Flowers

Unwrap with green fingers

12.02.12

Even in a small city space, a keen gardener would love a good electric propagator in which to start off seeds, including vegetable seeds. An electric propagator wraps up to make an impressively big present for a reasonable outlay and this year, the options are many. I would go for a Heat & Grow Variable Temperature Propagator from Stewart, the makers of excellent plastic-covered propagating boxes. At £80 their Heat & Grow has a temperature control and ought to give a sure start to all the tempting seeds which will be on the racks next month. If your best beloveds already have a greenhouse with room for beds under the staging, consider a long roll of soil-warming cable instead. Six metres of the Parasene Soil Warming Cable are on special offer in two of my local centres for about £22 and allow the owner to heat a seed bed to a higher temperature than the surrounding greenhouse, delighting the seeds of next year’s geraniums or calceolarias without raising the general temperature of the house to expensive levels. Soil cables are the cheap source of the “bottom heat” which dictionaries on gardening cite without much explanation. Cuttings and seedlings appreciate underground heating as much as I value an electric under-blanket. Basil seeds germinate so easily when warmed from below.

Source: Financial Times