Seeds
Posted By Judith on 27th April 2017
Earlier in the year we bought a small, heated window-sill propagator. To be honest I don’t know why we haven’t had one before but there we are and so since around the middle of March I’ve been frantically sowing seeds.
Most have taken 2-3 weeks to germinate but the candelabra primula, kniphofia (red hot poker) and primula ‘Gold Lace’ are proving particularly stubborn, indeed they might be complete duds, but I’ll give them a bit longer before I bin them as I believe they can take quite a while.
However the most difficult, or perhaps I should say the most frustrating, have been the trailing tuberous begonias. I bought 6 small tubers and planted them following the instructions on the packet.
When weeks had passed and nothing happened I sought advice from the Internet only to discover that the planting advice on the packet was not what the ‘experts’ were advising so, in a vain attempt to retrieve the situation, I re-potted them. In doing so I discovered I’d actually planted one of them upside down!
The truth is, I think it’s been too cold for them even with the propagator. During a mild spell they did seem to rally and make some progress but of course it’s cold again now, so watch this space.
As we all know after seed sowing comes ‘pricking out’ a fiddly job at the best of times, but I’m pleased to say that all my pricked out seedlings have survived, though they are finding these arctic temperature a bit of a challenge now they no longer have their ‘bottom heat’.
In this picture you can see the results of my labours so far, Lupins, Monarda didyma (bee balm), Oriental poppy ‘Allegro’, Hollyhock Chaters Double, Night scented stock, Nasturtiums, Tithonia rotundifolia, ‘Torch’ (the Mexican sunflower), Rudbeckia, Carnations and Acanthus, some 160 potential plants.
As you can see at the moment they all fit quite nicely into the porch, the problems will start when I have to pot them on into individual pots. I hope it will have warmed up by then as I will be forced to put some of them outside.
In the meantime, while we’re waiting for some warm weather, take a look at this Euphorbia epithymoides (greater cushion spurge), or at least that’s what I think it is. It was one of Gladys’s that I had to move for the garden work, but it seems happy enough in it’s new home with tulips, hellebore, cowslips, De Caen anemone and bluebells.
Happy days.
