Tomato seedlings have got two chances.


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Last weekend, planning for a short break of 4 nights in Northumberland, I decided to sow my 40 different tomato seeds in individual pots covered in clingfilm, hoping they would be well on their way to germinating indoors when we got back yesterday. I had bought new seed from Franchi Italian Seeds and used really good compost as we had a very bad yield last year. Also saved piccolo seeds from last year. I asked my daughter who is still at home at 35 to watch over them and take the cling film off those that were shooting. She’s not a stranger to this process as have been doing this for years. We have a greenhouse and polytunnel at the allotment, hence the large number.

 

When we got back yesterday 90% had come through big time and were in danger of bolting and she had forgotten all about them and not taken the clingfilm off. Aghhhh.

I have taken the bull by the horns and put them in my greenhouse without the clingfilm and covered with cloches to try and slow them down a bit. The only cold night we are forecast is tomorrow so will have to keep checking them. Hopefully all will be ok.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I sent for some plug plants. (Flowers) have had some before not a huge sucess but one trys this years decided to get felt pots so when plants have grown they can go straight into the ground. Well plant's looking well placed in a propergater in the green house. Bad Bad misteak even though only a llittle water given the felt post more or less ended up wet, very very wet, and falling to bits. so tried to re-pot plants at the moment jurys out on how many will live/die. So warning don't waste your money on these type of pots. Or maybe don't place them in your propergater. 

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Mary, I sympathise and can visualise your reaction! I grow all my peas and beans in cardboard toilet roll inners and then when ready just plant the whole thing in the ground . I stand them up in a seed tray 20 to a small one and 40 to a big one so they remain pretty stable but you have to be so careful not to over water them as they go mouldy. If I didn’t stack them next to each other they would collapse too. Trial and error as with most things I guess but annoying when you’ve paid for them.  GOOD LUCK.

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Thanks Mrs B 

When I was young my father had a very large alopment and a I spent most of my school holidays up there one day he said this bit of garden is yours the bit of garden I was given was about 6ft x 6ft since then allways loved gardning. My father always grew Roses and Chrysanthemum for shows he won quite a few prizes. He would cover the Chrysamthemums flower heads with bags so that when they went to the show the flower heads were perfect,  but humans being what they are, one night, some-one broke into the alopment and chopped all the flowers heads off,. the next week   he sold the alopment and called it a day.

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Mary, we have a lot in common. My dad used to grow all our fruit n veg at Tollerton and had a passion for roses. He was a member of the Rose Society. We have a full size allotment and all the varieties of roses he grew are up there. My favourite is the climber “Ena Harkness” which we had growing over our porch at home and now have one at the allotment over an arbour. Amazing scent and she always droops her blooms so ideal for training over something. Have you been to David Austin Roses? Great for a day out in the summer when they are all in bloom.

We also have break ins, the last one being a couple of weeks ago with things stolen. Fortunately we don’t keep much up there now and they don’t vandalise anything (not up till now anyway!)

How is your back?

Mrs B

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My Dad liked his roses and often had a Harry Wheatcroft catalogue lying about. He had a small but nice collection of Hybrid Tea roses in our front garden, including an Ena Harkness HT bush.  Those were the days in the late 1950s to early 1960s, when local folks would stroll down the street in Summer, admiring plants in folks' front gardens....as they processed down to the Deerstalker for a quiet Sunday evening drink. ( And this was on a ..Gasp!!.. Council Estate!!! ) Sunday was traditionally the evening when the blokes would take 'the Missus' down to the pub, eschew the Public Bar for the 'Lounge', and sit in their best bib and tucker looking bored stiff..:laugh:.

 

I wasn't aware that there was a climbing 'sport' of Ena Harkness available.  I'm looking for a nice, bright, climber too go on the corner of a fence in my garden, but that is a dark North West facing corner and pretty shaded. I really fancy a yellow HT climber if there's one which will cope..but Ena Harkness would do at a pinch.

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8 hours ago, MRS B said:

Mary, we have a lot in common. My dad used to grow all our fruit n veg at Tollerton and had a passion for roses. He was a member of the Rose Society. We have a full size allotment and all the varieties of roses he grew are up there. My favourite is the climber “Ena Harkness” which we had growing over our porch at home and now have one at the allotment over an arbour. Amazing scent and she always droops her blooms so ideal for training over something. Have you been to David Austin Roses? Great for a day out in the summer when they are all in bloom.

We also have break ins, the last one being a couple of weeks ago with things stolen. Fortunately we don’t keep much up there now and they don’t vandalise anything (not up till now anyway!)

How is your back?

Mrs B

Hi Mrs B  sorry i was young when  farther grew roses can't remember any names, but we had a summer house on the alopment with a celler and before shows the one's he was taking with him would be placed  in the celler where it was cold and dark. We lived up St Ann's so it was St Ann's Rose show at Gladstone Liberal Club.

When Dad passed away on his were  placed four roses  one from mum whos bouquet had been made up by dad for her wedding day it was a dark red one named Crimson Glory,  my eldest brother chose a Pink named Breath of Life, a yellow tea rose, from myself ,called Bright Smile , my youger brother chose The White Rose of Peace, so dad would rest in peace.

 

David Austin Roses?  never been down to his Rose centre would love to go but with mobilty I think it's not possible. I have sent for quite a few of his Rose's they are just beautifull but where we live not do not have a garden just a patio, but I do have a couple of his Rose's in tub's, 

ps hope your tommer's are going well 

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Col, generally roses love sunny spots but if you go on David Austin’s website davidaustinroses.co.uk they have a section for varieties that will survive in shade and you can see if there are any you fancy. Our back garden is north east facing and we had a rose “Danse de Feu” which I was hoping to train over the kitchen window. It hated the situation but when I transferred it to the allotment in full sun it thrived. 
I don’t know why people think roses are so difficult to grow, they’re easy if you do it right. I was very lucky to be trained by the master my dad though!

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I love roses and David Austin do some fabulous ones.  We had Dorothy Perkins, the rambler, in the back garden of my childhood home and I've always had a soft spot for that one.

 

Felicitee et Perpetue is another gorgeous rose which I had trained over an arch at my previous house. I saw one at the garden centre in Moorgreen only last week. I have nowhere suitable for it here, sadly.

 

I have lots of roses which were already in the garden when I moved here. The previous owner worked at a garden centre, so the garden was stuffed with plants! One rose I have never managed to identify is apricot in colour and actually smells of apricots!

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I may be mistaken but I remember seeing a Wheatcroft's sign somewhere near Coventry Lane when I was a child.  We often passed that way en route to see my grandparents and the sign was in a field on my left side as a passenger in the car.

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My dad often got mistaken for Harry as he too wore checks and had a magnificent handlebar moustache. Wheatcrofts was on what is now the ring road going up to Clifton Bridge I believe.

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Harry Wheatcroft opened our school Summer Fete in 1965.  My Dad’s real garden passion was roses and he bought stocks every year and would often go to Wheatcrofts or Gregory’s, which is now a garden centre on the A52 near Toton, and pinch buds to graft onto the stocks. I seem to recall that Harry lived on a hill overlooking the rose fields and Dad was always worried that he was sitting up there with binoculars and he’d get caught nicking buds.  I still have all my Dad’s rose annuals from the 50s and 60s. 

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I've posted this before somewhere, but......

 

I first became aware of Harry Wheatcroft in the 1960s because a lady near where we lived at Clifton acted  as child-minder for some of his children. He would bring and collect them from her house (in his Jaguar) whilst flashing his extravagant whiskers.

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There was another rose grower at Lowdham, Knights. I knocked Mr. Knights daughter off her bike on the Epperstone bypass. I was driving a Triumph Spitfire and she just turned 90 degrees in front of me and I had no chance of stopping. She took to the air and landed on the verge on the opposite side of the road. The collision was witnessed by a minibus full of policemen who were travelling in the opposite direction so I was exonerated of any wrongdoing. She suffered no harm but my bonnet was slightly dented!

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I have been successful in producing two new roses just from stems off my “Gentle Hermione” which has a beautiful scent. Why anyone named it that though I have no idea, it has thorns on it like sharks teeth. I’m glad so many people love roses on here.

I am doing a talk and slide show to the Inner Wheel tonight about Britain in Bloom. Worth doing as I get a free meal thrown in…..

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On 4/3/2023 at 10:23 AM, philmayfield said:

 I remember Harry Wheatcroft

my late father in law worked at Wheatcrofts for a spell. clearing out his old gardening journals, I have a splendid handwritten diary of the preparations leading up to their display for the Chelsea show in 1962. Early morning shifts to inspect every plant, nicotine sprays (!) to ward off insects. Trips to nearby farms to collect gallons of watered manure (mostly chicken). And all the while under the watchful eye of a couple of terrifying head gardeners, and occasionally a large gentleman with a ridiculous moustache.

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22 hours ago, oldphil said:

my late father in law worked at Wheatcrofts for a spell.

Did Wheatcroft's used to have a nursery at Spring Hill on Fiskerton Rd or was it at the top of either Edingley or Hallam hills ? Turn right on Church St at what is now The Coach House, I seem to remember it having another name what did it used to be called? Then up the hill until just after Pollards Lane.

I think it is now Southwell Garden Centre.

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The one near Fiskerton was Merryweather’s. Land round Halam hill belonged to the Starkey family. What is now Southwell Garden Centre was set up by the notorious Colin Stone and was bought by my friend Dave Cook who previously had Happy Pet Products at Caudwell’s mill. He sold it on when he retired.

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I think for some reason the Pub was named The Fox corner of Church st .  I could of course be wrong  but this fox just keeps comming into my brain box.

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