Never say ‘Never’

A few years ago I cleared out my greenhouse following the losses of the winter and dumped in my compost the remains of pelargoniums and other dead items. It’s always a little sad to lose much loved plants which have given you their best. I then had some fun ordering new plants to replace the old ones (and some others!). A couple of weeks later, I found several of my ‘dead’ pelargoniums lying in the compost and sprouting new shoots from the roots. Of course, I swiftly took them out and potted them up to achieve lovely healthy plants. I am now a little less impatient to discard anything that looks dead.

However, yet again I have been caught out. Like many I have lost Salvia ‘Phyllis’ Fancy’ through this winter. She has gracefully arched her stems and seedheads for many months, but with nothing happening in terms of new growth I thought the time had come for her to go. I cut back the dead branches to the base and then struggled to get the root out of the pot (it was a large plant). But there again I found signs of new growth, small and frail and needing to be nurtured, but still there.

I have some small tubers of Begonia ‘Glowing Embers’ which have been looking like brown lumps for months. I am very patiently waiting for these to do something.

The moral of this story is ‘Never say “Never”’.

Vija