Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
13th January 2024
Ex-seed-ingly Good Choices
It’s ‘seed catalogue’ time of year – and I love it. It’s so nice to have the colourful catalogues come through the door, full of promise for the growing season ahead. And, as always, a few new varieties to choose from too.
Over 20 varieties have been added to the Johnsons flower and vegetable collections for 2024. To attract pollinators choose Leonurus sibiricus, (Honey weed) a lofty, unusual plant with long lasting pink blooms. It will reach around 6ft in height making a fab’luss focal point and is great value with 150 seeds retailing for just £2.79.
Also new for the beds and borders, is Celosia Xantippe (see photo) which produces long slender stems topped with stylish fluffy flower spikes. The flowers of Celosia are silver-pink in colour and fade to silver-grey and are perfect for cutting for indoor displays and also for drying. Plant the Celosia in May or June, and they will flower around June until October. I have already ordered mine – and it is popular with bees and butterflies too.
For amazing and reliable flower power, Marigold (African) Hot Stuff produces masses of weather-tolerant blooms and works well in beds and borders or containers and Didiscus Blue Lace produces lacy, domed flower heads in an unusual pale blue (mixing well with the Marigolds) and will add interest to mixed borders. It is also a good cut-flower.
For containers and pots, Swan River Daisy Little Missy is eye-catching and hardworking, flowering non-stop during the summer. And another fantastic new container plant is Calamintha Marvelette Blue – a compact bushy and attractive perennial, flowering from July to September and loved by pollinating insects. Both can also be planted in beds and borders.
Two new tomatoes – Tomato Bliss F1 and Tomato Orange Slice F1 – are available in the 2024 season vegetable range. The former has bright yellow fruit with unique green stripes, and is perfect for eating straight from the vine – as all tomatoes should be. Tomato Orange Slice F1 is a modern variety producing reliably high yields, with a tangy and rich, traditional flavour.
Johnsons have also introduced a couple of new lettuces to the organic range. Lettuce Salad Bowl Green produces easy crops of loose leaves ideal for ‘cut and come again’ harvests. Lettuce Reine des Glaces has attractive and crunchy leaves which are delicious raw, or cooked – just quarter the hearts and flash-fry in garlic and butter.
Herbs are an ever popular choice amongst all levels of gardeners and I always suggest that if space, inspiration or knowledge is limited, at least grow some herbs as they will jazz up so many different dishes and encourage you to ‘keep growing’. The new Basil Serrata has a spicy flavour and attractive serrated bright green basil leaves, making it look good as well as taste good.
I have become more ‘tolerant of ornamental grasses as I have got older – and have even become very fond of the large Miscanthus in the corner of my veggie plot. It was going to be throw out by a client so was ‘rescued’ and replanted at the cottage, and we have become ‘friends’.
And on that basis I have also ordered, the new Melinis Karoo Queen which is a Ruby Savanna Grass with fine grey-green leaves. The 2 ft tall, slender stems produce attractive fluffy heads that will cheerfully sway in the breeze and keep my ‘Miscanthus mate’ company.
If you are a Zinnia fan (I’m not – yet) then Zinnia Mazurkia is an extremely rewarding, long flowering and eye-catching addition to mixed borders and patio containers and although it has yet to win my favour, the blooms will be loved by bees and butterflies
All the seed companies will have their own ‘new varieties’ so do have a look through them all. As the saying goes, “The healthiest way to gamble is with a packet of seeds and a trowel.”
Grief is Like Glitter
I recently read that after six years of deliberation, ‘loose glitter’ will be banned from the EU.
The measure is part of the European Zero Pollution action plan, which is taking a tough stance against the shiny micro-plastics because they are, as anyone who’s ever spilled a jar knows, ‘impossible’ to clean up.
It reminded me of the saying ‘Grief is like glitter, once spilled it is impossible to get rid of completely and always turns up in the least expected places.”
Pooh Philosophy
Some of my favourite quotes are from Winnie the Pooh. Although he didn’t realise it, he was quite the philosopher. The 18th January (Thursday) is always celebrated in his honour as Winnie the Pooh Day, as it was A. A. Milne’s Birthday.
The quote, ‘I always get where I’m going, by walking away from where I’ve been’, is a great reminder that to get where you want to go, you have to ‘move’. And his best gardening advice – ‘Weeds are flowers too if you just get to know them.’
A little ironically though, Rabbit was the ‘keen gardener’ in the Winnie the Pooh books with his friends Pooh, Piglet and Tigger often intruding and ‘spoiling’ a part of his garden. Of course, they always tried to make it up to him and even help with the gardening jobs – with a diplomatic Pooh exclaiming, “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk through my garden forever.”
Armchair Gardening
Whilst January may well be the ‘quietest month in the garden’, there is still lots going on. Snowdrops are already pushing through with their beautiful white bowed heads and warmer days will see the honey bees benefitting from their early pollen.
Surprisingly snowdrop pollen is bright orange and if you look carefully (and quietly) you will see the pollen baskets on the bees legs full of their orange haul as they reverse out of the flowerheads.
Primroses and primulas are also flowering in the sheltered hedgerows and woodlands. Early daffodils are already blooming in some parts of Wales, although here they are only just poking through the ground.
All signs that we are heading the right way for spring – but in the meantime, make the most of those seed catalogues and some ‘armchair gardening’.
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