It's been a week since I have written a post and I miss writing. So where have I been? I am busy in the greenhouse growing all sorts of plants. I know, it's January. What could I possibly be growing? I had a bunch of perennial flower seeds that I wanted to start in the greenhouse. Perennial flowers like Rudbeckia, Echinacea and Poppies can take up to eight weeks to grow. The seeds can sometimes take a month to germinate. The weather is very mild here for January and the greenhouse is heated to around 10C so its nice to work in. What else could I ask for?
I bought some seed starter mix and got to work. Above you can see that the poppies have germinated. They are tiny but upon removing one of the plants I saw that the roots were almost an inch long. These babies have been potted up to four-inch pots already and will stay in the greenhouse for a couple more months.
This is what those tiny seedlings will become. I bought the original plant at my garden club one year and fell in love with its peach coloured blooms. The seed heads are large and this seed saver had to collect them. So now I have 45 baby plants with more to come. So if you live nearby I will have plants in April, maybe sooner.
This is how my greenhouse looks today. The little plants with the blue label are more poppies and the yarrow to the right is up now too. I have lots of potting up to finish. I am growing garden peas and Sweet Peas as well. Peas can be planted in early spring as they are a cool season crop. The peas and Sweet Peas are for a fundraiser so they will leave the greenhouse towards the end of February. After all, I need room for the 30 different types of tomatoes I will be growing. Hubby looked in the greenhouse the other day and said, “Don’t go overboard this year.” Oops, it was too late. Is he kidding? For those who don’t know me, I love to grow everything. You name it, I will give it a try. OK, nothing illegal of course.
I soak the Sweet Pea seeds overnight and plant them the next day. They always take a week or so to come up but once they are above the soil, watch out. They grow quickly.
I am very excited about this Dahlia coming up. Last fall I saved seeds from this Dahlia called ‘Alpen Cherub.’ I usually just grow Dahlias from tubers but when I saw the seed I had to try. So far I have three Dahlia seedlings up. This is an experiment as the colour could be different from last year if it has been cross pollinated by bees carrying pollen from a similar plant. Only time will tell but I will keep you updated as it grows.
This is Dahlia ‘Alpen Cherub’. It’s what is known as a collarette Dahlia with the fringe of petals on the inside.
I also have lettuce growing in the greenhouse. I was finding the lettuce from the stores is horrible right now. I decided to plant some seeds in a container in the greenhouse so we can enjoy salad greens from the garden.
I am busy doing plant divisions on all sorts of plants. Many of my plants needed to be divided and the weather has been great for working outside. Above are some cuttings of Sedum ‘Angelina’ growing in the greenhouse. This succulent plant is great for front of the border and is evergreen here on the south coast of B.C. I will be using this trailer in black containers as the chartreuse green leaves make this a wonderful plant to use.
How did I squeeze in time to write today. I ran out of soil. Sigh, the garden center doesn’t open for an hour. I have many more seedlings waiting for transplanting. Lets hope spring is just around the corner.
For information on how to collect Dahlia seeds, read my post here.
