Monday, April 19, 2010

The Lungwort (Pulmonaria) behaves like a weed in my garden and nowdyas outside it. Before I got them into my garden they didn´t grow in the wild here, now they do :-) :-)  Otherwise we do have some species living in our nature here.


The sun is shining, the sky is blue and birds sing after a rather cold night with frost. Bumblebees and butterflies can be seen here and there around the cottage. A few flowers has opened up so they atleast have some food even if I wonder if it´s enough.


They start out as red but later on they turn blue.
So there can be everything from red to blue and two colored flowers at the same time.


I couldn´t find Bertil when we were going on our morning walk, so we walked our usual direction and there he was waiting for us by my neighbours stable :-) When we were almost home we met a neighbours cat, a big almost hughe black and white cat. He´s almost three times as big as Bertil (that is a very small cat). At first Bertil didn´t know what to do, but then he just started to walk beside Orvar , a 45kg (99 pound) dog, until we passed . He should only know that this hughe cat is one of the kindest animals on the planet :-) :-) :-)


The few Chionodoxa I have has started to flower now.


Yesterday I told You about how to propagate Gooeseberry and currant bushes, today I tell You about how to propagate roses (well one of the ways anyway). We call it “summer cuttings” over here.


Scilla sibirica.


Take a shoot that just have flowered on the rose and pull it of from the branch, don´t cut it of . The cutting should have at least three leafs and be around 5-15cm (2-6 inches). Just cut of the top of the cutting just above a leaf and remove all leafs exept for the top ones. Put all cuttings in a pot, plastic is to prefer I´ve heard and You can put more than one in a pot. Put them along the edges of the pot and at least half their length should come down into the soil. Use soil with a lot of sand in it, it´s not good if it gets too compact because the roots must be able to breath.


My pink, filled Liverwort. Only one flower this year, something ate all the other buds.


The cuttings mustn´t dry out so put them in the shade and if You are afraid of forgetting to water them, put a plastic bag over to keep them from drying out. It´ll take around six weeks until the cuttings has roots of their own. They can be planted in the garden when autumn comes and if You live in a cold climate cover them over the winter with branches of spruce or whatever You have around Your home. If the rose gets the idea to flower the comming year, remove it. It´s better that it gives all power to create new roots.


My geraniums are finally looking up from the ground.

Just remember that roses that has roots of its own behaves different from grafted roses. Grafted roses sort of inherits some behaviors from the root it´s grafted on. I have done this a couple of times and around 50% of the cuttings have rooted successfully. You can use this way to get more plants of Your favourites on many different plants like Buddleia, buxus, deutzia, philadelphus, viburnum and many many others.





Well the sun is shining and the wind is weak today. I better get out to enjoy it because tomorrow clouds and perhaps rain will come to my county.

Have a great day now!

15 comments:

womanwisdom said...

Hi Christer! i just arrived from out of town...things look pretty well and good from your side of this Earth. It's good you're not affected by the ashfall from Iceland? i remember some time in 1991, when Mt. Pinatubo erupted and ashfall affected the cities and towns around it, including Metro Manila that's about 300 kms away...anyway,i'm glad you're okay!

I love the spring blossoms!the purples, pinks, reds and blues are just too beautiful!

We're having a really hot summer...though temperatures rise to just about 35deg centigrade maximum. the nights are warm to cool, 20deg lowest...the sun is just great! we had a celebration of Earthday yesterday and i got to know friends from Nepal, Netherlands, Pakistan, the US, Malaysia, Japan, Tibet, Australia. we celebrated Earthday with an Interfaith prayer ritual by the Riverbanks of the Marikina River - the place that we call "ground zero" of one of the worst typhoons that we experienced last year, remember?

It's always refreshing visiting your blog, Christer...thanks very much!

Take care now...and have a great day too!:-)

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Weena!
You have summer and we´ve barly left summer, life´s unfair sometimes :-) :-) :-)

Oh I remember the eruption from Mt.Pinatubo!It was on the news all the time here and did You know that our summers became colder due to all ashes from that vulcano for many years?

The only thing happening here is that almost no aeroplanes are allowed in the air. They have just opned up our bigger aeroprts today, but they belive they have to close them already tomorrow again.


I´m not sure that they had any special happenings here for earthday.

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Anonymous said...

What's that song? Everything's coming up roses? Looks like Spring has Sprung on your blog today Christer or is it just in Sweden? We've had rain for the past two days and it's at a point where a person now wants to see the sun. What are your plans for the pond this year? Enjoy your sunshine!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
I think it is both in my blog and Sweden the spring has sprung. In fact we are a bit behind here in comparence.

I´m not sure what i can do much with the pond this year, but I´m thinking of buying a water lily this year. I would like a deep red one.
Have a great day and I hope You´ll get some sun now!
Christer.

NinaVästerplana said...

Tack för rossticklingsråden.... ska försöka o föröka några av mina!
Låter som om våren kommer så sakteliga även hos dig... Jag har vitsippor som blommar o några påskliljor har slagit ut, bollvivorna börjar så smått....
Hög tid det sätter fart, om fjorton dar är det Vårrundan på Kinnekulle o Hannu har Öppen Trädgård....
Ha´t himla gôrgôtt
Nina

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Nina!
ta det bara lugnt med vatten till sticklingarna, de ruttnar lätt.

Vit- och gulsippor är på gång här nu. De har små knoppar nu :-)men bollvivan har en bit kvar.

Ha det så kul på Vårrundan!
Christer.

NinaH said...

Åh- om jag bara blev färdig att ge mig på rosförökning! Varit på väg många gånger! Du beskriver det så pedagogiskt enkelt. Måste verkligen försöka i år!

jaz@octoberfarm said...

hi christer...bertil is so un-catlike! he is one of the dogs! we are gettting warm here again but at least they are calling for rain this weekend. even after all that snow we are dry as a bone for spring. i am watering plants each day! joyce

Sharlene T. said...

Thanks for the lesson. Gonna try the same thing on a few of the plants I have here. Should work. (They don't know they're roses, do they?). Ta da Summer is coming to your land and you can begin planting in earnest...

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

Oh Christer, I think I will just go to the nursury and buy a rose bush. :) It would surely die if I tried to do that. I will have to show you an old antique wagon that my daughter gave me today, for hauling flowers in a nursury. I don't think it is from this country...I thought of you when she told me what it was.

Bertil is a smart cat, there is no doubt. I thought I would stop in for tea on the porch tomorrow but since the weather is going to be bad...I guess I won't come. :):)
We have possible predictions for rain here also..but it nearly always misses us. Southern California..."it never rains in Southern California.." or so the song goes.

I always enjoy the photo's of the dogs and Bertil. Smart cat, that
Bertil!! I would walk next to the dogs if it were me!

I saw you over on Aussiemade...weren't those Wombats cute?? :)
Mona
Mona

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

p.s. It is so much fun to watch Spring come to your country!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Nina!
Det gäller bara att hålla rätt fuktighet på det hela. De ruttnar lätt annars. Men det är ju ett bra sätt att föröka en ros som man inte kan namnet på, då vet man att man får rätt sort. Inte alltid det händer när man handlar i handelsträdgårdar :-)
Ha det gott!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
He definatly has an isentity problem that cat :-) :-)

Warmer again? I do hope that rain will hit You then. I´m not sure how it is over at Yours but when a dry season starts here it can continue for months and when the rain finally comes it too can continue for months. It would be so much easier if those periods were a bit shorter and mixed better during the year :-) :-)


Still lots of water here though. But then again nothing really has started to grow after winter yet.
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Sharlene!
It´s a great way to get more of ones favourite roses, especially if You don´t know the name on it. It´s sop hard to describe a rose to others so one can buy the right one. I´m afraid that a rose always knows it´s a rose :-) :-) They are so proud :-) :-)

Well summer is still far away I´m afraid. We still have down to 23F at night here. But at least spring has come to stay :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Mona!
It´s a great way to get more roses if it is a sort one doesn´t know the name on or perhaps it´s so old that they don´t sell them any more. But it is easier to buy them otherwise :-) :-)

Antique wagons are great to have flowers in during summer. Friends of mine have one that I used to plant in every spring. Looking forward to see it then!

Yes, it is a bit cold today and soon the rain will come they say, so I think I´ll skip the tea outdoors too :-) :-)

I´ve loved wombats since I first saw one in an australien tv program :-) I do hope I can see one in nature before I´m to old to travel!
Have a great day now!
Christer.