These tiny seeds will give the garden huge results
It’s never too early to start planning your summer containers and baskets, so this week I’m going to be sowing the seeds of an old favourite – Begonia semperflorens.
These cute little dots of colour, which are also known as wax begonias, have long been favoured by gardeners but they disappeared for several years because older varieties were prone to diseases.
Resistant varieties have now been cultivated and they are thankfully back with a bang, bringing joy and colour to gardens everywhere.
Begonia semperflorens are perennials but usually treated as annuals and composted at the end of summer, though with care and a frost-free place it is possible to nurse them through the coldest months.
Start sowing them from now through to early spring, scattering the seeds as thinly as you can on top of a tray of sieved and dampened seed compost.
Begonia seeds are as small as dust, so after sowing they should not be covered with compost or vermiculite, and the tray should be sealed in a clear plastic bag and placed somewhere warm and light, because it is the seasonal gloom at this time of year that causes seedlings to grow pale and thin.
Seeds this small can be tricky to sow evenly. To make it easier I either mix them with a little horticultural sand in my palm and sprinkle them a pinch at a time onto the compost, or I dampen the end of a match, dip it into the seeds so it picks up a few at a time and tap them off over the compost.
Germination can take 2-3 weeks, after which you should remove the bag to let air circulate around your growing seedlings. They can be potted on when large enough to handle safely.
Make sure you keep the compost damp, watering from the base and avoiding wetting the leaves.
Jolly hollyhocks
Little gems for every garden
Just up the road from where we live is a cottage that always has the most amazing display of hollyhocks in its front garden.
In a range of delicious shades, they tower over passers-by and are a delight to see.
Our hollyhocks do OK, but not as well as the ones down the road, possibly because we live at the top of a hill and the garden is often blasted by winds.
So this year I’m going to assuage my appetite for hollyhocks by growing a variety called ‘Majorette Mixed’, which only grows to around 90cm (3ft) tall making plants more weather-resilient and perfect for the middle or front of the border.
‘Majorette Mixed’ come in shades of pink and the flowers are multi-petalled, giving them a ‘fluffy’ look.
Sown now on trays or pots of good quality dampened seed compost, they should flower this summer and, like all hollyhocks, keep going well into the autumn.
The seeds are large and flat and easy to sow and should take two-four weeks to germinate if kept somewhere warm and light.
Your seedlings can be potted on when they have developed two sets of ‘proper’ leaves and they should be planted out in late spring after being hardened off.
WHAT’S ON
24 Jan: Snowdrop Festival at the Garden House – Elworthy Cottage Plants, The Garden House, Buckland Monachorum, Yelverton, Devon, PL20 7LQ. 10.30am-3.30pm.
25 Jan: Myddleton House Gardens Ultimate Snowdrop Sale,Myddelton House Gardens, Bulls Cross, Enfield, Middlesex, EN2 9HG. 10.30am-noon.
25-26 Jan: Orchid Festival, Gordale Garden Centre, Chester High Road (a540), Burton, South Wirral, Cheshire, CH64 8TF. 9am-6pm Sat, 11am-5pm Sun.
25 Jan: Snowdrop Gala and other Spring Treasures, Ballykealey House, Ballon, Co. Carlow. Ireland, R93 A9K1.
25, 27, 29 & 31 Jan: Shirley Carman-Martin’s Snowdrop Garden, 5 Whitemans Close, Cuckfield, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH17 5DE. 11am-3.30pm. Pre-bookings only, email shirleycarmanmartin@gmail.com.
25-26 Jan: Celebrating Stroud Snowdrops, Museum in the Park, Stratford Park, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 4AF. 10aam-4.30pm.
25 Jan: Borgue Potato Day and Seed Swap, Borgue Village Hall, Borgue, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland, DG6 4SH. 11am-3pm.
25 Jan: Nottingham Organic Gardeners’ Potato Day, United Reform Church, 1 Edwards Lane, Nottingham, NG5 3AA. 10am-3pm.
25-26 Jan: Houseplant Weekend, RHS Garden Rosemoor, Torrington, Devon, EX38 8PH. 10am-4pm.
25 Jan: Bridport Seed Swap, Bridport Community Shed, Mountfield, Near Bedford Place, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 3JP.
25 Jan: Transition Chesterfield’s Potato Day & Seed Swap, Pavements Shopping Centre, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, East Midlands, S40 1PA. 9.30am-1pm.
26 Jan: Spring Platt Garden Opening, Boyton Court Road, Sutton Valence, Maidstone, Kent, ME17 3BY. 10.30am-3pm.
26 Jan: Trumpington Seedy Sunday, Trumpington Village Hall, 75 High Street, Trumpington, Cambridgeshire, CB2 9HA. 1.30-4pm.
30 Jan-1 Feb: Snowdrop Garden Opening & Snowdrops for Sale, 10 Ryan Close, Ferndown, Dorset, BH22 9TP. 11am-3pm.
31 Jan: Snowdrop Garden Opening & Plant Sale, 1 Highfield Road garden, Nuthall, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG16 1BQ. 10am-4pm.
31 Jan-2 Feb: Houseplant Weekend, RHS Garden Rosemoor, Torrington, Devon, EX38 8PH. 10am-4pm.
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