The nursery starts to look a bit more spring like. We have lots of primroses in flower and with a bit of luck the sun will come out and help our first delivery of summer plants to grow.
The sun is slightly higher in the sky and more powerful it can actually warm up the greenhouse during the day, this is what we need to help the plants grow.
We have started to pot our summer plants, some are plug plants grown from seed but most are rooted cuttings in plug trays.
Plug plants are grown by specialist nurseries using modern top quality glass equipped with artificial lights, thermal screens and special seed sowing machines.
The rooted plugs start off as unrooted cuttings taken from stock plants basking in the sunshine somewhere nice, usually Kenya or Portugal, they are packed into boxes and flown overnight to specialist nurseries ready to be stuck into the plug trays, using a heated bench and mist the cuttings will start to root almost immediately.
When we are potting in February we make sure that we allow the compost to warm up in the greenhouse, before the plants arrive. Compost is a good insulator and it actually takes 2-3 days for cold compost to warm up. We want to avoid chilling the roots of our plug plants they have become accustomed to much higher temperatures.
We still need to watch out for grey mould and mildews especially during dull mild weather, ventilation or heat to dry the air is the answer.
An unfortunate consequence of the improving spring sunshine is the appearance of some pests, green fly will wake up and start spreading. catching them early can prevent problems later.
Strawberry runners are potted up, they will grow quickly with some gentle heat.
Patio plants, we grow a wide range they are perfect for making hanging baskets or patio pots.
We grow some fuchsia columns but they need to start in a smaller pot to help control the growth.
Want to grow your own vegetables from seed now is a good time to sow inside for planting out later.
Geraniums have just been potted and need careful watering
