P is for poppy, propagation and pots

P is for Poppy, such a beautiful flower but one to ever remind us of the horrors of war. I didn’t really plant any poppies this year (the previous year I grew one was so disappointed at how quickly they died).

I did have a few Californian poppies but not so many as previous years, they would be happier with a bit more sunshine I think. In the flower beds a couple of rogue poppies came up anyway , a furtive pink haze and I am always happy to see a beautiful interloper in a tricky spot. Weed, what do you mean weed, there is no such thing, only the wrong plant in the wrong place! The poppy is very welcome anywhere in my garden.

P is also for Phormium, a suitably tough beast of a plant, that can cope with our ferocious weather. P is also for plentiful Summer Pots, of Petunias and Pansies.

Always ready to cheer up a dull corner. Always amazing how one tiny tiny plug plant can expand and full a tumbling hanging basket. The yellow pansies came in small trug from Waitrose and filled two big pots; They didn’t stop blooming for months and months. Perfect.

I must admit I’m not really a “Pink”girly sort of girl. I really don’t much like the colour pink (certainly in clothes and decor). However in 2016 I decided to bite back my prejudices and let the pink escape to run riot in my garden. I must say I was rather pleased with the outcome! Humble chives, joined the thrift, cosmos, fushcia and saxifrage where they made a perfectly pink corner, with the valerian boldly bursting out in the background.

In late Summer I also grew some Phlox. What a little beauty! One packets of seeds, many different shades of pink and all blooming well into Autumn, in fact there is still some in flower today and the snowclouds have been passing over. Next year, more phlox please!

All rather quiet in the garden and shed just now, but it will soon be time for my favourite pastime. Propagation! The heated propagator will have a dust down, and I’ll be filling my seven tiny seed trays in our sunny spare bedroom with warm compost and new seeds. The chillis will be first, as they need such a long season to get going, with whatever other herbs and flowers like starting early and by March/April I’ve usually got so many seeds on the go at different stages, that nobody can easily sleep in the spare room as the window sill will be too full of seedlings to pull the blinds. Then I really run out of space and dream of a garden big enough to have a greenhouse.

Let’s get Potting!