Get into the greenhouse as it’ll soon be spring!

AFTER a short trip to London to visit friends, I was apprehensive about what I’d find in the greenhouse on my return.

This year I’ve taken dozens of cuttings and raised many perennials from seed.

Even though I’d taken every step to keep them watered in my absence, I was still fretting over whether they had survived.

I needn’t have worried. In fact, they’d put on so much lush growth that I had trouble getting through the door and thought I might have to hack my way in with a machete.

It’s a funny thing with plants, watch them every day and they never seem to change. Turn your back for five minutes and they can flourish.

Now I’m faced with the task of repotting all of them at once, but before I make a start on that I’ve got to head to the garden centre for the pick of the spring bulbs.

Yes, that’s right, it may still be summer but any day now spring bulbs will go on sale.

If you want the fattest, firmest daffodil bulbs and the pick of the tulips, then don’t delay – get them now when they are fresh.

Store them somewhere cool, dark and dry until you are ready to plant them.

However, don’t keep them too long. It was a forgotten pack of tulip bulbs at the back of the garage that led to our recent troubles with mice and moths.

It was like suffering two Biblical plagues at once because, as our garage is connected to the house, those pests didn’t stay outdoors but came inside and caused all sorts of trouble.

It was worse than when the hamster escaped and ate through the sofa stuffing.

But don’t let that put you off. In fact, the best thing you can do with daffodils is to plant them as soon as you buy them and find somewhere secure to store tulips until late autumn.

This year, I’m going to have yet another go at growing Crown imperial fritillaries.

These spring flowers are bold and beautiful but, in my garden, also fickle.

I’ve tried them every way – in the borders, in pots, in carefully selected composts with plenty of added grit, and in heavy clay.

The results are always the same – small, stunted stems and flowers that fail to open.

My plan for next year is to plant them in pots and keep them in the greenhouse over the winter, only bringing them out when they start to perform.

It really makes to no sense to give plants that thrive in the high plateaus of Iran, where they are baked in summer and frozen in winter, this kind of cosseting but it is the only thing that I haven’t yet tried, so I reckon it is worth a shot.

What I’m not going to do is allow them anywhere near the garage.

They’ll go straight into pots the minute I get them home, then I’ll wrap each container in chicken wire to stop the mice from feasting on them.