Last Saturday morning I had a double surprise in the post. Not one, but two envelopes full of seeds plopped onto my doormat. One was sent from France by Fred, posted on Thursday – not bad, less than 48 hours – we have indulged in a little chilli seed swap. The other was from the Hardy Plant Society seed distribution scheme. This is the first batch of seeds I am expecting from them, there should be another two batches, another 40 packets in total. I listed out my order back in December. I might have got carried away.
I was pretty excited to receive all these seeds, a big Cheshire cat grin was resident on my face for the rest of the day. There are some fantastic varieties here, I’m really looking forward to growing them and seeing what I end up with – you can’t always predict when the parent plant is a hybrid, they are unlikely to come true from seed. With hardy perennial seeds, there’s no point hanging about, so off I went with Child #4 to the potting shed to sow away.
Over the course of the weekend I indulged in a binge of seed sowing, all of the seeds I received from the HPS were sown, except for the tagetes, which will wait till March or April. I was mindful of the research I did recently on the proper treatment for each variety of seeds, so they are now reclining in the environment best suited to them. Some are in the heated bench…
Some are on unheated staging in the greenhouse….
And some are in the cold-frame outside. The left hand group will stay outside until germination, the right hand group will stay outside for a month or two then go back in the greenhouse.
Some of Fred’s seeds were also sown, two varieties of chilli to add to my growing selection. I have saved some lovely looking French beans (in both senses of the word!) and some cucumber seeds for later in the year.
Of course, sowing the seeds is the easy part – things will get busy when they all start germinating. I do love this process.
I’ll be back soon with more seedy business.
Update 25/01/18. The second batch has arrived! I shall be sowing at the weekend…
I like the name. I’m guilty of this all the time – glad it’s not just me!
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Greetings from Sonning Common! I don’t have a greenhouse or a coldframe, so my seed trays take up window sill space indoors. Another seed catalogue dropped on my doormat today and added to the burgeoning pile. No doubt I’ll end up spending far too much money and running out of room, but it’s all part of the fun!
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Hello! Just up the road. Three seed and plant catalogues dropped on my doormat this morning. I am ignoring them. For now. Btw, cold frame dead easy to make if you have the space…
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I know, somehow I’ve always managed to muddle through without one. I do have an open shed arrangement where I can put things if the weather takes a turn for the worse.
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I haven’t sown any of mine yet either. Would love to call it restraint, more like it won’t stop raining and I haven’t got anywhere under cover outside that I can work. My time will come. 🙂
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Such fun!
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You did get carried away but why not? I must order mine….no I haven’t done that yet…🤨
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An admirably well organized project. I look forward to seeing the results.
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I’m flattered to be named in this blog … ☺️ thank you !
and even though my mail was able to please, I’m sure the one from HPS was more appealing! What beautiful varieties you have received! … it makes me want! I think to subscribe to them (as we have already mentioned). Now, I’m waiting to see your germination results!
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I was going to say “What smooth hands you have, Grandpa” but I guess you roped #4 in to do the hard work. I was more modest in my order and then only ended up with 7 out of 10. I may enrol resident cat as a second member to up my chances next year. Still, I have my random selection to look forward to. And I’m exercising patience. Must find out the meaning of the coloured dots – mine was green.
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Here less of the grandpa! At least 10 years (I hope) before I’m in that territory.
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I told you! BAD HABIT!
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Yeah but like a lot of bad habits, it’s a lot of fun.
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