Messy bench

Wanting my blog to be honest showing both my successes and failures .This is one of the benches in the Plant House with all the pots and trays that should have been washed and put away.I may just have shamed myself into clearing it up 

Ferns

I have spent this evening trying to identify these ferns, but this one so far has evaded me. I have been growing these for 5 years .I must admit I have found them a challenge and have lost some along the way.  I think I kept them too wet leaving them standing in water all the time . I have now re potted them in a peat and perlite mix and they seem to be happier ,also less water.I hope to find a suitable spot outside for them to show them off at their best

First Tulips

These are the first of this years flowers. I bought these tulips as rooted bulbs way back in January.
I brought them into the kitchen on Sunday . The combination of the central heating and the extra heat from the oven from cooking they have grown leaps and bounds the stems are at least 8 inches longer and the tulip flowers are like tea cups.
I love the smell of tulips, you have to put your nose into the flower but the scent is delicious. For me its the scent of spring.
When I bought the pots they were colour coded the labels and pots were supposed to show the colour of the flower. The red pot are red, the purple ones are red, goodness knows what colour the yellow pots will be . I won't mind though I'll enjoy them whatever their colour.

Sowing tomatoes and peppers

Today I have sown the tomatoes, peppers and chillies.The varieties of tomato are Moneymaker , Mr Stripy and Pearson. The Pearson are from self saved seed. I first grew this variety about 10 years ago. My brother bought these seeds for me from Al Paso Texas. They are a beef steak tomato that is a heavy cropper and starts producing fruit from about 10inches  high on the main stem. The flavour is excellent, it doesn’t have a thick skin yet it does not split.I have not been able to buy these seed in the U.K.

The peppers are yellow red and orange. I used to buy packets of seed for my peppers and I was always disappointed with the germination. One year after my seeds failed to germinate yet again I sowed some pepper seeds out of the fridge from a supermarket pepper they were up in a few days and grew into excellent peppers plants that produced huge Fruits.. So that is what I now do ,e ery year I buy one pepper of each colour eat the pepper and sow the seed .The same for chillies. This year I am growing Jalapenos and Cayenne.

The tomatoes I will be growing in bottomless pots on the soil due to vole infestation last year which devastated the crop. The chillies and peppers I grow in pots on the bench in the plant house as the higher temperatures produce better peppers .The green house soil is colder  

18th February 2011

All of a sudden everything starts happening at once .The first of the seeds that were sown only last week are up and get moved to a cooler bench to slow them down a bit.

My first plant order arrived ,4 Angel Pelargoniums they are lovely reasonable size plants so I will be able to take cuttings off them in a few weeks ready for bedding out in tubs latter.

The seed potatoes arrived two weeks ago and shame on me I had not undone the box so they were already sprouting when I put them into the trays. They aren’t too bad and should be o.k.
More Hellebores are opening ,this is the first one I bought about 10 years ago and is now a huge plant

When visiting the supermarket for my weekly shop I could not resist these pretty polyanthus. Just the thing to lift your spirits on a dull drizzly day in the greenhouse. I called at the garden centre to buy plants for the hanging baskets, Fuchsias, Million Bells and Surfinias . I buy these as soon as they are available so I can propagate them myself this way I just need to buy one of each colour.

The bulbs are coming on at a fare rate of knots now and its going to be a race between the Hyacinths  and Tulips to see which will give me the first flowers.

I noticed the hens today are looking very red in the face and their combs are red a sure sign laying is soon to follow .We are getting one egg every other day but as the days lengthen this will go up to about 6 a day

 

The Plant House

This is the largest greenhouse we call The Plant House. It is where I start all my seeds both vegetables and plants for the garden and ornamentals

Cc

This little Ployanthus really cheered me up today although its a sad little plant it has struggled to make it through the winter and produce a few        little flowers. Its the only little bit of colour the Plant House at the moment.     

Seeds started off in the propagator the thermostat is set at 20degrees centigrade and the humidity is high so germination should be quite quick .          

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Re-potted the ferns into their final pots. Its taken five years to get them to this stage .I'm looking forward to seeing them in their final position when the weather warms up.