If there is one job I hate its washing pots.  Because I hate it, I tend to let them build up until there are dozens of dirty flower pots waiting to be washed and I have run out of certain sizes to repot my plants.  If I won the lottery I would throw away all my dirty pots and use new ones each time.  But I haven’t won the lottery so I spent today washing all the dirty pots that have accumulated since the autumn.  Now I can get on with repotting more of my plants.   The plants are looking good at the moment with buds all over the place and fresh flowers opening each day.   It seems to be better to wait until flowering has finished before repotting but there are always some plants bursting out of their pots.

             The Show season starts with the Bristol Show on May the 15^th, and South Wales Show on May the 22^nd.  Our Show and the Gloucester Show will be in June.  I usually enter all these shows.  I enter other branch shows so that they feel they should support our show.  I start to prepare plants a couple of weeks before the show date, the plants to be entered need to be tidied up, check for pests or diseases, remove any dead flowers, apply fresh top dressing, pots need to be cleaned and labels checked to see that they are still in good condition.  I usually water plants lightly two or three days before the show, this  seems to help them to travel undisturbed.  I pack them carefully into boxes days over a few days and pack the boxes into the car on the night before the show.   With so many shows so close together there is hardly time to unpack plants between shows except that each show schedule is different and I take a slightly different selection of plants to each show.  I hope most of you will enter plants for our show.  Maurice will have schedules tonight. If you want any advice on which plants to enter, or which section to enter them in, please ask Maurice or me, or indeed any of the committee.  We will be only too pleased to help.

             Seedlings are growing well and I no longer need my magnifying glass to see them.  Germination of some Lithops has been so good that the pots are already overfull. Once they have shed their first skins and are showing their true colours I will have to transplant them into larger seed trays.  Many of the adult Lithops have now shed their old bodies and have had their first watering.  I have hundreds of them! If you are interested in Lithops do come and see them. (It is safer to give me a ring first in case I am not in).

             Operculicarya is sprouting its new leaves.  To tidy up the parent plant I have taken lots of cuttings so should have plenty of young plants next year.  I had so many cuttings that I am trying to see if some will root in water.  It would be an easy way to grow them if they do root.  I will report on their progress.  The rest of the cuttings have been dipped in rooting powder and put in damp soil around the edge of flower pots.  I usually put a clear plastic cover over the top to keep the atmosphere moist and keep them out of direct sunlight.   They should be well rooted within a couple of months.  I know some people put them in a heated propagator but I find they root quite well without extra heat.