Making Sense of Seed Selection

Use this quieter time outdoors to get organised indoors, have a browse through the catalogues to see what vegetable and flower seeds you fancy ordering.

If you are new to the January seed catalogue binge, the choice can be bewildering.

As a good guide, look for varieties that carry the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM). Seed packets carry a wealth of information on cultivation; there is also an indication of the seed quantity.

This can vary enormously and prices may appear wildly out of line. Seed of open pollinated varieties created by natural means is cheap to produce and packets can be crammed.

In contrast, the quantities of hybrid seed marked as F1 can appear miserly. Crossing two highly selected inbred parent lines produces F1 seed, this is expensive but the seed germinates reliably, giving plants of great uniformity, vigour and yield. The downside is that crops tend to mature all at once.

'Sow by' dates are also displayed; it is essential to buy fresh parsnip, carrot, lettuce, parsley & sweetcorn seeds every year, whereas brassicas, peppers and tomatoes may remain viable for five years or more if stored in cool, dry conditions.

Winter Care For Wisteria

The most asked question on Wisteria must be – why does mine never flower?

Many wisterias are grafted, often on to a stronger-growing but less floriferous form. If you fail to prune out all the long triffid type growth that forms at the foot of the main stem – this is likely to come from the rootstock and will outgrow the grafted variety you’ve selected and smother the more desirable form.

Wisteria needs pruning twice a year - prune back the basal growth to five or six leaves after flowering in July or August.

Then now, for your winter prune, cut back the same growths to two or three buds to tidy it up before the growing season starts and ensure the flowers will not be obscured by leaves. Try not to fuss about pruning too much you can cut it back hard and it won’t bat an eyelid, still flowering the following year.

If you’ve got a wisteria plant that hasn’t flowered for several years, it is best to discard it, as its lack of flowers is almost certainly due to the predominance of the original rootstock.