Anyone Buying New Seed ?

@Upsydaisy I will let you know. At least I'll know they won't need any scarifying after being in the mail what with our cold temperatures here

 

I've redone my sowing lists today and sorted the seed box , its a great little box for seeds .


was wondering around today and popped into Wilko and they have already got seeds on the shelf , Got a few more packs of seeds and some pot saucers .
I don't like to think have much I've spent on seeds so far £70 ish I've never spent that much before. I started buying from Nicky seeds last year , they sell quite a few new / different variety's I've not grown before which whacks the price up , gone out out on wave petunias as well they are great plants better than surfinia in my opinion and for my windy conditions .

 

I was thinking of wave petunias too @Perki. Well, I have my budget done with but there is always a chance I will be in a store, see the seeds and have the toonies in my pocket..

 

Did you see any of them when you was over here Lori.
Bigger garden centres have racks and racks of seeds, ten or twelve varieties of tomatoes is not unusual, beans probably 4 or 5 types of runners , dwarf french, broad beans, the choice is usually very good, but often still cant find the particular type you want.

 

I didn't have the means of getting to a garden center because I didn't know where they were and also didn't drive. I did a few packets at Kew. Very pricey those were but then again one of them was king protea.

 

My cobaeas took ages to get going - maybe 2 or 3 flowers only in 2020. Last year they have flowered from maybe June, are still going strong (though we've not had a frost yet - might get a light a light dusting tonight apparently) and are taking over the parish. My biggest one is growing in a pot which sits in a place where I don't always remember to water it and it has still thrived. Pretty stunning plant to be honest.

I have collected some seed recently - though it's very difficult to organise to get it at full maturity, the pods sit looking green and unlikely for months, and then just when you're not looking they dry, split and shoot their seeds out. I wondered about putting a mesh bag around the pods to collect them...might work as the seeds are huge. But no idea yet if any of them are viable: presumably the only way to tell is to plant and see. I'll give it a go in April.

 

@Michael Hewett They're much too vigorous for pots and you're unlikely to get many flowers that way. Each flower only lasts about a week but a healthy plant can produce dozens of them. They climb a lot so putting them in a bed right by the wall of the house would be good. They'll happily climb brickwork with no help at all (easy to just pull down at the end of the season as their climbing feelers are tiny) but you may want to stretch some wires so they can grow sideways as well.
Click to expand...​

@shiney
OK! the missus has been asking for my cobaea pot back. It's coming out of that pot and going in the ground! Compost first presumably, a bit of feed through the season (I did give it some of my seaweed mix last year which clearly didnt hurt it) - and then something to climb up?

 

Yes - we are well placed climatically, it's true. I found an old blighted tomato plant growing in the back of a pot, picked the last few tomatoes from it (they were fine) on 28th December and they've just ripened in the kitchen. Don't think we'd have been able to do that in the Northamptonshire of my youth...I wish I were better at making use of it. The one joy we do have here is that beinnial Echium's grow like weeds. I absolutely love them: and once you've got them, it's a challenge to get rid of them - so I'm delighted. Just have to manage where they grow because they are so massive.

@shiney I'm still trying to work out our soil. I think some areas are pretty good. (Makes it sound like I've got a country estate: very far from it. Maybe 30 meters by 20 meters...) And then some is absolutely dreadful: a bit sandy (we are 200 yards off the beach) and very little organic material. The spot where they are - next to an old concrete garage is not great. I will do something there then with some compost, and then take them out of the pot and put them into the ground right where they are. I've got hops twine to run them up but I need to think where they go next and I'm wondering about a line or two across the garden for them to follow.

Interesting that your seed pods fell without opening: I had one go mouldy on the vine - which was a bit alarming. Others have opened and spread seed in situ. And I've picked a couple that looked close and then opened them to get the seed - or left to see if they will open by themselves.

Thanks very much for the pointers there.

 

ok, got tempted. Ordered tomato seeds - variety Hundreds and Thousands. Wanna try growing in a large pot on the patio.

 

This week I have ordered so many seeds that if they all germinated I could fill my garden twice.

 

Yesterday I ordered
Eccremocarpus scaber
Graptopetalum bellum
Maclura pomifera
Dias cotinifolia, dont know much about this one but thought it sounded interesting.

 

Chiltern seeds order on 30th December was apparently despatched 31st. Not yet arrived in Jersey. Hmmmm. The UK post is a bit devastated right now I understand.