What's going on with my chillies and tomatoes?

Yesterday I potted on my 12 biggest chillies and the 6 most advanced tomato plants. They had out grown the 3in pots they were in, some with roots 3 inches out the bottom. (more to be added).
Tonight, when I was checking the plants I had to grap for my reading glasses, sure enough, the Golden Sunrise tomato, planted on 9th January, had tiny green flower buds showing. Now with decent sight, I saw my biggest chilli, a purple jalapeno, planted 26th Dec, is also showing flower buds!

Just to show I do have more going on, I decided to post some pics of the amaryllis. The large double one is now 3 years old (from buying). Last summer it stood in the bottom of the greenhouse and was treated like the tomatoes. It looks as if I've got some offshoots coming, as well as the 3 glorious flower spikes. Problem is, I can't remember the name of it. I've also had some lovely flowers on the hyacinths we bought through the Iwade Garden Club. The picture also shows a free gift, the Red Lion amaryllis.

Earth is hard as iron!

I woke up this morning to what was obviously going to be a brilliantly sunny day. I was full of enthusiasm to get outside, but alas everything was frozen solid. There was no way I could do anything to the ground, although there is a lone snowdrop in flower. The ones further down the garden are slower. I just had a tidy around, and had a mini bonfire in the bbq; the small bits of rose and grape prunings from last weekend, and a few other twiggy bits that wouldn't go in the compost. After getting frozen feet and watering eyes from the smoke I retired into the kitchen to wash some more flower pots, and sow some chillies that arrived in the post from Mr Dinkle of the Grapevine forum. I'd got the pots of soil into the heated propagator last night, so put in 2 each of the prairie fire and dorset naga seeds he sent.

As the French Black tomato seed was so slow germinating, I removed some seeds from the last wrinkled fruit on the windowsill last Saturday and sowed 3 along with some of the tigerella seeds I'd had to buy after losing my ones from last year. They were all up within 3 days and moved up to the light cupboard. I'm amazed at how quickly the plants are growing. The chillies in the picture were only sown on Boxing day, the tomatoes a week later, and the lettuce another week on. All the seeds have been planted directly into the 3 inch pots, so I haven't had to do any transplanting yet, although the roots are showing through the bottoms of the pots already. I've got them standing in hydrolucca (expanded clay pellets), and keep that a bit moist to add a bit of humidity to the air. The temperature is still maintaining around 20-25c, although I've now got 6 lamps in there which helps.
The chillies below are the same ones I posted on 16th January. They still haven't seen any real daylight but seem to be thriving!

Chilli plant pictures

Here are my plants so far. The first planted on boxing day, the others a week ago with the tomatoes. As with last year, the Green Tiger tomatoes were fastest through, only 3 days!

Surreal Snow

Snow has hit Iwade again, not as bad as Medway and Canterbury, but more than we've seen since moving here 5 years ago. School has been closed for two consecutive days, but today we had to travel to Medway anyway to get Vicky's fund released for her trip to Japan. The judge agreed so we now just need to wait for the paperwork to go through and she can start planning and booking. She is really looking forward to seeing Takae again.
It seemed very surreal, I was planting tomato seeds in the kitchen, while watching people trudging past in the snow. I have set up a light room in one of my cupboards by lining it with reflective foil , and putting 4 energy saving light bulbs in there. I now have 2 Dorset Naga, 2 Naga Morich, 2 chocolate habanero, 2 hot lemons and one purple jalapeno up and living in the cupboard. They are looking good so far, one of the Dorset Nagas is beginning to grow its second leaves. The temperature in there hasn't gone below 15C, and when the lamps are on, around 16 hours a day, it is averaging 25C. This will probably be a bit lower once the winds pick up again, as it will still be a bit draughty I think.

With the success of the chillies to go on, I've planted some tomato plants in the heated propagator. One of the Green Tigers is up so far, so I will be getting it into the light room in a minute. I have another Green Tiger, 2 Black French, 2 Costalu and 2 Golden Sunrise planted as well, but I can't find the Tigerella seeds so I will need to order some of these. I don't know if there will be enough light, but I am also trying some lettuce seeds, 4 All the Year Round, and 4 Little Gem. If it doesn't work, I haven't lost much, just a few seeds.

Happy New Year

Today was icy cold, I went to put out the bird food on the green opposite, and the path was a crazy paving of ice, so I waited until it had thawed a bit. There had been a sprinkling of snow, but it had frozen solid. I moved the lemon tree into the greenhouse, too late for the immature lemons, but hopefully the plant might survive. Really all I did was a bit of tidying up, it was so bitterly cold in the back garden, though the front was warmed by the sun.
I have 4 chilli plants up so far, 2 hot lemons, 1 Japapeno and 2 Dorset Naga (from seeds kindly sent from a Grapevine member). Oh, that makes 5 doesn't it? Counting is not my strong point tonight.

Boxing Day - What are you doing?

Well Christmas has been and gone, now there's just all the wrapping to clear away, and all the spare food to eat. I had a brilliant day yesterday though, everyone had stuff to do, modelling, sorting, playing yugio cards, watching DVDs, while I'm not sure what I did.
My planning for Christmas Dinner was masterclass though. With the frequency of my Lyrica moments increasing ( I told them I just needed to add Yorkshire pudding mix on top of the trifle, instead of the anticipated angel delight and cream!), I wrote a detailed time plan, like I used to have to do at school. I said we would be sitting down to diner at 3pm, and it was on the table with 2 minutes to spare.
It was a shame the sprouts had not grown bigger, even with 5 minutes in the steamer they were a little overdone, and the parsnips came to nought. Still I could have served up frozen green beans, and done some roast pumpkin, if there would have been any space on the plate. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be picking sprouts and the kale will have put a bit of a spurt on too. I did harvest 3 celeriac for me, no one else likes them.
Today the sun is shining and the sun is out, but I'm a bit stuck in as Matt is sleeping downstairs, and I can't get out of the back door. If I can step over him quietly and retrieve a pair of shoes, I could perhaps go out of the front door and round. Today I intend planting chillies and maybe some early tomaotoes, even though I said I wouldn't. I'm also intend to clear out the greenhouse now the snow put paid to to tomatoes, and investigate the damage in the garden.

Typical, now people are awake, it's pouring hard. I started cutting back the dead tomatoes in the greenhouse, and it looks like the amarylis bulb that I'd had on it's side to dry out, is fine. The lowest reading on the thermometer was 2C. Problem is, I need to keep putting the stuff in the compost heap, and it's not pleasant. Thinking of amarylis, I've got my freebie one to pot up too, courtesy of T&M, but disappointingly my cut price carnations from them have developed a bad case of mouldy water. The flowers look fine, so I need to see what I can salvage.

I had kept some new compost indoors so it wasn't icy cold, so I filled 12 washed 3 inch pots, watered them with warm water, and put them in the electric propagator. I have sown 2 seeds each of Chocolate Habenero, Red Scotch Bonnet, Hot Lemon, Naga Morich and Dorset Naga. The first 4 are from my own saved seeds, hand pollinated from plants grown inside. The latter two, which I have to admit I thought were the same until a bit of research revealed the Dorset Naga was bred from the Naga Morich, are from a member of the Grapevine forum. I have a number of other varieties, but I will see how these go.

Christmas Fete

I haven't posted anything for ages, which is really bad of me, but just wanted to say we had a really succesful day today at the Christmas Fete organised by Amanda. The Garden Club made over £50 from homemade chutney, gingerbread tree decorations, grow you own kits and other donated items. The hyacinths planted back in October went really well, all sold! I hope the buyers enjoy their flowers when they come.
It is getting colder now, but the weather has been very mild up until now, so I have still been picking tomatoes from plants that are almost a year old, planted 27th December! I am planning on planting my chillies soon. I have been given some Naga Morich, supposedly the hottest chillies found, so I'll be letting you all know next year, if I survive!
The allotment garden is doing well, although the weeds are growing too. I have broad beans, kale, spring cabbage, garlic, Japanese onions, celeriac and Brussel sprouts there at the moment. I have also got a compost bins set up, and I hope Chris and Florence are making use of it for their vegetable waste. The Christmmas break is coming up, so I hope to get the chance to 'prune' the mahonia, down to half size, which will give me more growing room.
We have had loads of rain which has meant getting the garden tidied at home has been a bit delayed, but I did have a look to see how the parsnips had grown. Very disappointing, we won't have any for Christmas this year. Sowing in the loo rolls doesn't seem to have worked too well compared to the direct sowing last year. I have eaten a couple of the celeriac, not as big as in the shops, but very tasty. The beetroot are doing well too, I freeze the leaves to go in curries if I'm not planning one soon after harvesting the beets.