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Get your garden out

I've got one lupin that does well in normal years but this year was so wet it got munched by slugs. It does get the aphid problems but if I get there early and squash a few, natural predators tend to take care of the rest. If I don't get there early then spray them off with a burst of water and it seems to work well.

I grow lots of echinops as well and they seem to always get covered in blackfly but I use the water squirting method and they seem to be fine. This year however I barely saw any pests at all, didn't even get any on the broad beans, and I don't know if it's because I increased my diversity of helpful plants or they just didn't make it through such a harsh winter (bees, apart from bumblebees, seem to have been at much lower numbers this year in the garden).
 
It seems to me that Christmas cacti are for sale everywear!
They belong in the genus Schlumbergera, which is named after the 19th century French collector Frederic Schlumberger.
Christmas cacti are native to the mountainous regions of south-eastern Brazil, specifically the state of São Paulo.
What is most interesting to me is that these cacti grow as either epiphytes or lithophytes. The mountains in which they grow are coastal and quite cool averaging 18-20c
The high humility in this area lends to their ability to grow in trees, cracks and crevices with little to no soil.
So they do not actually grow in the ground As such!
The flowers are pollinated by hummingbirds.
So if you want you Christmas cactus to thrive you need to understand its needs.
1
They do not need a big pot because the roots are only there to anchor the plant and do not suck up water or nutrients.
2
They love high humidity places like single glassed conservatory's or well lit bathrooms.
3
They need to be spayed regually and the pot needs a very free draining medium. The best medium is crushed volcanic rock like certain cat litters and sphagnum moss mixed 50/50. Not actual soil!
4
Spray every day in summer with just a few drops of fertiliser in the spray bottle (very weak mix) and spray in to the pot mix every day too so it stays damp. In the winter spray every few days but with pure rain water no fertiliser.
The use of rain water will make a considrable difference to the plants health!
In the summer you can take the plant outside and let it get soaked in the rain.
Here is a picture of one clinging to a tree in the wild….
May be an image of flower
 
There is one at the start of this video I think (about 1.30 minutes in). I only typed it into Google and haven't watched it so don't know how good it is.

My cousin also lives in the Brazilian rainforest, so I'll send him a message to see if he knows any and post pictures if he has any. He isn't to good with plants though but often sends pictures of strange wildlife he has found.
 
I noticed the first buds on my Willow bonsai, also potted two big srubs that someone kindly donated for future bonsai and started re planting around 200 Jersey lilies, or Amaryllis belladonna bulbs that I dug up from elswhere in the garden ….. so all in all a busy day in the garden ….70F81D93-661E-45A1-A164-328F682E583E.jpeg657E4FDA-AFD0-4A19-B42C-C0140D84AA9A.jpeg17051973-71BB-4BD6-A7FC-D99656484FC0.jpeg
 
We had over 300 crocus beginning to flower in our lawn just before the three storms hit and hammered them. Some popped themselves back upright but the display wasn't that good.

On the plus side our mimosa is still flowering with no signs of storm damage. Don't remember it flowering for over a month before but we have had the mildest winter I can remember, not even a hint of ice on the ponds.
 
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