Trees for Bees

Check this out! Last weekend I repotted 88 manuka trees into bigger pots - the front 2 rows here, the rest are from previously, but all growing like mad now.

And from those 88 bigger plants, I must have made about 150 smaller pots of all the little stray seedlings that came around them. The outdoor dining table is definitely out of commission for the foreseeable future, covered in plants. I reckon in another month these tiny ones will all be growing vigorously too. I'm hoping.

Manuka seedlings

Now these plants are rocketing away! Just not that long ago they were a couple of inches tall, and now some of them are a couple of feet tall (that would be say 60cm for all you modern metric people). Bushy as anything too. They'll be ready to plant out in autumn, just got to decide where....

Manuka Seedlings

Having said a couple of posts ago, that manuka from seeds was not that successful, however, here are the seed trays with the manuka experiments. And some of them are growing pretty vigorously.

So, time to scoop them out (with a cheap supermarket fork) and put them into pots. They were definitely ready for it too, as their roots were starting to get all tangled up. I did as many as I felt like, but I think there is more work to be done, even the small ones had long roots.

All in all, a busy and satisfying, afternoon's work.

Abundant spring growth

Wow! Check this out! So much growth, these are the manuka seedlings that I potted up not so long ago. And now they look like bona fide trees, that would not look out of place in a garden centre. They have been lovingly watered and fertilised by the resident waterer, so maybe that is the secret? Or maybe it is just time, spring time and the right time for growing. A bit of both probably.

We did a bit of an experiment, and have decided that the trees that were from cuttings have done so much better than the ones that were from seeds. Seeds seem easier, but by the time you have pricked them out (fiddly picking all the tiny plants and putting them into small pots) you have spent the same amount of effort anyway. And cuttings may have saved us a whole year, in the plant's growth cycle.

Trees for Bees

It was a big potting weekend, moving some of the manuka trees on into bigger pots. Here is some of what I started with

 I used 2 sizes of new bags, some of the seedlings had become quite big. Although when I had worked down to the smaller ones, they were not so desperately needing moving on up, as their roots were not filling the old bags yet.

And here they all are, repotted. Still got quite a few left on the table, but it is only half covered now, and all the chairs are free.

Flowering Manuka

Some of my manukas have started flowering already. I suspect that any bees around are still tucked up in their hives still as it is really winter for a while longer. These ones are very pretty, usually manuka has white flowers.

 And this one is getting big fat flower buds, really to burst open.