Just as we all began to think that spring had arrived we have been given a shock by old mother nature.
Listen to me she is saying, I am in control, and do not forget it.
Bedding plants, yes bedding plants will be in the garden centres very shortly to tempt you with a bit of subterfuge to buy buy buy. Just remember one thing, buy in haste pay at leisure.
Bedding producers are ahead of the game and by using strong lamps and heating in the green houses they can make a plant think it is mid may.
Take the plant away from that environment and put into a border or pot outside and it will be swiped down with the first cold blast or frost.
It might seem like mid summer when you are there but commercially we would only plant out bedding schemes in the last week in May unless we were specifically instructed to do so b a client and then we would always get a signature to indemnify against the vagaries of the weather.
I remember planting out some stone pots back in 1990 for a wealthy business man who lived in the very affluent Candovers near Winchester.
It was the middle of June and we had a late frost which decimated the Fuchsias and my credibility to boot.
I remember the client coming back from his South of France house in late February and asking why he could not have the same colour showing!
Be warned, plant too early and pay the price.
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