Garden Thoughts...

I've taken copious cuttings from my penstemmon plants over the last couple of months.  I used to manage to overwinter penstemmon with no trouble at all, but the last few winters have been so hard that my plants have suffered total wipeout. 

The only problem is that I'm having real problems with them developing roots.  I usually just stick the little things in water, and sooner or later, the roots develop.  This year, I've raised (so far!) two Heavenly Blues, but the rest are proving difficult.  I fear that the actual parent plants are just not sufficiently developed to produce viable cuttings - most of my penstemmon are in their second year, while the Heavenly Blue is in its third.  It has flowered better than its younger relations, and is just a better plant all round. 

If I remember right, the side shoots are the ones that should be harvested for cuttings, and I can't help wondering if the problem is that none of my penstemmon (with the exception of Heavenly Blue) are producing good robust side shoots as yet.  No matter.  I shall keep on trying, and winter isn't upon us just yet.

As for the Heavenly Blue?  They're not established just yet, so there's still the possibility of them keeling through damping off or whatever.  I've potted them up in John Innes #1, which is much more gritty and free-draining than peat-free, so hopefully they'll get through this fragile stage and make it through to maturity.

Wroxeter Revisited

And now I'd like to introduce to you my favourite thing about Wroxeter.  I'm sure that if I'd visited the actual village, I'd have been bowled over by the church, but I didn't have time to fit that into the itinerary, unfortunately. 

Instead, I found this:-

It sits just opposite the English Heritage visitor centre, and it may well be in English Heritage ownership.  It's just gorgeous.  A well-preserved farmsteading, with all sorts of bits and bobs surviving.  Like a range of cartsheds:-

And a Dutch Barn:-

I'd be inclined to suggest it was Edwardian in date, because it seems quite modern in appearance, but I suppose it could be late nineteenth century. And the fact that some of the brick buildings incorporate stone footings makes me suspect that the farm buildings have been highly modified through the centuries, and that its origins are earlier,

Terrible, isn't it?  I went skipping along to a Roman site and wound up waxing lyrical about a modern farmsteading!!  What's the matter with me? 

But how can anyone not get enthusiastic about decorative brickwork like this:-

A nice surprise, and a serious bit of serendipity.  I'm just glad the powers that be didn't knock it down as modern junk way back in the 1950s, claiming that it ruined the setting of the Roman city...