I've been clearing out the conservatory. This is a big clear-out. Most of the pots that are small enough to lift are now spread out across the lawn, and some things that were dead or had become hideously ugly have found their way to the compost heap. It took a long time to disentangle the Berberidopsis corallina from the Trachelospermum jasminoides on the back wall. They are both going to have to go outside, and take their chances with the cold weather, since inside the conservatory they are forever getting covered in sooty mould following attack by scale insects and mealy bugs, and are not happy plants. I've tried biological control, introducing predators, which was expensive and didn't really work, and Provado systemic insecticide, which was equally costly and ineffectual, plus I don't like using it in large quantities. I have to breathe that air. When the controls failed I spent ages up a ladder with water running down my sleeves, washing sooty mould off individual leaves. It doesn't wipe off, by the way, but needs a good scrub with a nail brush. Life is too short for such performances. Outside I'm pretty confident that the birds, ladybirds, hover flies and so on will between them keep the pests under control.
The Berberidopsis, or coral vine, is an evergreen climber of dubious hardiness from Chile. Mine has made plenty of lanky growth, but produced very few of the pendant red flowers for which I planted it. The leaves would be quite attractive, if they weren't covered in black sticky gunk, but the flowers are the chief point of the plant. It likes sandy, open, preferably acid soil, which I have provided, and semi-shade, which it will get below the veranda. It also likes it moist, which it won't be, but I'm reckoning on watering it when I water the nearby pots. It is a twiner rather than a clinger, so had to be tied to the trellis and existing climbers with string, where it is hanging looking utterly miserable. I'll have to see if it takes, but it wasn't doing any good where it was.
The Trachelospermum, which I have never entirely forgiven for being the source of the mealy bug infestation, though that is quite irrational, has made a big, substantial plant. At the moment it is making new leaves and looks almost handsome, but I know another bout of sooty mould is only a scale insect's dribble away. It has shed a significant portion of its leaves more than once under insect attack, and should be happier outside. It would be OK in a normal Essex winter, though I'm not sure about the last two. The flower buds are forming now, and the flowers when they open are white and strongly and deliciously scented. Planting it below the veranda I hope that the smell will drift up and in through the open door to the sitting room. At any rate we will appreciate it on the veranda.
My task for tomorrow will be to manouvre two jasmines that have grown into each other across the floor and on to the back wall. They are currently by one of the glass sides, which means the glass is impossible to clean. Conservatory glass does tend to go green with algae, given the level of humidity and (in my case) low winter temperatures, so I have decided that as I rearrange the plants there is going to be nothing in front of the windows that can't be moved so that they can be washed.
Another task will be to finish removing a Strelizia regina, destination the compost heap. I grew it from a seed, and was pleased and excited when it finally flowered. As it kept growing it regularly pushed itself out of its pot on a great coiled mat of roots, until the day came when I couldn't find an even bigger pot to move it up into. The compost by that stage was standing 15cm above the rim of the pot, so watering was becoming impossible. I asked advice from the South African stand at Chelsea, and was told that Strelitzia don't like being root pruned. In desperation I bought a very large black plastic tub, which was the only thing I could find with sufficient depth. It was a lot wider than the old pot, and I wondered as I moved the plant if this was going to work. It didn't. The Strelitzia seemed to detest having that much surplus compost around it, and I never got the hang of the watering regime. One by one the leaves curled in on themselves and died, and by now the roots have largely rotted. Although I was attached to it because of raising from seed, and the flowers were exotic, I'm not heartbroken to see it go. It had begun to take up a large amount of space for the quantity of flowers, and while I could get another young plant at The Clacton Garden Centre, I'm not going to. I am about half way through excavating the old compost, and haven't found a single vine weevil grub, so I should say they don't seem to go for Strelitzia.
A more general point on watering is that it seems essential, in conservatory or greenhouse, to have each pot where you can see into it clearly to judge how dry or damp it is, and reach it, to touch the surface of the compost and if necessary dig your finger in. Things that end up sitting too wet, or hopelessly dry, tend to be the ones at the back out of clear sight, both at home and at work.
I don't want to lift the largest pots, or physically can't, so the pace of the great reorganisation is limited by the need to keep shuffling them and their contents around the floor. I took the Lloyd Loom chairs out, but decided not to risk it with the table, which has a glass top. I was going to put the wirework plant rack outside, bought years ago in an OKA sale, but when I realised that the tiers slotted into each other and were maddeningly difficult to line up correctly once unslotted, I decided that could stay inside and shuffle around as well. I need a parting of the red sea so that the jasmines can slide diagonally from front left to back right, and if I get the redundant giant black pot out, the Phoenix canariensis can move sideways, after I've washed the window. I'm sure it will all fall into place, if I just keep on going round in circles.
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