The nursery starts to fill up a bit more, as we increase the number of plants we are potting, we pot our summer plants in batches so they don’t all flower at once.
The sun is much higher in the sky and the days are longer, if the sun is out the greenhouse will warm up quickly and you can start to see the plants grow.
We are coming to the end of our primroses and have started making planted arrangements for Mothers day.
We continue to pot our summer plants, with increasing numbers of plug plants grown from seed. These are mainly bedding plants that we use for making hanging baskets and patio pots.
We buy our plug plants from specialist nurseries, they use modern top quality glass, equipped with artificial lights, thermal screens and special seed sowing machines. They also supply the mail order market, its quite possible your plug plant was grown on the same nursery.
Careful watering.
During March as we have a mixture of young plants and newly potted plugs, no automated system would work so we hand water most of plants and only when its sunny.
Pest & disease.
The higher temperatures can also increase the humidity so we use the computer to adjust the ventilation, this stops most of the grey mould and mildew problems.
Pests can be quietly increasing in numbers, we monitor them with sticky traps. If the numbers are high we may decide to spray before we start with the biological control.
Ready to sell
We still have a few primroses to sell, Some primroses are bred to flower in March and can be used for instant colour outside, many are perennial and will grow again next year.
We have Bellis in flower, they are tough enough to plant outside, Bellis strawberry and cream is very popular
Forget me not looking good mixed with Bellis or violas.
We are busy making up Mothers day planters most are outdoor planters.
Growing
The geraniums we potted in February will have started to fill the pot with roots
Trailing geraniums often called ivy leaf types are popular for hanging baskets. We also have balcon or swiss cottage-type vigorous trailing geraniums.
Osteospermums should be starting to form flower buds
Nemesia usually needs some top pinching to improve the shape.
Our fuchsia columns are starting to grow faster now
Small flowered fuchsias make great patio or house plants
Patio plants, we grow a wide range they are perfect for making hanging baskets or patio pots.
Cannas are tall spectacular summer plants but they start off as small seedlings.
Our tomato seedlings have been potted up ready for early sales.
Chilli’s and peppers need to be kept warm if you pot them now, they will crop earlier.
Our big vegetable pots are growing, the carrots and peas are okay for early sales.
Our patio pot sweetpeas can be potted up, we add some canes to support the flowering stems as they grow.
We grow a range of bedding plants in big plug trays, when they flower we use them to make up planters.
