March is the month gardeners annually yearn for, marking the transition from winter to spring. The spring equinox comes on March 20 when the sun crosses the celestial equator – an imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator – and moves northward.
The days begin to get longer and warmer and it’s time to roll up the sleeves and get prepared for busy gardening. Most of us will want to enjoy colourful flowers during the summer and no matter what size space you have, summer bedding plants will do the job. Lobelia, geraniums, begonias, fuchsias, petunias, zinnia, marigolds, busy lizzies, and gazanias are the essential ingredients for summer pots, window boxes, hanging baskets and borders.
You can buy them now as plug plants – these are small individual seedlings or cuttings and by doing the work of nurturing them to full size, it’ll cost a lot less than purchasing them in summer. You grow them on until they can be moved outdoors in May or whenever the last frost occurs in your area.
They will need to be somewhere bright and warm (around 16C) so a warm sunny windowsill, porch or conservatory is ideal unless you have a heated greenhouse. Pot them up individually into small pots (7-10cm) using fresh good quality compost. Make sure you don’t damage the tender young stems – hold them by their leaves when transferring them and be gentle when firming them into the compost.
Keep watered and fed and watch them grow into sizeable plants. Occasionally, pinch out the top growth – this means removing the growing tip of each stem between your forefinger and thumb. This will encourage the plants to bush out which will mean more flowers ultimately.
When conditions are ready for them to go out, it’s important to acclimatise them to outdoor conditions gradually over a week or so after their mollycoddled life indoors. This means bringing them outside during the day into a sheltered spot but back in at night.
If you have an unheated glasshouse or cold frame, they can stay out at night as they will be protected from frost. It’s vital not to skip this step as they need this hardening off or toughening up process to thrive. If you prefer, you can buy jumbo sized plug plants in May – these will be more expensive but are garden ready and don’t need growing on. They’re a very handy way to plant up hanging baskets and containers and will quickly fill out with lots of flowers.
You can also grow your own bedding from seed and this is definitely the cheapest way to go about it. Most of the bedding seeds will need temperatures of around 18-21C to germinate and it’s worth investing in a heated germinator to ensure steady warmth at this time of year.
A warm sunny windowsill indoors will also work. Use seed and cutting compost to fill seed trays or pots. Press down the soil gently – this is known as tamping and ensures there are no air pockets left. Sow seeds sparingly per pot and cover with fine layer of sieved compost or vermiculite and water in.
Once they start developing leaves and a root system, you now have mini plug plants and you look after them in the same way and look forward to lots of blossoms come the summer.
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