Katy's Garden

When we moved in the new garden there was a pond in front of the house. I always dreamed of a pond but this thing was the size of a small bathing tub and under a horse chestnut tree and it was a sore mess. Nothing that small has a chance of being even remotely self sufficient and out it went. This makes it sound like an easy task, which it was not. It was a foul, muddy, rooty mess. Anyway, in the process of filling up the pond and levelling the ground I came across a large fleshy root stock that,in the mess, was crushed, scattered and buried. Now I have small peony shoots coming up everywhere in the radius of half a meter from the spot, among the new plants. It is unnerving, because they cannot stay there, but it is also avery nice surprise. I am sorry for having destroyed what must have been a very old clump, but I have dug up every single shoot, with its piece of the old root, and they are doing fine in pots. In autumn I will replant them in a new place.

Plants have a way of surprising you like this sometimes. The same thing happened to me years ago with some roots of Dicentra spectabilis. I had planted some cheap dry roots of it in a corner of the garden, and left the place alone for a year. Nothing ever showed up. I finally dug everything up and planted something else, and in a matter of weeks I had little dicentras growing all over the place.

I have a feeling that this succesful, if unortodox, way of propagating things works only because at the time I did not care about these plants. It is all part of the maddening perversity of life. Take my forsythia cutlings for example. I took them this spring when pruning, at what I would considered the wrong time of the year, and just stuck them in a corner of the kitchen garden. Every single one (of seven) rooted. If I had cared about them, and fussed, and carefully looked after them, they would have all dried, rotted or otherwise dwindled, but since I really don't like forsythias and just took cutlings in a sort of automatic reflex (propagate propagate propagate!!)they are doing fine. Well, I am building up stock for the great hedge I will plant on the west border. I also took cutlings of Sambucus nigra from the fields, and white flowered lilac. I took these cuttings, with science and care. Will they strike? Wanna bet?