Write out one hundred times ‘I must not go on about the weather’. Well sorry, but bearing in mind my weather station has not recorded a temperature below 3degs C this winter I cannot but go on about the weather, particularly if you recall last winter! Brrr!

Fuchsias, hydrangeas, azaleas, camellias, daffodils, primroses and hellebores all in flower in my garden and a perennial geranium in full flow too! It’s all rather fascinating and I don’t recall it happening quite like this before, but this is the wonder of our seasons. Having just returned from a little trip to the Caribbean it does make me appreciate seasons – they have it easy really, but how dull. The only real challenge for them is a hurricane!

But we have had a lot of rain and if the soil is sodden and the grass squelching then it may tell you where you have drainage issues to attend to, but there is no point in working on the soil or grass as you will do more harm than good.

If you missed the instruction to plant your sweet peas in November then there is still time to do them this month. I planted my seed in April last year and had flowers through to November so it is not always vital to follow the experts’ advice.

It is also time to start petunias, busy lizzies and salvias if you can provide a little warmth indoors or in the greenhouse. Frankly I would have a season off the busy lizzies. They were so damaged by mildew last year many of the big growers have abandoned them until the seed and plants are disease free. Module sowing is perfect for tender annuals and can also be used for sowing seeds of onions and leeks in clusters. If you use 4cm cells then 5-7 seeds in each cell will push up quickly and, rather than thinning out, plant them in a clump and they will push each other apart to form reasonable sized veg. They won’t be thumping great prize winners but it’s a lot less effort and encourages those who don’t want the bother of ‘doing it properly.’

You can do the same with carrots and plant those 15 cm apart. Very easy and encouraging for children. Of course if you want a thumping good prize winner you are far too late. One of the show winners was telling me last week his onion seed, (Kelsey of course, the huge ones) was sown in November.

Don’t be tempted to use last year’s seed compost. If it’s been stored outside all the goodness will be leached out and it may be sour. Use new compost that has been kept under cover by the supplier. Actually I use a multi purpose that has been made from recycled organic materials with very little peat and only from sustainable sources. Seed compost inevitably has heavy peat base and if it is a peat free one make sure you add vermiculite to aid drainage.

So, get too it, the year is well underway and here are some jobs for the month:-

• If you can find a fairly dormant perennial take root cutting. Dig up the plant to be propagated or cut a portion from one side. Wash the soil from the roots. Cut off good roots and trim into sections of about 5cm. Cut off small fibrous roots from the sides and cut the bottom diagonally and the top straight so you know which way up to put them. Put into a gritty mix in a pot with the top just covered and keep cool but frost free. This method can be used for crambe, Japanese anemones, nepeta, oriental poppies and verbascum to name a few.

• Plant tomato seeds this month with a little warmth to get them going. Cherry tomatoes were £7 per kilo last summer, in season. You could supply an entire neighbourhood with that amount spent on seed!

• Alpines are best sown in Jan /Feb; you will still get away with it if done early in the month. Spread seed on a damp, gritty compost and cover with glass to keep the rain off. Leave outside to replicate their alpine home, keeping them cold for a few weeks before the spring warmth allows growth.

• You should have your early potato tubers now, if not go buy some quickly. Rub off all but the best two shoots on the rose (most prolific end), put in an egg tray in a cool but frost free room to bring on the early shoots before planting.

• Plant out hardy broad bean plants.

• Usually until end March you can but bare root plants for hedging, and trees, as I have mentioned before. They are much cheaper than container grown plants. If this is something you are contemplating then I really wouldn’t delay. This season has been tough for growers, the whole point is to lift the plants whilst they are dormant and many of them just haven’t gone dormant. Lifting has therefore been later and the season for bare root looks like being shorter.

• Stake new trees and check that existing stakes are firm and not damaging the bark as the tree moves on a blustery day.

• Start sowing veg seed for plants to plant out end February. Early caulis and cabbage, like Hispi, can be sown now and also early lettuce like Little Gem which doesn’t need a lot of heat.

• If it’s really wet, cover a bit of ground in the veg plot with cloches or polythene sheet which will keep the soil drier and warmer.

• Keep up with the weeding if the soil is not too wet, it will pay dividends later as all last year’s weed seeds are germinating well now.

• If you really want to go for it with seed sowing and have some warmth to give, then just look at the back of the seed packet, it will tell you when to plant seeds and how, either undercover or directly into the ground. I could do with a pound for everyone who says ‘I want to grow veg but don’t know when to sow’.

Finally do not be complacent. February can be the worst month of the year for weather. We may yet see hard frost or prolific snow (cheerful aren’t I!). The new buds on magnolias and rhododendrons could be damaged and the new growth on perennials stopped very quickly. Lawns cut too short will be checked. This could delay spring growth quite severely as all the plants seem to think we are nearly there. I am not a pessimist but a realist and I am really quite excited to know what the weather may bring this month!

January 2012

I caught up on some reading and learning whilst we endured the sub zero temperatures of late November and December (well, November at least! Ed.). It’s a grand opportunity to use the time when I cannot be outside (or more honestly don’t want to be!) to wade through the piles of magazines that come with the territory and RHS membership and which pile up over the months that I am too busy to read them.

If you really are a keen gardener then RHS membership is worth considering. It’s open to anyone and brings a monthly magazine which I think rivals any of the publications on the general market.

And so, with due acknowledgement to RHS ‘The Garden’ (the last six months copies), the Saturday Telegraph garden supplement (which comes in my stack of newspapers for collecting chicken poo from my Mum) and the CLA magazine (which I am assured is not only for posh people as I always thought) I have selected some items of news for your January reading that I found interesting.

I have discovered the new apple ‘Redlove’. I had been doing some research on Cornish apple trees for a customer and came across this new breed that has apparently taken 20 years to breed in Switzerland and is a bright red apple with red flesh, very juicy and full flavoured apparently. Its red flesh has a white heart pattern inside and it is claimed to be high in antioxidants and doesn’t go brown when cooked or just cut open. It’s on a dwarf rootstock so could be grown in a pot, is disease resistant and has a rare deep pink blossom. Sounds almost too good to be true and it is a new introduction and so currently is quite expensive. As with all new things I would hang on for the breeders to produce more, to bring the price down and for testing on the appetising claims. That also reminds me of a friend who paid £7,000 for a small Wollemi pine, the one discovered in New Zealand that they thought was extinct, and five years or so later I am able to sell them for £40…..!

Also this week I discovered a lovely line of elm trees in a customer’s garden. I thought all the elms had pretty much disappeared particularly where they were in larger colonies, leaving only a few individuals around but these are very healthy. In the same week I read that elms could return to the streets of London under a new project called Ulmus Londinium. The aim is to plant an elm in every road that has the word elm in its title. It will also map every surviving elm tree in London thus giving a full picture of the survivors of the Dutch elm disease which struck in the 1970s. This disease was a fungus ophiostoma novo-ulmi which was spread by the elm bark beetle but two specific elm species seemed to survive it and it is these two varieties Ulmus Sapporo ‘Autumn Gold’ and Ulmus Americana ‘Princeton’ of which 1,000 will be planted.

There is also a national campaign being launched to plant one million trees over the life time of the new parliament. The RHS, Woodland Trust, Forestry Commission and Defra are coordinating a giveaway of packs of native trees to local community groups. The point here is that trees offer a range of benefits, particularly in urban areas from storing carbon to stabilising soil, creating wildlife habitats, providing shade and shelter and of course wood.

Now we have all heard of sudden oak death and it seems not many plants will ultimately be immune. Larch plantations are succumbing quickly, 58 plantations in England and Wales are affected and many of the larches at Idless have been removed together with other conifers. Until 2009 the disease was confined mainly to rhododendrons but about 130 species of plant have now been found to be infected including many but not all of the oaks (but including holm oaks of which we grow many in Cornwall), beech, horse and sweet chestnut, sycamore, viburnum, camellia, magnolia and many of the conifer species. It is prevalent in the west and south west and concerned owners should look for wilting on leaves during the growing period and resinous bleeds in branches and trunks. The only way to stop the spread is to fell but there is no evidence that the sawn timber cannot be used or affects the spread.

Also in our area, Natural England has found 10 new colonies of a rare moss species. Leptodontium gemmascens lives mainly on thatched roofs. The National Trust is asking thatch owners to look at their roofs and identify the moss from their web site and inform them so a full picture of its habitats can be made.

Fuchsia gall mite was first detected in Britain in 2007 and this was only when a concerned gardener sent a fuchsia to the RHS to identify its problem (this service is invaluable and open to RHS members). The gall is a microscopic mite that feeds on the plant’s shoot tips and flower buds and causes severely distorted growth. Fuchsias, of course, have died back now but check those cosseted in greenhouses. We know the gall mite has got to Devon and it needs to be kept away from us. The only prevention is to burn infected plants.

Another strange bit of news I picked up, an Argentinean botanist has found a fossilised daisy. Fossilised pollen grains and seeds are not uncommon but a full daisy flower completely fossilised is said to prove that daisies existed 47.5 million years ago in the mid Eocene epoch when modern mammals and plants were becoming more widespread. The daisy had a large flower head several centimetres across.

The daylight hours are increasing at last although I never feel comfortable until I have seen what February has to offer. At least I know spring may be somewhere around the corner. A happy and prosperous New Year to all!