17:11 - 05 March 2010
Forget the midwinter blues, the greenhouse harbours the first signs of the far off spring, nurturing early flowering favourites into bloom. There’s plenty of new life and colour bursting through in the way of forced bulbs, ornamentals, vegetables, herbs and more.
The hyacinths and narcissus are shooting up and can soon be brought into a cool room indoors or displayed in the greenhouse/conservatory, wait until the flower buds are strongly visible and showing hints of colour. Those planted in August may be in flower on Christmas day. If you didn’t plant any, then buy(Title) ready forced and potted hyacinths and plant them into stylish containers for a heavenly scented display. They make fabulous last minute gifts that are sure to be appreciated and will last for weeks rather than days. Pot them up into rustic terracotta pots, tie with a ribbon and have a few handy for those embarrassing moments when you realise you’ve forgotten that certain someone.
There are plenty of other cool customers that will add colour and interest to a cool greenhouse and conservatory in winter. Azaleas and cyclamen are popular at this time of year and need a cool (minimum 45F/7C) and bright spot. Slighter warmer conditions (55F/13C) are needed for another seasonal favourite - poinsettias. If you can’t provide these temperatures in the greenhouse or conservatory then simply transfer your plants into a cool room indoors.
For cut flowers, the greenhouse chrysanths are simply bursting with blooms for all those seasonal cut flower displays. Keep an eye out for earwigs that may find your protected crop a great winter have. Earwigs can be trapped in upturned flowerpots stuffed with crumpled newspaper, pushed on the top of the stakes. Simply empty the pots every morning, shaking out the paper until the wriggly bugs fall out and then deal with them in a way that suits you.
Bring in a few roots of mint, small clumps of chives and parsley from the garden, pot them up and keep them in the greenhouse to pep up winter meals. Roots of rhubarb can also be dug from the garden and forced in trays of compost for early succulent, pink stems, but only do this if you have a huge clump and can spare a crown or two.
Look ahead to the spring and order your seed catalogues now. You can spend many enjoyable hours choosing what to grow next season and planning flower and vegetable beds and use the greenhouse to grow and nurture everything from seed. It’s a satisfying and cost effective way to fill the garden, the table and the house with home-grown, fruit, flowers and vegetables.
