I have been growing plants since I was just 5 years old! My obsession started early. I have so many memories of gardening with my Nana and Granddad in their garden. I also sneaked lots of plants home, soon taking over my parents garden, and denying my father the ground to grow his regular beetroot crop!…
I have been growing plants since I was just 5 years old! My obsession started early. I have so many memories of gardening with my Nana and Granddad in their garden. I also sneaked lots of plants home, soon taking over my parents garden, and denying my father the ground to grow his regular beetroot crop! In this blog, I want to explore some of the plants I used to grow back then. In recent years, those plants may have become less popular, BUT quite a few of them are about to come back WITH A BANG!
Salpiglossis are like Petunias on stilts! My Nana and I used to grow them from seed, they were always the most spindly seedlings. Like me as a teenager I guess! This variety is ‘Kew Blue’, classic and gorgeous!
We used to grow Coleus as a houseplant and- shock horror- let it flower! It was the multi-coloured leaved one. This new one is called ‘Campfire’ and it’s for growing on the patio!
Marigolds were, and still are, a staple choice for bedding. However, ‘Strawberry Blonde’ mixes it up a bit, with fresh germplasm, and an ALMOST pink colour!
Ooh, the Cockscomb! When I was 7 years old, that wasn’t smut. I was so innocent. These Celosia cristata types are coming back, as cut flowers or border plants.
Another type of Celosia, this time plumosa. Me and Nana used to grow these from seed, and use them as short-lived houseplants. Nowadays they are seen as super trendy, and it’s almost like nobody’s ever seen them before!
Gloxy’s, also known as Gloxinia. We grew these from seed too, and sometimes from leaf cuttings. They are really a houseplant, but will grow outdoors in shade like Begonias!
Calceolaria is just fun with a capital F! The slipper flower is easy to grow, and- excitingly- there are new, OUTDOOR hardy ones you can grow too!
Godetia, some know it as Clarkia, is frothy and easy from seed. Me and Nana always grew this one, and I remember the look of the seedlings so vividly. A refined choice for a cottage garden border now!
Succulents! They are UBER trendy and flooding my Instagram feeds every day. Well, I feel like I was the first to discover them, at just 8 years old, growing varieties like ‘Jelly Beans’ and those Senecio that look like kinky beads!
Me and my Nana used to grow the tall, late flowering mixes like ‘Sensation’. We could have only dreamt of a variety so gorgeous as ‘Cupcakes’- this particular bloom looks a bit like a jellyfish too, don’t you think?!
Sweet-nectared blooms of a dangling Hoya! My Nana used to tell me the nectar was sweet like sugar, is that true or was she trying to poison me?!
Hold up! Nana would have not have believed this specimen! We loved growing Hyacinths in glass vases, and ‘Midnight Mystic’ is a huge WOW FACTOR, with black flowers!
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