Flowers are more than just pretty additions to a polytunnel or garden. They can also be used as cut-flowers to enhance your home and, what is more, will also aid your growing efforts by attracting pollinators and helping to ensure a healthy biodiversity in your outside space. Some also have benefits over and above the above, dynamically accumulating nutrients, for example, to enhance the soil in your polytunnel or garden, by repelling certain pests, or attracting predatory insects that help to keep pest numbers down. At this time of year, our thoughts may be turning away from the year's growing efforts – but November is not too late to sow a range of flowers in your polytunnel. Here are a few suggestions for flowers that you could be sowing in your polytunnel this month:
Sweet peas are a traditional favourite for gardens and to use as cut-flowers. Sow sweet pea seeds this month in an unheated greenhouse or polytunnel for an early display next year.
Continue to sow daffodils this month in or near your polytunnel and these will not only delight come spring but will return year after year, providing blooms at a time of year when the garden can still seem somewhat sparse.
Another bulb to sow this month – the tulip is another delightful addition to a spring blooming garden. The sheer variety of colours and sizes of tulip available means that you will be able to find the perfect ones for you.
There are a wide range of perennial flower options that can be sown at this time of year in your polytunnel or a cool greenhouse. Varieties to choose could include laurentia, verbascum, delphinium, cyclamen, foxglove and lupin.
If you would like flowers to enhance your home for the festive season then now is a good time to plant the Christmas Rose (Hellebore) for beautiful winter flowers. This is one of a number of plants that could be placed now and used for Christmas decorations in your home in the run up to the festive period.
The arrival of the colder weather and the shorter days does not mean that you should wave goodbye to your polytunnel until the spring. There is still plenty that you can do in your polytunnel this month, and plenty of planning to do for the months ahead.
