Friday 25 November 2016

Christmas Rose

The Christmas Rose is blooming. It's an exciting time of the year! Helleborus 'Christmas Carol' is a clump-forming, semi-evergreen perennial with leathery, deeply lobed, dark green leaves and, from winter to early spring, upright stems bearing outward-facing, sometimes green-flushed, white flowers with green eyes and prominent yellow stamens.

Helleborus Christmas Carol (click for details)

The other plant that is usually associated with Christmas in many households is the very tasty Brussels Sprout. Mine will be ready soon. As recommended, I removed the tops just last week in order to divert the little remaining energy of decreasing sunlight to the ripening harvest.

Brassica gemmifera Roodnerf
I grew 10 plants back in May and thinned them out to the strongest three. Later, during mid-summer, I noticed that they were being attacked at night by the critters. Rather than try to win a midnight war, I played smart, by giving one of the plants to them and protecting the other two. I'm happy to say that it worked. I'd call it a win-win situation.
Recently, I wrote about my replica online garden. Therefore, in keeping with my decision to make online notes rather than notes all over the shed, here's the entry for Brassica gemmifera Roodnerf (aka Brussels Sprouts).

Chop off the heads for quicker ripening


Until next week, happy gardening!
Páraig

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