Taking down the Christmas wreath,

Christmas wreath

coincides with the planting of Sweet pea seeds.

Sweet pea seeds

A favorite of mine is the ‘Elegant Ladies.’  The outdoor thermometer read 19 degrees F. this morning as the squirrels scrambled around the bird feeder hoping for seed to fall their way but even in such cold weather, we must think about the Spring ahead!  Sweet peas just love cool weather, and if I wait to plant the seeds outdoors when the ground is ready,  the sweet peas will germinate and begin to grow only to find that the heat of late Spring and early Summer is not to their liking in this Zone.  I find it is best to get a really early start indoors in February, soaking the seeds overnight and potting them up,  growing on in a sunny window so that the  plants will be ready to be planted in April .  With some coverage during the cold, frosty nights of early Spring, you can get a really gorgeous plant going, ready for bloom before the heat waves.

My favorite  curmudgeon, Robin Lane Fox, writes about sweet peas in this morning’s Financial Times.  He is my favorite garden columnist on any given day.  I find him both infuriating and informative, exciting and excising, maddening and masterful.  Last week for instance, he had a very informative column on worthwhile garden tours.  Fox included Chanticleer (my favorite garden!) and Longwood Gardens in the U.S.    He had one of his nasty barbs at the end of the piece, referring to an “over-enthusiastic garden owner” giving garden tours there whilst including “all -too -loving detail”.  Why would he be so mean?  Imagine that the tour guides read his column (they surely might!) and the crush they would feel upon reading his opinion of them!   What sour guy would make a crack like that?  So publicly!

Next month I am attending a lecture at the New York Botanical gardens.  Bill Thomas,

Bill Thomas, Executive Director, Chanticleer

will be speaking.  SO excited about this!  Do I dare to ask him what he thinks about over-enthusiastic tour guides?  What do you think about over-enthusiastic garden guides?