Happy New Year
If you bought pot plants for Christmas or if you received one as a gift, I hope they are still going strong!
To help you keep your plants looking good for as long as possible, here are some useful guidelines.
Poinsettias
The classic Christmas houseplant, the poinsettia is easy to look after provided it is kept warm and out of draughts. You can allow it to get rather dry, though never completely dry, but it must never be allowed to sit in water! A spot near a window, but not in direct sun, is ideal.
As the plants age, the small, yellow flowers in the centre of each rosette of bracts, will open and drop off but the red (or pink or cream) bracts should last for many months.
If plants are cold, badly watered or chilled, the leaves may drop off. In bad conditions the bracts will drop off too.
By the time we get to March, the choice is then yours. Do you keep it or just throw it out? You can keep your plant but it will need to be pruned and repotted to grow on all summer.
Cyclamen
The pot plant cyclamen you can buy at Nags Hall are all variations of Cyclamen persicum, whether they are sold for indoor use or the smaller, hardier kinds sold for patio pots. Although the smaller kinds are sold for outdoor use they make excellent windowsill plants.
These cyclamen prefer cooler and brighter conditions than poinsettias. They withstand quite low temperatures and they are perfect for sunny windowsills. They hate to be sat in water and it is far better to allow them to dry out than keep them constantly moist. It is important not to allow water to settle between the leaf bases so always water from below. Pour water into the pot cover, allow the plant to soak it up for 30 minutes and then drain away the excess.
If the spot you have chosen for your cyclamen is too warm and dark the leaves will start to go yellow and new flowers will be pale. Old flowers and leaves should be removed by twisting and tugging them off. Do not cut them off or you will leave fragments that can rot.
Cyclamen can live and bloom for many months and feeding once every few weeks can help flower production.
On the patio, these small cyclamen can bloom for ages but rain and cold often kills them. Where they get overhead protection from rain and frost they will last much longer and they may even die back in summer and flower again the next year but this is potential but not usual in our wet climate. If kept in the home, they can be dried off in summer and restarted in autumn to bloom again next year.
Azalea
If you received an azalea you can look forward to a mass of fluffy, sumptuous blooms. The Christmas azalea is not completely hardy and plants are kept warm to stimulate early flowers. Even so, these plants prefer cool, bright conditions. If kept too warm the flowers will not last long and small, unopened buds, covered in brown scales, will not develop.
It is essential that azaleas do not dry out at any time. They are usually potted into small pots and they need frequent watering. It is even acceptable to allow them to stand in a little water to be sure they don’t dry out. Plants will withstand temperatures down to freezing so even the coldest room in the house will suit them.
In theory you can keep these plants to bloom another year but they will need to be repotted into acid compost and kept growing all summer, ideally in shade outside, and they will bloom again next April or May. If you have a small, sheltered, shady garden that does not get frost, you can try these outside. But they are generally not suitable for growing outside.
Does it need watering?
Watering is the most difficult job when keeping houseplants. You cannot just give the same amount every day or week! How much a plant needs varies according to temperature and how fast the plant is growing. The best way to assess watering needs is to pick up the plant, either the plant alone or in the pot cover. You can then assess the weight – dry plants are lighter than wet plants. You can then see if there is excess water in the pot cover and empty it if needed.
What to do this week
Things are still quiet in the garden but, after a wet autumn and winter, paving and paths are covered in algae and are slippery. Use a patio cleaner and power washer or brush to spruce them up.
In theory, if you have a heated greenhouse, this is the time to sow seeds for large onions. But if you don’t have the facilities, you can leave this till February or March.
The right time to prune grape vines is when they are completely dormant and it is a job to get done in January. Next week I will give some tips on how to do it.