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September
The excitement of the show
along with all the preparation has passed leaving the plants to look
after as they start to slow down hopefully leaving some good tubers
behind when they have finally completed their cycle of growth. Just a
quick mention of last month’s
National Show
and exhibit transportation. I did enter and exhibit twenty one plants
and after the show took them back home in the large van I hired all
intact with flowers still attached although one competitor removed all
the flowers from his exhibits enabling him to take them home in a
smaller vehicle thus saving a considerable amount on van hire. This is
something I have thought for next year but the down side of doing this
is no colour in the greenhouse after the show as I only grow plants for
the National. Thinking about last winter I wasn’t that pleased with my
efforts with storing of my tubers as mentioned earlier in my diary and
loses encountered earlier this year I will try paying more attention to
save the stock which served me well at this year’s National.
Fig 1
and 2 show the greenhouses with plants dropping their
flowers along with some of the stems I have removed any new growth tips
hopefully to save the plants energy to go back into the tuber. Each day
I check the plants for any fallen stems which soon start to rot which
soon spreads to the plant if the fallen stem is lodged against any live
growth .This falling of the stems is the natural part of the plant
closing down for the dormant period. The weather being unseasonably warm
and sunny I’ve been giving the plants quite a far amount of water as now
I’ve removed all the greenhouse shading the temperature soon rises
inside but with the night time temperatures starting to drop I had
better not get carried away with the watering can.
21st September. The plants are slowing
down Fig 3 & 4 as you can see
I keep several buckets around to drop the fallen leaves and stems. I
went to Cornwall this week for a short break while getting some
provisions I purchased the garden news and spotted the Begonia article
which made me smile, as I have mentioned I’m from Worcester and not
Wales and do not run fans all night, only from 11 am until 7pm during
the last month prior to the show. Saying that it was good to see the
article and read the comments from this year’s National which mentioned
previously was for the first time from the long established
Shrewsbury Flower Show
and was a great show. On my return I have taken off all the flowers as
can be seen from Fig 5 & 6.The
cuttings which I had taken earlier in the year have been put into my
propagator although the temperatures have been higher than average for
September so the electricity meter hasn’t started spinning any faster.
I’ve got about 40 cuttings in 3 inch pots which will need to grow I
think for a couple of months before a new tuber is produced. I have read
about raising new begonia plants from seed although to date I have not
tried this so I have started to save some seed from my plants and next
year will give this a try.
As mentioned earlier in my diary I had been growing my tomatoes and
peppers in the small green house so I have removed all of these cleaned
the sand in the propagator and replaced the surrounding plastic which
had started to break down from the suns UV rays. Also the tortoises
which live in the small green house during the summer have also been
evicted and gone to bed for their 22 week long winter.
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