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Saintpaulias etc.

Hi,
    In view of the light list traffic recently, I thought I'd share what
I've been doing...

        Last Friday, I had a blitz on my African Violets, all 18 of them. 
I have read that they need separating out when they have more than one
crown, or the flowering is compromised.  So all of them are now repotted
and have only one crown - and I have about 20 thumb pots with babies in! 
The parent plants are already responding and this morning the first new
flower opened, most of the plants have flower buds just showing, where
there were none last week.  They are grown in groups on a north facing
window, which seems to agree with them - I always thought that they
wouldn't repaet flower for me, but I seem to have hit the right buttons
this time!

        My cacti and succulents are also responding to their first water
of the season, and are flowering well.  I lost a record amount of plants
this winter, not through damping off or cold, but to root mealie bug; 
normally I spray occasionally through the winter, but this year we had a
new puppy, and my time was spent mopping floors, rather than attending to
my poor plants!  Shan't make that mistake again - apart from the mealie
bug, white fly seem to have taken a tighter hold than normal for April, so
it's time for a sustained 'Tumblebug' attack, before everything gets really
out of hand.  

        On the other hand, my Chestnut Vine and Variagated Cheese plant
are really healthy, putting out lots of new leaves and threatening to take
over the sun lounge!  The Oleanders are full of bud, must just make sure
they get enough water/feed and they should be flowering for the rest of the
season.

        Spring seems to have deserted us momentarily, it SNOWED yesterday
(not enough to wet the garden though), and we have had a couple of really
severe frosts - always worrying when I have watered the cacti, as they
can't stand the cold nights when they are wet - had to keep the central
heating on for them (shh, don't tell anyone...)  I hate to think of the
fate of all those bedding plants I saw in the garden centre last week,
people don't seem to take any notice of the signs that say ' Don't plant
until all risk of frost is over' (June here).   Maybe the fact you need a
magnifying glass to read it has something to do with it - that way, the
growers get to sell more plants :-).

        Good growing to you all,
Liz Bradbury.  Eastern Scotland - where it hasn't rained for nearly a
month!
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