For many years I've heard beekeepers referring to an autumn honey top-up from flowering ivy, which I've found very frustrating as I've got shed-loads of ivy around this place but have never seen so much as a single flower on any of it.
Internet 'expert' sites tell me that common ivy (hedera helix) flowers when mature - after 10 years. Well, the stuff I have is well over 15 years old - so that's unlikely to be the cause of this non-flowering.
Apparently there are 15 different types of ivy, so I thought the simplest way to proceed would be to ask you guys - anyone who has experience of flowering ivy - to help identify and/or confirm some plant material that I've just located.
On Monday I was down at the pallet yard, salvaging the last of the unwanted pallets, when I spotted what I'm hoping may be flowering ivy on top of a boundary wall - and there were dozens of bees there working it - so I took a handful and now have 50-odd cuttings in pots.
Ok - here's a photograph showing: upper left - the common ivy which climbs over just about anything and everything here, given half a chance. Upper right is a sample of some 'creeping ivy' which forms a dense ground cover, but appears to have no interest in climbing up onto anything. Both of these are similar in that their leaves are dark green and have a 'waxy' appearance with pronounced veins. They also produce multiple groups of concentrated roots along their stems, almost like the legs of centipedes - and so grip onto anything which they come into contact with.
In contrast - at the bottom of the above shot is a sample of the stuff I've just found. As you can see it has the same type and colour of flowers as shown on stock photographs of flowering ivy, but - the leaves are different, and the branches/stems don't have the same root development as seen with the others.
So - is this ivy ? Whatever it is, I want to propagate it - so identification would certainly help - as this may be (probably is) completely the wrong time of the year to have taken cuttings.
Would appreciate any help on this one. Thanks
LJ
Internet 'expert' sites tell me that common ivy (hedera helix) flowers when mature - after 10 years. Well, the stuff I have is well over 15 years old - so that's unlikely to be the cause of this non-flowering.
Apparently there are 15 different types of ivy, so I thought the simplest way to proceed would be to ask you guys - anyone who has experience of flowering ivy - to help identify and/or confirm some plant material that I've just located.
On Monday I was down at the pallet yard, salvaging the last of the unwanted pallets, when I spotted what I'm hoping may be flowering ivy on top of a boundary wall - and there were dozens of bees there working it - so I took a handful and now have 50-odd cuttings in pots.
Ok - here's a photograph showing: upper left - the common ivy which climbs over just about anything and everything here, given half a chance. Upper right is a sample of some 'creeping ivy' which forms a dense ground cover, but appears to have no interest in climbing up onto anything. Both of these are similar in that their leaves are dark green and have a 'waxy' appearance with pronounced veins. They also produce multiple groups of concentrated roots along their stems, almost like the legs of centipedes - and so grip onto anything which they come into contact with.
In contrast - at the bottom of the above shot is a sample of the stuff I've just found. As you can see it has the same type and colour of flowers as shown on stock photographs of flowering ivy, but - the leaves are different, and the branches/stems don't have the same root development as seen with the others.
So - is this ivy ? Whatever it is, I want to propagate it - so identification would certainly help - as this may be (probably is) completely the wrong time of the year to have taken cuttings.
Would appreciate any help on this one. Thanks
LJ