Carex Family Group

Nice healthy-looking little plants. Hope you find good homes for them.

Isn't it lovely getting more plants got free

Put a few up for sale outside Fran, if you can. Shame you dont live near, plenty of room on my bench : )

I'm checking out how to safely post them, hoping Bjs will do a "posting masterclass", he's so good at it - also need to find out if there are purpose-made "plant postage boxes", or if it's whatever's-handy.

If they're still ok at the end of the month, I'll assume they've survived and are ok for posting; if anyone wants one, let me know.

Don't think I can sell any - unless I only put my phone number on the note, don't want to put my flat number, did that before and I've been getting vandalised ever since, two cordless doorbells have been ripped off my front door, it's had rude words written on it. don't mind giving them away, or swapping them locally.

Sorry to hear that Fran, is there anyone you know you could go in with on a market stall or any local jumble sale or something? Your plants look good quality anyway.

for only 16 baby plants, not really worth setting up a market stall - don't think I'd be able to maintain stock. reminds me: there's a "tea party" at the church round the corner on sunday, maybe I can shift some there. otherwise I'll see if the charity shop can take 'em.

I could do with a "posting masterclass" too. When I put stuff in my luggage before consigning it to BA's tender care, I use a lot of damp newspaper and "clip it" polythene boxes. Not sure it would survive in the post, though.

I've had a variety of plants sent by various GoY members in the past and the ones that best survived the 5/6 day Spanish postal torture were Hywel's fuchsia cuttings - roots and compost wrapped in damp kitchen paper, packed into a margarine tub (without the margerine of course!) and into a padded bag. Also MG's Lily-of-the-Valley, wrapped in damp kitchen paper and packed into a perforated see-through box with lid (supermarket raspberry box), then into a padded envelope. I've sent fuchsia cuttings the same way, but not heard whether or not they survived. So - it can be done. :o)

That's encouraging to hear, Nariz - thanks for that!

I found an eHow on "how to post plants", but it mainly consists of "find the packaging" which is what I was looking for in the first place. Bjs did a great blog on how he packages baby plants for posting, which encouraged me - I'd looked also for "plant packaging" but the smaller sizes only seem to be sold in bulk.

There'll be some baby Spider plants going spare as well, later - I had to put them in the mini-greenhouse after the heavy rain to make sure they didn't get washed out; if they survive, they'll be gong spare too. I started with six Spiders and now have about twenty - whenever a bit drops off one I make a hole in the pot and stick it back in, on the off-chance.

So in a while there might be a "who wants some Carex or Spiders?"

My own Spider Plants are going for world domination, so I won't be on your list of receivers, Fran. I'm rather pleased with my whole Spider Plant scenario though, as it started as a wishy-washy, grey, limp little 'baby' close to death that I found lying on the ground in a GC in southern Spain. I pocketed it, potted it asap, and it's gone on to better things - throwing out its own babies for me to use as 'fillers' in the borders. :o)

That;s the best way to get plants! I usually reckon that if I have to buy the same kind of plant twice, I've failed; I should be able to get babies off the main plant.

Mine are all-green, no cream stripe. A woman at work had these, which I'd not seen before, so we swoppoed some of hers for some of my cream-striped ones. I've not only got all-green, I don't know if the cream ones died, or reverted to blend in with the others!

I have a prob because at the moment ther's nowhere I can put them where they're not in my way and I'm not in theirs - they need to go high, beacuse of the length of trail, but too high and I forget to water them, even if that don't mean climbing on a chair to reach them. I want to get some hooks in the ceiling for hanging baskets, but that means waiting for the Age Concern handyman to get back to me.

I'll have been here two years next week, and there's still so much to be done, so I don't have all the space that I want to keep my Spiders safe. I repotted them all couple of weeks ago, since when they've been left outside - used to do that before, it hardens them - lol one got snowed on, which it almost survivied, but only almost - they'll have to come in when the wearther gets colder, but at least for now I've got room to move, they've got room to grow, and I don't have to worry about watering them! but I should feed them mroe - read somwehre that they should be fed at every watering, as they grow year-round. I did put the baby Spiders in the green house after one downpour, hope they didn't get rained on too much.

The ones I planted into the ground have come up fighting fit for the past three years - one is even throwing out its own babies now! They've been nestling under the ground through frost, snow, drenching rain and thriving in scorching sun, and they still manage to look green/cream and healthy. I think they can survive anything! :o)

I'm testing them, but carefully: I imagine the average climate in Spain is a bit warmer than in the UK! Of course they're outdoor plants in the native habitat, but probably need acclimatising to get used to British winters - ha, or summers!

Our climate is much the same as the south-west of Britain, Fran, and whatever weather we get, we seem to get in bucket-loads! We're just slightly luckier in that our valley has its own micro-climate and the 'big boy' mountains keep a lot of the nasty stuff out - except when a storm gets into the valley, then it rumbles around for ages until it finds its way out again! I've been amazed that the spider plants have re-surfaced after ferocious winters - but there they are - doing their stuff as always. Good luck with yours. :o)