Propagating some succulents

I do seem to have luck with succulents, in that they seem to grow for me, so I thought I'd see how far I could push that luck. And the short answer is, quite far.  On a trip to the garden centre to buy a couple of succulents I noticed some discarded leaves in the bottom of the trays, so after checking with the staff there I left with my bedding plants, a couple of succulent plants and quite a few of those discarded leaves. 

I wanted to see if I could get them to grow. And basically, get some free plants. 

Unsure quite how to proceed I started by stuffing one leaf into a pot. While it didn't die, it didn't really grow either. But what I noticed was the leaves I'd not done anything with were starting to form roots. 

Checking the internet I learnt that the trick is to make a clean cut - oops, too late there and to leave the leaves to dry out. So once again the conservatory - home of the succulents - was called into action. During the warm weather it was the ideal place for some low effort propagating. 

The idea was for the leaves to dry out, which seemed counter-productive to producing new plants, but after a week or so, look what happened.

My free succulent leaves were starting to sprout new flowers and what I assume are roots. At this stage I put them near some soil. Not in soil. On it. I used a gritty soil as succulents seem to like that. I really wasn't sure what would happen. All I needed to do, apparently, was to keep the soil moist.

And sure enough, they started to grow.

And now, I have a new generation of succulents from a few leaves that had been knocked off the plants.  Including a couple of new-to-me varieties.

It's so easy I couldn't believe it, and so easy I bet you could do it too. In fact the hardest thing was the waiting! 

Let me know how you get on if you give it a try.

Love this #71: A new Impressionist rug from My Rug Store

When My Rug Store got in touch I was intrigued. I'd not bought a rug online before, and if I'm honest I wasn't sure how it would work out. But after spending a couple of evenings on their site I knew I'd be choosing a rug to try at home, the only problem was, which one?!

There was - and is - lots of choice. I contemplated a rug for the landing outside our bedroom to replace the one we have there, but it's an odd size and the more I looked, the more I realised I'm quite attached to our charity shop find. So then I wondered about a rug for our main living space.

I've written before about how we have wooden floors throughout downstairs and I really do think that, as lovely as they are, they need a rug. We've had a variety of rugs by the sofas in an attempt to zone the room. It started with the large rug that MOH had in his flat, a beautiful rug but too big for the space. For a while that lived in the conservatory but found its long-term home when we redecorated our spare room last year.

Then there was a beige patterned rug with a ribbon pattern. A nice rug but it looked better in our top spare bedroom so after a while we moved it there. It also made way for the shaggy red rug which has probably lasted the longest in the space, until now.  The shaggy red rug (you can see it playing a supporting role in this post) is currently lodging in our bedroom, but looking for a longer term home.

It's been displaced you see. By a brand new rug. 

The one that every time I looked at the My Rug Store site, I kept coming back to. And so, that had to be the one, right? It was a little larger than our previous rugs (apart from the huge one that's now under the futon), but at 120cm x 70cm it's actually the perfect size and a size I wish we'd tried much sooner. It fills the space between our right angled sofas - and yes, at the moment they don't match, we got rid of the uncomfortable 3-seater sofa at the start of the summer and are using a garden sofa until we get its permanent replacement.

So let's take a look.

You can see why it's called an Impressionist rug now can't you?

And yes, it's cream. That's partly why I ummed and ahhed because, well because you know, cream. In my main living space with push bikes coming through and our muddy gardeners feet too. Thankfully though it's easy to move - and fits right under our grey sofa when we need it too, giving us a clear pathway through.

The pattern reminded me of the modern abstract picture we have on the wall. It's actually nothing like it, as you can see below, but there was just something about this rug. Perhaps it was the colours - there's every colour we have in our house in this rug. And I like that. I hoped it would help tie everything together.

And I think it has, my sister-in-law commented that it lifts the living space and links the seating area with the dining area. And I think she's right. Having the cream based rug in our main living space really links through to our white table. And I think it helps that I have the yellow end of the rug nearest to the yellow chairs, sometimes it really is the small things isn't it?

Part of the attraction to me is how the colours look like brush strokes that have been painted, with fading edges. And close up it works too, the edging bound with the same cream colour provides a great non-fussy border. No tassels or fringing on this rug, and it's all the better for it.

The rug itself is a sisley and is 100% polypropylene and I wasn't sure what this would be like. I needn't have worried though as the rug feels luxurious and not cheap or "plastic" at all. It's the first time I've ordered a rug online, and it's definitely something I'd do again.

Already I'm loving this rug, if this is your style of rug there are a few other designs in the Impressionist rug range, so do pop over and take a look. And to be honest, there's a huge choice on their site, so even if these aren't your thing I bet there's something that is.

We're still in the new phase of having this rug. And especially as it's cream we've been avoiding walking on it with our shoes on and it's either been moved out of the way when our bikes come through, or MOH carries his lightweight bike over it. So you can just imagine my surprise when I saw this Saturday morning!

Hmnnn...

Although later in the day I didn't have a leg to stand on, as I managed to knock a full cup of tea onto the floor. Luckily only some of it splashed onto the rug and I was able to blot those off with no lasting tea-stained effects. Phew. And for me that's the sign of a good rug - and as a clumsy owner, that's a very good thing!

Disclaimer: I received a rug for the purposes of this review. All words and opinions are my own.

Sunflowers on the plot

It was the middle of August when I picked my first bunch of sunflowers from the allotment, and that seems a while back now.  I picked them then as they'd been in flower for a while and it made sense to enjoy them at home. And one month on, I'm still picking bunches of sunflowers to have at home.

MY FIRST BUNCH OF SUNFLOWERS PICKED MID-AUGUST

It's been fascinating to watch them develop from the tiny seedlings I planted out back at the end of May.  Not all of them survived, a row was swamped out by the rhubarb leaves and more were subsequently eaten by the slugs and snails community. But plenty did survive, and there's still more to flower, which is a vast improvement on the one or two that flowered last year.

Admittedly I did sow more seeds than last year, so that goes some way to account for that. But even so I've had a high success rate. On the plot I have them at all stages of their lifecycle, and I think that's right too.

I'll leave the seedheads for as long as I can so the wildlife can also make the most of them. And while I've grown most of them alongside canes, near my runner beans they're not tied into the canes. I think next year I'll grow them separate to the beans, but keep the canes.

Sunflowers are, I think the kind of flowers with personality. Don't believe me? Well, just look these two are deep in conversation!

It's been interesting to see them unfurl - and there's still a few like this, so if the weather is kind i could be picking sunflowers for a while yet.

It's not surprising though that more of them are looking aged and red (in this hot weather I know how they feel), but unlike me they're still managing to look good.

Sunflowers will definitely be on my growing list for next year.  What are you definitely growing next year?