June 2002 on Alfie's Fuchsialand

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June 2002

All Aboard - Destination Unknown By Virginia Bickel

This story takes four children: Amanda, Peter, Laura and Jason from New York City to a small town in west Texas and describes good times and bad times as they grow from childhood to adulthood
STOP PRESS
Virginia Bickel's newest book Come September has just been released. Order it now!

In Virginia Bickel?s second book, she turns from historical fiction to mystery. Come September is the story of Daniel Lindsey?s quest to identify the young woman found unconscious in front of his store, and to find out what she was doing on Mesa Street, in El Paso, Texas. She brings to this genre her skill with character development and dialogue. You won't be disappointed.
Dr. Sarah Barlow

January 2002	February 2002	March 2002
April 2002	May 2002	June 2002
July 2002	August 2002	September 2002
October 2002	November 2002	December 2002

Please click on the thumbnails to view the pictures full size.

Continuing the tutorial on growing standard fuchsias - Part 2: To the left you can see a photograph of the young cutting of Waveney sunrise that we are growing on to create a new standard fuchsia. We are still removing any sideshoots that may appear on the main stem immediately they appear. I'd just like to point out that the correct name for the stem of a young standard is a whip, so from now on we will refer to it by that name. If you have been following our progress with the whip, you will note that we have now potted it up into a larger pot. it's been moved up from a 5" to a 6". The time to do this is when the roots are beginning to circle around the side of the pot the whip is in. Do not allow it to become pot bound until it is in it's final pot, always move it into a larger size when the roots are around the side of the pot.

We have had a small problem with this whip in that it has been forming flower buds in the leaf joints. We do not want these buds to mature, so the correct procedure it to keep removing them. If we don't, the plant will put all it's energy into the flowers, and not into growing a longer stem. So check regularly for buds, and if you find any remove them. These buds sometimes begin forming when the plant has been left for too long in a smaller pot and become pot-bound. So check the plant often to make sure this doesn't happen. I can assure you that it did not happen with this particular plant. :) ( To be continued next month...)

Here is a shot of the inside of the greenhouse. As you can see there are two standards of Pink Marshmallow in flower. One on the left of the picture and the other at the far right. This cultivar begins flowering at the start of the season and continues right through to the end. This makes a great show of blooms early and late in the year, there is just one small idiosyncrasy of this plant that detracts from the spectacle. The flowers don't last very long, within a day or so they begin fading and turning brown. Otherwise it is an excellent fuchsia.

Another photo, this time it's of some regal pelargoniums that I have standing on my fuel bunkers. The one on the right, Black Knight, is a very popular one when taken to shows. Most people like the dark, wine red blooms that it produces in abundance.

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