Mid March 2007
More seedlings to prickout and grow on, this time Impatiens....hopefully will stay fair at the weekend despite the forecast of snow. Potted on my geraniums and keeping them warm in the guest bathroom at the mo until the weather settles a bit, they look ok and hopefully they will settle down and make strong plants.
Popped to the garden centre on Sunday, managed to get some compost, several lots of plants for the garden, oh and yet more onion sets for the garden...just couldn't resist the display of colours and primulas. Just had to buy some. However, these are still to be planted.
Also assessing the front garden and need to get some more spring colour into it. I might make another trip at the weekend and get some daffies etc to plug the gaps in colour. The daffies that are in the garden haven't flowered so well this year. They have put out leaf but not many flowers, having researched this it look like it's been too warm for them, apparently they like a set period of cold for them to flower successfully.
The Peonies are starting to grow quite quickly now andputting on growth daily. The longer daylight hours are starting to make a difference. I popped the supports on so that the Peonies will quickly obscure these when grown through and in leaf. These are definitely needed due to the weight of the flower heads, particualarly if they are wet. Nothing looks sadder than a drooping peony.
My Kiwi Jenny plant has started to break bud and forming leaves. Over winter it's just looked like a stick. I'm not hopeful given the climate this far North that this will fruit but i understand that the leaves are pretty and a bonus is the sweet (rose-like) scent from the flowers which are highly scented in Mid-June. I'm trialling this for Blackmoor Fruit so will be interested to see how it fares this far North. This new hardy variety is self-fertile and produces fruit abundantly in November. Thankfully they like moist conditions.
Well here's to the weekend and some good gardening weather...hope to be planting whatever it does.
posted by Ziggywigs @ 12:16 AM
10 Comments:
Interesting about the daffs and the kiwis ! My daffs are fine (but a bit battered by this wind), but they are first year bulbs - to me anyway.
I got one of my blueberries from Blackmore. Nice firm. Where are you growing your kiwi, in a greenhouse presumably !
Hope you're missing this awful weather that us on the West Coast are getting ziggywigs. It's erm, rather .... wet and blustery !
love MrsKP
Thanks MrsKP. Believe it or not i'm growing the Kiwi in the garden! I'm trialling it to see how it fares...it's been out over winter and so far seems hardy (not that we had a hard winter).
Weather is wet, blustery and ccccold. Snow forecast like everywhere else.
When the weather gets a bit warmer (hehe) i'll try and dig up the bulbs to see if they look ok...the areas where it's more exposed the daffs are ok but otherwise i've not fared too well with my daffs and they are struggling.
Hope your having a good start to the season.
Ziggy
Hi Ziggywigs, Alyssa from Wisconsin in the US. We've still got cold weather here too - below freezing, but the snow is finally gone. How cold do you get way up there in Scotland? I Googled you to see where in the Highlands you were. I've two penfriends in Britain - Bristol and Isle of Wight but their weather is so mild. I'm wondering if your daffs are needing more sun? When mine were in a shady area they didn't bloom too well. Lots of foliage though. You surly have a TON of impatiens seedlings to pot up! I've tried lots of different seed starting methods and finally found the Jiffy wafers (giant size) are the best for me. I don't have to pot them up at all before they go to their permanent homes. I planted 10 dozen impatiens and petunias (total) last week and they are sprouting already. You must have had a mild winter if the peonies are up already - I've yet to see mine. The sturdy bleeding hearts are showing alittle though. Your site is very interesting - I love to see how people across the world are gardening and living. Have a wonderful Sunday and I will be looking into your site from now on. Bye for now, Alyssa
Hi Alyssa, yeah we've had an extremely mild winter almost early spring like weather since Autumn. Think that's the prob with my daffies as they need a set period of chilling to flower so the ones that are not in the exposed bits haven't had this. We've had v little snow here this year and temps hardly plummeted to 0 which is unheard of. Grow my impatiens for baskets and tubs but think i've gone a little OTT this year. Great to see how folk do it the other side of the pond....my sis is Bristol based and i'm a regular traveller to North Bristol. As you say they have very warm weather down there. Thanks for dropping by and hope to catch up with you soon.
Nice kiwi Zizzy! I planted a couple last spring here in Wisconsin, USDA zone 4...I'm hoping for mere survival, but fruit would be great!
Thanks Lisa. A bit like yourself if it survives it will be enough! Although would be an added bonus if it fruits. You look to be about the same zone as Scotland looking at the map.
I think I would like to try and grow some Kiwi's, Great blog.
Thanks for your nice comments Greg....i'm hoping for a good crop...but would be pleased if it just grew.
Hello
I have a small plot in London inner city and I grow such things as black radishes,long white Japanese radishes, black tomatoes from Russia, small green and blue pumpkins from Japan, yellow and white beetroots, yellow and purple carrots, etc. I started growing kiwis from seeds bought from T&M but I would like to try your Jenny variety since they are self-pollinating. Please would you be willing to save me some seeds/cuttings this year? I could swap for something you may be interested in.
Thanks
Kimi
Wow Kimi your plot sounds very productive. I'll take a cutting at the approrpriate time of Kiwi and see how it takes if it's successful i'll be happy to send you one.
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