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Greenhouse sorted and all away for winter. We seem to have fitted more overwintering plants in with it seeming less crowded, those years playing Tetris weren’t wasted. Will be great to pop down for a cup of tea throughout the winter. Speaking tea I think we have earned one!

It’s looking as if the bananas on our musa aurantiaca might be maturing and setting seed. We will have to wait a few weeks yet to be sure. Since fresh seed germinate much more readily than dried seed they will go in the propagator straight away.

Some passionflowers still opening in the greenhouse (kept to a minimum of +5C). Tonight’s frost will probably bring the outdoor ones to an end for the season All 4 are hybrids of P. princeps (formerly known as P. racemosa) P. ‘Annette’ P. ‘Buzios’ P. ‘Victoria’ P. ‘Pura Vida’

Time for an instructional video from my ‘The Gentle Propagator’ series Since #ensete bananas don’t set seed in the UK or sucker, other methods are needed. I picked this technique up from Steven Edney on here, I just hope he approves of the minor unauthorised tweaks I’ve added

#Passiflora ‘Purple Passion’ with the same parentage as P. ‘Amethyst’ isn’t hardy but grows phenomenally quickly so, if dug up and overwintered frost free, it can fill a big space on a fence. Just renew by cuttings every few years and you can’t go wrong.

A bit of #rudbeckia appreciation (Photo’s from a few days ago) R. fulgida var fulgida, the wild prairie species (1st 2 pics) starts later than better known forms (e.g. ‘Goldsturm’ and ‘Deamii’ last pic) but carries on long after they finish as does R. triloba (brown eyed Susan)

We bought some #passiflora princeps seeds in January but they turned out to be an open pollinated hybrid similar to P. x violacea. It’s free flowering and seems reasonably vigorous so will be properly tried out next year

We crossed #Passiflora incarnata with P. caerulea ‘Avalanche’ . The plants came in at the end of Oct & today I opened a fruit to discover 26 seeds of which 15 sank (=viable) soak 48 hours then sow at 20-25C Hopefully you’ll find video relaxing. If not apologies for dodgy playing

#Passiflora x kewensis ‘Beervelde’ is a modern take, by Cor Laurens, on the old cross P. ‘Amethyst’. It proved hardy here last winter and I have a few cuttings with pale flowers in the greenhouse. The last 2 pics are from the summer. It’s readily available in garden centres!

#Compost adventures with the #hotbox. We slice up material with lawn mower in seating area (only gravel free flat space) and feed into composter with kitchen waste and bits of cardboard to keep up ‘brown’ content. Makes a lovely nutritious mulch for beds.

The huge #Passiflora ‘Coral Seas’ that we dug up in October, as we do every year, and cut back to about 6ft tall has been in the greenhouse. It now has shoots appearing all over and will grow through the winter until it goes out again for next year. Flower pic is from September.

December flowers on hardy plants from Myles Stewart Irvine #Passiflora and one of our hybrids. P. ‘Damsel’s Delight’ P. ‘Betty Myles Young’ P. ‘Snow Queen’ P. ‘GK2’ (our one. Flowers more impressive in season) No heavy frosts mean they carry on growing and flowering

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My little trick for looking after greenhouse plants. Whenever I boil the kettle any leftover boiling water is added to the thermos flask. One litre of very hot water can raise the temperature of 10 litres in a can by about 10C. Makes rainwater useable and tender plant friendly

Hoping everyone and their gardens came through this last storm safely!

Some #passiflora today. P. ‘Annette’ P. ‘Di Scansano’ P. ‘Victoria’ Buds developing on P. ‘Pura Vida’ Interesting to note that 3 of them (not ‘Di Scansano’) are hybrids of P. princeps (previously known as P. racemosa) which has given rise to a great many superb hybrids

It takes a lot of preparation, planning and installation but we have finally managed to get our outdoor Christmas lights up. I did a quick risk assessment to check they don’t dazzle passing motorists and all seems fine. Merry Christmas!

With plants to raise for the boat at the end of the road, bedding for Dawn’s parents & back up plants for 2025 openings there’s no more propagation space so it would be highly irresponsible to get loads of passionflower & banana seeds so you won’t catch us doing that No way!

I will no longer be posting on here for a number of reasons. If you want to see my usual regular passionflower pictures you will find me under a similar name in the blue place. Meanwhile thank you to everyone for the fun interactions over the past few years. Cheers Steve