Thursday, February 14, 2008

The garden in February

I've been growing a geraniums from seeds the past few seasons. They seem to be far hardier than the ones I buy at the bigboxstores -- many of them survived the summer and are blooming again for a second year. The key, aside from growing them from seed, is to keep them in full shade and very dry throughout the hot/wet season. These are Summer Showers Ivy Geranium (the one on the left) and Ringo Deep Scarlet Geranium, both from Swallowtail. I would rate them generally very easy to grow from seed. It surprises me how rarely people grow them from seed.
My Flordaprince peach started to bloom a bit this weekend. Too early, really, but the cool weather over the past few days should slow things down. I love the geometric patterns on the bark, which are brought into relief by the dormant oil I use to keep scale and other pests at bay.

My collards have finally started growing.

2 comments:

Matron said...

I am so jealous of your lovely warm climate down in Florida. You reminded me that I have some US seeds for collard greens, I must give them a try over here!

Wicked Gardener said...

I never tried to grow geraniums from seed. Might be a good way to try some of the more unusual varieties.