Oh, The Weather Outside Is Still Frightful

Well, as it says in the title, the weather outside is still frightful and Christmas is well over and done with! It's presently 1C outside, with a windchill of -5C, and I think I've just seen the greenhouse take off! We had winds like this during the Summer and it wan't very nice at all - expecially as quite a lot of exotic plants are leafy, so they just shred when it gets too much. I hate having to go around after a windy night and stand every single pot up - this year I'm hoping to try and use more bigger pots for Brugmansia seedlings and the like, and cut down on the smaller pots, as not only will this stop them blowing around but they shouldn't dry out as fast (even though it's not like we're ever going to suffer a drought in England! Or will I need a slice of humble pie after this Summer?).

Anywho, as there's not really much to talk about outside at present, I thought I'd just show you a couple of photos of houseplants in bloom at the moment. Here we have a Clivia, started blooming a couple of weeks ago;

I bought this about 18 months ago at half price, from the bargain section of a local Garden Centre. It sent up a flowering stem about 6 months after buying it, and since then, it hasn't exactly been given royal treatment - watered as and when I think about it, and the leaves were dusted once a couple of months ago, so I'm very pleased it's decided to flower again for me! If only all plants were that easy! The other plant that has just opened today is an Amaryllis, I'll try and find the name tommorow as the label's in the greenhouse;

We bought this as a bulb a couple of months ago, and it was potted just before Christmas. It currently has two flowering stems which are fighting in the race to flower, but I absolutely love this flower - beautiful colours and so bright for this time of year, an excellent counterdose to the weather outside! I'm hoping to pot up the other three bulbs I mentioned in a previous post that I've saved from last year, and I'm looking forward to seeing if I've been successful in getting them to flower again. In previous years/months, I've also tried orchids (never at full price, mind!) but once the initial flower has gone over, they just seem to die a slow and ungraceful death. I keep meaning to look into the perfect conditions and what I may be doing wrong, and I'm sure I'll get round to it one day!

Still not much to report on the seeds I planted a fortnight ago - 3 Canna 'Crozy's Hybrids' are now up, and 1 of the Karchesky Canna Hybrids emerged today, but I'm hoping for some of the Brugmansias to begin emerging at the beginning of next week. Fingers crossed!

Garden Centre!!!

Well, I didn't get around to sowing my seeds today.

But we did get to go to the local Garden Centre! Haven't been for several weeks so it was nice to be back in plant land once again. Unbelievably, they still had some Christmas stuff in at 75% off! It felt weird seeing Christmas stuff again, as it seems like ages ago now, but we couldn't resist a few bargain buys, mainly tea light holders for dad!

Anywho, on the more interesting side - THE SUMMER BULBS HAVE ARRIVED!!!

I love seeing stand after stand of gorgeous Gladioli, delectable Dahlias and luxurious Lilys. So now, for me anyway, Spring has begun in earnest, even if the calenday says different. Seeds have been sown, and bulbs have been bought.

I got some gorgeous Dahlias (they're all on the National Dahlia Collection website if you'd like to see a pic, but the website's giving me some problems tonight so I can't get pics to show you what they look like);

• Marlene Joy
• Garden Festival
• Bodacious
• Kaleidoscope

I'm getting to be quite a fan of Dahlias now - I especially love the brightly coloured ones, and the bicolored ones, and the collarettes, and the giant waterlily types, and the ones with the curled up petals, and the...so anyway, I digress! I might buy a few more different types from the NDC as they have an even better selection and some excellent colour combinations. I only bought one variety of Gladioli ('Little Darling') but I'll probably wait until the GC get the rest of their Spring bulbs in and hopefully they'll have some of those big bags of 40 bulbs, and I'll pick up one of those too.

I also discovered another one of my Canna 'Crozy's Hybrids' has emerged today ;) Not sure what's going on next weekend yet, although I'm sure I'll find some more seeds to sow!

Greenhouse Tidying

I decided to go out in the greenhouse today and do some tidying - I simply couldn't stay inside with all the sun we've had today! We've only had a high temp of 6.5C (44F) but it was a little warmer in the greenhouse, plus I put the heater on full for a short while, as the floor was quite wet in the greenhouse for some reason, so it helped to dry that out pretty fast.

Most of the stuff is looking pretty good after a tidy up, except my 2 Alocasias - Alocasia Wentii 'Aline', and Alocasia Portadora. I'm quite dissapointed about the latter as it was doing extremely well and it's supposed to be one of the more hardier ones, but I'll be trying it again this year! The Wentii 'Aline' was a very jurassic plant, with speckled, red backed leaves. Not to everyones taste but I'm dissapointed to have lost that, although it is one of the more tender Alocasias. They were both bought from Akamba (see the 'links' section for their website), which is one of our localish nurseries, so hopefully they'll be stocking them again this coming season. Here's a pic of the Portadora in Summer;

And the Wentii 'Aline';


Still, Spring is drawing ever closer, and I'm looking forward to perusing the local Garden Centres for some lovely Dahlia tubers, as well as other exotic looking Summer bulbs. I saved quite a few Dahlia tubers of our own from last year, but it's always nice to add a couple more to the mix! Heres some pics of last years Dahlias (sorry if they haven't got a name, I lose track of all the labels!);

This one's called 'Pumpkin Pie'

And this one's called 'Fashion Monger'

Anywho, remember those seeds I planted last weekend? Well the first one came up yesterday, one of the Canna 'Crozy's Hybrids', so hopefully that will be followed by many more in the coming week. I'm also hoping to sow some Hedychium 'Carnival' seeds tommorow, and then that will probably be it until February. Hold on, what am I saying? Next weekend will be the start of February! Oh excellent, I can start sowing all the February seeds! I'll probably leave it a week or two actually as seeds I've started early in the last couple of years never seem to do well if I have too many on the go at the same time! It's supposed to be raining tommorow too, so we may visit the local Garden Centre in the afternoon. I must remember to restrict my spending this time!

Another Weekend Over!

And another weekend comes to a surprisingly fast end! But I managed to get quite a lot done today as far as seed sowing is concerned - it's been an absolutely gorgeous day once again, with almost non-stop sunshine, which does make a nice change! Really inspired me to start thinking about Spring.

Anywho, went in the greenhouse today and sowed the following;

Ensete Ventricosum
Ensete Sp. 'Kluay Pa'
Musa Mannii
Musa Thomsonii
Musa Sikkimensis 'Red Flash'
Brugmansia Arborea
Brugmansia Sanguinea
Canna 'Crozy's Hybrids'
And several Brugmansia crosses, too.

A lot of these seeds are one that I kept meaning to sow last Spring but never got 'round to it, but hopefully something'll come of them. I've tried Ensete Ventricosum before, but I sowed them a little too late in the year so there weren't quite big enough to get through Winter, and I also bought some Brugmansia Sanguinea seed from Thompson and Morgan but in the end they turned out not to be Sanguineas! Nevertheless, they were very nice. This year will be their third year from seed (these were the first exotic plant that I probably grew, as I hadn't found the wonderful world of exotics 3 years ago, so they were just a random buy at the time!), so I'm hoping they'll put on some nice flushes and bulk up a little bit. Here's a picture of them last year;

As the flower ages, it also turned a very pale orange. I also did some tidying up in the greenhouse, which is starting to look a bit sorry for itself, but I have to remind myself that Spring isn't THAT far away. Only a couple of losses so far in there, but hopefully that'll be all. Next weekend I'm hoping for some good weather so everything can come out and be sorted out and tidied up, so I have that joyful task to look forward too! Ah well, it's worth it when the Summer arrives!

The Gardening Season Begins

Well, I though I might as well get stuck in straight away! I've decided to create this blog now as not only are we all eagerly anticipating the start of a new gardening season, but also because I'm hoping that through writing this blog (which I'll try and update at least once weekly!) I'll be able to learn more about growing tropical plants (and other related matters!), make many new friends and also be able to share my garden, and everything that goes on in it, the good, the bad and the plain ugly, with all of my readers, whom I look forward to getting to know! Also, this is my very first blog, so I have much to learn about the world of blogging! Because of this, if you think that there are improvements to be made to my blog, please contact me and let me know through the comments section on the right!

Anywho, today started off as a very fine sunny day, which has put me in a Spring mood, so I've been doing plenty of seed-sorting, and hopefully I'll be able to start the much awaited seed sowing tommorow! I can't wait to start the process all over again, seeing those tiny little pellets grow into some beautiful (and some not so beautiful) plants - this has to be one of the top things I love about gardening!

So tommorow, I'll hopefully be getting out in the garden and sowing the first batch of tropical seeds for this year. I've just received my order from JungleSeeds, which is the top company for tropical seeds. Once again I've managed to overspend a little, but this year I'm absolutely determined to give all the plants I grow all the care and attention they need (my New Year's Resolution is to be more motivated). I'll be sowing Ensete Ventricosum, Brugmansia Sanguinea, B. Arborea and Canna 'Crozy's Hybrids' tommorow, and they'll all be soaked overnight to soften the seed coats. I might also do a little tidying in the greenhouse, which is pretty clean but there's always dropped leaves to clean up and, dare I say it, the odd dead plant too, although hopefully there will be none of those!

I'll try and do an update tommorow of what I actually got around to doing in the garden, so tune in then! Thanks for looking in, and hopefully you'll stick around.

Take care

Pete