Sowing seeds in the nursery

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Polytunnel at the Nursery. Plants being protected during winter.

Time for seed sowing. This is no ordinary seed sowing as one would do at home, rooting out a tray from the mess in the greenhouse, bunging in some compost and sprinkling on the seeds and hoping for the best (that’s only me then?). No, this is precision sowing. We were using trays with 100 cells per tray, a mixture of 50% Horizon Cutting and Seed compost and 50% vermiculite (for good drainage) sieved together. Some of the seeds were sown one to a cell and others two to a cell. All the seeds were so small that the only way of getting one or two into a cell was to put them in the palm of the hand and ease each one along the crease in the palm with a very pointed piece of plastic letting it fall into the cell. Then a fine coating of the mixture was sieved over the top and finished off with a fine spray of water. Seeds sown – Pelargonium xhortorum, Antirrhinum majus (very tiny seeds testing the eyesight of the elderly, that’s just me again), Salvia coccinea, Zinnias, Tagetes minuta (6 ft., not a looker but it’s roots kill perennial weeds such as Ground Elder and Couch grass) and Laurentia hybrid ‘Avant Garde pink’. We didn’t even like to think about the pricking out later.

These plants will be used in the Gardens and sold in the Garden Shop.

Jill

Sowing the seeds

Wednesday 25 July 2012

Seeds neatly labeled and covered with vermiculite

A different job today. Working with Alan in the Nursery sowing seeds of exotic plants – Albizia julibrissin rosea (fern-like large shrub, pink), Isoplexis isabelliana (claw-like flowers, orange/yellow) and Strelitzia reginae (Bird of Paradise, orange/yellow) being just three of the dozens sown.

The seeds, which had been soaked in water overnight, were sown in half New Horizon organic, peat-free seed and cutting compost and half vermiculite. This mixture was flattened down carefully in 4” pots and the seeds placed on top. Some of the seeds looked like pieces of fluff, others like caterpillars and pieces of pink tissue paper. These were covered with a layer of sieved vermiculite, watered with a fine rose and covered with clean Perspex.This Perspex will be turned once a day to stop too much moisture dropping on the seeds, then watered once a week.

These were put in the propagating greenhouse, which has 50% green netting on the overhead glass for some shade. Some of the seeds will take 3 months to germinate and can take up to three or more years to flower. Sorry, have I gone on a bit?  It was very interesting.

Jill