Product Description
You may not know this, but I am a multiple RHS medal winner for our past Franchi seed gardens at Hampton Court Flower Festival. We worked in the past doing joint gardens with charities for send children, with the Eden Project, with Borough Market and with Slow Food UK along with designs for our own gardens. Since covid we decided to get trade stands and I particularly love chatting to our customers because I hear which varieties have struggled, always about the slugs, how it is (apparently!) too late to sow anything in July, how ‘”well this time last year……” and of course not only the British, but the Gardeners obsession with talking about the weather! We also get a lot “I didn’t know your also did flowers….”
Let me address some of those points, tongue in cheek of course –
- “What has done well and what has struggled” – I work on the premise that if it is a good year for some things, it must be a bad year for others. You cannot have a year that favours all vegetables and fruits equally. Sometimes you just have to take it on the chin!
- “Slugs” – doesn’t matter if they are abundant or not, they are apparently ALWAYS the bain of our lives as gardeners it seems. Remember though also that they are food for frogs and hedgehogs, birds and foxes, beetles and chickens too.
- “Too late to sow in July” – Sow any brassica in July like pac choy, cauliflower, cabbage, sprouts, broccoli, kohl rabi etc. Sow any leaf in July like spinach, basil, rocket, lambs tongue.. to lettuce, chicory and chard . Additionally you can sow radish, fennel and artichoke plus biennial and perennial flowers.
- “Well this time last year” – Every year is different. Last spring was the wettest ever recorded. This spring is the driest since 1964 and the hottest spring and summer ever recorded. Sow by the seasons, by the weather, not the suggested sowing date on the seed packet! So don’t expect the same results every year, it depends on so many different factors.
- “The weather” – him upstairs rules and we have to work around him in the garden. Greenhouses, cloches and polytunnels can be used to help with great effect.
- “Didn’t know you also did flowers” – we do and RHS shows are the best place for us to show them off. Us vegetable growers need bees to pollinate our plants, and bees and other pollinators need flower growers! It’s a win win win.
So being a festival of flowers, we bought down a stand full including these for sowing now which proved very popular, some being featured in show gardens. So no veg this month, instead an offer of flowers for sowing now or next season at a great price including:
Field Poppies ‘da campo’ – Sow Aug-Oct. Easy to grow mix of cream, yellow and orange cups often found in meadows.
Gypsophila Elgans – Sow Mar-Sep. Pure white, favoured for wedding bouquets and displays, ideal for arrangements.
Swiss Pansey Viola Tricolor – Sow Jun to Aug. Colourful classic. 15cm border/container flower with velvety petals which add a splash of colour over a long season. Resistant to cold.
Lupin Multicolor – Sow Aug- Oct. Perennial 120cm tall. A classic cottage garden flower, popular at the show this year.
Campanula Carpatica – Sow Apr-Oct. Perennial. 30cm tall. Produces numerous intense violet bell flowers. Prefers sun. Ideal for borders and balconies.
You can purchase these 5 varieties for sowing now and next spring at an excellent price of just £8.99 delivered and the prospect of beautiful blooms next year in your garden when over winter you would normally be quiet in the veg plot. Subject to availability, if sold out we may substitute with a similar variety.
Stay hydrated in the garden and don't forget your hat/sun cream - I am an SJA Emergency Responder by night so....
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Paolo
Franchi Seeds 1783
