Welcome

Hi and welcome to the Pagan Plants blog, which I will run alongside the main www.paganplants.co.uk website. The purpose of this blog is to keep a record of my gardening and to provide progress reports on the construction and running of the main site.

"Melted Wax" Seedlings

After yesterday's post on my "Melted Wax" bridgesii cacti, I thought I would introduce you to two interesting bridgesii seedlings I am growing. I sourced about 20 Trichocereus bridgesii seeds from a guy living in Australia a couple of years ago. They were all viable and they turned out to be the fastest growing cacti seedlings I have ever grown - well, except for these two individuals, which I believe have become Monstrose "Melted Wax" variations:

A "Melted Wax" T. bridgesii seedling

Another "Melted Wax" T. bridgesii seedling

Whilst their two year old siblings are now already 15cm+ in height, these two characters are just a couple of centimetres tall. They have certainly compensated for their abnormal slow growth with their curious appearance however :o)

Gepetto and Dexter

I have quite a few rare Shamanic cacti in my collection, amongst them some Monstrose Trichocereus bridgesii of the "Melted Wax" variety. This really is a fascinating form of the Bolivian Torch and their convoluted growth (which takes on the appearance of ancient, well used candles)  makes every specimen unique. They are without doubt one of the more absorbing plants to grow. I will only introduce two of them in this particular post, cacti I have named Gepetto and Dexter.

Geppetto is a trully lovely specimen and I am proud to have this one join my interesting collection of cacti:

Gepetto, my oldest Trichocereus bridgesii 'Melted Wax'

 
Gepetto is the largest of my Trichocereus bridgesii "Melted Wax" (currently measuring 27cm in height) and is also the most convoluted of them.

Dexter in all his convoluted glory

Dexter is the newest cactus to join my collection (I only received him this week in a trade on the newly created plant swap forum PlantX ~ I swapped him for 2 x Mandrake seedlings). As such, I only have the one photograph of him to share for this post.

Dexter

Dexter is not quite as convoluted as Gepetto yet but at less than half his height (currently standing 12cm tall) I am expecting equally interesting growth patterns to develop in him over the next few years. His growth tips are already looking intriguing...

Triple Bloom :o)

I picked up this 6cm Lophophora at a bargain price from the Royal Horticultural Show in Cardiff last month. Although the cacti seller there had numerous Peyote on offer, this particular specimen really caught my eye and was, in fact, the only purchase I made during my day at the show. The cactus has already rewarded my interest by not only being the first of my Lophs to flower this year but by also producing a rare triple bloom :o)

Peyote are undoubtedly my favourite plants and they represent the largest species collection of any plant I grow. Whilst most of my Peyote can be seen on the Peyote page on Pagan Plants, I will introduce them individually here on this blog over the coming weeks and months as they catch my attention.

Sinicuichi

Six-month old Sinicuichi being grown as bonsai plants

Fire in the Garden

Had a bit of a clear up in the front garden today and burnt all the dead privet cuttings that had been filling the front lawn for too many weeks.

There really is nothing quite like a garden fire :o)

Pearl Hugger

A pearl-hugger sat afoot one of my Pachanots

99p Mushroom

I recently bought a mushroom growing kit from the 99pStore in town. Depsite keeping forgetting to water it, I did manage to grow one mushroom from the little growing project. And her it is, in all its glory lol - my very first home-grown mushroom:

My first home-grown mushroom

Tasty it turned out to be too, sliced up in a omelette :o)

A Rescued Sunflower

Leaving for work one cold dark February morning this year, I noticed this sunflower growing from the wall which leads down to the front road.

A sunflower, fighting the odds for life

The seed must have been dropped by a bird from the table of seeds we keep for them at the top of the steps and by good fortune found itself a lodging place where it managed to set out some roots.

I was amazed at how the sunflower had managed to not only escape the hungry beaks of the garden birds but also find a rooting spot some five foot high in a wall of concrete and stone and germinate in what was still the freezing depths of a UK winter. Recognising that, despite its tenacity, this was not really a tenable position for the sunflower to survive for long, I decided to give the plant a better chance of continuing its journey to flower by removing it from the wall and repotting it in some compost in the warmth of my south-facing windowsill.

Unfortunately, the small seedling had rooted too firmly amonst the masonry and the stem snapped clean in two when I gave it a gentle tug. Saddened at the plant's sudden misfortunate at my hands, I determined that I would not gave up on it, and I put the snapped, rootless seedling in a glass of water, where I hoped its fighting spirit would prevail.

I kept a careful eye on the seedling over the next few days and was encouraged that the sunflower stayed fresh in the water and did not wither. And then, over the course of the next ten days or so, I eas delighted to see the seedling slowly set forth a fresh young root system :o)   

New roots forming on the snapped sunflower seedling

Repotting the seedling, I had imagined the plant going from strength to strengh and during the course of summer to see the sunflower reach a good height of five or six feet. However, this was not to be and I was suprised to see it devleop a bud when just a few inches tall!

The young sunflower already in bud

Despite its miniature size, the sunflower bloom turned out to be a lovely thing to see and my daughter, who had fallen in love with the plant, took over its care on her bedroom windowsill.

The miniature sunflower in bloom

The sunflower was not finished yet, however, and had another suprise in store for us. Checking on it a few days after taking the above photograph, I spotted it had developed aa further two buds and today (May 1st) I found all three flowers in full bloom :o)

The rescued sunflower in full bloom

Of course, the life cycle of the sunflower is not over yet and it will be interesting to see how the plant develops its seeds on such tidy heads. I'll update the story of this remarkeable little sunflower on this blog sometime in the near future...

Day Off to Enjoy the Sunshine

Couldn't quite bring myself to go into work this morning as the sunshine was looking way too enticing to waste it by spending the day shut up in an office.

Me heading up into the garden to enjoy the moring off work

Spring colour in the front garden

Gnomes protecting some of my indoor plants

Gasteria Flower

Our Gasteria succulents are currently in flower - beautiful little things they are too :o)

Gaze into my Crystal Ball

You don't have to have psychic powers to see magickal scenes in a crystal ball lol:

Chilling in the Garden

At last, a sunny day that is warm enough for me to sit out in the garden. It seems like an age since I was last able to kick back with a good book outside and just chill.

Sat out in the sun with some dandelion & burdock
drink, a good book and my pet tortiose

My tortoise too seemed to enjoy his first outing of the year into the garden too:

It still seems to be too early in the year for too see much colour flower-wise so far, just some dandelions making the most of an unmown lawn and swathes of forget-me-nots which are really dominating the garden at the moment:

Forget-Me-Nots

Squash

I bought this squash last Halloween and it is still looking really good :o) I am hoping it is drying and will be preserved like this as it really is something very special:

A drying squash

Snowdrops and a Blackbird

It has been a harsh and long winter - one of the longest I can remember. Such winters make the flowering of snowdrops all the more delightful to behold - the first delicate stirrings of Mother Nature from her deep hibernation.

Such has been the bleakness of this particular past winter that the appearance of this patch of snowbells, dancing in the chilly breeze and scored by a lone blackbird, called a momentary halt to my wanderings amongst the ancient and mysterious monuments of Avenbury. It was a serene, meditational moment, a snippet of which I recorded on video for this blog :o)