A quick review this month. There is not a huge amount of action, given the time of year, but here is what there is.

Not yet sown

This is a long list and it will get longer. There will be four broad categories.

  1. Seeds I collected from plants in my garden.  Many of these went off to the Hardy Plant Society seed scheme, but I kept some back.
  2. seeds I bought in a sweep of end-of-season sales
  3. seeds I am trialling for Suttons, I listed those out separately here.
  4. seeds I get via the Hardy Plant Society seed distribution scheme. This year’s seed list is out at the end of the month, can’t wait. I will share what I order in the December update.

Here is what I have in the first category:

  • delphinium ‘black knight’
  • rudbeckia ‘red’
  • rudbeckia ‘red/yellow’

And here is the list from category 2, courtesy of the Wyvale end of season clearance.

  • mesembryanthemum
  • penstemon ‘scarlet queen’
  • marigold ‘naughty marietta’
  • begonia ‘summer rainbow’
  • cosmos ‘peppermint rock’
  • nemesia ‘carnival’
  • coreopsis ‘incredible dwarf mixed’
  • geranium pratense mixed
  • aster mixed
  • platycodon ‘florists blue’
  • californian poppy
  • busy lizzie ‘safari mixed’
  • salvia ‘blaze of fire’
  • rudbeckia ‘rustic dwarf’
  • brachycome ‘purple splendour’
  • aster ‘starlight mix’
  • antirrhinum ‘bronze dragon’
  • meconopsis – blue poppy
  • lobelia ‘crystal palace’
  • pelargonium ‘moulin rouge’
  • knautia ‘red cherries’

There are more annuals in that list than I normally bother with, but the fourth batch from the Hardy Plant Society will balance that out, they’ll all be perennials.
Sown, germinating, not yet pricked out.

I sowed the lupins (left) a couple of weekends back, they are doing nicely. The others are slow, I am expecting more to come through.  I have been procrastinating about pricking them out, but I shall get on with it this weekend.

With some help from #4 Child, I have sown another batch of sweet peas. 8 or 9 days in, just one has poked its head up so far, so they can stay in the heated bench for now. They are in a very tatty set of root trainers which should suit them, sweet peas like a deep root run. In fact, the purpose of starting them off early before the spring is to give them a chance to build up a strong  deep root network. I must buy another set of root trainers, after several years of re-use, these are beginning to fall apart.

Pricked out.

The poppy ‘cherry swirl’ have been in their individual pots for a couple of weeks, they are looking fine and dandy.

The nigella are also looking good, they’ve grown on a fair bit since last time.

The hollyhocks are growing on OK, one set more so than the other, but I seem to have lost a few, probably to damping off. Most look strong though, and I have spare seeds to sow another batch direct in the spring should these not thrive.

The calendula are still looking leggy, even after I cleaned the surrounding panes of glass, inside and out. Ingrates!  I think my next course of action is to re-pot them deeper.

The coleus have also grown on a fair bit since last time, they are beginning to pack out the half-tray I moved them to. The right hand photo is from a month ago.

There is a bit of moss or something forming on the surface of many of the pots. I am probably over-watering them for the time of year. I think I will remove the top layer of compost and replace with some grit, makes it harder for liverwort and the like to take up residence. Another job for the weekend.  At least it will be indoors.

Finally, the sweet peas I sowed a couple of months or so back are minding their own business in the cold-frame. I have pinched them out once or twice. They look a little moth-eaten, slugs I expect. I’ve jerry rigged a little support to stop them flopping about too much.

That’s the state of the nation seed-wise.  Things will start to get silly from January onwards!

If you have not heard of the Hardy Plant Society seed scheme, it is an excellent way to get hold of unusual seeds for very little cost. In fact the seeds are actually free, there is a nominal charge to cover admin. This year there will be over 2000 types of seed on offer, 500 of which are new to the scheme this year. You don’t need to be a member of the Society to participate in the scheme, but members orders are fulfilled first so it’s worth joining to be sure of securing the seeds you prefer.  More details here, the seed list should be up on the site by the end of the month.

I’ll be back in a month or so for another seedy update.