Plant out ... and repeat !

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, so am I lying in my hammock with a glass of chilled white in my hand ? No, I am on my knees with my hands in the soil, madly planting out all the tender stuff from the greenhouse which I have grown from seed.

I am hoping that all likelihood of frost is now passed, but this year, who knows ? All I can say is that from past experience it would be most unlikely to have a frost this late. Unlikely ... but not impossible. However, there is so much to get in the earth, that I could not miss the opportunity of a whole, sunny day spent solely in the garden.

There has been little room in the greenhouse since April, as seeds grew into seedlings, and seedlings grew into vigorous young plants. They have taken up every surface and most of the floor too. However, this is the day they have all vacated the greenhouse, and moved out into the big wide world.

The photo above shows some of the plants, and the photo below shows even more ...

Firstly, I planted out lots of Cosmos Cosmonaut in between young box hedging, which has not yet 'joined up' !  I have done this for the past 2 years and when I started planting, I was really pleased to see Cosmos seedlings growing there already, where last year's Cosmos has self- seeded. I had to stake each one because ... well ... dogs + young plants = plants 0, dogs 1!

 For anyone who isn't familiar with Cosmos, it is a fantastic annual, growing into a big feathery plant with lovely single flowers. You can also grow dwarf, and/or semi-double as well. They are easy to grow, seem to flourish in most parts of the garden, and flower forever, as long as they are regularly dead headed. They also make a good cut flower, and the foliage is particularly useful in flower arrangements. 'Cosmonaut' is a lovely pure white semi-double, which is almost luminous at dusk. This variety is earlier to bloom then other Cosmos, and they grow up to about 120 cm, so quite tall. The tall ones do need staking, as they get top heavy with flowers, but the dwarf ones are fine, in my experience.

I have grown Datura again this year as they are very exotic looking but really easy to grow, and I just save seed every year to sow the following Spring. Although the plants are still quite small they are already beginning to flower. Hopefully they will look good in pots and in the sub-tropical garden. I know that they can be overwintered inside, and so grow into very substantial plants/ small trees, but I have managed to kill them off every single year, so I just grow them as annuals now. As you can see, mine are now coming into bloom, nice and early, I may add ! I am not exactly sure if they will be yellow or cream, but I am guessing pale yellow ... watch this space !

My 'Bishop's Children' Dahlias are well grown plants and also ready to begin their new life outside. Again, I treat these as annuals and do not bother to over winter them, as they grow so readily from seed every year. They are offspring of 'Bishop of Llandaff' and are all very dark-leaved, with flowers in reds, russets  or oranges. Very exciting as you never know quite what will occur !

I have also grown Rudbeckia Cherry Brandy and Ricinus Communis from seed, and planted them out today.

Failures ? Oh there have been failures - 3 different kinds of bananas which never germinated, Ammas 'African Queen' which you need a microscope to see, they are so tiny, and Agaves (only 2 have bothered to grow !) ... need I go on ...