At the moment there is still a fair amount of color in the garden, I still have dahlias and roses and even some late sweet peas flowering away. I look at all of these and think they will not be around for many more weeks as we are on the count down for the first frost. It is tempting to see this time of year as The Great Shut Down, the end of the growing season and the prelude to Winter. Well it is really all of these things.
For the next few months most plants will be shutting down, but soon the tips of next year's Spring bulbs will be visible and at that moment, on the sight of the first bit of growth for Spring, I always give a small sigh of relief that I know it is all going to happen again next year. This time of year I am looking at the trees, looking at the new buds of growth forming even as the leaves are falling to the ground. I am not a great one for evergreens, I have very few in the garden and partly this is because they do not give me enough seasonal change. I like the leaf-drop and restoration cycle, it shows me real change and change is good.I have only had a proper greenhouse since moving to this house, and each year I learn a little bit more how to use it. At first I sowed seeds in the late Spring and by Summer it was pretty much empty until the next seed sowing spree in the new year. Now it is in use all year, this time of year it has been filled with various cuttings and Autumn sowings as the foundations for next year's planting.
I am getting better at cuttings, it is very much trial and error for me and I do take the point of view that if I take a cutting and it fails the most I have lost is a bit of compost and time, its not really a great problem and at least I tried.This year (warning, warning, boast alert, boast alert) I am really pleased with that I managed to successfully take two cuttings off my lemon shrub, the Clianthus puniceus and also one from my Amicia zygomeris. This has made me happy but of course I do have to keep them alive over the Winter and that is actually probably the real challenge.
I have various other cuttings showing signs of roots, several fuchsias, a sage, some perennial wallflowers and the Cistus. Many of these I take cuttings from routinely now every year as they are a) pretty easy to root and b) contingency in case the mother-plant dies over the Winter.So whilst it might feel like it is the Great Shut Down, it is also the time to get planning and making sure I have banked enough new hope in the greenhouse for the new year.
I would have called this post A New Hope, but that's all a bit episode IV really.
