I’ve been doing a bit more gardening recently – last year I had some success with Busy Lizzie (Impatiens)) and Geranium (Pelargonium) cuttings. Also with Cape Primrose (Streptocarpus) and African violets (Saintpaulia), which are excellent indoor plants with a very long flowering period. Indeed, I’ve got Impatiens and Pelargoniums in flower right now – in the middle of January, although the flower buds were formed last year.

I’m not that happy with the African plants as they’re clearly unhappy with the very dark weather we’ve had since December, so I’ve invested in some ‘full spectrum’ grow lights.  These use LED chips mounted on a circular board in a GU10 housing, which is convenient as I have some desk lamps that I used for illuminating an art installation, but which are now languishing in a cupboard.

They give out a very bright magenta glow of the sort that I see has been mistaken for the Aurora borealis when used in countryside glasshouses.

I see that it is suggested that you have them on for 16 to 18 hours a day.  Currently, sunrise is about 7 am and sunset about 4.30 pm. Since there is even some sunshine possible in the mornings, I’ll probably run them from 4 to 10 pm initially, just to see what happens.