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Hey killerplants4realz, thanks for your comments.
And thank you for the encouragement. Still feeling rather unwell but I'll be absolutely fine, thought it was about time I did another proper update lol.
I forgot to show you all the final "
Crater Cake"...
It was delicious. Nom.
Our weather has been a bit unpredictable lately, we've had the tail-end of an ex-hurricane, torrential downpours, scorching sun... the
wildflowers don't seem to mind - though they are natives so it's understandable. It looks like other sprouts are doing well, the corncockle plants are still throwing out flowers, too.
Last summer my mother took me out in my wheelchair to the local Homebase and we passed swathes of
buddleia plants absolutely swarming with butterflies - tortoiseshells, red admirals and peacocks - it was amazing! We have a buddleia "black knight"? in the garden that I chose last year, apparently butterflies prefer darker flowers. Needless to say, I'm a huge fan of these plants and bought a smaller, less invasive variety - it's a dwarf buddleia that only grows to 80 cm high and 70 cm wide, it doesn't reproduce via seed; the name is "blue chip" (it has lilacy-blue flowers)... it's pretty tiny right now but in a couple of years should be a mound of colour. We have a pot in the front garden for it. In the meantime this baby plant is taking refuge in an old orchid pot.
Can't wait to have this guy grow out! It's already got lots of new shoots.
Indoors,
Skatty seems to be feeling a bit like me today.
And my alpine strawberry plant is still losing fruit, not sure what's going on... I'll try fertilizing it again but I do wonder if its resident
shield bug might have had something to do with it; I kept forgetting he was there, or I'd have let him outside sooner. Thankfully he was within easy reach today and finally escaped the dusty palace of my bedroom windowsill. Boy, do I feel for this guy!
The
D. capensis will surely need repotting this spring... what am I going to do with all these? LOL! It seems I've only had capensis 'alba' germinate, although I also planted capensis 'wide leaf'. Oh well - I'm not complaining! Look at them! Big hairy mass of tentacles!
I have reasonably big hands for a lady of my age and stature, but I thought I'd use them to show you all how big the
D. dielsiana have gotten! So thrilled by their progress!
And... some even more exciting news...
FLOWER STALK! This is the first seed-to-flower carnivorous plant I have germinated - praise the Lord! Soooo happy with this.
My
Mexican Pinguicula are still doing well... one of the many reasons I love these plants is that they don't suddenly keel over if I'm having a flare up of health issues and struggle to water them. Looking forward to repotting and seeing how the divisions do in this new mix I'm thinking about... here are some
P. Tina divisions...
And
Beatrice, in all "her" puuuurtiness.
I'm considering starting a quest to re-acquire a
Pinguicula ibarrae... I sent an email to a nursery but didn't get a reply, unfortunately. Hmmm!