It’s been another miserable week weatherwise, with more showery rain and dull overcast days. Saturday morning broke the rules with some lovely sunshine but it only lasted until lunchtime. For a few hours, it felt like a different world after what seemed like months of gloomy weather.

At home, a south facing window acts as a plant recovery centre. It’s used mainly to get our tenderest plants through winter but it’s a good place to get cuttings rooted when it’s too cold in the greenhouse. Last year I took some cuttings of a weeping fig and they’ve now grown into some decent-sized plants but along with the weeping fig, a couple of fern plants have appeared. The fern plants gave the impression that they would take over, so I decided to see if I could repot and remove them.

Once the ferns were removed I couldn’t bring myself to consign them to the compost heap and they were each given a pot to see if they would grow into larger plants.

All three plants are now fighting for space on the window ledge. Last year Sue bought three chili pepper plants. They produced a good crop so we thought we would see if we could overwinter them on the windowsill. The results have been mixed. Two plants appear to have survived and are making some new shoots. These two have been moved into the same-sized pots but with some fresh compost.

One of the chili plants shows no signs of sprouting. I’ll give it another couple of weeks before it gets removed and something else can take up the precious space.

Finally, the spider plant will move into the greenhouse for summer and I think the aspidistra needs a bigger pot and a new location.