Spritzhenry's Inbox

Looks like a lovely crisp morning Spritz.

so am i! this is really beautiful.

I very rarely grow anything from seed these days. For some very odd reason I have failed utterly to get any to germinate for a very long time so I no longer bother and have also stopped collecting seeds from any of our plants.

i have some seeds that i proberly wont use but as i am not sure which ones i will use yet so i have'nt put them up, - i bought loads last year for the spring and not going to have room for all of them. also i have found out that some of the poppy seeds i bought are toxic plants so wont use them in the back garden where my two year old plays - but might be able to get some in the front - but as i am in the process of redoing my front garden wanted to wait until i know whats where before i decide. but i think its a great idea and would love to take part, just need a few more weeks to sort it out. so hold fire spritz i'll be with you soon lol ! - i live in essex by the way so no probs with posting for me!

I love the scent of cyclamen.

I would love to have participated Spritz but being abroad I can't : ( I would have definitely gone for the Cosmos as I've not seen them here

would lavender grow in my shady area. i have already got two lavender plants one is rose lavender and the other is a purple colour.

You can paint the manure water pver the yoghurt and now is as good a time as any, from what I have been reading. As I say, never needed to do either method so this is just second hand info.

Did you keep reapplying the yoghurt mixture? I believe it needs a few applications to get started. You'll need some moss spores to land there in order to get started, too. Is there any moss nearby?

Never found the yoghurt method to work either. Mind never needed to get moss to grow on a trough either. The other method sometimes suggested is to paint the thing with manure water. Drop a lump of cow/horse droppings in water and paint the trough with the liquid. Never tried it though.
The cemenet/peat/sand mix is called Hyper tufa by the way.

Your trough looks like it is standing in a sunny position. Moss tends to grow in shady spots. Lichen growth is an indication of clean air but I don't know what your air quality is like

Hi Spritz, I tried to take some herb cuttings a month ago and have been meaning to give an update on how it went. I didn't have a very planned approach, I just took cuttings of various herbs, split my chives and put everything in compost. The Chives have thrived after being split. I really had to tear the roots apart and was worried I'd damaged them. The cuttings I took of lavender and rosemary look alive (ish) but I wouldn't say they've been a success and they don't appear to have sent out roots. The thyme and curry leaf cuttings both look OK, but they're don't appear to be growing. The oregano failed miserably and got thrown away 2 weeks ago. I've just been to give a close inspection and have found I have thousands of little aphids all over my cuttings, not just bad for the plants - the cuttings (and now bugs) are in the lounge!

I attended a talk last year where the speaker claimed the roots produced in water are not of any use to the plant when it is subsequently planted in soil or compost. Do all of the penstemons you rooted this way survive when potted up?

Pruning hard in spring is the right thing to do to it! Even back to a twelve inch stump!!

These can be stooled back each spring to grow for foliage only. I've just bought one called 'Golden Spirit' that I plan to grow in this way

Viburnum tinus - if I could only have one shrub in my garden, it would be this one. Flowers for six months!

I find if I don't deadhead this one, I get several seedlings nearby but as Spritz says, it will go on and on and on if faded flowers are removed

Spritz, I have to say... your photos are getting better and better. Love them.

your welcome - let us know if it works! regards angie

What a beautiful flower Spritz!!

hi you could try sticking a mini windmill in the pot, proberly also not hugely attractive, but might look better than sticks and thread you can get some that are quite sweet rather than gordy. my friend used to live on the top floor of a block of flats she had several nice pots on her balcony and had the same problem with birds and she used to stick windmills in everything - aparently they scar them off!

The vine colours at this time of year are amazing! We have fields of vines this colour at the moment - fantastic

Blimey! Your Ash won't go into autumn yet your hollies are ready for Christmas!!

Poor plants don't know where they are this year!! We've got early summer flowerers back in bloom so maybe your Ash will get it's Autumn coat by Valentines day? :S

OK, what do you do to this plant to get it to flower? It is one thing I have struggled with for several years. I have clumps in several spots - semi shade and full shade, moist and dry - but to no avail. One year I threatened it and every clump flowered but nothing since.

What fantastic autumn colour!! Another plant added to the list haha
Are they easy to keep trained for a smallish space?

I work at a nursery, yes you can prune it but I am advised to not hard prune as you may shock it into dying. Prune 50% of it the first year and then the remainder after it has started to show new shoots lower down. If you don't prune them they will not produce new red leaves.

Hi Spritz, and everyone else!

Yes, everyone will have experienced problems accessing the site last night for a couple of hours between about 10 and midnight.

The people who host the Grows on You website had network problems last night. This meant that while you could connect to the rest of the web, the computer our website is on could not.

The problem affected many other websites who use the same hosting service but should have been resolved in the early hours of this morning.

Sorry for the inconvenience and we'll try to keep you let you know about problems in the future.
Best Wishes
Peter

From my reading Spritz propagation is done by seed or rhizome only. But as you say someone may know different. Good luck with it though and let us know if it flowers next year!!

Hi Spritz, I got a new book at the weekend! It says you should lift the plants in autumn, cut them down, and store the rhizomes in a peat-free compost in frost-free conditions. It doesn't mention the leaves being frosted. Hopefully someone else has experience :o)