Still time for seedlings
Most of the annuals are planted out now but there are still seeds to sow. In fact you can be busy sowing almost all year, if you feel the need to raise plants continually. In the veg garden there are plenty of salads to sow and it will soon be time to sow all the Oriental veg and endives for autumn use.
Soon the early potatoes will be lifted – so far it has only been those grown in bags – and the space left must not go to waste. So some brassica seedlings and lettuce are coming on ready to take the place of the spuds.
It is time to sow biennials such as Canterbury bells (top pick), sweet Williams and myosotis too.
Thinking ahead to next spring, I have sown some freesias. I have not grown freesias for a few years but they are not tricky and I adore the scent. But they are winter-growing so are sown now and need good light and frost-free growing conditions through winter. They will flower in 9 months from sowing and the corms can be kept for following years. This is all confused by the corms you can buy in spring which are ‘out of sync’ and return to their ‘normal’ schedule the next year. I don’t like these and somehow the scent of freesias does not belong to summer.
I have sown three seeds per cell and these will be potted on as a cluster as they grow, to avoid root disturbance. Germination has been slow with the first seedlings appearing after more than a month but I did not soak the seeds and I am in no hurry.
Staying under cover, and with cut flowers, the alstroemerias are flowering well. They were planted a year ago in the polytunnel as a source of cut flowers. They are hardy but under cover they flower much longer than outside.
I struggled very badly with seed sown in the vegetable garden this year. One sowing of six different vegetable seeds failed completely, not one seedling!
That is odd. I wonder if it was the cold April or wet May. If I get a chance I intend to do some sowing today – it is a bit cooler and easier to keep the soil moist. Oddly a second sowing of French beans three weeks ago has been poor.
Am loving that peachy Alstromeria and indeed the lilac ones. I haven’t seen those sort of shades before and tall ones too. Trust you to have something different! My comments are still going missing – is there a time factor?
Yes it is difficult to get the tall ones. The dwarf ones are bright but they are no good for cutting. Your comments are coming through and I reply quickly (usually) and they should appear in the post you commented on. I did post a pic of that silene too.