Can’t wait for spring to get growing? Try the versatile, fast-growing cup and saucer plant
Fragrant and colourful, your future self will thank you for getting these flowering vines started earlyHow was your January, did you brave the cold to sow something? I didn’t. But that’s because I made a vow several years ago not to sow seeds in January as it is not the best use of my time. Most things only really get going once the days get longer – of at least equal length to the nights, meaning around the spring equinox on 20 March. Sowing before then, for me at least, means lots of little trays of soil on resting on windowsills and propped under windows on boxes – fussing at a time when I want to be as unfussy as possible.There are, however, a couple of plants that break this rule. Nicotiana is one – for the scent come summer – but even more compelling is Cobaea scandens, a superfast climber (scandens means “staircase”) that delivers cut-worthy flowers for months on end. I have rarely been more grateful for the actions of my former self than when marvelling at the fat purple flowers merrily blooming in a sycamore tree, three metres above where it had been planted. I’d sown them nearly a year before – it was the middle of December. Continue reading...
Fragrant and colourful, your future self will thank you for getting these flowering vines started early
How was your January, did you brave the cold to sow something? I didn’t. But that’s because I made a vow several years ago not to sow seeds in January as it is not the best use of my time. Most things only really get going once the days get longer – of at least equal length to the nights, meaning around the spring equinox on 20 March. Sowing before then, for me at least, means lots of little trays of soil on resting on windowsills and propped under windows on boxes – fussing at a time when I want to be as unfussy as possible.
There are, however, a couple of plants that break this rule. Nicotiana is one – for the scent come summer – but even more compelling is Cobaea scandens, a superfast climber (scandens means “staircase”) that delivers cut-worthy flowers for months on end. I have rarely been more grateful for the actions of my former self than when marvelling at the fat purple flowers merrily blooming in a sycamore tree, three metres above where it had been planted. I’d sown them nearly a year before – it was the middle of December. Continue reading...
