thoughts of warmer climes

The Suffolk Plant Heritage monthly lectures have started up again now that summer is over. Today's talk was not as well attended as usual, which was a pity as it was about the wild flora of parts of Greece and really quite interesting.  Perhaps people wanted to make the most of the last of the warm weather to get on with jobs in their own gardens, or maybe they had forgotten that the lectures recommenced in September.

I was greatly taken with the sea daffodil.  A bulb producing white, vaguely daffodil shaped flowers in autumn, it grows in the wild on the beaches of Crete, where it is being driven to extinction by the tourist trade.  Typing sea daffodil into Google when I got home I discovered that its botanical name is Pancratium maritinum, and that I can buy seeds from Plant World Seeds.  I am very tempted but must do more research before committing my £3.35.  Conditions in our front garden are a bit like a beach in Crete, but I would be deluding myself if I did not admit that in winters Crete must be appreciably warmer and summers much hotter.  Some other Mediterranean climate bulbs have done OK, though, so it is definitely worth investigating.

I liked the sound of Centaura pumilio as well, a low growing, sprawling, sand dwelling little knapweed that would look delightful growing in the gravel, but my quick internet search didn't throw up any seed suppliers in the UK.  That is the trouble with trying to glean garden ideas from talks on the wild flora of overseas places: so many are not commercially available.  I didn't even bother writing down the names of the strange spiny Euphorbia and Verbascum species he showed us.

I canvassed the opinions of two people on whether I should separate my rooted cuttings of Plectranthus argenteus now or leave them in their current groups until spring.  They seem to be growing at a rate of knots, and by spring their roots might be so dense and entangled that I'll do real damage separating them, on the other hand they must slow down soon as the days get shorter and cooler, and if I move them now into individual pots they might simply rot.  One person said to leave them, while the person she referred me to for a second opinion said to pot them on now. Since I have three pots of cuttings in all I could take the experimental scientific approach and pot some on while leaving at least one pot undivided.  Some were rooted with bottom heat and some without, and the strike rate by both methods looks like a hundred per cent.  If they all make it through to next season I shall have many more Plectranthus argenteus than I want, on the other hand they are tricky to keep alive in a damp and chilly greenhouse, so I might not end up with any.