Lovely Neighbours

I was at a wonderful 21st birthday party for a young lady in our village.  I have known her since she was a tot.   It always startles me when I see her and others her age from the village.  In my mind, they are still chubby cheeked primary school kids and the picture I carry around of them in my head doesn't match up with the elegant young adults I am often confronted with.  It was a fun night.  It is always nice to have a reason to dust off a party dress.   There were so many of our local gal's friends from the University of Edinburgh where she attends that they needed a coach to get them here!  

One of the best things about this party was not only did all the university lads wear their kilts, there were some elders from the community at the party as well.   I got to have a nice long chat with Geoff,  semi-retired farmer in our village and father of the fabulous Tina, a dear friend of mine.   During our conversation I said that the potatoes he had given me the last time I popped by to say hello were simply delicious.

The very next day, this arrived at the house.

 Dear dear Geoff brought us an entire sack of potatoes!

I love gifts that come in big brown burlap sacks!  I do not know the variety of these potatoes, but the pale yellow flesh has a floury texture when cooked and are really tasty.  Being embarrassed by the generosity of my neighbours, I tried to pay for them.  I have been assured that the potatoes would have just gone to waste otherwise and he was happy to give them to us.

On Wednesday nights I go into Dumfries.  The dive club meets at DG1, the fancy new swimming pool for training.  I have started the custom of bringing in a cake when it is somebodies birthday.  Alex, the club's equipment officer and all around good egg is having a birthday on Sunday.   Alex is a great guy and would do anything for his pals at the dive club, but it is widely known that he is a little accident prone.  So it was no surprise when making his cake, I dropped it on my newly cleaned kitchen floor!

By some freak of luck, I actually had enough ingredients and TIME to bake a second cake.

 The shattered first cake was left here at the house - we're not proud - it's broken but still delicious.  The second cake was iced and made it to Dumfries in perfect condition.

I also wanted to show you one of the things that is currently in bloom here at the house:

This lovely clivia - given to me by Elizabeth, the mother of another dear friend, Anna.   Isn't it beautiful?

Knowing When to Quit

The large houseplant - Jade plant or Crassula ovata - that I had taken from my neighbour is gone. It really was too far gone.It spent the first couple of days in my house dropping it's shrivelling leaves across the tiles. Any time a person walked by they ran the risk of snapping more leaves or even small branches off this poor plant. I gave it a trim, cutting back all the shrivelled succulent branches. There was a BIT of hope. One branch was not shrivelled and the four leaves that clung to it were quite healthy looking. There were even signs that new leaves were forming at that spot. In the end it was a huge plant with four leaves on it. I didn't want to wait more months to see if it would sprout from other areas and I took the decision to chuck it out.
I am glad of the decision I made. If I had some nostalgic or sentimental reason for keeping it, I would have kept it alive and indeed brought it back from the brink. But there was none of that, so out it went! The plant isn't gone completely, I had a cutting from this plant a few years ago when it was in its full and vibrant glory. This scion is growing away quite well and will soon reach the size that the parent plant was.

I am glad that the jade plant is gone. It took up a lot of space and was quite ugly. The space vacated by the old rescue plant was very quickly filled. A new rescue plant has taken its place this week. It is commonly called a Cheese Plant - after Swiss Cheese due to the holes in the leaves - Monstera deliciosa.

This beauty was sharing office space with The Man of the Place. When he was told that he was moving his office to another floor, this neglected specimen was left alone . . .It got sparing amounts of attention and from the rootbound looks of things, I bet it has been sitting in the same soil for well over a decade.

I took it out of the pot, knocked out some of the potting soil. The old potting soil didn't smell all that fresh and a bit moldy. I suspect that the plant had been overwatered and the soil allowed to get rank at one point. New potting soil was put in the bottom of the pot and more new material went on top of the root ball. The soil on the top of the root ball will work its way down as I water it.
As it is a very large plant, maneuvering it out of its pot was a very physical job. I managed to snap a bit of it off (Sorry plant!). The bit that snapped off had a number of arial roots and I've just potted it up using the pot from the recently vacated jade plant. With all the new soil, regular care and lots of sun, this new specimen will flourish! I'm really looking forward to seeing some new leaves.

Houseplant Rescue - Can This One Be Saved?

In the past I have written about my ability to salvage neglected houseplants, bringing them back from the brink. I've got a new plant in at the Whitelees Houseplant Infirmary. This poor Jade plant Crassula ovata was once was a majestic specimen that lived at my neighbour's place. I will admit that I did covet the plant from time to time as it was very beautiful. It started to lose condition a couple of years ago when the plant was moved to a north room in their house. Less light meant sparse growth and the thing started to look unloved. Then around Christmas it was knocked over. The jade plant was put in the (unheated) garage to be re-potted. Jade plants really don't like the cold at all. It sat there for weeks in the dark with its roots exposed. I offered to give it first aid and was told that it would be brought around to our place.

The jade plant arrived yesterday afternoon while I was out walking the dog. It was sad to see a once vibrant plant clinging to life. I dragged the plant in the house and re-potted it. The few remaining leaves are withered and the root system is all but missing. I have done what I can do. It is now sitting in a sunnier spot where I can monitor the progress. If it doesn't pull through, I know I have done my best. If it does rally, I'll have a wonderful mature jade plant.
In 2008 I wrote about a citrus tree I had over-watered. Over watering is a bigger and more final killer of houseplants than under-watering. I didn't think that the little bit of water that remained in the plant tray week in and week out would be a problem . . . . . It was a problem.
Look at our fecund little tree now! It took two years, but the little tree did it! I think I'll make some lemon curd or lemon marmalade with these efforts. I want to get the most out these hard won lemons.

Rewards of Houseplant Rescue

Most of the houseplants that I own have either been rescued from certain death at the hands of black thumbed friends or they were scooped from the bargain section of a home improvement superstore or supermarket.

We haven't had any major houseplant overwatering tragedies this year but the citrus trees are sulking a bit. The aphids problem didn't help. I think I've got those little sap sucking pests under control.

Over the course of a couple of weeks last summer I bought some orchid plants. They weren't the usual phalaenopsis or moth orchid that are commonly on offer. These were not-quite-so-common varieties. The flower spikes on these orchids had either run their course or had been accidentally been snapped off. Once a flower spike is gone from an orchid plant, they are difficult to sell. It is hard to sell any blooming plant that doesn't have blossom on full display so the prices on these plants were very very low. I couldn't resist 'em. I've never grown orchids before and I thought I'd give these orphan orchids a shot.

I managed to completely finish off a sorry looking Miltonia. It was really beyond my abilities to save. Perhaps I'll try that one again some day and start with a healthier specimen. This orchid seems to be thriving and has thrown four flower spikes. I thought it was orchid cambria, but now I think that it may have been mislabeled in the shop. It could be orchid cymbidium. Can anybody put me straight? It has graced the Whitelees Cottage dining table for a couple of weeks now. Orchids blossoms last so long and are so beautiful.
Orchid Oncidium (shown above) not only has loads of new aerial roots sticking out all over the place it has also thrown a couple of very large flower spikes. These flower spikes are going to have to be supported as they grow.
Another houseplant, Maranta or Prayer Plant is also in bloom. It is grown more for its foliage than its tiny white flowers, but the fact that it is blooming lets me know that the plant is happy.