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