Happy New (gardening) Year 2026

Happy New Year 2026! Another year over, another just begun, lets hope it’s a good one! (apologies to John Lennon). What better way can there be to get ready for the new year than putting on the wellies and venturing out into the cold, wet, dank and dismal January air to enjoy a bit of nature? If you can think of any possible alternatives for one’s enjoyment, please go ahead, if not, read on for gardening enlightenment.

Another update on the use of peat. The even longer (than last year) running saga of banning its use continues. The legislation to ban its sale got binned due to our most recent general election. The current thinking is that peat sales to the public will be banned by the end of 2027 and for professional use by the end of 2030. Retailers, I’m pleased to say, have generally gone peat free.  Organisations such as the RHS will not let any suppliers use peat, same for the National Trust. In the case of the latter, this makes perfect sense as they are committed to peak bog restoration and as they own a few thousand acres of it, it wouldn’t really make any sense if they were encouraging people to dig it up.

As for peat substitute compost, it is improving but shopping around (Notcutts own label peat free compost was good last year) for something acceptable is a must and the same advice regarding storage still applies; it improves with age so buy in advance and let it rot down before use.

And now for something to plant in your rotted down peat substitute compost.  Hands up anyone who was given some flowering bulbs nicely potted up for Christmas, now they have finished flowering what next, the easy option is to put them in the bin? That would be a bit of a waste. Depending on the type of bulb, they can be persuaded to live on in the garden or potted up again for next Christmas. Different bulbs have different requirements, so try the following.

Amaryllis (or Hippeastrum, yet another name change!), the queen of the Christmas flowering bulbs. There are over 100 different species of Amaryllis, all of which grow quite happily in their native tropical environment and flower every year, as will your Amaryllis with a bit of help. After flowering, remove dried plant material from the top of the bulb and remove from compost if growing in any. Break off any smaller bulblets and put all in separate pots about half their depth in fresh bulb fibre or compost, don’t water, leave somewhere cool and dry until August. Early September, start watering and feeding but do not let the bulbs get too wet, the top of the compost should always be dry. Bring inside and hope for new flowers to form in time for Christmas.

Hyacinth, the scent from a few Hyacinths indoors over Christmas can be a bit much so once finished flowering and died back they can head out into the garden. Plant about 10 cm deep and 10cm apart in a sunny spot and leave until signs of growth next spring then feed with a general-purpose fertiliser to encourage flowering.

Potted Daffodils (usually Paper-White or Tête-à-tête)

After all the top growth has died back, lift the bulbs from their pots and either plant out in the garden or keep to re-pot for next Christmas. If repotting, the bulbs can be left to dry and kept somewhere dry and dark until November.  Plant Tête-à-tête in bulb fibre or potting compost so that just the tips of the buds can be seen above the compost and water. Indoors, the bulbs should be flowering again by Christmas. Paper-White can take two or three years to recover from being forced to flower at Christmas so they will need time in the garden. As they are sensitive to cold (should be OK down south), they need a bit of looking after. Plant in a sunny spot, twice their own depth, water in with a general-purpose fertiliser and wait, talk to them to give them a bit of encouragement.  After three years and your patience is exhausted, buy a pot of new bulbs, only then will the ones you have planted decide to flower again.  Tête-à-tête are less fussy, plant the bulbs in any location and leave them to it.  As with any bulb, try not to forget where you have planted them.

And finally, our AGM is on Monday 26th January, from 7pm in Rudgwick Village Hall.  We are very pleased to welcome our guest speaker - Jamie Harris the head gardener at Leonardslee.  The committee would like to invite everyone to attend, and for non-members, why not come along and join EGRGA as we look forward to another gardening year.

Keep gardening, Richard Haigh EGRGA Comms.