My lack of blog posts is a sure indication of clement gardening weather and a busy time on the flowery business front.
Now we're already in September and I'm mentally time traveling into next year's flowers. A quick rummage in the fridge, where my seeds are kept, reveals the source material for a forest of cerinthe, cornflowers, corn cockles, larkspur and vivid orange calendulas. And as it is raining this morning, I feel a greenhouse sowing session coming on. All these hardy annuals can be sown now while there is still some warmth left in the season and this gives them the chance to build up a healthy root system as the weather cools and discourages them from putting on lots of top growth. They won't be much to look at until spring next year when their rooty headstart will allow them to burst into life well ahead of any seeds sown in the early spring.
And even before the shops start playing Christmas carols, if you want indoor bulbs in flower for the festive season, between now and mid-October is the time to plant them. Leave them somewhere dark and cool and just moist (not wet) until the growth is about 5cm tall, then bring them into cool and light conditions to put on a final flowery burst. Hyacinths will need about 3 weeks in the light before they flower. This year, I'm forcing prepared hyacinths, white and blue crocuses and pretty blue grape hyacinths (muscari). Lots of limboing up and down from my three quarter height cellar with the tricky steps….
But later I'll have lots of these:
And now I'll get out into to the greenhouse which I cleared at the weekend - it's now bare apart from 4 denuded stems of tomato plants with lots of green fruits, and the indoor chrysanths which I rescued from the garden center sell off earlier in the season. I've never grown chrysanthemums before, so am curious to see what they do (in spite of my neglect!). I don't know what it is about things that grow under cover, but once they get beyond the stage where I would naturally plant them out, I lose interest in them and tend to leave them to their own devices. My garden may flourish, but my houseplants all wither as a result. I've just killed off my last houseplant, a very hardy parlour palm which has hung on for about 8 years. It has now been replaced by dried flowers which I don't need to take any care of. Bad mother.
Another month of flower markets to go, and then my brain has to really switch into Christmas mode, organising venues and supplies for wreath-making workshops, planning my range of plants and products for Christmas markets and drilling those china teacup planters for all that I'm worth!
