On 29/09/2012 19:06, Baz wrote:
Sacha wrote in
:

On 2012-09-29 14:53:43 +0100, stuart noble
said:

On 29/09/2012 14:12, Baz wrote:
stuart noble wrote in
:

I see Unwins are advising people to sow sweet peas now. I'm in
favour of early sowing, but surely not till the current plants have
stopped blooming. Are there any other flowers that can be
germinated in Autumn and will survive the winter in a cold frame?
Nice to see something growing when it's so dismal outside


IME Unwins T&M and Suttons are madly expensive for anything. And
they lie!

What I have bought this first year of something to look at in the
garden during winter.

http://tinyurl.com/d2qfb3v

Not sweet peas but nice to see something growing when it's so dismal
outside.

Baz



Last winter was bad for violas and pansies round here. Most died and
others looked very feeble until the spring. I think coming out of a
hothouse into an English winter was maybe too much of a shock

Do buy them from someone who grows them 'hard'. It pays dividends for
the gardener but those coming in off huge lorries and going out
through cash points may have been over-cosseted.

Can't we harden them off ourselves? Have I got the wrong end of the stick?
Again.

Baz

I think the damage is already done by the time they appear on the
shelves. A lot of mine became top heavy and keeled over as though they
were being strangled at ground level. Even as plug plants they looked a
little potbound and the roots are too delicate to separate. I tried
cutting through the root ball with scissors but, what with the weather
and some sort of winter hardy greenfly, difficult to know what did for
them in the end.