Potting & more Potting!

Spring grafting is done now but Chiyoko is still busy potting Wisteria grafts as they come off the callus beds.

From the very big to the very small!

Though Gunnera conjures up images of giant 6' leaves they are not all huge, here is one at the other end of the spectrum Gunnera monoica. While it's supposed to be a zone 8 plant we have never been able to keep it alive in the garden for more than a couple of years but it's very happy living in a waterlogged pot in a cool greenhouse.

Back from the Dead.

We have several Gunnera tinctoria & Gunnera manicata around the garden & nursery but this one is the only Gunnera tinctoria we have that we grew from seed that was wild collected in Chile in 2005. Last June we potted it into this larger container & left it out in the Sun (Whoops) within a couple of days it was dried up & gone! We didn't throw the box away though & now 10 months later it's decided to re emerge & give life another chance :^)..

The Chilean Firebush germinates!

 

Last year we posted this photo of Embothrium coccineum growing at Norbert Kinnen's Big Phat & Special Plants Nursery. Norbert kindly shared the tree's seed crop with us & now we have lots of germinating Embothrium seedlings popping up.

Osmanthus delavayi

One the many great plants introduced by the great French Missionary / Plant Explorer Père Armand David (1826 - 1900). It's pretty safe to say that any plant that bares his name is worth a spot in your garden.

  Osmanthus delavayi

April 16th 2011

Aesulus hippocastanum 'Umbraculifera'

Looking like something out of Dr. Who, the new breaking buds of Aesculus hippocastanum 'Umbraculifera'. This is supposedly a dwarf form of the Horse Chestnut but ours is still growing at about 18" a year!