Gardening School
Articles with tips, advice, and lots of inspiration in gardening
Here we share tips, advice, and inspiration about cultivation from all the experience we have at Florea and our ambassadors. When it comes to cultivation, you never really stop learning, it’s always a fantastic journey for new experiences. One year, spring comes early, the next it arrives late, the third year there are extra many killer slugs, and the fourth year we get no rain. What we’re saying is that no year is the same as the other, and growing zones don’t have to be set in stone.
Our motto is that a seed always wants to sprout and it’s okay if you fail. Even the most experienced do not always succeed with their cultivation, and that’s how it will always be. Sometimes, it’s not the result that’s most important, but the journey there. Welcome to read our articles to get tips, advice, and also be inspired about what new things you should try this year?
Grow swede
Swede, or rutabaga, is sown later than almost anything else in the vegetable garden, and that is why it so often fails. Here you get the right sowing time and spacing, the protection against pests and how to store the roots until spring.
Grow catnip
Only one of the two species makes a cat roll around. Here is the difference between catnip and catmint, how to sow the seed and why a third of all cats do not care at all.
Grow soapwort
Soapwort smells strongest in the evening and foams in water. Here you get the difference between the tall and the low species, how to keep it in place and why the wash water should never be rinsed into a watercourse.
Grow St John's wort
True St John's wort is a meadow plant that bleeds red when you squeeze a bud. Here is how to tell it from the ornamental species, how to sow and harvest it, and what to know before you use it.
Grow marigolds
Marigolds flower from June to frost and are among the easiest annuals to raise from seed. Here is the difference between the species, what is actually true about nematodes, and which varieties you can eat.
Grow broad beans
The broad bean is not a bean but a vetch, and it takes frost. Here is sowing as early as March, the pinching out that stops blackfly, and the test that shows when the pods are ready.
Cabbage white butterfly
Cabbage white caterpillars can strip a kale plant in a week. Here is the difference between the large and small white, the mesh size your netting has to have, and why the net must not touch the leaves.
Grow baby's breath
Baby's breath is the filler that holds a bouquet together, and one of the few perennials that dries and keeps its shape for years. Here is why the soil should be limy, how to sow it and when to cut.
Grow alpine strawberries
Alpine strawberries are easy to raise from seed and crop in the first year. Here is why the seed must not be covered, the difference between runnerless and running types, and how to keep the birds off.
Grow orchids
A moth orchid flowers again every year if it gets a spell of cool nights. Here is dip watering, how to read the colour of the roots and exactly where to cut the stem.
Grow bergamot orange
Bergamot is the citrus behind Earl Grey and it can be grown in a pot. Here is the winter rest at 6 to 12 degrees, why tap water turns the leaves yellow and when the fruit ripens.
Grow lights
Grow lighting comes down to three things: intensity, distance and hours. Here are the numbers for seedlings, herbs and houseplants, plus what a whole sowing season costs in electricity.
Grow snake plant
A snake plant survives almost anything except too much water. Here are watering intervals for summer and winter, how to propagate without losing the yellow edge, and what applies if you have a cat.
Grow Japanese maple
A Japanese maple is worth the trouble if it gets the right spot. Here is why the leaf edges turn brown, when you are allowed to prune and which cultivars suit which light.
Grow sweet potatoes
Sweet potato is not a potato but a climber grown from slips. Here is how to take your own slips in a glass of water, give the plants the heat they need and cure the tubers so they turn sweet.
Grow juniper
Juniper is one of the toughest evergreens there is and copes with poor soil, salt wind and hard frost. Here is how to choose a form, plant, prune and harvest the berries.