A short update regarding a couple of plants which are still surviving the winter now in to February.
Geranium ‘T&M’s Choice Mixed’ F1 Hybrid & Petunia ‘Easy Wave’
I have 2 plants which are still alive outside now into February. One is a zonal geranium (pelargonium) and the other, which is not just one, but a number of plants of petunia. These are in various locations around the back garden, the geranium is in a clay pot on the front wall. Neither have had any special protection, other than the geranium has a wall for protection from one side, it has got a bit straggly now. Normally I would have taken this in the greenhouse late autumn for cutting material, but the longer it has lasted, the more curious I am to see how much more it can survive. The petunias actually look quite green and healthy.
To be honest, it has not been a severe winter yet, we have had a fair number of frosts around here and some bad enough to leave car windscreens in need of a defrosting before setting off for work, but not the prolonged deep frosts that usually put paid to bedders well before now. Last year wasn’t too tough a winter either, but we did get a few early severe frosts around November/December that finished off many borderline plants outside.
The pictures here are of a zonal geranium (pelargonium) which has been outside since late spring 2013, and petunia plants which are dotted around the garden in various containers.
I will update further on their progress through the winter months.
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- Zonal geranium (pelargonium)
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- Petunias
I am 56 yrs young, and have been married to Joy for over 35 years, We have 2 children and 3 grandchildren, and have an allotment on the Notts/Derbys border. I am RHS trained to level 2 and have also passed a course in herbalism, I have had the allotment for about 20 years, that is mainly for the veg growing, whereas at home I grow fruit and have a love of anything big leaved, exotic-y looking, jungly type plants. I also help run a gardening forum at garden-friends.co.uk.
Luci,Thanks so much for looking at my new blog. I have to say that it is great to be witnirg again, both for the blog and for the book. I’ll let you know when the new book comes out, I think you are going to like it!Happy Gardening,Mel
It’s now in to May and both are going strong so the geranium and petunias both survived the mild winter outside
I’ve been amazed at how well our pelargoniums have survived – one of our trailing ones has a flower on at the moment, not sure how long that will last with the winds at the minute!
Yes mine is still going strong Sheila at 12th Feb, I think a run of prolonged frosts usually does them in but not had it that severe as yet (fingers crossed)
More unusual maybe … I planted some Poached Egg Plant seeds by my rockery last spring. They didn’t get big enough to flower in the summer, but when I was in the garden a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that one of them had several flowers and buds on it. That must be unusual, as they are annuals, surely?
Limnanthes are mostly described as annuals Patricia, but on the RHS site they list them as Annual/Biennial and they can be planted later on in the year to overwinter and flower in the Spring just as yours are doing, like you said they didn’t get big enough to flower and complete their cycle so will do that this year instead