Sowing the seeds of love
Your green-fingered friends will be delighted to receive gifts of seeds this Christmas
IT’S always fun on a blustery November day to browse through seed catalogues and dream of what you might grow next year.
It’s convenient to pick up packets in your local garden centre or supermarket, and the selections are usually tried and tested varieties that will give good results.
However, if you are hunting out something more unusual you may need to order online or by post.
Even if you’re not thinking about buying, just exploring what’s available is a great way to learn about different varieties and species.
A new discovery for me was Chorizema diversifolium, a wonderful evergreen shrub that produces hot pink and orange flowers all winter.
It does need a frost-free zone so will have to be grown in a conservatory in colder regions. This is available from online seed shop specialplants.net, a garden and nursery run by Derry Watkins near Bath.
Derry is the author of two books on greenhouse gardening and has introduced many plants from her trips to South Africa and beyond.
The result is a collection of unusual plants from all over the world and she has a particular fascination for those with very dark foliage and nearly black flowers so there’s always something interesting to check out.
Keen veg growers will find lots to mull over at dobies.co.uk, a supplier to gardeners since the late 19th century.
‘British Summertime’ is a British-bred courgette that will yield an abundance of fruit even in cold weather conditions.
One of the earliest fruiting courgettes, it’s an open bush that improves air circulation, reducing the incidence of disease. The fruits are spine-free so no scratched hands when you harvest.
Sow from April to June, plant out from June to August and harvest these beauties in July to October.
Or check out Tomato Y Ddraig Goch F1 (Red Dragon), the first tomato to be officially registered with a Welsh name. It’s another superb British-bred variety with an exquisite flavour and outstanding rich red tomatoes.
Introduced at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2019, this new cordon variety has been created by crossing two other favourites of both gardeners and cooks – Goldstar and Cedrico.
New flower seeds at suttons.co. uk include Sanvitalia, the hanging basket sunflower which is a miniversion of its much-loved larger sibling.
This sun lover produces dozens of gorgeous blooms that will cascade over your hanging baskets and containers – perfect if you love to grow sunflowers but don’t have space.
If you do have a little bit of room, Sunflower ‘Tiger Eye’ is a new bicolour variety that has bright blooms with golden-yellow petals and a unique deep-red ring around the disc floret.
It’s multi-stemmed so you can expect plenty of flowers per plant and it grows to around two feet tall.
Also lovely is a new Eschscholzia called ‘Lady Marmalade’. This Californian poppy has lots of semi-double rose-like blooms in golden yellow shades with orange centres, and although they are rather dainty looking they are ideal for poor, dry soils.
Seeds will also make for thoughtful Christmas presents for your green-fingered friends and family.
Crocus.co.uk has a really pretty sweet pea gift set (£12.99) that includes seeds and compost in an enamel bucket.
And who wouldn’t love a tin of cosmos seeds from sarahraven. com, a selection of varieties both pink and white as well as ‘Double Click Cranberries’ which is beautifully described as being like “a handful of ruffled silk in the richest carmine”.
I do hope Santa is reading this…