Learning curves and preparation

Here we are three quarters of the way through November and the garden is entering the next phase. The hellebores and winter primula's are starting to flower and some of the bulbs are poking up....a bit quicker than they should be though. This time of year is always a race to get prepared for the following year, before the really cold, wet, wintery weather sets in and curtails the main plant-based activities. But, although most of the summer flowers are well over, the cosmos is still flowering its head off. Even though it's starting to get a bit chilly at nights and of course an icy wind or as we call it, a lazy wind, the kind that goes through rather than round you, can knock the day time temps down a bit we've still not had a frost. I took the ensete banana in last month out of a bit of panic, but some of the more tender plants are still outside and flowering. What is a little more alarming though is that there is new growth on the clematis Piilu, the kind of growth you would expect in spring. I've even seen comments on social media from people who have snowdrops already in flower.

The cosmos germinated really quickly this year. It grew and grew, those lovely feathery leaves got bigger and it grew some more. But instead of gracing us with the usual proliferation of summer blooms its just kept putting on more growth. Luckily the small yellow cosmos 'lemonade' set flowers at the normal time, but the larger varieties were all talk and no action. The usually vibrant variety 'Klondyke' failed to produce a single flower. I was at a loss to understand what was going on. I didn't really think that this year was that much different. We did have some very high temps and drought-like conditions in early spring but summer was pretty standard for Scotland, quite wet, sometimes chilly, sometimes warm, occasionally quite hot. And then on a few gardening forums I started to see posts where other gardeners were commenting on the lack of flowering on their cosmos too. Bizarre! The cosmos did eventually start to flower in October after reaching over five foot with a stem like a tree trunk....and its still going. Even the perennial cosmos was late to flower.

I'm also thinking about next year and eager to see spring. Its only a few weeks now until the solstice and the lengthening of the nights again and by the time we are in January I'm keen to start sowing. The heated propagator gets seeds germinating in no time at all, but the low light ensures straggly plants that invariably flop and die, but I'll still do a couple of sowings anyway. You just can't beat the excitement of seeing the first signs of germination, those tiny seedlings emerging from the soil. Its a promise of what is yet to come. And make no mistake, when sowing time really does come, all of a sudden the greenhouse is full and as the daily temperatures rise germination happens rapidly, space is at a premium.

This year was my first attempt at growing Ricinus. This fabulously architectural plant is used in tropical planting schemes for its large leaves and rapid growth. Mine got to just 3 foot with leaves barely the size of my hand. I was so disappointed. It had a long growing season and had been started early with heat, germinated really quickly too. So why didn't it give me the display I was looking for? Well I guess it pays to research your plants a bit better. This variety 'Impala' is a short version suited to smaller gardens. Don't get me wrong it is a nice plant and great purply coloured leaves and I expect I probably will grow it again next year, only it won't be going in the back of the border this time. That place will be reserved to another Ricinus called 'Zanzibarensis' this bad boy grows up to 10 foot tall and leaves look very much like the Tetrapanax.

I'm always looking for new and interesting plants to grow and I've already sown an unusual variety of foxglove - digitalis parviflora- a perennial variety from northern Spain that has the most gorgeous chocolate flowers, in fact it is called Milk Chocolate and looks absolutely yummy, but I won't be nibbling on this toxic plant!

So next year's garden is going to be quite different. I've shifted plants here there and everywhere, the tulip bulbs are all in. The seeds of plants I want to grow next year have either been collected or purchased and I've settled on two dates to open for Scotland's Garden Scheme...fingers crossed for a slightly more 'normal' year in 2021!