The weather has been fairly diabolical for the last few days, today has been really heavy rain, so much so that there have even been leaks into the main house which is a worry. The forecast is for more of the same which is not an inspiriting thought.

Way back when I ordered the seed potatoes, some of which are already producing fine potatoes now, I asked for some micropropagated plantlets of heritage varieties. We heard nothing about them for months and then in the first week of June they finally arrived, just as Paul was away for the week doing something technical in Wales. So we're not sure how many days they were waiting for attention before he came home and found them but looking at them now I'd say that they were in pretty bad shape before they were sent.

Disappointing. I have had micro plants before but never seen them in such a state as these came in. I'm sure they all come from the same laboratories so perhaps it was just unlucky but I may not risk Alan Roman's ordering system again.



A couple of them were very small but seem to be fairly good order, the other three were clearly too tall when they were packaged for the journey and tops had been nipped off leaving the plants practically leafless. We've potted them up and expect a fair recovery but they will have been set back which will reduce their crop and prevent us from creating the good store of seed potatoes for next year we had hoped for.