No Paws for Thought

Kangaroo paws, the big success story of my Aussie seeds saga, and the one that most mattered to me, reached a new stage in their progress from propagation.

Mrs. Kangaeroo noticed that they were crowding the large pot that I had planted them in, and if they weren’t moved they could end up choking each other.

Showing a turn of speed I’m not known for (unless there’s chocolate around), I was off to the local 100 yen store to fill up on pots and stones to put at the bottom of them.

Along the way, I put in an order online for Aussie native plant potting mix.

I spread out the individual pots, covered the bottoms with stones, then added a layer of a mix of sulphur, perlite and peat moss.

The dirt arrived and brought my fears with it.

I knew now that I would have to take action, and my record with transplanting seedlings is not good.

Not really keen on yet another failure….but, I got stuck into it anyway.

Despite my best intentions to be careful and gentle, I was a clumsy as ever in digging out the kangaroo paw plants, maintaining as much of the root ball as possible and inserting them in their new homes.

In the end, I left a couple of the smaller seedlings in the original large pot in the hope they may grow.

And I put the bigger seedlings into their own pots to give them space.

Being the middle of the rainy season, there are probably friendlier times for them to be put through transplant shock.

But I will keep my eye on them and hope for the best.

(Already, less than 24 hours after the transplant, I’ve had to lop off a few dead leaves that hadn’t existed before. I hope I won’t have to go through that process too often. We’re due a bit of sunshine later this week, and I hope it will be just what the plants need to thrive)