Garden Centre

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Shame corner – the greenhouse

I just found these two poor babies, like the babes in the wood, hidden beneath and behind a heap of pots that were in the corner of one of the shelves in the greenhouse.

They’ve grown all in one direction, as if they were Tradescantia, and I had to lop about five inches of pendant growth from each one when I repotted them, but they had a brilliant root ball so I’m confident that they will survive the decapitation.

They are dianthus, a supposed perennial that never survives the winter in our heavy clay. I took the cuttings from a friend’s garden and then totally forget about them. They’ve survived six months in a small pot of John Innes #2 which suggests they are amazingly hardy (and undemanding) but I know that unless I remember to lift them in autumn and put them in the greenhouse, they will rot below ground and as soon as I brush against them in the late winter, they will fall apart as if only held together by spiderwebs and the memory of once being a viable plant.

As far as I can recall, they are single, red and very fragrant. I love the smell of pinks, of all kinds, and these appealed to me as the little red flowers against the silver-grey foliage were dramatic and appealing.

So I’ve replanted, lopped and installed on the kitchen windowsill to give them a chance to recover and be turned round every few days so they grow straight(er). I’ll pop them back out into the heated greenhouse in February and get at least one summers’ scent out of them.

I am a bit ashamed of myself though – plant neglect is not one of my usual sins and these two are obviously tough beasts to have made it this far.

Labels: cold greenhouse, dianthus, overwintering perennials

The All Seasons Gardener at 7:21 AM

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