Gardener Annoyance

[Lauren]

Hi all! I used to post on the old forums if anyone remembers me, haven't posted on these new ones yet until today, when I just had to say something about my current gardener!!

I live in a rented flat at the moment, not for much longer though as I move into my own (actual bought!) house next month. There's a 'gardener' that comes every couple of months to mow the lawns & prune the trees. I haven't had any problems with him until this time....

He sometimes moves my pots around to get his equipment through and stuff... which was fine because most of them are small. But I had this one large pot of Tropaelum (not sure what species, the one with the little red flowers, is that tricolorum?) growing up a piece of chicken wire attached to some metal shelving where all my cyclamen pots live. So, they are all attached to the wire yes? So what do you think this 'gardener' does? He moves the pot....and all the plants remain on the trellis! :-( so in the pot I only have the tubers and the bases of the plants.... I am so annoyed they only just started flowering :-( So, what do I do with them now? It has rained a little so they are still moist... Will they go dormant until next season? Or regrow? This is the worst thing!

On a lighter note, John Forrest sent me a packet of Hepatica seeds that he harvested from his 'Cobalt' plant. So I sowed them last Autumn, and now I have a little forest of Hepatica seedlings!!! I am SO pleased. Can anyone tell me what I should do with them now?

In other good news, most of my Tecophilaea seedlings have returned, each with two leaves! My Dicentra cucullaria is back to flowering form, after it missed a couple of years because I was treating it wrongly in the dormant season, which you folks helped me with also. I have two types of Trilliums flowering, and all my Dicentra spectabilis (white & pink forms) are flowering better then ever.

Well I hope everyone is having a great Spring, or Autumn 'up there' :-)

Lauren Bertoni
Tasmania, Australia

[Paul T]

Lauren,

Welcome back!  I hope you're well, even if a little peeved from the gardener.  I wouldn't be happy either, let me tell you!!    So frustrating when they've just started flowering.  At least in a month you'll be free of his efforts, and can have your garden with some expectation that you're the only one in it!! 

Congrats on the house purchase.  We expect lots of pics as you develop the garden!!.  All the very best!!!!! 

[Lesley Cox]

The Tropaeolum will very likely be OK, even if it doesn't do much until next year. Try to keep it growing at the roots for as long as possible, but remember the drainage of course.

The hepaticas are too small to pot on yet. Just leave them in their seed pot and again, keep them growing as long as possible. They should make little new leaves between now and the autumn. They should be big enough to pot individually by next spring.

[Anthony Darby]

Welcome back Lauren. Your posts are well remembered. 

[Michael]

I dont grow any tuberous tropaleum, but they are lovely. It's a pity what happened. The plant will be a little more weaker next year, but it will recover quickly. Good luck with your new paradise!

[Lauren]

Thanks everyone!! I can't wait to move in...unfortunately I won't be able to start planting right away, as dad & I have to design the garden beds first, and make them, as well as some raised veggie beds. But by Autumn everything should be finished, and it will leave some time for all the manure & leafmold & stuff to break down before I start planting in it. We will have the new kitchen in by Christmas too :-)

Thanks again for your help!

Lauren

[Susan Band]

I don't believe it. I went out this morning to find when Dad was cutting the hedge he managed to totally break my beautiful tree peoney. It has taken 7 years to get to this stage and last year had 15 flowers. Does anyone know haw to graft it and want the broken stock?

[David Shaw]

Boy, I bet you and Jean gave him an tong lashing
Shame it happened though, it looks a super peony.

[Paul T]

Looks like a nice rockii or hybrid.  Lovely flowers.  Even if broken off at least it will regrow with time.  So when's your Dad's funeral?  Or did you let him live through the destruction? 

[Maggi Young]

Susan, this is a disaster and no mistake! What a stunner that flower is... just perfect.
I've never tried grafting paeonies so cannot say what BEST method is but it doesn't really matter in this case, does it? Even if this is the worst time to do it, you HAVE to try because of the accident. I would think the usual type of split "T" shape cut to house a heel stock  and/or bud graft is worth trying. Problem will be that at this time of year there won't be much growing going on at all and will the grafts take? Still doesn't matter, does it? You have to try it regardless. If it makes you feel any better, our plant of a very similar type is looking terrible and has been for weeks, I think it  has been the windy weather. 

[ChrisB]

Probably not much help, but when the hurricane in 1998 broke the main stem on my two year old hamamelis I had little hope it might survive, but I put it back together with velcro tape.  It was top heavy but I did it anyway.  Had to use lots of this tape of course.  It was only about 24 inches high at the time.  I then staked the stem as well.  9 years later it is a nice sturdy bush.  It may become a low tree in years to come, but it seems to be fine.  Flowers every year and sometimes provides seed too 

[Lesley Cox]

What a terrible disaster! And you really CAN'T blast your Dad from here to Hades, however much you are tempted. But Chris is right, sometimes a thick, woody stem will heal - like a broken bone - from no more than the thinnest sliver of outer skin or even from a total separation, provided you get to it before any drying has started. Bad time of year as Maggi says, but you must try the graft. Nothing ventured.....

[Paul T]

If grafting tree paeonies you use herbaceous paeonies as rootstock.  All you need apparently is a good solid root from your tree paeony, do the v split thing and line up the cambium to outer layers of root etc.  I haven't tried it, but apparently that is the way it is done.  The herbaceous roots are much stronger growers, and without a normal growth point at the top of them they feed their nutrients right into the grafted tree paeony.  If it is in flower then the sap is flowing, so I would have thought it wasn't THAt bad a time to try it. EDitNote: Susan's plant isn't flowering now, she showed the flower pix from earlier in the season to show which paeony it was. Maggi)
 You'd need to graft and keep it somewhere fairly cool though, to try to limit how quickly it grows, and only use smaller branch growth and not the whole broken stem which would be too big to effectively graft I'd imagine.

[Susan Band]

Thanks for your help. I thought you needed herbaceous peonias as root stock, I don't have any suitable but will try to graft it onto the origional roots. There is one small side shoot left which will probabally come away. The  main broken branch came off at just above ground level and is about 3 ft high so I will prob. shorten it, there will be plenty left if anyone else wants to give it a try. Haven't mentioned it to my dad as you know what non gardners are like ' I didn't know it was there'- wrong answer.

[Paul T]

Sorry, should have thought about the hemisphere difference.  They're coming into flower here now so obviously not your normal flowering time.