Annual flowers - single stocks and their seeds

I absolutely love stocks, although this isn't my favourite type. This one is
a pretty colour though

One of my absolute favourite flowers is an oldie but a goodie - the stock. The quintissential english cottage garden plant that smells divine. The way to my heart is through a bunch of these flowers, which is why I always try and grow my own. Because quite frankly they are over priced in the shops when you consider how easy they are to produce yourself. This year I tried a new variety in my garden, but results have been at best mixed.

So in my experience of growing stocks in the past you get one flower spike grow up, which if you're me you chop off for a vase indoors and then the plant is done. Quick but effective. But the ones I grew this year were great big branching things that I have to say lacked the elegance of stocks you buy in the supermarket. I may have got more actual flower but I prefer the straight-up-and-down of shop varieties. I presume what I grew is a single variety as the individual flowers are quite spaced out. I much prefer a nice dense flower head. But the colours were pretty as ever, and the smell divine.

Pretty and sweet smelling, what more do you need from a plant?

One thing I was not exactly thrilled about was the fact I got my plants in nice and early, they flowered - which is fine - and then they went straight to seed. A stock in seed is not an attractive beast. It grows long cylindrical seedpods which on mass resemble, to me at least, fronds or tenticles. I have no need of tenticles in my garden. I wasn't sure how to progress from this. Could the plants be cut right back, thereby removing the seeds and potentially producing more flowers? Or was this it? As I wanted to try collecting seeds I decided this was it and just left the pods, thinking they would ripen in a few weeks and I could pull out the plants.

This is not my cutting bed at its best but it shows the nature of my stock variety

Stock seed heads do not willingly go dry. My plants have had resolutely green ones for months. I was at the point of despair when randomly about six weeks ago the plants all suddenly re-burst into flower. I don't get how this is possible as they had all gone to seed. It doesn't really matter, the unexpected flowers were a welcome addition to my fading garden.

Not long after this on some of the plants, ones that had not chosen to randomly flower again, one or two of the pods had finally decided to dry. You know when a stock seed pod is ready when it suddenly desicates, goes brown and flat and very dry. Then you want to whip off the pod before it naturally splits and you lose all control over placement next year.

The unripe seed pods, green and plump and not exactly pretty

Im not sure if its better to save stock seeds in the pods over the winter, or store them free, but I decided to shuck my seeds. This is fairly fiddly as the pods are stiff and the seeds miniscule and very light, flying off in every direction under the force of prising the pods open. I shall not be surprised if I get stocks growing out of the middle of the living room carpet next year. Some I did manage to capture in an envelope, and some I most definitely threw away. I did not realise that the pods are divided into two chambers, if you will, with each being filled with a line of seeds, so after empyitng one I threw the other away on quite a few! Oops. Oh well I learnt in the end.

The dried out pods with the ripples showing they are full of seeds. The seeds are small, black and easily losable in the
carpet

I believe you can't guarantee what type of stock you will grow from a home collected seed. You may have had a double, but the seed produces singles, and vice versa. Im happy to try my luck not being overly enamoured with the parent plants. I will also look to supplement my own collection with another variety of the double, mono-headed variety so I get a bit of all worlds.
Overall I would say it hasn't been my favourite year of growing stocks, although they have contributed to the general ambiance in my cutting garden, but I have learnt a lot from these surpsisingly fragrant plants.

Double click rose bonbon cosmos

Always nice to be greeted on the driveway by saucer-sized pink flowers

Double click rose bonbon cosmos is lilac-coloured and frilly, which is all anybody can really ask for from a flower.  It has been a staple in my summer annuals for the past two years, and will, if my seed collecting works, continue to do so.  It first caught my attention because the tiny picture shown on Thompson and Morgan's website shows these great ruffled flowers like skirts from period dramas on TV, and im a sucker for a ruffle. I can't say I have found my own blooms to be quite as impressive as the picture led me to believe, but they are solid bloomers nonetheless.

The positives of this particular cosmos are - rose bonbon forms quite a clump of ferny stems peppered in these sizeable lilac blooms which sort of flop about, looking rather pretty in the garden but also making a very nice cut flower. They flower all summer, one plant started in about June or July and although that one is on its last legs I have others still in full bloom with buds to come.

They have a great frilly structure - great to look at but also prime earwig hiding territory

The downsides - I have had a couple of complete stems just shear clean off from the main plant, not sure if this is to do with gravity or dampness but its a little annoying. Also the ruffles in the flower heads are absolute magnets for earwigs.  Pick a bunch and shake them and at least three will plop out and require removing.  And lastly they are an absolute pain to try and collect seed from.

Im presuming as I grew these from seed that if I collect my own seed the resulting plants should at least be similar to the parents if not identical copies.  I am loathe to have to re-buy a proper packet of seed if collecting my own works, especially as I find it quite hard to get them to germinate. They require germinating in a bag and once the first seed has germinated you've got to whip the bag off quick and it means the other seeds are wasted. So I have been allowing the plants to go to seed, which probably hasn't given me as many blooms as I would otherwise have had, but I wanted to try it.

What I have found is that 95% do not create seed that can be collected.  If the conditions are not exactly right, and im not totally sure what those conditions are but I think dry weather is preferable, the bud just closes after flowering and then just rots shut.  You end up with lots of little blackened withered buds that are no use to anybody.  I have had about 3 proper seed heads in total.  When the seed is properly ready it splays back open like some little macehead of war, but very very few have done this.  Instead I have been collecting the seed from heads that have yet to decide if they want to wither or open.  I know this means the seed is a bit young and not properly dried so I have been keeping them indoors to dry out, as you can do with some seeds and hoping this works.  I now have a nice little envelop full so next year I will give it a go with them and if it doesn't work out snap up a proper packet online, I don't want to be without!

Examples of what the few viable seed heads actually look like.
 The long spiny seeds splay out like a mace when ready

I feel like I am playing a risky game here because if I wait too long the window of opportunity for buying some will close.  The reason I am doing this though is because I want to grow more varieties of cosmos, they are such great flowers after all. I have already purchased one packet, although I have subsequently mislaid it so I will have to wait until another time to reveal it. I also have my eye on a variety called cupcake that has one single joined petal rather than separate petals.  It doesn't appear to be  listed on the website anymore so I will be keeping a beady eye out hoping for its return, and my eyes open for other good varieties!
          

zinnias - queen red lime, red spider, purple prince

Such a beautiful flower the zinnia, such dense complex blooms but with
surprisingly dry petals, or at least this one has

If there is one annual that is guaranteed to liven up a bunch of flowers then it is the zinnia in my opinion.  Yes they are a little princessy as seedlings desiring as little manhandling of the roots as possible, but once they are past that stage they truly are worth their weight in gold.  For that reason they have been a staple in my annual border this year and brighten up the garden every day.

Last year I grew two varieties, double envy and a whirlygig one. Green envy was a great variety with lovely green petals in that shade I always think seems unnateral in a plant although clearly green is the most natural colour for a plant to be! Whirlygig were less successful but I think this is more to do with where I planted them out the back where they get less sun as the year draws on.

Zinnias have such interesting centres when they first flower but as they get older like the one on the left the centre vanishes, bizarre

This year I have really expanded my collection, growing several quite different varieties encompassing sinlges, doubles, bright, pale, big and teeny tiny flowered ones. Each one is worthy of praise in its own right.  And one of the joys of zinnias are they are rampant maters. Keeping them pure to a variety when grown in the garden in nigh on impossible so while you can't grow the same variety again from seed you collect yourself, the possibility of getting wierd and wonderful concoctions from the babies opens up and im down for that.

They were lovely blooms, but I only got the two purple princes unfortunately! 

It has not all been a bed of roses though.  One variety was particularly disappointing purple prince has huge dark pinky purple single blooms, really big and imposing.  Only I only got two flowers, one of each of my two plants before both keeled over onto the path after some heavy rain and literally uprooted themselves.  To say I was disappointed is putting it lightly.  If I could have stuck them back in I would have done but the damage was too great.  So while I thoroughly enjoyed those two flowers, I did not get any more.  Next year I will make a note to stake this one!

I just love these bright zingy orange blooms, they really brighten up the flower border. The centres rise up as these age

The brightest zinnia I have grown this year is also probably my favourite.  I have decided it must be a sprite zinnia because I only sowed a few varieties and I don't remember any of them being particularly orange, except in the sprite mix.  Orange is putting it lightly.  These are sock-it-to-you orange, and I always appreciate anything that really goes for something.  These have been great in vases in the windowsill but I can't really bare to cut them because they look so great in the garden.  One particular featre of these is the central cone really protrudes out from the flower as the bloom ages, making it quite dynamic and rather similar to echinacea.

These queen red lime zinnias vary slightly from the other plant I have of this variety, these
have a whole section of lime petals, but are equally big and round

These really highlights how zinnia flowers never remain static, they start one shape and colour and continually evolve 

My only double zinnia is this badboy, queen red lime.  Look at that for a flower.  I don't understand how flowers can possibly construct themselves so intrically in a bud, but clearly they can.  These start out flecked with a lime green colour and turn a lovely dusky rose colour with age. These big pink balls last literally for ages.  Only one came out to begin with and even the mother commented on how long I held out for before finally withering.

I didn't know I had planted any yellow ones, but up it popped! Such a nice shade, this shows the true pastel quality

Again I think this pale pastel yellow one must be from the sprite mix because I didn't plant any yellow ones and I only have the one.  It contrasts beautifully with the lilac cosmos sat next to it, a real pastel combination. Im very fond of a yellow flowers, and while I love a good honking yellow I can also appreciate the subtleties of life so this one has very much been appreciated.

This photo makes it look more saturated than it actually is.

And finally to my last and teeny tiniest, red spider.  I bought these at Kew in London from a stand of seeds from around the world.  They looked exciting with their thin blood red petals, and they are.  They are just absolutely miniature. I do think some measure of scale should be included on seed packets because I was rummanging about one day, came across this didy flower and actually exclaimed "thats it!?" In my mind it was going to be so much bigger.  But no matter.

One of my teeny tiny, itsy-bitsy, diddy red spider flower. Yes its a zinnia, just
an absolute miniature one!

What I have been attempting to do all summer with limited success is collect the seeds from my zinnias this year so that next year a whole world of mixtures is openend up.  I just can't get the blooms to dry and make seed without wilting into a black rotting mess on top of the stalk.  Its been quite a challenge but I am perserveering.

Annual flowers - Cornflowers black ball

I had to get hand-sy with my cornflowers to get the blooms within the one
frame

Having spent virtually every weekend from January until April huddled in my garage sowing annuals I thought I would share the fruits of my labour.  I sowed a lot, so I will take each individually in turn.  First up is the humble cornflower.  It was the first to flower and still continues to be a star of my annual border.

I had about ten seedlings germinate readily from easily the strangest seeds I have ever seen.  I talk about it more here, but boy were they odd.  They grew quickly, moved outside and were potted up well ahead of the other annuals. Growth in the garden has been equally rapid, shooting up in height and branching out.  This however is a bit of a problem because all except one have apparently no ability to stand upright on its own and flop everywhere, over the path, under the runner beans.  I discovered a whole plant the other day busily flowering away under the runner beans, completely out of sight.  I had to go and buy some really short canes to try and prop them up.  This is probably the only negative I have come across, that and being a bit leggy without much in the way of foliage.  But they are meant to add height to the patch, not bush, so one can't expect too much.

Cornflowers reach up towards the sky on long leggy stalks and very little greenery,
good for adding a little height to the border.  Excuse the dying gladiolus in the front

I have to admit I was a little surprised when the cornflowers started flowering.  The week before I had seen some lovely blue cornflowers in full bloom at the Hampton Court flower show and really thought they looked nice. I was really pleased that I had already decided to grow some and only had to wait a few days until I had some of my own.  What really struck me was the colour, so so blue.  I am a sucker for blue flowers.  So I was a little shocked when mine burst into flower and they were burghundy.

Cornflowers mingling with runner beans

I was a little taken aback, but eventually remembered that I had decided blue cornflowers weren't particularly special and decided to go for something a little different in the form of black ball  Just goes to show how the pictures on seed packets can really undersell the flower and seeing it in real life is necessary.  Not that I don't like the burgundy, because I do.  The are the most gorgeous dark winey colour, adding a little depth to all the bright summery colours of the other annuals. Its just if I could make the choice again I would go blue.  Next year I plan to buy some blue ones to add to the mix alongside my burgundy ones.  That or snaffle some seed from a verge down the road which some soul has sowed annuals on.  They don't really belong to anyone, so I think it will be fine.  Just need to take a pair of scissors with me when I next go running!

It is impossible to get cornflowers in focus, I think some in the back are! But you see the lovely colour and overall impression

They really are good flowerers.  The first one to flower has been solidly covered for the last five or six weeks without break.  Im out there dead heading on a fairly regular basis, but they are a solid addition to an annual bed.  Admittedly some of my ten plants have not done so well, failing to get to the size or have the number of flowers that the biggest plants do, but thats plants for you.  Nothing is consistent.
I would wholey recommend, in blue, burgundy or any other colour.  I plan to have some of each for my border next year.

Buying cucumber seedlings - Pipinex and Delta Star

The cucumber trough, im expecting big things from these girls this year, except that one on the right, already a disappointment

Considering I have seven cucumbers grown from seed this year already, you may have thought I would not need to buy anymore.  Need rarely comes into my purchasing decisions, especially when it comes to plants.  I enjoy having as many different varieties as possible, and a girl can only grow so many. So when I was at the garden centre buying my tomato plants a few weeks ago I also threw in a couple of sneaky cucumbers.

I have bemoaned numerous times that I find growing cucumbers intensely annoying.  Satisfying, but annoying.  A cucumber plant is as likely to keel over and wilt as it is give you cucumbers, and I was not successful at growing them from seed either last year. Having learnt my lesson with warm rooms, I have discovered the real culprits in being cucumber pains are shop bought ones.  They look great in the shop, but get them home and they turn on you.

I would like to say that the reason I only picked up three varieties is because I knew I had so many already at home, but I would be lying.  The real reason is thats all the selection there was.  If there had  been more, id have bought it.

A beautiful pair of Delta Star cucumbers from last year

I picked up a Delta Star cucumber because I grew it last year and the cucumbers it produces are just so attractive. Tasty too, but predominently good looking. Although this is meant to be an indoor cucumber exclusively for those with a greenhouse, mine sat on the patio last year and was very productive.  Being somebody who likes value for money I actually got two plants for the price of one as I managed to find a pot that had two plants growing in it.  Made me very happy.

The second variety I bought was Pipinex. This is a new one to me, but the picture looked nice, and I thought what the hell, in for a penny, in for a pound.

Lastly I bought a super cute mini cucumber.  Like a gherkin size-wise, but still a cucumber.  I was so looking forward to having whole mini snack-box cucinos to take to work.  But alas, it was not to be.  I think the cucino lasted all of five minutes before something came along and razed it to the ground.  Sheered, clean off, right at the soil level.  I didn't think slugs were interested in cucumbers, but something of that nature ate this.

One unhappy cucumber

So left with just the three I set about planting, as one usually does.  And this is where it all started going wrong.  The two delta stars I decided to keep together rather than try and split apart, and they are fine.  But the pipinex? A different story! I gave that cucumber one of my prime spots, at one end of my large trough that I bought last year specifically for the growing of cucumbers, snuggled in with three home grown ones.  But rather then stretch its rooty toes into my manure-rich soil and grow big and strong, the damn thing wilted. Initially I thought it must have a virus or a bug, but after pulling off most of the wilted leaves I spotted that the stem had started to go orange at the soil level and had either rotten or been eaten through. It might have been something I did, who knows. Death was slow but steady, I tried to be supportive with a little cane but it was in vain.

rot, or nibble

So having freed up the end space in the bed I stopped off at the garden centre for a replacement and picked up a Fernspot.  After all, cucumbers don't come back from the dead do they?  They do however have little friends.  On returning home with my new plant I discovered to my horror two baby seedlings in place of my original plant. Obviously this isn't really something to show horror at, but it threw my replacement plans out the window.  Basically cucumber seeds did what cucumber seeds always do which is don't grow in your special seed prepared soil, but burst into life months later in some random location.  Which is great because now means that not only am I not without a pipinex, but now have two.  But also means I have a cucumber and nowhere to plant it.  The trials and tribulations of cucumber growing continue.

Two babies surrounding the withered body of their predecessor.  These better not let me down now

Seeds that would not grow - rudbekia, staircase and scabious black night

Examples of seedlings that did perform

It is very tempting when covering one's gardening activities, to focus on the joys, the triumphs, the real successes.  Sometimes I feature a real disappointment, generally involving a slug or my blundering mother.  But today I think is the moment to focus on the real disasters, growing experiences I can take absolutely no swell of pride from.  Lets focus on all the seed I planted which didn't bother to come up, at all.

I have been keeping the barren little pots of soil in the garage indefinitely in the hope that something might eventually find it fit to make an appearance, but this weekend I officially gave up and have evicted them.  If anything chooses to germinate now it will be in the middle of my veg bed and I won't be best pleased.

Staircase: I bought these after seeing them in a garden I visited last summer.  Strange plants these, with the stalk emerging from the centre of the flower below giving the appearance of flower balls pierced by a large stick.  Or it would, had a single one of the seeds I sowed germinated.  I sowed these ages ago, they were amongst the first probably in February time and not one seed from the two pots ever germinated.

I know I have included pictures of growing seedlings but empty pots of soil just aren't that interesting

Rudbekia: Again I sowed two pots of these at the same time as my first batch of sunflowers.  Sunflowers have germinated and been eaten, been sowed, germinated and are several inches tall and still not one rudbekia has germinated.  I even did another pot and stuck it outside in case the balmy temperatures in the garage had prevented germination, but no.  However one gets these to grow, Im clearly not doing it.

Scabious Black night: I suspected I would have a problem here as I collected these myself and then sowed them at the same time as some shop bought ones of a different colour.  They did not look the same so whatever I collected I don't think was the seed.  Oops.

Tomato Losetto: I sowed three little pots of these and kept them on my bedroom windowsill.  Nothing ever grew.  I suspect the reason these seeds were being given away free is that they were old and therefore they haven't germinated.  That could just be me being cynical, but I have my suspicions.

Aquilegia: I really don't know what I did wrong here but not only have seedlings in my pots been very few and far between, but they have taken forever.  I can't help but notice that plants in the garden have germinated, grown and flowered in the time it has taken mine to pop up a few little leaves.  Maybe they shouldn't have been grown indoors?  I don't know but these have truly been a disaster.  Hopefully the seed I have left will still be good for next year and I can have another go.

The rest of the pot graveyard belonged to zinnia seeds that didn't ever sprout.  However to focus on these would be wrong I feel because they are picky and require spacious accomodation when growing.  Its very easy to spot a seed that hasn't germinated when it is the only one in the pot, less so when it is amongst others.

One of the other seeds I have found difficult to grow is panicular elegans,  I have got a few seedlings, but it has not been keen.  Also I definitely think sowing sweet peas needs to be done early.  My very last batch produced a success rate of less than fifty percent, where as my earlier sowings were more around ninety percent.

Tomato plants Ildi and supersweet 100

Clearly these are not from this, otherwise my tomato plants would be seriously overachieving, but this is what I am hoping to emulate again 

It may sound surprising considering the wealth of beautifully flowering plants there are in the world, but tomatoes are one of my favourite plants.  They completely take me back to my childhood when my granddad had a whole greenhouse exclusively for the growing of tomatoes.  Oh those were the days.  He even had a deckchair in there to read the paper in the glorious warmth.

My tomatoes are not so lucky, instead slumming it on the patio, which to be fair, is pretty sheltered and toasty and we do alright by them.  Can't say we were inundated last year but then I had to put them in a shady corner for a good month of the year because of the roof requiring work which no doubt had an impact on production.

Buying my tomato plants is one of the big moments of my gardening year.  I love it.  I always seem to go back to the same place to get my plants, part of the tradition I guess, but this year a few extra cheeky plants have snuck in to the mix from other sources.

The mother plays a lot of badminton, and at one of these sporting gatherings that she goes to one of the men turned up with a whole host of tomato plants.  The mother knows I am not overly fond of yellow tomatoes, it just seems wrong, tomatoes should be red.  This man seemed to have an exclusively yellow  ones, as you do.  However the mother shares my 'what the hell' attitude as they were only cheap and bought two to spice up our tomato lives.

I can't wait to have a constant steady supply of these all summer

And of course once she had broken that tomato plant seal she couldn't help but pick up another she spied outside a local greengrocers the same week.  I have had all three plants for just over a month now, quite early in my eyes, but I have potted them up and they are romping away.

The last tomatoes to come from an unexpected source appeared via the father.  Evidently word has got round that I am in the market for tomatoes as everybody is bringing them home!  A lady turned up at his work with teeny tiny tomato seedlings which she was hoping people would have as she had too many.  How it is possible to have too many I don't know.  So we took a couple of pots off her hands.  They were far far too tiny to go outside so these are currently residing in the garage.  A couple have died as seedlings tend to do, but I should get a few out of it.  Only problem is I don't know the variety again.  Oh tomato surprises.

My first three plants all potted up and raring to go! Two Ildi and one Supersweet 100

And finally to the ones I have grown myself.  i have never attempted to grow tomatoes from seed.  The great man that was my grandfather always bought plants and I figure he knew best.  From the results of my first attempt I now have evidence to prove that he did.  I won a packet of losetto tomato seed from the UK gardening programme Gardener's World which was giving them away so that viewers could join the presenter Monty in 'growing together' tomatoes apparently resistant to blight.  They were also apparently resistant to growing because not one seed germinated. I always think that if not even one seed was willing than you have dodgy seed.  I haven't entirely given up on them, but I think `i probably should.

So there we have it, three plants and potentially more to come and I haven't even started on my garden centre purchases, and there are an awful lot of them!  But I will leave that for another time.

My week in sowing 10 - Beetroot, dill and african daisy

I was hoping for great clouds of this slightly pink grass, so far lacking, but
hopefully I will get a nice pot-full outside 

I have really enjoyed this 'my week in sowing' series that I have been doing since about February.  Its nice for me to be able to round up everything I have been achieved each week, and also like a diary it has allowed me to keep track of when certain things went in and how long they took to germinate.  However, I have started to come to the end of mass sowing, and while I will no doubt still be throwing more seed in here and there, im particularly thinking cosmos here as not a single one of my second batch has bothered to germinate, it will not be enough to justify a whole post.  So stopping on a lovely round number ten, this is the last week in sowing.  So this week I sowed:

Panicum Elegans - Frosted explosion. I have already sowed two small pots of this right back in February.  Nothing germinated for absolutely ages, and then finally four seedlings popped up in one pot.  Three I believe are this particular variety of grass, the other looks more like a sneaky aquilegia that has somehow cross contaminated.  Anyway, three plants, if all survive which is doubtful, is not really as much as I had hoped for, so as these can be direct sown I have sown a bunch of seeds directly in a big pot on the patio to see if we get better results.  I think a whole pot of this would look lovely being such a delightful airy grass, and allow me to cut some and use it in vases.  But if nothing comes up im sure I can just chuck something else in there to grow instead.

Beetroot - Detroit 2 (Crimson Globe).  I once grew beetroot before.  And by grew I mean, I sowed some seed and nothing came up, at all.  All very disappointing.  Maybe the quality of my veg bed was below par for them at the time, maybe beetroot just don't enjoy my somewhat solid soil.  Either way the combination of previous poor results and lack of space means my second attempt at growing beetroot is going to be in a pot.  How can a beetroot justify not growing when it is given beautiful compost to grow in?  The packet said plant the seeds an inch deep four inches apart, so I just planted them in concentric circles as near to the measurements as I could.  I might sow another pot of these, but we will see.

Dill - Anethum graveolens. Unusual, you may be thinking.  Having never mentioned a herb in the whole time I have been doing this blog, you may be wondering why I have sown a whole pot of one.  Not for its flavour is the reason.  I saw this growing tall and statuesque in a cottage garden just as some greeny and a bit of structure and I was rather taken with it.  So much so I thought i must have some of that myself!  Im planning to use it to add greenery to vases, might be a terrible idea but we will give it a go and see!  I sprinkled then covered the seeds as they seemed to large to leave exposed on the surface.

African Daisy - Osteospermum salmon. I saw some flowers in another garden last year and was totally taken by them.  They had beautiful blue centres and the strangest petals, like frogs toes.  I discovered through research that they were african daisies.  Evidently it is impossible to buy the seed in this country, not that I can figure out why, so when I saw a packet at Kew gardens claiming to be just that, I jumped at buying them.  However, these are not them, if you get me.  These are a different type of daisy that apparently quite often get mislabelled.  They are however a lovely salmon orange daisy, and I am never one to say no to another daisy, so I have sown these nonetheless.

Rudbekia - Cappuccino. I sowed two small pots of rudbekia back when I sowed my first batch of sunflowers in freezing February.  Absolutely nothing has happened since then.  I have no idea why, but not one seed has germinated.  I have been holding out hoping that maybe these just take a really really long time, but there comes a point when one has to be a realist and accept that something has gone wrong.  If I didn't sow more now the window of opportunity would have closed, so i took it while I still could.

Sunflowers - Why are am I growing more sunflowers when I already have two lovely big plants and three more on the way?  Why am I indeed!  There is a whole tale that goes with this, a tale I will be going into in my next post!  Its like peppergate all over again, but with a weird twist!     

My week in sowing 9 - zinnia sprite and envy double

I feel like my sowing endeavours are beginning to draw to a close, my bag of seed compost is getting near being empty, and my list of things to sow is slowly running out.  I am now onto seeds I had last year and am re-sowing stuff that has either died or been eaten.  I imagine I will still be sowing the odd thing here and there as I decide I need even more annuals, but the back is most certainly broken.

Zinnia mixed sprite are nice compact flowers with tightly overlaid petals,
the colours are all very bright as well, sure to liven up a border

Zinnia - Mixed Sprite. I must now be on my fourth variety of zinnia.  I love these flowers and my big hope is that some of the resulting flowers set seed at the end of the year and I can grow some of my own as well.  Zinnia's are notorious for cross-pollination so you always end up with a weird hybrid if you grow from your own collection, but I think it would be fun to see what came up.  This is a very short variety, I have seen in growing in somebody else's garden and unlike all the other varieties I have sown the flowers do not have tall stems, or particularly big flowers either.  Really selling it here!  No it has nice qualities and will be a bonus to my stocks.  I sowed two seeds each in two pots because as I said before, soil is limited and I can no longer afford to pander to zinnia's fussy roots.

One of my few zinnia envy doubles from last year, I almost prefer them
when they are at this spiky stage as the petals slowly unfurl

Zinnia - Envy Double.  And another variety!  I have grown a few of these in the past and they are a real addition to a bunch of cut flowers.  Each bloom is completely green, so they contrast brilliantly with other bright flowers by providing a soothing green backdrop and fulfilling some of the role of foliage.  These do have nice long stems and considerable sized flowers.

Coreopsis x Hybrida - Incredible. This is my second batch of incredible.  Not because I love the flower so and therefore want hundreds.  Oh no.  Somebody ate the first lot.  All the seedlings were coming along very nicely and then one day I checked in on them, and nothing.  Nada, nowt.  The funny thing is, on the packet it says these were found growing out of concrete near the chenobyl nuclear disaster.  So it can survive a healthy dose of radiation and a thick crust, but not a slug.  So busy singing its praises was the packet, that it failed to mention being so damn tasty and in need of protection.  I had a little lip tremble on discovery, but I managed to keep it together and just get on with sowing another batch.

Poppy - Lilac Pompom.  This is one of those flowers that when I pulled it out of the bag I wondered why I had bought it.  Not that it doesn't look lovely but it does feel an odd choice to have made.  The joy of these are that they are annuals so I shall not think of them as poppys.  These will be big frilly lilac blooms.

Helenium - Autumn Sunshine. This is one of my packets of seeds from last year.  I have tried growing these before but sowed them too late so it didn't work out.  These are daisy type flowers, my favourite type.  I believe these will be a rusty red colour.

My Week in Sowing 8 - Calendula, carrots, zinnia

I have so many little pots of green tendrils sprouting all over the joint that I am rapidly losing my grasp on order and descending into chaos.  I am at the point now where some pots don't look like they are going to germinate, but I am loathe to discard them as last year I did this and two cucumbers popped up in random places.  So I have pots growing, pots not growing, second batches, lists of things to sow more of, and seeds I haven't even got to yet.  Some seedlings will definitely need potting on soon and I am rapidly running out of both regular and seed compost. I really don't know what I will do if I run out of seed compost as I don't want to buy another full bag for just a few pots. Seeds are having to bunk in together to make the most of the space.  This was another busy week of sowing, including some new stuff I have never grown before.

Calendula - Sunset Buff and Sherbet Fizz. I have never grown Calendula before, but being rather daisy-esque in form these should be right up my street.  The packets were keen for the seeds to be sown where the plants are to grow and as they only wanted sowing now and I plan to grow them in pots, I have direct sown into plastic containers.  I am replacing fuchsias for calendula.  I made my usual mixture of fresh compost and old soil from emptied pots mixed with regular garden soil.  I find this dries out less fast than just compost on its own.  Calendula seeds are really interestingly shaped, like little gnarled horns or tusks, all small and curly.  While the seeds for sunset buff were mainly brown, sherbet fizz ranged from red to green.  I buried ten seeds in each pot, a quarter inch beneath the soil.  These will just sit on my patio to germinate.

Zinnia - Red Spider.  I am becoming increasingly fond of zinnias.  While they require a whole little pot to themselves, they do at least come through nice and fast.  The ones I sowed last week are already making an appearance, so the production line is pretty speedy, freeing up space for the next batch.  I have never grown this variety of zinnia before but it looked a bit different with less petals so I thought, why not!

One of last year's zinnia flowers, not the one I sowed this week

Carrot - Paris Market Atlas. This is last year's carrot variety, I have sown two because everybody likes a little variation in their carrot supply.  These are gloriously small and round and are aimed at kids, but being a big one myself these rather appeal.  I have not got the soil for carrots so these are sown in a little mixture I created myself - compost, garden soil and several trowel-fulls of sand to open up the mixture and give the free draining quality the carrots enjoy so much. I plan to sow several more pots to ensure a good stock, now that I have endless empty pots to fill.

Part of last year's paris market atlas crop.  Wouldn't feed the five thousand but a tasty morsel none the less

Sunflowers - Sunburst mixed.  Unlike the other variety I sowed, velvet queen, both my sunburst mixed seeds have been woefully disappointing.  One came up, and then thought better of it and died, while the other did not even bother doing that, and finally I have given up on him.  I sowed another two seeds in a single pot of seed compost (a little soil saving technique I am now employing) so hopefully these will have more oomph.  I need to do a post on my other sunflowers as they are going great guns and will need planting out soon!

My week in sowing 6 - Cosmos, cornflower, zinnia and echinops

This weeks 'my week in sowing' is actually last week's 'week in sowing'.  I planned to put this post up last Wednesday before I jetted off to Berlin for the weekend, but as is often the case the best-laid plans of mice and men, it all went a bit awry.  Very unexpectedly one of my friends suddenly died, and obviously blogging had to take a back seat.  But I got up to a lot last week and I would still like to share it, so here is the post in its original form:

So last Saturday I was not to be found in my garden as I had people to see and places to go, and clothes to be bought.  It was all very nice, but this weekend I was back in the garden attacking the long list of seeds still to be sown.  Taking a little break was no bad thing as the garage was rammed and it allowed a few things to come up sufficiently that I could transfer them into the coldframe.  Im starting to sow all the varieties that say 'from mid spring' which is really un-specific.  I would say we are now mid-spring, but then spring only technically started a couple of weeks ago so I might be really really early.  Who knows.

Double click rose bonbon cosmos in all its glory - great flowers and great foliage

Cosmos - Double click rose bonbon. This is not a fresh packet of seeds as I actually grew these last year.  The packet really sells these, saying they are the biggest, frilliest double cosmos around, or something along those lines.  It doesn't lie, I think these are well worth the effort and if I had more room I would definitely grow more cosmos.  The flowers are a delightful pink, good and frilly, but also the foliage is rather pleasant too, quite feathery and ferny.  The only thing is I do find the flowers to be a hotbed for earwigs.  That slight flaw aside these were firmly on my list for sowing this year.  Unfortunately they are quite fussy seeds and insist on being germinated in a polythene bag to keep a temperate of about 20 degrees.  Im not keen on this as I have a habit of cooking my seedlings for far too long and then having them wilt on me, but Im sure I can time it right this time.  I sowed nine seeds on the surface of seed compost and covered with vermiculite - like I said, fussy - and stuck them in a bag on the kitchen windowsill.

Stocks - Yes I have already sown two pots of stocks but having seen the likely number that are going to germinate I want more.  They are my favourite cut flowers after all, and a bunch is shockingly expensive to buy from the shops so I want to make sure im stocked all summer long.  Same method as before; pot, seed compost, chuck them on, you get the gist.

A lovely red zinnia, they tend to have really interesting middles with contrasting coloured circles like this one has

Zinnia - Queen Red Lime.  I am very excited about these.  I have several varieties of zinnia to sow this year, but these are the ones I am sowing first.  I think zinnias make a really good, reliable cut flower and they come in quite an exciting array of bright colours and structures.  They also cross-pollinate freely, so much so I believe it is virtually impossible to stop them.  I really want to collect seed and see what appears next year.  But before then we need to get these going.  Zinnias are beyond fussy and hate root disturbance so I have sown only four so far, one to a pot.  This annoys me greatly.  Talk about space hoggers, I don't have room for such high maintenance seedlings.  And yet they are so pretty I endulge them, spoilt little things.  These will at least germinate in the garage I hope, although I believe they would prefer a bag.

Zinnias are interesting at every stage of their blooming, this one has yet to fully unfurl

Cornflower - These are new to me, and are quite frankly the weirdest seeds I have ever encountered.  Each one is like a miniature paintbrush, only with the handle cut off.  Quite large, they consist of a bunch of hairs wrapped in a partly transparent sheath.  Its weird.  That apart Im hoping these will be good.  Sarah Raven doesn't scrimp on these, giving you 300 seeds in the packet so I chucked on 10 and covered with a little more seed compost and hopefully we are good to go.

Incredible - I don't really know what these are, I have certainly never seen these growing anywhere but I liked the photo I saw and thought why not.  The seeds were absolutely tiny so I just sprinkled on a whole bunch.

Echinops - I tried to grow these last year, I can't remember what happened but lets just say, I didn't get any flowers.  So lets try again shall we.  These will be lovely blue balls.  The seeds are quite large so I buried six or seven in seed compost and they are snug in another polythene bag.

And that's it for this week.  It seems like I achieved a lot, but I didn't sow many of each variety so I could sow quite a few.  I would have liked to turf out a few more fuchsias while I was out there but it was surprisingly cold and miserable, typical Easter weekend weather so to be honest, I couldn't wait to get back indoors.

My week in sowing 5 - Seedling success

I haven't taken any pictures of my seedlings because lets face it, they are
not exactly at a visually stimulating stage and one seedling looks much like
another.  Instead here are some spring crocus from my garden to brighten
up this wordy post 

If I was just to keep this to a little run down of what I have sown this week, it would be short.  This short.  I didn't sow anything this weekend as I was out and about socialising.  A girl can't always be chained to the garden after all.  Instead this is a progress report.  I have little pots of soil coming out of my ears, a week off sowing is not a bad thing as I wouldn't have anywhere to put them.  Something eventually had to come up, but like watched kettles, its all been a bit frustrating.  Finally though, things are beginning to move so here instead is a little run down on what has put a green snout above soil in the last two weeks.

Sweet Peas - My first batch were really getting to the point where I couldn't ignore that they were desperate for something to climb up.  I had arrived at that point which I had been trying to ignore: it was time to fill the giant pot.  I hate this job, digging out compost from the bag is quite possibly the dullest job there is in the garden.  And thats without attacking the compost maker we have at the bottom of the garden.  Sweet Peas enjoy a bit of nutrients, so I attacked the compacted bottom with a trowel to give my seedlings the best possible conditions.  The pot was bottomless and consumed so much soil, but eventually it was filled and my peas are in and seem fairly happy.  I will do a further sweet pea update in due course.

My second batch are short, stubby and just the way I want them.  They are coming on beautifully,  and since being put into the 'coldframe' two more have even popped out to bolster my numbers.  They look so happy I have got all mean with them and evicted them from the cold frame to freeze outside.  No sign of my most recent batch yet, but then thats to be expected.

Cucumbers - Two seedlings popped out in record time, much to my joy.  The packet said germination occurs in 7-21 days, but these two were out in just six.  One the one hand: yay! cucumber seedling success.  On the other hand: here we go again with the debacle that is growing cucumbers from seed.  I had those seedlings whipped out into the colder garage the moment I spotted them, hopefully they will enjoy their slightly less comfortable surroundings.  So far, so good, but I still expect tears at some point.  No sign of any of the others.

Stocks - I find stocks fairly reliable germinators, and this years batch have not disappointed.  They popped up two weeks ago but have only just reached a decent enough size to go into the cold frame.  I would ideally like more than have currently sprung into action, so stocks have been added to my list of seeds to do a second batch of.

Snapdragons - One pot of these have sprouted, but the other has not.  This is probably due to me watering one pot and not the other.  I am struggling to keep all my garage pots adequately watered. I have to swap them about as I can only water the ones sat in the washing up bowl.  The seedlings are positively miniature, this may be perfectly normal, but not having grown them before I wouldn't know.  I haven't evicted these yet as they just seem too small and vulnerable.

Sunflowers - Both my velvet queen seedlings are appeared, but only one sunburst mixed so far.  These are lovely robust seedlings, they don't mess about, up and out and getting on with it.  Lets hope they are robust because they are also in the garage.

So far so good I think.  I would like to see a bit more movement from my aquilegias which are hogging a lot of vital space at the moment, but this may be my own fault due to the watering situation.  Lots more sowing to be done this weekend, and a nice clear schedule to get on with it.  If it rains I will be annoyed, but as its Easter weekend this can only be expected.  There is about to be a huge yellow explosion in my garden of narcissi so lots of pretty pics soon.  

My week of sowing 3 - Broad beans, cucumbers, hares tails, bunny tails.

Beautiful bunny tail grass, you can see the longer hair-like seed ends

You know how it is, you think you've got all the time in the world, am well ahead of the game, and then suddenly there is tones to do and your well behind.  Thats what occurred this week in my mind.  Last week there didn't seem any rush, I just sowed some sunflowers to pass the time, nothing was pressing.  It was all good.  This week less so.

It all started with my little retrospective last Friday.  I discovered that this time last year I had already sowed my broad beans.  This made me feel slightly panicked, if sowing vegetables can really justify such a feeling.  Actually I don't think it can.  Nobody has ever felt panicked by a vegetable Im sure.  I had also sowed cucumbers.  Admittedly this went terribly wrong so I probably still have a few weeks grace, but even so I feel a pressing need to get some seed in some soil.  Therefore this week has been less a case of 'what did I sow?', and more of a case of 'what did I not sow?'

Broad Bean - Witkiem (Manita) I have sowed these in exactly the same way as I did last year because it worked a charm, and if it ain't broke etc.  I used one of these plastic segmented tray thingys which are quite handy but not terribly resilient.  Once watered it buckles under its own weight, and the plastic, being cheap, has a habit of splitting after a while.  However, Im running short of little pots and beggars can't be choosers.  I used normal compost for these because broad beans seem pretty large sturdy things surely capable of pushing through slightly more solid soil.  The tray allows for 15 beans to be sown so thats what I did.  As the packet explicitly says the beans will be white I was surprised to find them brown in the packet, but as they are a year old I guess that figures.  I am germinating these hopefully tough beans outside as I did last year, protected by some bubble wrap at night.  Got to keep my eyes peeled for slugs from now on because they love a juicy bit of produce like this.

Cucumbers - It seems too early to be sowing these really but the packets say from February so who am I to argue?  I sowed five different varieties because one can never have enough variety.  I joke, Im not sure what I was thinking when I bought all of them, a cucumber is a cucumber at the end of the day.  Due to this I have only sown one of each variety at this point, mainly because of a lack of space, but also if it goes pear-shaped, as I expect it will, I have more seeds to sow.  You never seem to get that many seeds in a cucumber packet which doesn't leave much room for error.

A prized La Diva cucumber from my crop last year, what a beauty!

I was going to germinate these in the garage but all the packets say a temperature range between 20-25 degrees celsius. While the garage may be warmer than outside, there is no way its ever gone to reach that.  So the house it is.  I am trepidatious about this because last year this resulted in long stringy cucumbers that wilted the moment they crossed the threshold of the garden.  But this year the moment I see the first peak of green, straight into the garage they shall go.  Iv located them on the kitchen windowsill for the moment.

Unusually the seeds like to be laid on their edge in the seed compost about a quarter of an inch down.  I shan't go into each of the five varieties much at the moment because I could probably go on for a whole post, but the varieties are Socrates,Telegraph Improved, Louisa, Marketmore 76 and La Diva.

Hares Tails and Bunny Tails - These seeds are different from my others because I collected them myself.  I bought the adult plants at Hampton Court last year not realising that they were annuals, and I made sure I got my money's worth by collecting the seeds.  These are lovely plants; grasses with beautifully soft pompoms floating around on the top.  The only difference between the two seems to be that bunny tails are super short in comparison to hares tails.

Sowing the seed was a tad fiddly.  I carefully extracted the hares tail seeds when I collected them, but I ran out of patience when it came to the bunny and I just chopped off the intact heads and stuffed them all into the envelop.  Turns out the best method is not to pull apart the head but to just pull on the longer whiskers that stick out from the main fluff. These denote the seeds and can be extracted quite easily.  Convincing the damned things with their long tails to get under the soil and stay there is another matter. I prodded and mushed and I think they are all now just about covered but it wasn't pretty.  I sowed half and half in one small tray, but I sowed about a hundred.  I clearly don't need that many but I have hundred of seeds and they are so lovely so I thought what the hell, stuff them in.  And I managed to find a space to wedge these into the garage for germination.

Bright, sunny anthemis flowers.  I think they look like yellow flying saucers,
or tennis balls in skirts

Anthemis - Again these are my own home collected seeds.  An anthemis is a lovely daisy, in this case bright yellow.  This flowers pretty early so after looking up when they wanted sowing, as clearly my envelop doesn't say, I had to get them in some soil quick.  The seeds just wanted sprinkling over the top of the soil, in this case one small tray of seed compost.  I have kept a few seeds over just incase, just like the cucumbers, they don't decide to live.  These are going to have to deal with germinating in the garden in my cold frame as there is no more room at the inn that is the garage.

As for my previously sown stuff, there is signs of life in the stocks pots, with tiny hints of green but not actual shoots yet.  Nothing else has done anything at all which is dull.  However weirdly one last sweet pea has randomly popped up weeks after all the rest which is always a welcome surprise.  Next week will be another busy sower, I will definitely get some sugar snaps in.

My week of sowing 2 - Sunflowers and Rudbeckia

From left to right: Rudbeckia, sunflowers sunburst mixed, and velvet queen

There wasn't much room for ambitious sowing plans this weekend.  Although I managed to turf out the six pots of sweet peas from my second batch into my 'cold frame', there had been no movement on the aquilegia/ panicum elegans/ snapdragons/ stock front so they all had to stay in situ.  But it was a beautifully bright sunny day and I was determined to make the most of it.  A quick rifle through my packets did not reveal anything desperate to get into the ground, so I went for sunflowers and rudbeckia.

Sunflowers

Sunburst mixed - Believe it or not, I have never grown a sunflower, but I love them.  For me they perfectly encapsulate summer with their huge yellow faces and majestic height.  This height is going to make finding a space to put them interesting, I can't exactly do my usual trick of stuffing them into the front of a border and let them domineer the beds.  Because of this I have not sown many, just two of this variety, one per pot.  I might sow a couple more later on but what Im going to do with the other 45 seeds I don't know.

Velvet Queen - Why is it that the same type of seed by the same manufacturer is packaged differently?! The mixed variety was encased in a small inner-packet-type-thing, these were just loose inside and of course I ripped open the bottom and am now going to struggle not to lose the rest.  Im more excited by this variety out of the two because they are a bit different being bright rusty red.  Again I only planted two at this point because the packet said each seed was effectively a fussy sleeper and needed a whole pot to itself.  An we all know space is at a premium.

Rudbeckia

Cappuccino - As with everything Im planting at the moment, I have never grown rudbeckia before.  I am rather fond of daisy type plants which is why these have made the cut this year.  The burgundy centres contrasting with the bright yellow mightily appealed to me.  I sowed 5 in two pots each, not that I want that many but thought I might as well.  This will definitely be one that I am giving away at the end of the drive if they do.  Nothing special to the planting here, just buried the seeds 1/4 inch under the soil.

My aquilegia seeds have definitely swelled and gone black as i can now see them casually laying on the surface of the soil.  While that would not be ideal if ones hand suddenly did that, or any other body part for that matter, I imagine in an aquilegia seed this is a good sign.  It is far too early for the stocks etc to be moving yet so not much to report this week.

See here for my latest update on the sweet pea situation