Going on holiday - alpine house advice?

[Mark Griffiths]

hi, I'm going away on holiday, something I've not done in decades I think.

I'll be away for 8-9 days right at the start of August.

Most of my plants are bulbs so no problem. But I have about 30-40 Primula allionii, mostly in fairly small play pots plunged to the rim in sand.

They seem to be taking a fair amount of water but I'm not sure if they are flagging because it's hot or that the growth has yet to harden up.

Any suggestions for when I am away? Should I move them into a frame (running the issues of breaking roots that are in the plunge, slugs and getting soaked if it rains etc) , or leave them  where they are, soak them plus the plunge and hope for the best?

I was wondering if I leave them where they are would putting a playing of horticultural fleece over them reduce transpiration a bit and add more shade?

Any advice will be welcome. I'm in Oxford so in the middle of England

(of course it may tip down for the rest of the summer so it won't be an issue)

[Rodger Whitlock]

If you possibly can, get a horticulturally minded friend to look after your plants. You will be gone for long enough for everything to die if the weather turns warm and sunny.

Moreover, I've heard too many tales of people who left on vacation having put some kind of automatic system (often home brew) into service to keep their plants alive, only to return to dead plants or a flooded house due to malfunction.

Untended plants are at greater risk than you might think.

[David Nicholson]

I think I would be happy to give the plunge around the Primula allionnii a watering Mark but I would be loathe to water the plants as well. Given my record there would be an extreme heat wave and all the allionii would "stew"

[Mark Griffiths]

Unfortunately there is no one I can ask to water them so I do need to find a way that they can be left.

[Diane Clement]

Unfortunately there is no one I can ask to water them so I do need to find a way that they can be left.   

I go away every year in the summer and have tried a range of tactics for my range of plants.  For my P allionii, they are in clay pots in a sand plunge, for them I have used a low tech self watering system that runs off a 2 gallon gravity fed bag that drips into the plunge.  When it is set up, the pots and sand plunge have to be saturated in order to calibrate the rate of dripping.  I have often found that on my return, no dripping has happened because the plants have just used the water in the plunge.  So now, because I like to keep things simple, I usually just saturate the pots and sand plunge and don't bother setting up the drip system, this is certainly OK for a week and I would do it for up to 10 days.  IF the forecast is for very hot weather, then I have put fleece over everything and that has been extremely effective. 

[Michael J Campbell]

Mark,let them get fairly dry for a week or so before you go and this will harden up the foliage,then just before you leave give them and the plunge a good watering and shade them well and they will be ok. Allionii can take a lot of drought before they die. Don't put shade cloth too close as they need lots of air circulation. They will send the roots down into the sand plunge looking for moisture before giving up the ghost. My sand plunge under the crocus pots in an unshaded greenhouse is still damp, and the pots have not been watered for over two months , I had to move the pots because they were still taking up moisture. I have never lost a plant from drought that was plunged in sand.

Hope this is of some help.