A couple of gardening questions

[stripey_cat]

The first is rhetorical: how the **** are nettle seedlings germinating in this weather

Comments

[the_marquis]

Our nettles tend to extend their coverage by sending out runners/rootlets so it might be that. But it's a bit odd given the weather.

[tigerfort]

This was a seedling. I've dug up established nettle-beds before, and there's a bed of roots like mint - this was about a centimetre high with very small roots in a bed that's never had nettles before but catches a lot of wind-blown dust and rubbish. If it was an established bed, nothing would surprise me (on a related note, the mint is trying to take over the world even as I type).

[stripey_cat]

That ^ was me, not him.

[wellinghall]

Bulbs: earlier planting doesn't give earlier flowers, AFAIK (although very late planting might give slightly later flowers, or even no flowers at all) - timing is more influenced by variety (and weather, to some extent). It does help them establish better.

There is a theory that planting them in the green is better, just after they've flowered. Never tried it, though.