Choosing Seeds

Pottering around in the garden in spring can be heavenly. Plan to grow more plants from seed this year and enjoy the real pleasures of gardening.

The sun’s warmth returns to Britain surprisingly early in the year - I have memories of gaining a February tan in an English garden. We can expect the sun to shine for longer every day from now onwards.

One of the most exhilarating things to do in the garden is to check new seedlings. Different leaf colours, shapes, or textures all bring happiness to gardeners. Waiting for young plants to flower, always with the hope of wonders still to come, is revitalising.

Economical way to garden

Sowing seeds is an economical way of raising plants. To gain full benefit it is best to start early. If you order seed now, you will be ready to sow in early February or March. Try to get an early start with pelargoniums, as there is a lot of growing to achieve before flowering. The aim is to be able to plant up pots and baskets in May. And some will be beginning to bloom by June.

Plain old Pelargonium ‘Paul Crampel’ might still be preferred growing tall in terracotta pots; but a new variety, exclusive to Unwins, that could catch on with growers is ‘Black Magic Red’ – a bedding geranium sporting almost black foliage with green margins and red flowers.

Sizzling Colour – You could capture the vibrancy of bold flowers in famous National Trust gardens for the price of a packet of Dahlia ‘Sangria’ seed. Intense reds, warm orange and velvety pinks are in this semi-double flower mixture, some with bronze foliage.

Enchanting new sweet peas

Sweet peas can be sown early in warmth, or sow directly into the open ground in March. Unwins are offering a free Sweet Pea Book with any Sweet Pea Collection. The Flower Arranger’s Collection will please many enthusiasts. Strongly scented ‘Cambridge Blue’ in this collection did well for me here. I found the Extra Fragrant Collection, which includes ‘Romeo’ absolutely delightful. And from the Exhibition Collection variety ‘Gwendoline’ (pink) produced outstanding results.

This year I shall also be sowing sweet pea ‘Oxford Blue’, a new variety for 2001 that opens blue and soon turns navy, ‘Valentine’, a pure white flower with long stems suitable for cutting, and also new for 2001, ‘Castle of Mey’- a variety with large cream blooms. Named after the Queen Mother’s Caithness home, it has won a Certificate of Merit from the Scottish Sweet Pea Society.

New from Suttons

I am growing a new sweet pea from Suttons Seeds and watching the results with interest. The plants are already a few inches high at the time of writing. They were sown in autumn, to take advantage of the longer growing time that sometimes makes for strong stems and early blooms. But after all the snow there could still be time to catch up with spring sown seed. Watch this space for the name of this sweet pea.

Lavender attracts bees

Most of my lavender is grown from cuttings, but I have raised exotic species from seed, and two I intend to try are Lavendula multifida ‘French Lace’ and L. viridis. The former has grey-green lacy foliage - more hairy than the foliage of common kinds of lavender - and dark blue flowers on branched flower heads. New for 2001, the white form of Lavendula viridis, a species sometimes known as green lavender, due to conspicuous green bracts, is memorable for foliage that emits a strong aroma if brushed. Both these lavenders are good for cutting for the house.

Spotted on the trial fields

A good way to pick out promising plants to raise from seed is to visit the trial fields. Last August I noted the following outstanding displays at Unwins Seeds:

The lion’s mane flower heads of Rudbeckia ‘Aslan’: this perennial in a border plus tall, white Cosmos ‘Cosmonaut’, placed behind Gazania ‘Milk and Honey’, creates a colour mix of bronze-red-orange, yellow, cream, white.

‘Siam Queen’ – a Thai basil, was covered in bees, although very pale mauve on darker mauve flower spikes were just visible above neat, dark leaves.

And for a climbing plant, although I usually prefer blue "Morning Glory", the purple, crimson, and white-with-cerise-star mixture, ‘Break of Day’, had a fresh appearance - more appealing in reality than in the catalogue.

Dramatic in the shade

A standby for the shady garden is Heuchera. Besides several varieties with colourful, spangle flowers for year-round interest, Heuchera micrantha ‘Palace Purple’ is an eye-catching perennial to raise from seed. The foliage is dark purple-red, and the 6 ins plants send up showers of white flowers in summer.

New foxgloves and lupins

Perennial plants have returned to favour recently. Among new foxglove varieties one called ‘Woodlanders’ is recommended for early summer colour. And the inclusion of a rare lemon yellow is promised by Unwins the breeders. I wonder if the bees will favour the lemon.

The scent of lupins tends to linger in the memory, reminding gardeners of all kinds of happy links with summer days. Lupin ‘Sky Rockets’ is said to be superior to other seed-raised types. The mixture contains most colours and bi-colours. Descended from the famous Russell lupins, the strain will flower in the first year from a February sowing.

‘Chim Chiminee’ is chosen

Visitors to Thompson & Morgan’s Open Weekend voted the company’s 2001 Flower of the Year Rudbeckia ‘Chim Chiminee’ as their favourite flower on T&M’s trial grounds. And also from T&M, a marvellous plant for flower arrangers to grow from seed is Lupinus nanus ‘Blue Bonnet’ – excellent when grown in drifts as a border filler.

A giant basket or tiny ones

I was impressed by a very attractive hanging basket on a railway station last summer, and decided that the success of hanging baskets depends on the size of the container. This one was a giant – more than two feet across - and held a generous selection of plants. It is possible to grow your own hanging basket plants from seed if you start early enough.

Special range for conservation

New from Thompson & Morgan comes The Kew Collection, a distinctive range of rare and unusual seeds from around the world. This project is part of Kew’s commitment to reverse the global decline in plant life. Purchase any variety in the range, and a donation will be made to the conservation and research programmes at Kew.