Conservatory Growing tips:
A seasonal guide to growing in your conservatory by Lisa Rawley
Spring | Summer | Autumn | Winter
Spring – March/April/May
Spring potting is usually your first creative endeavour of the year as light levels increase and fresh shoots start to emerge.
Nourishing compost is the key to plant vigour and health, so whichever mix you opt for, remember that it should contain at least 40% AIR!!
Surprisingly, air enables plant roots to breathe and explore right to the bottom of the pot, making for a large root system which can support the plant all season.
The addition of drainage material to the compost mix creates these air spaces. Materials like gravel are fine, but fairly heavy when you need to lift and move pots, a good lightweight alternative are the expanding rock granules.
A great choice is old polystyrene packaging – broken up into small pieces. It does a great job and is excellent recycling!
It is easy at this stage to include a slow release feed for the plants. This will give good background levels of nutrients to your potted plants for long periods over the growing season, and can be further supplemented by liquid feeds as required.
Summer – June/July/August
As your plants really take off in the warmth and brightness of the longer days, keep tendrils tied into your supporting frames. This is a wonderful time of abundant growth – but also of abundant feeding by some of the more common glasshouse pests. Keep a watch on your newest shoots for aphids and whitefly and look at your mature leaves for signs of spider mite, which may include mottling and a noticeable lack of lustre on the leaf surfaces.
It is now perfectly possible to gain control of these hungry and unwelcome inhabitants by introducing predators and parasites into the leaf canopy of your plants. This will avert the need to use chemical pesticides.
Perhaps the most important aspect of your conservatory in the summer months is to sit back and enjoy the sights and scents of the plant haven you have created.
Picking petals from a guava (Feijoa Sellowiana) tree to toss into your summer fruit salad is one way of marking these precious months.
Most conservatory plans are at their very best during early autumn. They are enjoying the long warm days and nights, producing flowers and fragrance in profusion. This demands some tender care from the grower, to ensure that water and feeds are regular and that a certain amount of cutting back is undertaken to create more flowering opportunities for those plants such as Bougainvillea and some Passifloras which tend to become rampant and scruffy overnight.
It is also a time when new plants are easy to acquire in flower to add to your collection. They must be checked for any pests before introducing them to your well behaved inhabitants!
Autumn is the best time to take cuttings of your favourite Pelargoniums which add wonderful colour for very little work in the conservatory.
As the temperatures begin to cool in October and November, most of the summer flowering species slow down a little and require less water. Do however remember that any autumn and winter flowering plants will need more as they start to become active and produce flower buds.
To optimise the potential of all your plants, it is important to fully understand each individual species so you care for them and allow each to really flourish all year round.
Winter – December/January/FebruaryThe start of winter happens far later in a greenhouse or conservatory than it does outside. Your tender species that may have enjoyed summer on a terrace or patio will now be inside in luxury and looking magnificent. These plants will have put on a lot of growth, and should at least be trimmed and tidied to warrant a permanent winter position indoors!
They should also be checked for greenfly which can easily hide in young shoots looking for cosy places to hibernate.
These plants are likely to still be looking good until January, when you can’t fool them any longer into thinking its autumn; as the days are at their shortest, any attempts to grow or flower are thwarted. This is the perfect time to prune hard to shape up wayward branches, and to dry out compost to ensure root systems remain healthy.
It is really a case of encouraging plants to tick over at this time of year, and while the main species take a break, you can take great pleasure in your winter flowering bulbs like Narcissus and Amarylis. Other star winter performers include shrubs like Justicia Pauciflora which flowers for 3 months of the winter with pink and orange tubular sprays on dark shiny foliage; and Aeschynanthus ‘Mona Lisa’ – a tropical bright shiny evergreen with red winter blooms and brown calyces.
Maintain a minimum temperature to suit you and your plants, and remember to open your vents on sunny days for that important fresh air that your plants will love.
