Vinca difformis – Periwinkle

In my eagerness to arrive at summer as soon as possible I traditionally (yes I think it has been going on for enough years to become a tradition) sow my tomatoes too early.  Annually, as the new year emerges, I swear allegiance to the Cautious Sowing Brigade.  I am restraint personified.  Then on 2nd January I start twitching and rifling through the seed boxes.  Eventually I succumb (everyone knows that “January to March” means January and “February” means January and “March” is obviously a typo and means, well, January).  To be honest Hero isn’t much help in tempering my affliction, quite the contrary.  Invariably we are left with straggly teenage tomatoes, with nowhere to go and up to no good until we can place them in their adult growbag positions.  So today, as a kind of unfufilling substitute and to keep at bay some of the urges, we sowed sweet peas (a thigh slapping assortment) and onions (Bedfordshire Giant and Cipolla since you ask).  We will sow sweet peas again in March ensuring a summer through to autumn full of fragrant delight.  We buy our sweet peas from Mr Kerton of Bridgwater and I can highly recommend his peas and his “no frills we just give you good stuff” approach.  Last year was a bumper year and we ended up begging strangers to take the unstinting blooms.

Vinca difformis – definitely a light on a dull day.  I have written more about this wonderful plant at http://www.hardy-plant.org.uk/plantmonth/2012/january.htm, take a look if you dare.