30/08/2026
Growing News
After a few weekends largely off it's back to 7day weeks for a month or so. Opening hours are the same, as is availability, but here's a reminder anyway.
Mon - Fri. 9am - noon, 2-4pm.
Sat. 9am - noon.
Sunday. Closed
Alstroe numbers slowly nudging up.
Dahlia numbers on a downward slope.
Zinnia around a dozen twice a week.
Asters still plentiful, but I'm about to start picking the last planting, and it's unlikely they'll be around past mid September.
Xanth look good, just a lack of buds. There's never been a problem with bud formation in the past, but we've never had heat like we've had the last months either. The first variety, Littleton, doesn't normally flower till mid October so there's plenty of time. What it does mean is a month between Asters and Xanth with very few flowers, so Sat 12th will likely be the last Saturday opening for a while.
Last weekend I planted the pregerminated Anemone in one of the short rows, and as it's always better to plant both rows of a bay at the same time I also planted a row of Sweet William. I'd have preferred to plant that second row with the Butterfly Rannunculus, but I wasn't expecting them till end September or October. Then they arrived out of the blue on Friday! Today I planted them, and another row of Sweet William. The knock on effect is I'm going to end up planting more Sweet William than planned, though I now don't have enough plants so will be sowing more this week. Best laid plans and all that. Not only the Butterfly, but also the normal Ranunculus arrived, so I started planting them too. It's something of a dilemma. If you plant them early you overwinter lovely big plants that flower early, but are quite frost sensitive. Plant them late, like I did last year, and you run the risk of them not establishing well overwinter as there's not enough sunny days when it's possible to water them. So this years decision is to plant one bay every two weeks, starting today. In total the plan is to plant four long bays, the most I've ever planted requiring £3000 worth of corms. Today I planted a row of mixed Reinette (carrot tops), and a row of mixed Amandine which are a more standard variety. Lots more planting over the next few months.
This year it's been pretty obvious there's rabbits in the greenhouse. Weeds kept trimmed, paw prints in newly rotovated ground. Elly even caught one which she proceeded to bury. Luckily I spotted that on time and was able to uncover it at which point it ran off - physically unharmed, mentally traumatised! Elly's a hunter, not a killer. Anyway, even when I noticed some Asters chopped off at the base I wasn't too worried as I have lots. Today however I had to take action. I woke this morning to find a burrow longer than my arm in the bay where I wanted to plant the butterflys. Rabbits in amongst my fancy buttercups costing £2 each is a risk Id rather not take. I found the hole they dug under the greenhouse wall and filled it with postcrete, and I set a live trap where the burrow was. Baited with carrot of course! Not sure what I do if I catch one though as I'm pretty sure the Cat and Rabbit rescue won't take wild rabbits, even if they live in the (green)house.
In order to be legally allowed to spray chemicals in the greenhouse I have to complete training and get 11points a year. The cutoff date is 31st October. Today I spent half the day on the computer doing online training, but at least it's done for another year and means I can spray chemicals, most of which any Tom Dick or Harry can buy from B&Q. Add some flowers picked this morning, an opticians appointment this afternoon, and all said a very productive day.
I do have some photos, but again my phone refuses point blank to send them to my email. I'll try a different method so they may turn up here eventually.
