A lot of Maybes this May

The Covid-19 lockdown has continued into this busy growing month of May. Since the outlook for getting to garden centres at the peak of this season already seemed bleak, as well as the likelihood that many plants will have struggled to survive in the weeks of closed businesses, I opted to send off for plug plants.

Firstly, six Oxalis vulcanicola and Nemesia ‘Berries & Cream and last week, forty baby plugs of geranium and equal amounts of verbena (from fuchsiaplugplants; mentioned gratis as I was happy with both products and service).Virtually all survived the transplant into their nursery pots.

On the subject of annuals, here’s an update on the few easy seeds I planted this year from my rather paltry stock. The ‘Tall Mix‘ of Nasturtiums hardly germinated and so I’ve only 3 of these, though together they should make quite an impact in the ‘Odds& Ends‘ square planter. More successful are the blowsy ‘Salmon Baby’ nasturtiums, grouped in a pot of their own. Sadly once again the seedlings of the Dactylicapnos macrocapnos – the Bleeding Heart vine dampened off (as they did last year). And of the 8 ‘Love in a Puff’ seeds I’d collected, three germinated into strong little plants, still being cosseted in the ‘Gro-Zone’ tiered greenhouse.

These annuals are for the trough wall planters which were already here in the garden. I dislike seeing the coconut matting liners and hope these plants will help to hide some of it. Alas I could not get hold of hanging ivy-leafed geraniums which would have done a much better job here.

And to rub in how much I regret not hanging on to plant labels, this succulent brought from my London garden, I’ve still not been able to identify (despite numerous searches). Residing in the hot spot of the ‘Stone Wall’ garden, it is flowering its socks off. Can anyone ID?