Spring has finally arrived in my corner of the UK – after quite a mild winter the cold temperatures of March combined with constant rainfall have made spring feel rather late in coming. The views of the greenhouse below were taken in early April last year – this year I am still waiting for the white narcissi to flower and keeping my fingers crossed that they will do so in time for next weeks wedding!
April is another very busy month in the greenhouse, with lots of seeds to sow and young plants to look after, so lets open the door and see what is going on this month.
Inside the greenhouse I am enjoying the very last of the spring bulbs planted last autumn, which have been satisfying my craving for flowers since January.
The bowls of blue and white hyacinths have been flowering all month, pumping their heavy scent into the greenhouse air. The flowers have started to fade now and pot by pot I am slowly planting them out into the garden where they will bloom again next year.
Last month I showed you the green stems and buds of these tulips, which have now flowered and been moved out of the greenhouse. I told you that I had forgotten which variety I had planted, but I knew as soon as I saw the delicate pink that these are tulip Angelique, which will not be flowering in the garden until much later this month.
I have had three big vases of tulips from these bulbs, including the one that I showed you for ‘In A Vase On Monday‘. The flowers do not last long in the warmth of the greenhouse, so need to be cut quickly.
Below you can see one of the latest batch of Paperwhites to flower – I had hoped to have these flowering just in time for next weeks wedding, but with the rising temperatures in the greenhouse they have flowered in less than 4 weeks from when I planted the bulbs. I still have one final batch developing, so keep your fingers crossed for me that they flower next week!
The orlya planted in the greenhouse bed before Christmas continues to produce these lovely flowers. There are only a few, so I have brought in a couple more plants in from the coldframe, including some ammi majus, in the hopes of having some early filler flowers for tulip bouquets in late April and May.
The Winter Sunshine sweet peas are romping away! They are nearing three feet in height and growing every day. Perhaps I will have some flowers to show you in next months review.
The new kids on the block are the dahlias that I am now planting up in black plastic pots to bring into growth for summer flowers in the Cutting Garden. I have also planted anemones and ranunculus in the greenhouse bed between the tulips, which I hope will be flowering later in May. In the photos below you can see the many bags of dahlias waiting to be potted up throughout this month and a few pots that I have already done.
Now that most of the potted spring bulbs have been planted outside there is more space on the staging for new seedlings. The annuals and most of the half hardy annuals for the Cutting Garden have been sown and are in the process of being pricked out. This month I will sow sunflowers and zinnias, as well as additional trays of anything that I am feeling short of. For the vegetable garden I will get all my beans going and later in the month I will sow courgettes, sweetcorn and squash. The photo below was taken from outside to show you just how full the staging is!
Also this month I need to review my supplies of hardy annual seeds and biennials. In May I will sow rows of hardy annuals such as cornflowers, ammi majus, nigella and larkspur direct in the Cutting Garden to ensure I have flowers throughout the summer. Hardy annuals run to seed very quickly as the temperatures rise, so the first crop that was sown inside in February has usually stopped producing by mid summer. This second crop will take over in August and flower until the first frost.
Biennials need sowing in June to give them enough time to grow into sturdy plants that can survive the winter in the garden. They will then flower in late spring/early summer next year. The biennials I like to grow are foxgloves, honesty, sweet rocket, sweet williams and wallflowers. As I am running short of space in the garden by June, I tend to sow these seeds in trays in the greenhouse and prick them out to grow on in the coldframes until I am ready to plant them in their final spaces during the autumn clear up. You can do the same thing in a seedbed in your garden if that suits you better.
So much is growing in the greenhouse right now that I have to make the most of every available space – here you can see newly germinated cucumbers balanced in front of the propagator!
There is plenty of salad to pick from and I will be starting off outdoor crops this month – the greenhouse is too hot for salad throughout the summer. I will start sowing trays of winter salads in late August and September.
Outside in the cold frames there are plenty of little seedlings getting ready to be planted out. Below you can see the sweet peas. I am waiting for a new supply of jute netting to arrive from Agriframes and then these will be planted outside.
These little plants of nigella, cornflowers and scabious need to grow on a bit more before I put them outside to fully harden off. There is a constant process of sowing seeds, pricking out, growing on in the cold frames and then moving the young plants outside for a few nights before planting in the garden. This is a very slow process at the start of the year, but speeds up as the temperatures rise. It is important to keep moving the seedlings on in this way as any delays can damage their ability to produce fruit or flowers later in the summer.
Ruby popped in for a visit whilst I was taking these photos. I never see her drinking inside the house, but she is always happy to sip from a puddle.
Finally for this month, the flowers I harvested today from the greenhouse bed waiting to be arranged inside. I always cut flowers and put them straight into water, so that they can have a drink whilst I am getting on with jobs outside.
For the rest of April I will be concentrating on potting up the dahlias and finishing sowing my half hardy seeds. There are also summer bulbs to be planted – more ranunculus, gladioli, acidanthera and freesia. Although most will go outside, I always keep a few in the greenhouse for earlier flowering. As the temperatures rise it becomes more important to check the greenhouse daily to make sure the plants have enough water and to leave the door open to aid ventilation.
In May things will be a little quieter in my greenhouse – with the bulk of the seed sowing over it will be time to bring in my table and chairs for summer coffee breaks, drop the shading (which I will be talking about next month) and start planning to fill the space with summer flowers. As little has changed in my new small greenhouse this month I have not included any photos – there will be more to see next month though – the potatoes should be up and I will be getting ready to plant tomatoes and cucumbers into the greenhouse beds.
I would love to see what is growing in your greenhouse this month – please do leave a link or just a comment about what you are up to!
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Your Greenhouse is completely extraordinary! Do you do a gardening show in the U.K.? Or have a book out or something? I’ll buy a copy!
I am flattered Susan, but no – there is no TV show or book – just me at home in my garden.
I love the long shots across to the greenhouse with the narcissi at the fore. Just serendipitous!
Thank you Matt – as I said I took those photos last year and am still waiting for the narcissi to flower – with temperatures like we have had today it should be very soon.
Puddle water tastes the best don’t you know! I’ve often been tempted to try it from the enthusiasm cats show it over tap water.
Gorgeous tulips. I started a cutting garden this year and it’s was going well so far but today a slug made it into the conservatory and ate one of my Echinacea shoots!
Thank Caroline – I agree that cats usually know best! Good luck with your Cutting Garden – just make sure to sow some extras for the wildlife.
My goodness Julie. My little growing station is getting busy now and lots more seeds started. I will start many veggies and flowers outside in a few weeks.
I am so pleased that your weather is finally improving Donna – you must be itching to get started!
Your cut bulbs and daffs are so pretty! I can’t believe what an organized and professional greenhouse setup you have. And I love your cat drinking pics. 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing this look at your greenhouse, and good luck with the upcoming wedding! -Beth
Thank you Beth – I will be posting pictures next week of the wedding arrangements.
You have certainly inspired me to grow more Paperwhites if it means I can time them to flower over such a long period, your first ones flowered in December didn’t they. I will also experiment with timing tulips as it would be lovely to enjoy them for longer too. You have so many seedlings. I find it difficult to sow any seeds after March because it becomes to hot in the greenhouse; I’m hoping to sort out external shading very soon so that problem might be solved. Here is the link to my post: https://myhesperidesgarden.wordpress.com/2015/04/08/the-greenhouse-in-early-april/
Paperwhites are the best for a long season of indoor blooms Christina. I normally allow about six weeks from planting to blooming, but it will probably be about four for you. I start the first batch in mid November for Christmas flowers and then plant a batch every three weeks or so until March for a long flowering period. I was really impressed by your early tulips and will be experimenting with those too this winter. My external shading keeps my greenhouse quite cool in summer, so I think you will find it will help a lot.
Thank you for joining in again this month – it was fascinating to see how far ahead your seedlings are and to read about all your annual herbs – I need to get more of those going this month.
I am impressed by the scale of your gardening and the quality. And what a gorgeous army of sweet peas you have waiting to be planted out.
Thank you – I am certainly looking forward to seeing those sweet peas flower!
I really enjoyed reading about all that was happening in your greenhouse, Julie – and I will make a note of what you have said about your second sowings as this is something I have little experienced of. I have ranunculus and anemones outside but they are not doing a lot so perhaps I will just have them in pots inside next year. It’s a continuous learning curve! Thanks for hosting – my review is at https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2015/04/09/the-greenhouse-in-april-a-dilemma-approaches/
Thank you for joining again this month Cathy – I am sure that we are all going to benefit from your excellent record keeping. Second sowing hardy annuals is a great way to extend the season and very easy as they can be sown direct. Be patient with your ranunculus and anemones – I waited until late May last year for flowers from ones planted in February. They will certainly be earlier though if you plant them in pots in the greenhouse and I am going to try it again this year. I did try ranunculus last year but think I put too many in a pot as I just got a lot of tangled growth and very few flowers. This time I will try just one per pot – that is how I am seeing them in the garden centres at the moment.
As you say it is a continuous learning curve, but that is what makes it fun isn’t it!
My ranunculus and anemones were planted outside in the autumn though…. Interesting what you said about the ones from the garden centres…
I wish I had my own greenhouse in order to join in but I’m sure it would be a disorganized mess compared to yours. Beautiful! Both photos and subject, and thanks for the ID on orlaya. I just saw it pictured on another blog and was wondering what it’s name was!
Thank you and I am glad I was able to help with an ID! I am quite impressed with how neat my greenhouse is looking this year – making a monthly report has certainly helped me to get my act together with the outstanding jobs, as well as doing a little monthly housekeeping.
You are so organised!
I’m really just getting to grips with the greenhouse this year and want to do an awful lot more with it than I’ve done in the past. Love your paperwhites, not something I’ve grown before. Tulips in the border is a great idea too… if I can keep the mice out!
Here’s my link: http://wp.me/p2yz5S-48m
Thank you for joining in this month Jessica – I really enjoyed my look around your greenhouse! I am on a learning curve with what I can grow in my greenhouse as well and am enjoying sharing information and learning from others about how they do things.
Your greenhouse looks so much neater than mine. Here is my April post https://patientgardener.wordpress.com/2015/04/10/the-greenhouse-review-april/
No greenhouse here but I love watching what happens in yours. The building itself is so lovely. What are the daffs in the bucket with the roses? That soft yellow is so much more to my taste than the bright yellows.
Hi Julie, sorry I’m so late. I was going to give it a miss this month as I was away at the crucial time, but then decided it would be a shame to miss a post, as it’s such a good record.
As ever, your greenhouse is looking both beautiful and immaculate whilst mine’s chaos, but hey!
And, rereading your post has reminded me that I STILL haven’t planted any salad crops. What have I been thinking of?
With many thanks as ever for hosting the meme.
https://duverdiary.wordpress.com/2015/04/19/the-greenhouse-review-april-2015/