Is this May or the 45th of April?

I’ve been doing this for so long I should know better. Yes, I started seeds too early this year. I blame it on the current situation — locked down, isolated, quarantined. That plus spring seems to have been dragging on this year. As a friend said, it must be the 45th of April by now.

Consequently, I started up the growop much too early — not that grow-op. I mean my place in the basement where I grow flower and vegetable seedlings under lights. By starting too early, I have plants that are ready to be planted in the garden or at least moved to the greenhouse. A few are slow-growing perennials that are still small and aren’t a problem. Sowing tomato seeds in March was a big mistake. I know, I know, I could have waited until this week to do it and I’d still be eating them by midsummer.

I have three varieties growing — Early Girl, Roma, and an odd one I haven’t grown before. I didn’t go looking for it. It’s called Tasmanian Chocolate and the seed pack arrived as an insert in a seed catalogue, so I thought, why not? It’s a hybrid, bred by Patrina Nuske Small in Australia, and further bred and named by Linda Reid of Tasmania, hence the name. Don’t get excited, chocolate addicts. It refers to the colour, not the flavour.

Mahogany red/orange and faintly striped, it grows on short vines making it suitable for containers and small spaces and is said to have a delicious, well-balanced flavour, which to me is how all tomatoes taste.

Also striped is Candy Cane, one of the pepper plants I have growing. It might not have the stripes as it’s a hybrid and the seeds are from one I grew a couple of years ago. Seeds from hybrid flowers or vegetables don’t always grow true as they can revert to traits in the parent plants, and sometimes the seeds are sterile. Mine are growing fine so I’m looking forward to a pleasant surprise when the peppers ripen.

A surprise I’m not anticipating this year is from the Brugmansia sanguines seedlings that are growing extremely well, and they’re giving the place the feel of an Ecuadorian rainforest. I’ve grown Brugmansia many times, usually the pink or yellow varieties, but I grew tired of them.

These are a red variety I mentioned in a column last June, saying I had a strong suspicion the seeds mailed to me were for purple datura. Unlike Brugmansia which can grow into a small tree, datura is a scrubby plant. Because they share the common name of angel’s trumpet, they’re easily confused. My suspicions were confirmed as what I grew last year did turn out to be datura.

This year I found seeds from a more reliable source and they’re clearly Brugmansia.

Also growing well are the Santolina chamaecyparissus seedlings. Commonly called lavender cotton or grey Santolina, it’s like lavender in growth habit, yet it isn’t related. It produces silvery-green foliage with masses of yellow, buttonlike flowers in summer. It is hardy to zone 5, although the one I had in the garden a few years ago succumbed after a hard winter.

I’m again growing Cup and Saucer Vine (Cobaea scandent). Unlike last

year’s purple variety, this one is a white one — I hope. Since these are a vine, I foresee problems in the plant room if they get out of control before they can go outside. Pinching back will help.

Pinching or cutting back also helps control the many tuberous begonias I have underway. Some types can become leggy and consequently flop over, breaking the delicate stems. I pinch them back as they grow to keep them a little bushier.

May, the planting month, has finally arrived — or is it still April?

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