I was talking to retired Maureen last night when I went to water the tomatoes – she came up to ask if I had any camomile seed, or knew where to get some from. “I’ve seen the plants for sale, but I don’t fancy buying them at £1.49 a plant as I want a dozen or so,” she said.
I don’t know why she wants so many (camomile tea, I suppose) & I don’t have any seed, but if I ask on the GYO grapevine seed swap, I may find someone who has some that I can swap for some of my spare seed.
I asked her about her huge comfrey plant – comfrey is supposed to make a brilliant veg feed, & the bees love the flowers, but unless you have the sterile variety (boking 14), it spreads like there is no tomorrow. If it was boking 14, I would have asked her for a cutting, but she shook her head & admitted “it’s lovely, but it is rather a nuisance, I’m afraid.”
So that’s out, but I might just ask her if I can have enough leaves to stuff into an old milk carton, which will break down to give a concentrated feed. A fair trade for the seeds, I think!
I think that the comfrey at the back of my plot is the bocking variety, as it has been there for two years and not seeded anywhere!! You are very welcome to take a cutting. That said, I have just cut it down to ground level to make feed- I have some in a bucket awaiting attention, if you would like some of that too
ReplyDeleteIf she wants the camomile for tea then growing from seed is fine. If she want a camomile lawn then the non-flowering (therefore non-seeding!) variety, Treneague, is what she needs. However, if you're not in a blazing hurry you can take cuttings from your £1.49 plant. That's how they propagate non-flowering plants after all.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Julie - Bilbo has offered to send me some cuttings of her white flowered native comfrey. If it doesn't take I'll be up with my trowel!
ReplyDeleteI would think that retired Maureen is more likely to want tea rather than a lawn, but I'll check. How easy is it to grow from cuttings (novice alert!)?