Sowing

The beautiful weather of the last few days has propelled us into seed sowing mode.  The majority of our seeds are for annuals; gap fillers and punctuation points to be squeezed into spaces that we have left or that may appear due to the demise of a previous incumbent.

For height we have opted for multi headed  sunflowers and have included ‘Buttercream’ and ‘Ring of Fire’ in our selection.  We’ve also added the unusual and understated 6ft tall Rudbeckia ‘Green Wizard’ to this list - a flower that is virtually petal-less.

Topping them all might be the Ricinus we have sown.  Labelled POISON in an unmissable bright red font  these huge  castor oil plants can reach 8 feet in a few months and boast huge palmate leaves.  We’ve chosen zanzibarensis and ‘Red Giant’.  They should team up well with our Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm, Miscanthus, and Dahlias, giving a touch of the tropics to one corner of the garden.

We have of course included the border stalwart, cosmos. This year we’re trying the beautiful looking ‘Cupcakes’ series.  At about 3 feet tall they have unique pink flowers with fused petals that are formed into a perfect cupcake! These are just a few of our choices and it won’t  be long before we’re sowing in the vegetable garden too.