Fuchsias and more fuchsias

It is now just over a year ago when I got completely addicted to fuchsias.  By the end of last summer I had 23 varieties and now I have 48.  I have started standard fuchsias and managed to keep them going through the winter by keeping them in the conservatory, which was unheated, but by leaving the doors open to the lounge on really cold days this lifted the temperature a little.   Basically they need to be kept above 4 degrees otherwise the stems die back.  I learnt this to my detrament with a couple that I kept down the greenhouse.  We had one very, very cold night of -15 degrees and whilst I had a little paraffin heater in the greenhouse it was not nearly big enough to cope with this very bad night and I was deeply disappointed when I went down the following morning to find that two standards and some fuchsias on the outside of the greenhouse had died.  We are still having cold weather in Surrey and it's MAY!  I am hoping it will warm up soon so I can put some bedding plants out shortly and get the fuchsias into the garden.
I have made up some pots of various fuchsias from cuttings I did in Feb/March.

Cuttings of Genii

Multi pot of unknown fuchsia (the labels fell off!)

Eight month old Standard of Checkerboard survived the winter

I have quite a few hanging pots on the go at the moment and am looking forward to seeing how they come out and look in the summer.

Fuchsia pots

My Bought Bonsai Trees

Chinese Bird Plum

Chinese Elm

Papercrete Bonsai Training Pots

I decided to try my hand at making some training pots for some of bonsai trees and recently heard of papercrete which is a mixture of cement and paper. The first mixture I made was not as successful as I would have liked because I did a mix of 60% paper, 20% cement and 20% sand.  The pot turned out a little crumbly so I decided to change the mix to 50% cement and 50% paper.

I got some newspapers and ripped them up and put them in a bowl with some hot water.  Left it to soak for 24 hours and then stirred and beat the mixture with a carving fork until it resembled pulp.

Paper mixed with water

I then took equal portions of the pulp and cement and beat this with the fork until it looked like this:-

Then I put it into this:-

Microwave bowl

I added a rectangular piece of styrofoam to the middle of the pot which enabled me to form the legs of the pot. I pressed the mix down into the corners and bottom of the pot first and then built up the sides.

After a couple of days it was ready to be turned out and left to dry.  I then sanded the edges smooth and sealed with concrete sealant and when that was dry painted it with a stone paint. This is the finished pot:-

I put a little fuchsia cutting in the pot basically just to see what it looks like.  It is a very cheap way of getting a bonsai shaped pot.

Pot No. 2

Another pot

We have had a week of beautiful weather with temperatures up to 29 degrees in September which is definitely unusual for the UK.  I have had a couple of weeks of pain with my back which has stopped me doing a lot.  I don't know where the summer has gone though.  Everyone is saying that it has gone so quickly and other than the last week's hot weather and a hot spell at the end of April we haven't had much barbeque weather at all.  So much to do in the garden at the moment cutting down and preparing the fuchsias for overwintering.  I have bubblewrapped my greenhouse and will be cleaning it down with Jeyes fluid.

This is my favourite fuchsia so far - New Millenium.  There is only one plant in this basket.

New Millenium basket

 

Peaches

I have had my peach tree about three years now - it cost £9.99 at Homebase and this year it produced about 30 peaches.  They were coming along nicely in this next picture which was taken around the 30th June:-

Still not ripe enough

We have been eating them for over a week now and the last of them I picked today - really ripe and ready to eat straightaway.

Scrummy!

 

 

Bonsai - first attempt to style a tree

I bought a little tree from the local supermarket and decided to try and style it.  This is my first styling and this is what I did.  Firstly, here is the tree:-

Chamaecypari pisifera

Apparently this variety isn't very good for bonsai but I didn't know that at the time but this is what I did with it.

This is what I have done so far.  I think some more needs to come off but will review it at a later date and just see how the tree grows for the time being.

Tree is potted up and this is how it looks now 5/2/12.

Tree in papercrete pot

Bonsai (collected, saplings etc)

Little Ash Sapling

One of the things I am going to try is bonsai this year.  I got interested a few years ago but I didn't carry on and one of the things I did was to put an Ash sapling into a pot.  It was growing in a friends garden and it is four years old now but I hadn't done anything with it until recently.   I went to a Bonsai display at a local village hall and it got my interest going again and then I found this lovely bonsai forum where you can get lots of help.  I love to garden but I guess I was just scared to touch this little sapling in case I killed it. Here it is:-

Little Ash untouched

After first cut

Coming along 2012

Little Lonicera

This small tree was collected when it's owner was putting up a fence and it got in the way. Lucky for me.......... this one is coming along nicely too. 

Lonicera

Kojo no mai (Japanese Cherry)

This is the winter image for this small tree.  Can't wait for the wonderful flowers again in the spring. ...... so so pretty.

Japanese cherry

Pyracantha

Not sure what I am doing yet with the small pyracantha but just enjoying the orange berries at the moment.

Pyracantha