A fiver goes a long long way!

Many thanks to our friend Adrienne for sharing this photo of her geranium (or is it a pelargonium?) still flowering outdoors in December. It’s a wonderful splash of colour for this time of year and we can’t believe that it’ll be the winter solstice in a few days time as well.

If you remember, last year we were at a summer fete and purchased a pink geranium (above) in a church sale in Hither Green for a fiver and it was well worth the money. We loved the plant so much and wanted other people to enjoy it as well so we took a few cuttings and gave them away. As the old gardening saying goes “Pass them on!” Cheers again Adrienne and ta for letting us know how the plant is doing.

A tale about a railway cutting

(Picture from Dan S off Foursquare from 2024)

It was great weather today and this morning on the way back from the dentist we helped prune the wonderful collection of geraniums at Honor Oak Park train station.

Well, we were given a pair of secateurs from behind the ticket desk and cut five bits off the massive geraniums so we could use them as cuttings. We stuck 3 in a large pot indoors and put a couple in the cloche outside after dipping the end in some cutting powder. We’ve never taken cuttings on the outdoor variety before but they’re supposed to root easy. Perhaps in the summer it may be a better time to do it but let’s see what happens. More on taking Geranium cuttings from Gardeners World here.

Did you know there was a punk band from Saitama, Japan called Geranium? This is 17 minutes of them on full pelt mode but the first tune is one of their catchier ones (from the good old days of 2007).

And below here’s more of an ambient Geranium themed tune by The Ambient Zone called Red Geranium. A track featuring Chris Coco and Nick Cornu on chilled out guitar. From the good old ambient days of 2021.

Stop with the cutting remarks ok?

We did something today we hadn’t done in a long while, we took a few cuttings from some houseplants and stuck them into some small pots filled with potting compost (above).

This all started when we did a google search for cutting compound as we needed some (or so we thought). We bought a small tub off ebay and then found an article that mentioned you can use natural compounds like honey, aloe vera juice or cinnamon. It may still be a bit cold for them to take but let’s see what happens. The ones above are from an aloe vera we bought many years ago and some from a great pink geranium we bought for a couple of quid from the plant stall in a summer sale in a church hall in Hither Green last year. Below is the original plant we bought.

We don’t know much about taking cuttings but we’re going to have a go as if all goes well we’re going to see if we can get some cuttings from the wonderful geraniums at Honor Oak Station (in exchange for a few bottles of comfrey liquid) as they are some great looking plants. It’s a good way of getting more plants without putting your hand in your pocket.

Bargains, bargains, bargains!

We’re always up for a bargain here at Weeds and a few weeks ago we found this great looking geranium (above) on the plant stall in a local summer sale in a church hall in Hither Green. The stall was sandwiched between a retailer of hand-made baby clothes and a vendor of grape juice from that famous grape growing region called New Cross. The geranium cost us the whopping sum of a fiver but we were happy with that as it really has come on a treat. Strange flowers as well.

This weekend we were at a local park for their annual festival. Earlier in the morning someone mentioned in reply to the horrible weather forecast for the day that “they” could be wrong, “I mean remember Michael Fish got it wrong in 1987?”, sadly “they” weren’t. It turned out to be a right washout but the sun did come out an hour before the festival was meant to close but by then it was far too late, sadly.

There was a upside to the downbeat day though when we obtained some 4 small tomato plants for £2.50 from a stall ran by the local allotment society which we didn’t notice until right at the end. Pic above: you can see the plants are pretty small in relation to the big tomato plant at the rear and the chilli pepper next to it and it is July now but you never know what may happen especially with this strange weather we’ve been having.

The comfrey liquid will be applied, a few prayers said and we’ll see. Let’s raise a glass of grape juice (preferably New Cross Nouveau) for more bargains!