Dede Sophie

Walk around any garden center nowadays and you may be surprised at just how much regular plants cost – let alone anything a little out of the ordinary. So what if I told you that you could have tropical cold-hardy plants for free? Well you may not believe me, but believe me you should as you can easily propagate many tropical cold-hardy plants with very simple propagation techniques. In this latest video myself and Lorna walk around our garden pointing out the plants of interest as well as discussing the propagation requirements of the easiest ones. In fact many of the plants you see here are already ones that we have propagated previously! Some require no skills at all! So why not join us on what could be the first step to obtaining plants for free. Please leave a comment and remember that you can support our channel by pressing the ‘LIKE’ and SUBSCRIBE’ button..

Its rare to come across any nerine in the UK unless it is the ubiquitous (and the only species proven to be hardy in the UK) Nerine bowdenii – the Guernsey lily, name as such despite its South African origins! However there are approximately 20–30 other half-hardy and tender species in the genus, the exact number of which is still being debated by scientists. As you would expect from a genus with such a showy blooms, Nerines have been widely cultivated and much hybridized worldwide, especially Nerine bowdenii, N. masoniorum, N. sarniensis and N. undulata. Notably, the hybrid cultivar ‘Zeal Giant’ with its umbels of deep pink flowers up to 5 cm across has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit. However most of the other 20 species are rarely cultivated and very little is known regarding their biology.  In fact many species are threatened with extinction due to the loss or degradation of their habitat which is why the collection of Nerines on show in the Victorian