apache potatoes

[Badger's Mate Profile]

I'm sure that modern plant propagation techniques arose from scientific curiosity funded by commercial interest. There still isn't a handle on potato blight. Interestingly we have recently acquired some blight-resistant Hungarian varieties, presumably through Hungary's accession to the EU. These are all prefixed 'Sarpo', you might have seen them in garden centres or seed catalogues. I have tried one of them - Sarpo Shona, but it didn't do well on the plot and I didn't much like the potato.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Modern propagation techniques have made a huge difference

In 1958 my dad sold a small collection of orchids for over £200, as people would pay a lot for a well established, disease free, plant

But if you are short of a pot plant, this coming weekend will be a good time to pick up a cheap orchid left over from Mothering Sunday. It will have been grown by micro propagation, cell culture, and it will be healthy unless it has suffered in transit.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Another good example is the Wollemi Pine. A few were discovered in Australia about 25 years ago when all the other records were fossil ones. It was immediately cloned, several were sent to botanic gardens around the world. The one at Kew had a fence around it, so it's known in our house as 'the world's most dangerous tree'. We've since seen another one behind bars, can't remember where, Amsterdam maybe.

These days it's freely (well, expensively) available to buy in pots for your own garden. You'll have to provide your own fence though...

[strictlysalsaclare Profile]

We've had some of Tesco's White potatoes this week, which were a variety called Nectar. They are very smooth, almost waxy. I think they would be really good for dishes like pommes dauphinoise or boulangere. Or cooked and chopped up for a salad.