I’m notoriously clumsy, making even the simplest task a monumental one, but having 10 thumbs also increased the odds of at least one of them being green, if not a little shade of malachite.
Nah…just kidding….I’m still bloody unco, and trying to prove I’ve got something of a green thumb only served to verify that fact.
With the weather finally warming–and brightening–I could turn more attention to the garden, and instead of letting things lie, I want to get involved and get things growing faster than nature will allow.
So I set my eyes on the kangaroo paw I’d grown from seed.
These plants were important to me precisely because they’re the first things I’ve ever grown from seed (children excepted), and among the dozens of plants that I tried to propagate that way, because of the site name and suchlike, they were the flora that I desperately wanted to work out and was delighted when they did.
In fact, the kangaroo paw worked so well I was able to give away plenty to friends and neighbors, and I noticed over the weekend that they were crowding the pots I had planted them in, so it was time to divide them by their rhizomes and give them more space to grow.
I had five pots of kangaroo paw and I divided two pots’ worth in the middle of March when we got a weekend where the thermometer topped 20 degrees, suggesting to me that the plants would be safe from transplant shock because of the warmth…..which turned out to be very short-lived. Having split the plants and clumsily stuffed them into pots, I realized too late that greater care was needed. A few weeks into the journey, most of the kangaroo paw I moved are teetering on the edge, if not toppled over. This was probably a case of more thumbs than a green thumb, or even one with a viridescent tinge.
Staying true to brand, I failed to learn from my mistakes and tried it all again over the weekend.
Except this time, the transplants seemed to have gone a little better, with the clusters of plants staying larger and the roots seemingly better set in place.
I’ve run out of soil made for native Australian plants, so some of the kangaroo paw are also buried in topsoil, so it’ll be interesting to see how things turn out.
Now, though, I’ve got a dozen or so pots filled with kangaroo paw and have them strategically placed in the sunniest parts of Kangaeroo Corner, as well as outside of our gate.
If they take root and come to grow, maybe I will be able to make that claim of having something of a green thumb. I’ve already got a huge list of people who I would like to gift them to.
If nothing else, I’m extremely delighted that one of the pots filled with hardenbergia is blossoming delightfully! These are the first-ever flowers I have grown from seed and they are brining me immense delight. And it looks like one of the proteas is gonna give us some flowers, too!
