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Gardening resources and tips, etc.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Wed Sep 29, 2021 3:00 pm

Is it one of those Greenhouse Sensation ones, SG?

I have just gone down to the GH thinking this would be my last crop. It's not going to be. I also got the same again from the garden (although not many left there that I want to bother with, and they are not so sweet.)

Some aubergines too.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Pepper Pig » Wed Sep 29, 2021 6:28 pm

Does anyone here plant up frost-resistant hanging baskets? I’m thinking of having a go this year. Any do’s and don’t please. I’d like them to be good at Christmas ideally.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Sloe-Gin » Wed Sep 29, 2021 7:30 pm

Winter flowering pansies always the best bet

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Stokey Sue » Wed Sep 29, 2021 8:28 pm

I got the small violas last year, they lasted so well I had to discard a lot while still flowering, they were scented I believe

Might have a trip up to Crew's Hill, perhaps on Monday, violas, etc and GC lunch

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Wic » Thu Sep 30, 2021 3:11 pm

If they are for Christmas, PP, what about red Heucheras and variegated ivy? All the right colours and you can add a bit of tinsel or baubles if you fancy it.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby KeenCook2 » Thu Sep 30, 2021 3:20 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:I got the small violas last year, they lasted so well I had to discard a lot while still flowering, they were scented I believe

Might have a trip up to Crew's Hill, perhaps on Monday, violas, etc and GC lunch


Sue, for a nanosecond I was scratching my head, wondering about why you had "small violas" - maybe because we watched a streamed Wigmore Hall concert the other night and one of the viola players had an instrument that was absolutely huge, the largest viola I've ever seen :lol:

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Pepper Pig » Thu Sep 30, 2021 5:44 pm

Wic wrote:If they are for Christmas, PP, what about red Heucheras and variegated ivy? All the right colours and you can add a bit of tinsel or baubles if you fancy it.


Yes. I think that’s more what I’m looking for. Thanks Wic.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Stokey Sue » Thu Sep 30, 2021 8:23 pm

KeenCook2 wrote:Sue, for a nanosecond I was scratching my head, wondering about why you had "small violas" - maybe because we watched a streamed Wigmore Hall concert the other night and one of the viola players had an instrument that was absolutely huge, the largest viola I've ever seen :lol:

:lol: :lol:

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Suffs » Sat Oct 02, 2021 9:53 am

If you can get hold of the hybrid ‘Panolas’ … bigger flowers than the violas, more floriferous than the winter pansies … they’ll flower their socks off all winter and then some … and a beautiful scent too.

http://www.thewalledgarden.co.uk/winter ... sy-panola/

Most garden centres will have them about now.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Pepper Pig » Sat Oct 02, 2021 10:49 am

Ooh thanks Suffs. I'll look out for them.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Sloe-Gin » Thu Oct 07, 2021 5:58 pm

Has anybody tried to 'force' rhubarb? As my new seed tray will have growing lights, I wondered if I can try, so I have potted a young crown into a large pot to get it established.
My seeds arrived today, including an all year round lettuce and a free pack of Pak choi, which can also be grown under glass in the winter.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Busybee » Thu Oct 07, 2021 6:20 pm

I’m no gardener SG, but I thought that the point of forcing rhubarb was to exclude light? I know that the famous rhubarb triangle sheds are only lit by candle light so that as little light as possible is in the growing shed. I remember my grandad forcing it, and he put what looked like n earthenware cloche type pot over the crown.

I’m sure others will have a more technical explanation.

BB

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Sloe-Gin » Thu Oct 07, 2021 6:27 pm

I thought of a bin bag over a frame and lit by the lights

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby herbidacious » Thu Oct 07, 2021 7:26 pm

What would you need the lights for?!? I suppose you might get early rhubarb if you grow it in the greenhouse, but I think it likes a lot of room. You'd need very big pots, which would take up a lot of room, of course. When I dug mine up some of the roots were 6 ft long (not deep, thankfully!)

I think Suffs forces rhubarb. I have done it too. I put a bin on top of it. It's a lovely colour. (Because no light = no photosynthesising.)

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Sloe-Gin » Thu Oct 07, 2021 8:31 pm

I think i have been remembering the lights in the rhubarb triangle. Yes I don't really need them for that.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Earthmaiden » Thu Oct 07, 2021 9:37 pm

I thought you just put a bucket over the rhubarb and kept it a bit warmer than freezing winter conditions.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Stokey Sue » Thu Oct 07, 2021 10:02 pm

Earthmaiden wrote:I thought you just put a bucket over the rhubarb and kept it a bit warmer than freezing winter conditions.

Yes my dad used to put a large plant pot or bucket full of wood wool over a crown in the ground and leave it to get on with it, but I suppose if he had put the crowns in a pot in the greenhouse or garage it would have been earlier

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Badger's Mate » Fri Oct 08, 2021 12:54 pm

I just put a terracotta forcing pot over a plant in the early Spring. If there's an empty compost dalek handy, some more plants can be forced too. They would of course be earlier if grown in a purpose-built shed, but earliness is only part of the appeal of forced rhubarb. I prefer it to unforced. Hereabouts, the crowns are only forced to obtain the first stalks, after which the plants are uncovered and allowed to recover while we try and empty the freezer of other soft fruit before the summer.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Suffs » Fri Oct 08, 2021 1:03 pm

I do exactly the same Badger's Mate ... or I did when the forcing pot would fit over the rhubarb plant ... now it's way too big. I keep meaning to split it but haven't got a round tuit so far.

The old way of lifting a root and forcing it in a shed usually exhausted the crown and they were either replanted and not harvested again for several years in order to rebuild the crown, or discarded.

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Re: Gardening resources and tips, etc.

Postby Badger's Mate » Fri Oct 08, 2021 1:08 pm

That's why I only take the ealy stalks, it's a seasonal treat and doesn't exhaust the plants if they're subsequently left undisturbed and given an annual dose of 'goodness'. One or two of my crowns could do with dividing, come to think of it. :D

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