I have recently started reflecting on where plants in our garden are originally from, because people often ask me the same question about myself. Most of our flowers, fruits, veggies and herbs in the garden are from other countries. I have started writing a series of blog posts to explore some of our favourite flowers and edibles we have grown over the years which are from overseas. In this post, I would like to cover some flowers we have grown in our garden that are thought to originate from South America. Begonias I enjoy growing both tuberous and fibrous begonias, which are both native to South America. I grow tuberous begonias in 18 litre square black plastic pots filled with container mix and keep the plants in a protected area, as they like to be sheltered from wind. I won’t write much about fibrous (bedding) begonias, as I recently wrote a blog post about growing them from seed, which you can read here. There are pictures in the post as well. Hippeastrums I also grow hippeastrums in containers and keep them in our patio, as they too like being in a sheltered area. I use round 9 litre containers for these plants. You can source bulbs from mail order bulb suppliers or at your local garden centre. Here are a few photos of plants from previous years. Note that some varieties are even named after cities in South America, which is a testament to their origins. Petunias
I love growing petunias every summer. You can get so many varieties nowadays, including special petunias which are sold in a 1 litre pot, like Night Sky and Queen of Hearts. Last summer, I grew petunias from seed for the first time and was very pleased with the results. I sowed the following varieties. All of these are available from the Egmont Seeds Commercial Catalogue, which is available from Egmont Seeds upon request (it is different to the home gardener’s catalogue which is on the website).
The process for raising seedlings was very similar to the way I raised bedding begonias from seed (see above for the link to the blog post I wrote about this subject). I started sowing petunias from seed in early spring (September for us). I sowed one or two seeds in each cell of a 198-cell seedling tray and kept it in a large incubator on my heat pad to germinate. Once the seedlings germinated, I moved the tray into our greenhouse so the plants could grow a bit more. Once they were large enough, I carefully transplanted the seedlings into a 72-cell seedling tray, which has larger cells. Towards the end of spring, I moved the trays from our greenhouse to the patio, to harden them off. Exposing them to outdoor temperatures gradually, in a controlled manner like this reduces the shock when the plants are finally exposed to the great outdoors. By December, the plants were large enough to be planted outside. Here is a picture of some of my petunias in bloom.
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Last summer, I grew bedding begonias (begonia semperflorens) from seed. This wasn’t my first attempt. The first year that I grew bedding begonias from seed, I scattered the seeds in a punnet and covered them with seed raising mix. The germination rate was poor, probably because the seed raising mix was too thick for covering such fine seeds and they struggled to push through the surface. The seedlings were stuck together and the roots became damaged when I tried to prise them apart later on when transplanting them into 6-cell punnets. Thanks to some advice from the extremely helpful John McCullough, the owner of Egmont Seeds, the New Zealand mail order seed supplier that I purchased my seeds from, I managed to perfect my propagation technique last year and was very happy with the results. My favourite colours are bronze leaf white and pink and green leaf white, so I stuck to varieties that fitted this description. All of these were in the Egmont Seeds Commercial Catalogue, which is available from the company upon request. They will send you a link or you can ask if you can purchase a hard copy. This is the catalogue that commercial nurseries use and is different to the catalogue on the website and which is posted to home gardeners every winter. If you order from the catalogue year after year and meet the threshold of the minimum spend, they will send you a complimentary copy by post. Last year, I grew the following varieties from seed:
It is possible to find bedding begonias at garden centres in 6-cell punnets or as potted colour. This is ideal if you only have a small garden or haven’t grown bedding begonias before and want to see if you like them or not. If you need a lot of plants then it is much more economical to raise them from seed, especially since plants have become much more expensive since the pandemic. If you require a lot of plants that are the same colour, it is definitely better to propagate plants from seed as garden centres may have limited colours and numbers of plants. Don’t forget that other people go to the garden centre too and may have already purchased some from the tray, so there might not be enough for your requirements. If this is the case, you could try asking if the garden centre can order what you need from the grower. Here are my top tips for growing bedding begonias from seed:
In the picture above, you can also see some other plants I raised from seed last summer. Behind the trough is Malabar Spinach. To the right are some Climbing Cobra runner beans. Infront of the trough are African marigolds. I have recently written a blog post about growing marigolds, which you can read here if you want.
A couple of days before we went into lockdown in August last year, I had my laptop sent away for repairs. I only got it back three months later, which meant that I could not write any blog posts. While it is a long time ago now, I would really like to share a report on our spring and early summer garden. Everything went really well. It only went downhill in summer, but that is the subject of another post! Miner's lettuce A firm favourite in our spring garden is miner’s lettuce. In September, I prepare a small area by mixing in a bit of compost and garden fertiliser. I then sprinkle a 10g packet of seeds and cover lightly with soil. At this time of the year, it is not usually necessary for me to keep the area moist as it rains a lot. The leaves are tender and delicious. We harvest them as we need them. At the end of spring, it runs to seed and if left there, the plants will happily self-seed the following season. NZ Spinach Another favourite in our garden is NZ Spinach. I sowed our plants from seed over the summer and planted them out in autumn. NZ Spinach is difficult to get established but once it takes off it spreads and ends up growing in a bit of a bush. We pick the leaves for our daily green smoothies. The leaves can also be steamed as with any other spinach Sprouting broccoli In July, I planted quite a few punnets of mini brassicas that I purchased from Roger’s, including broccoli. After we harvested the main head, I left the plant in the ground and side-shoots began to form. This kept us with a constant supply of broccoli all spring, right up until mid-December when the plants started going to seed and I needed the space for the dahlias. Potatoes Last spring, I grew two varieties. I always grow Liseta, an early variety which matures in 70-80 days. I also grow Summer Delight, a main crop potato which matures in around 120 days and stores very well. We had a really good crop and have been enjoying eating potatoes from our garden right up until February. Broad beans We had an incredibly good crop last year. We ended up freezing lots. To freeze broad beans, shell and blanch them first. Strawberries Awapuni very kindly gave me two mega bundles of strawberries to grow in our garden. There were two varieties, Camarosa and Ventana. Each bundle contained 50 plants. They were honestly the best strawberries that we have ever eaten and I have been growing strawberries for many years now. I highly recommend Awapuni’s plants! Avocados We planted a Cleopatra dwarf avocado tree in 2017 and it cropped for the first time last spring. We harvested about 60 avocados which was a great result. Iceland poppies I grew Iceland poppies for the first time last year in a garden bed alongside our driveway. I was very inspired by the displays that I have seen in council gardens. Ours did not disappoint and we had a beautiful display in spring. Early summer poppies Every year, a number of different kinds of single and peony poppies self-seed merrily in the garden. Last year, we had a spectacular display. Tulips Last year, Bulbs Direct kindly gave me a number of different tulips to grow in our garden. We had the most magnificent display in late winter and early spring. Here are some of my favourites. Roses Our roses always look their best in spring and last year they put on a spectacular display. Here are some of our favourites. Bedding plants
Here are some photos of our bedding plants in early spring |
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