlight and most gardeners will take pains to protect them with palm leaves. Usually ‘puddled’ seedlings are quick to root, and will grow away without trouble.
Rain will encourage the nasties as much as the goodies. Pick off the tips of plants infested with aphids, and badly infected leaves of roses that have the heavy mildew of black spot and burn them. Don’t compost them; just burn them. Putting the boot onto slugs and snails is a favourite way to kill them, but for every one you kill you can bet there are dozens that get away. To be certain, put down slug bait which is bran based. In no time slugs and snails will be wiped out.
Those gardeners fortunate to have African Violets and Saintpaulia in their collection and have young children as well (anyone up to the age of 70 years) might try amusing them with a lesson in raising these two plants by leaf cuttings. Simple really. Select healthy-looking leaves first. Prepare a sandy compost. Cut the leaves off the parent plants. Slice the Saintpaulia leaves across into two-inch long pieces. Take the pieces and insert them sideways into the compost in a pot or small box. Water in thoroughly to firm the pieces and cover with a plastic covered frame. Purpose-made frames can often be bought with a propagating case.
Healthy leaves of African Violets can be carefully detached from the parent plant (with stalk), inserted in compost, watered in copiously to settle them and then covered with a glass jar. Rooting of both kinds of leaf will take only a couple of weeks, and you ought to be able to have decent-sized plants in four to five months. Young leaves of Begonia rex can be cut into inch squares, pegged down onto compost, covered with cling film and they will root in a few weeks. Enjoy your plants, and until next week may your God go with you wherever you may be.
