Wild Thyme and Waxcaps
 

Hi all.
I've taken on some work in a churchyard where they have a small
ammount of wild Thyme growing. Does anyone know how I can encourage it to
take to other areas of the church yard?, also apparently, they have a
mushroom called a Waxcap that appears around November time, and I would like
to encourage the spread of this too.
Thanks,
Carl.

Wild Thyme and Waxcaps
 

On Thu, 27 Mar 2003 21:56:19 -0000, "Carl Spaul"
wrote:

Hi all.
I've taken on some work in a churchyard where they have a small
ammount of wild Thyme growing. Does anyone know how I can encourage it to
take to other areas of the church yard?, also apparently, they have a
mushroom called a Waxcap that appears around November time, and I would like
to encourage the spread of this too.
Thanks,
Carl.
The Waxcaps are probably of the family Hygrocybe - the most common of
which is the Hygrocybe Conica...known colloquially as the Conica
Blackening Wax Cap, due to the manner in which the cap degrades to a
sort of black slime.

There's not a lot you can do to encourage ( or dissuade ) the things
from growing - but the waxcaps thrive in short turf and grasslands, so
it's inevitable that they'll make an appearance in a churchyard.

Just keep mowing the grass!

If this is your waxcaps ( a rather attractive bright orange cap ) then
you should be aware that it's one of the poisonous ones.
Not a killer as such, but certainly highly unpleasant.

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
http://www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{who is at}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk

Wild Thyme and Waxcaps
 

On Thu, 27 Mar 2003 22:33:48 +0000, Stephen Howard
wrote:


...known colloquially as the Conica
Blackening Wax Cap,

Should read Conical

!

--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
http://www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{who is at}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk

Wild Thyme and Waxcaps
 

Carl Spaul wrote:

Hi all.
I've taken on some work in a churchyard where they have a small
ammount of wild Thyme growing. Does anyone know how I can encourage it to
take to other areas of the church yard?, also apparently, they have a
mushroom called a Waxcap that appears around November time, and I would like
to encourage the spread of this too.

Hullo :-)

The wild thyme (and other wildflowers) are probably doing best in
relatively nutrient-poor areas where the grass is doing badly. The one
thing you should *not* do is add fertiliser or anything else intended to
improve/encourage the grass, as the grass will smother the thyme in no
time, as it were. Is the thyme in dry/sunny areas? If other places with
similar exposure have sparse grass, you could try rooting some cuttings
from healthy plants and transplanting them to these areas.

regards
sarah


--
"Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view,
is silence about truth." Aldous Huxley