Composts, was Storing cyclamen seeds
Jane McGary (Sat, 22 May 2010 15:20:45 PDT)
John Lonsdale wrote,
All results need to be taken in context and not as black and white. It is
amazing how many folks have the 'definitive' method of doing many gardening
activities - looking back to the very early days of the AGS you can see how
many bizarre unique types of compost were the 'only' ways to get many plants
to grow. The fact that I grow everything here in pots using a single
compost type would have those AGS stalwarts turning in their graves.
How true! I have a number of English books on growing alpines, and
most of them feature half a dozen or more different recipes for
composts (American, soil mixes). I started out trying to follow these
directions but eventually found it too much trouble and now I also
use one mix for almost every kind of seed (with different amounts of
topdressing, though), one mix for almost every bulb in the frame, one
mix for potted alpines, and one mix for potted border type plants and
shrubs. And lately, with a tremendous need for potting soil, I've
been scooping it up from the pile of discarded bulb potting soil and
mixing it with very old composted fine bark. Give it a little
Rapid-Grow and most everything does fine -- at least until I can get
it into the ground in the new garden this fall, I hope. As I go
around the garden and trowel up this and that, I get less and less
particular about just what it gets potted into.
The old bulb potting soil is a terrific filler for new rock garden
features, and I'm going to have a load of it brought to the new place
for my new rock garden. All kinds of nice bulbs pop up between the
rocks as a result, and it is a "free" way to find out what will
surprise one by flourishing in the open garden despite the endless
rain. If a gardener ends up buying my country place, he or she will
have plenty of mystery bulbs to identify!
Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA