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!