thank you to everyone for your replies and suggestions. I think Bt is probably right with the compost water retaining blobs. So thank you Bt...and shaun, baa. I will be putting the front garden pots in the dry as they have my cuttings in, so thanks junegapi.

I'm still slightly perturbed about those responses on the BBC scotland page .. may be a latitude thing.
Seems to be only me that has these blobs in their compost down here though...which you must agree is odd.

The jelly is still there however, so I think me and michael are still on for having a blast sometime soon