What is a girl to do?

[Sweetleaf]

Spare room windowsill?

[mickthecactus]

The said:

Not got a greenhouse or a cold frame, just got a cold dark garage.
Ditch isn't finished and I wasn't expecting to be just yet.
The two borders I dug last year are full.

Just had some plug plants delivered, question is what to do with them

6 Potentilla Monachs Velvet
6 Geum Lady Strathedon
6 Evening Primrose
6 Polemonium Purple Rain
6 Pulsatilla Rubra
and 10 free bare rooted Echinacea Purpurea

Not worried about the 25 Crocosmia Lucifer or 6 Giant Pendula Yellow Begonias though.

E-bay?

[mickthecactus]

The said:

mickthecactus said:

E-bay?

There's just no pleasing some people........

[Sweetleaf]

The said:

sweetleaf2 said:

Spare room windowsill?

In 3" pots? West or east window sill?

west I would say, in extremis I would use both

[4pygmies]

Unless you have a room which stays quite cool I wouldn't keep them indoors actually. Much better, IMO, to invest in some fleece and pot them up to keep outside but well covered for a few weeks. They are all hardy plants and I don't think they'd react very well to a heated windowsill. If you double wrap them I can't see them coming to any harm. Or you could collect some of those big water bottles, cut the bases off and make some mini greenhouses. You could stand them on something insulating like polystyrene to keep the roots protected if it gets very cold.

[4pygmies]

I wonder if you could rig up a quick frame with canes and string that you could stand the plants under, The witch? Then you could tuck a double layer of fleece round and under it and stand your plants outside somewhere they are protected from the worst the weather can throw at us still! I just think they will get too big, too quickly if kept indoors. I don't think that's good for hardy plants really. Have you got any info about where they have been kept prior to sale?

[maggyd]

How about 2 or 3 long plastic storage boxes? stand on some sort of insulation you could burn holes in the lids! just a thought.

[madonplants]

The said:

We rigged up a frame and a very Heath Robinson affair it is too! ;D

I still remember the one that Geoff Hamilton always brought out on GW. Put the frame in the warmest part of the garden as well, where the sun gets it.

Keith

[madonplants]

The said:

The said:

Oh dear - I've got it in the shade.

Which would be best - sun or shade?

You're normally told to put a coldframe in the sun in winter and in partial shade in summer. What options do you have?

Keith

[madonplants]

The said:

madonplants said:

You're normally told to put a coldframe in the sun in winter and in partial shade in summer. What options do you have?

Keith

I've got a sunny patio Keith - should I move it then?

I would, just guard against them drying out, but it's the cold that your protecting them from atm.

Keith

[debbiem]

They had some lovely walk-in plastic greenhouses in our GC yesterday, with four shelves I think, for £39.95 with a zipper door, which you can roll up if need be. As long as you can anchor it down it sounds ideal for your plants.

[madonplants]

debbiem said:

They had some lovely walk-in plastic greenhouses in our GC yesterday, with four shelves I think, for £39.95 with a zipper door, which you can roll up if need be. As long as you can anchor it down it sounds ideal for your plants.

I have one of them, never used it yet, bought it for a previous garden. I have been contemplating putting it up somewhere in the garden here, but just never got around to it. I have the hexagonal one 6ft 4in in diameter, so should fit in a place I looked at yesterday. Need to lift some grass though, so I will wait until the frost has gone.

Keith

[4pygmies]

That's a nifty design isn't it? Just what you need really, and it's very reasonably priced too. Jolly good!

[emseypop]

Glad to hear it The witch. they do look good, I'm thinking the sapce in front of the GH next year

[debbiem]

It looks just the job The witch, really neat. I didn't realize that Amazon had a gardening section, and a really nice selection of mini green houses........I can feel a delve coming on.