Cuttings

The weather forecasts have been reporting ground frosts 'in rural areas', which sounds suspiciously like a description of home, and—although this seems early—I don't want to lose some of my tender perennials, nor miss the opportunity for some cuttings. Hence, we've popped out and taken a few trays. Quite a lot of lavender (30-odd) soft-tip cuttings (evenly split between the three clumps we have); several from each of four fuchsias (several fuchsia's didn't survive last winter, sadly, but I've taken cuttings from most of those that did, including the rather pretty 'Annabelle' in the hanging baskets); pink/white/red pelargoniums from the front beds; and a couple from the wallflower by the front gate. We also put about 40 stems from the petunias into jars of water: if they send out adventitious roots, then they'll be potted up.

As I say, it seems too early to be worrying about frosts, but there you go. The morning temperature (according to the car at around 0630: sunrise is nominally about 0615 now) has been about 9°C, so frosts can't be far off. I'll have to think about fleecing up some plants, and this means it'll be nearly time to bring the olive tree in, and collect apples and sloes.