Gardens & Homes
Don’t be tempted to sow those seeds just yet, says Agnes Stevenson. However much you’re tempted, caution is advised until warmer, lighter days arrive
With expert Agnes Stevenson
The humble primrose is one of my favourite flowers and already a few are blooming in the damp soil and mossy banks in my garden. Primroses spread easily but I can never have enough of them. So, once the flowers go over I will dig up and divide the largest clumps, spreading them out around the garden.
Some have already been potted up and brought indoors so I can enjoy them on days too miserable to linger outdoors. I’m going to do the same with the grape hyacinths already pushing through the soil, weeks ahead of their usual appearance.
Spring has arrived early but, as David Knott, curator of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, reminded me last week, there’s still time for a “Beast from the East” to blow in.
It’s one reason I’m not tempted to sow seeds now, because the weather could turn cold, but also because daylight is important in producing healthy seedlings and there’s not enough of that around.
When grown in less than ideal conditions seedlings shoot up fast to reach the light, becoming weak and floppy. It’s why you should only use your brightest windowsills when sowing seed.
And, if you have a greenhouse, scrub the glass now, inside and out, so the maximum amount of light can get through. Another task you can do now is to remove the leaves from oriental hellebores before the buds open. At this time of the year the foliage can show signs of the fungal disease, hellebore leaf spot. Removing the leaves now prevents it from being passed to the new growth and makes the flowers more visible.
It’s one of the benefits of having a sloping garden that I can look upwards into the border where my hellebores grow, allowing me to see the full beauty of their downward-facing flowers.
Some are splashed with shades of damson others have richly-coloured edges to their petals and many are in deep hues, although I also treasure those that produce green flowers. Left to their own devices, oriental hellebores will gradually form large clumps and will produce seedlings, often in different shades from the parent plant.
All these reliable plants need to succeed is moist soil and semi-shade. But they will also benefit from an annual mulch of compost or leafmould.
There are many lovely plants that enjoy the same conditions and so my plan now is to grow wood anemones, erythroniums and camassias alongside the hellebores to create interest from late winter until spring is well under way.