plant world?

Anyone ordered from www.plant-world-seeds.com ? I was sent catalogue and couldnt resist - oh I never can!

 

have you order anything nice?

 

Hope so - as just ordered 10 more packets of seed........ahhhhh!

Primula milla and P. Pulverulenta for stream bed, some mixed fritilaria and mixed euphorbia. 3 packets od Dactylorhysa which I hope to germinate and naturalise in woodland beds - oh and loads more - anyone got a cure for plantaholics?

 

If you find a cure I need some too!! :D :D

 

Sorry theres no cure it's terminal

 

And infectious......

 

They are quite nice people to deal with and i think he is a bit canny as well. Year before last they were slow at doing my internet order so he sent several packets of seed free by way of apology. It included Echium which i would not normally have considered. Have just potted the two i have left into 20 litre pots ( I sold the others at the Country market stall). Am now going to order several of the other Echiums as well as the original one he sent me. I find them quite generous with the packets as well.

 

thanks geoff - I got the catalogue free with echiums, no other way round. I have sown echiums and will see what happens, but 20 litre pots - WOW they really do grow as big as they say then?

 

Yes they do. I had never noticed them before but last year I spotted one in flower in a garden in St Davids. The top of the flower was probably about first floor window height or more. I also then saw them in the pine wood in Ness Gardens on the Wirral but they were past their best.
They just keep growing. I sold most of my seedlings last summer in 1 litre pots. Those I kept I got into 10 litre pots at the end of summer and the roots were really surging through as I moved them up through the pot sizes. I kept them as that for late autumn and winter. When i repotted into 20 litre the other day they were a mass of roots and i had to prise the pot drainage crocks out - I have used John Innes with extra grit underneath, i think peat compost might make the necks too wet. I think they need plenty of water with all those big leaves but sharp drainage i reckon.
While in St Davids I found a guy who was selling out of his garden -fantastic stuff. I found plants i cannot find anywhere. He had an Echium fastuosum and an Echium webbii - cannot even find a reference to that. Bought both for a very reasonable price and they grow as fast, so they also went into 20 litre pots. Kept them all in a cold greenhouse over winter.

 

Fantastic - Hope I get a good germination then!

I think I might have to start selling out of my garden then or may be hold a charity fair, you can sell anything from where I live, people just buy a piece of our pretty village, problem is I don't want to loose our privacy, we keep being asked to open garden, but I think it would spoil it all for me.

Seeds arrived today, so just about to log them.

 

Try selling your surplus through country markets, used to call themselves WI - men can join the Country markets bit, its a co-operative. Cost me the grand total of 5p to join and they take 10% commission. I started growing rarities from seed because that was the only way to get them. A local nursery told me that local people just wanted "ordinary stuff". Not from my experience. There are now regular customers who look out for my plants on the market.
You have to present them nicely. I either sell them in either 1 litre or 2 litre pots with the set label....but it can pay for your gardening, can be a nice little earner.

 

Thanks geoff - good idea, some of our village shows have rare plant sales too so could be worth a visit.

My echium are through already too!

 

Have just had �£54 pounds worth of seed delivered from Plant World. It included the ordinary? Echium. They have started calling it Blue Steeple, its just the specie Echium pininana. I also got the white version of that. I have sown seed of what i think is echium webbii that i got from another place and my plant of echium fastuosum that i brought back from St Davids last summer has loads of flower buds.
I went to Ness Gardens on the Wirral yesterday and I was looking for some Echium pininanas that they had in the pine wood. I eventually found them. They have self seeded to form a thicket that looks as vigorous as knotweed. One plant nearby has sent a spike up to about 8 feet and you can see the buds. I think I might try one or two down my garden under some trees. I think they like the dryness under trees and certainly like the shelter.

 

I now have several pans of germinating Echiums. One is of Echium webbii - I found the seed heads afrer the seeds in a garden had been collected and they were in the rubbish that was going to be picked off and thrown away.
I also have a pan each of Echium pininana and the white hybrid, Snow Tower. The trouble is with the white hybrid you are supposed to be able to pick out the lighter coloured seedlings as they will be the ones that will definitely flower as white. If there is any difference I cannot see much between that pan and the pan next to it which is the ordinary blue. My plant Of Echium fastuosum is about to flower for the first time with 5 fat buds on it. Will have to post a picture when it happens. Have never seen one before.
This is a picture of my two plants of Echium pininana today. One is in a 20 litre pot and I am trying to get another 20 litre pot for the smaller plant. Just remember they were only sown this time last year.

 

I drive past Plantworld every day and currently there's a double 'hedge' of Echiums in full flower along Ray Brown's roadside boundary. There are very tidy looking 'towers' of pininana backed by the white variety. It looks quite impressive ATM. I must try and get a pic.