First Shoots

We have had some lovely warm spring days in the gardens at Betley Court at the end of March. The snowdrops have given way to swaths of daffodils. Celandine, a rather sweet daisy like flower has spread like a rash all over the formal beds. Whilst it is rather invasive, it has created a bright flash of colour early in the season. I’ve started to remove some of the annuals that have appeared, such as Asiatic poppies to make way for the new plants.

The first plants to be are a rather nice pair of bright red roses, which will climb up the new obelisks in the ‘hot’ borders. I opted for a variety called ‘Red Flame’, which will bear a classic fairy tale red flower. It’s got gorgeous bronze stems and leaves. The other bonus with this RHS award winning variety is that I’m told it has a unique raspberry fragrance. I’ll keep you updated on whether it lives up to the grower’s promises.

My cost-cutting horticultural measures – the plastic mini-greenhouse boxes filled with paper flowerpots with seedlings in them - are coming along well. The south-facing bay window of my Victorian semi is serving as a makeshift greenhouse for about 120 seedlings for the next few weeks. Eldest fledgling child’s bedroom window cill has been commandeered for cosmos, dahlias, sweet peas and sunflowers. Middle fledgling child’s bedroom is currently the dahlia house, after a very successful session of propagating them from tubers I pulled up and saved last autumn.

Which brings me neatly on to the subject of propagating plants. I’ve been struck by the variety of special tricks the gardener has at their disposal to induce plants to reproduce. Some seeds need light to germinate; that goes for the alceas (hollyhocks) and English marigolds. Poppies too need light to germinate. Remember what you were taught at school about the poppy seeds buried in Flanders battlefields, propelled to the surface of the soil by wartime explosions, to germinate and produce fields of red flowers we now associate with fallen soldiers?

Other seeds prefer to be covered in soil, the depth varying between species. Often the larger seeds like sunflowers and sweet peas are quite happy to be planted deeper, whilst the finer seeds only require a fine sifting of compost.

Heat is another great tool at the gardener’s disposal to coax seeds out of dormancy. I’ve found the ‘bottom heat’ provided by the central heating radiators under window cills around the house very useful.  Correspondingly, cold can also be used to wake seeds from dormancy. I currently have a bag of compost with pre-soaked Alchemilla mollis (lady’s mantle) seeds scattered in them, in our fridge on the shelf with all the sauces on. The idea is this imitate a cold, wet winter, and when I take them out, the seeds will feel that Spring has arrived. This is useful when using some packet seeds, just to jolt them into growing, and the technique has a rather scientific sounding name – stratifying.

The most unusual seed I’ve grown this year has to be the Indian chestnut tree, or to give it it’s Latin binomial Aesculus indica. We were gifted a pair of gorgeous black shiny conkers back in the autumn, and I wasn’t sure we would be able to get anything out of them, but potted them up and left them in our unheated greenhouse on the allotment over the winter. Suddenly, about 10 days ago, two shoots about 15 cm high appeared. Yesterday a showing of bronze leaves had unfurled. The species has long been a favourite in parkland estates, having been introduced to the UK in the mid 19^thcentury.

We think the pair of Indian chestnut trees will make a fitting addition to the gardens when they’re big enough!

Make the most of the contrary,Spring weather we're having!

Ladybird Su