IN THE GARDEN

What to plant in November

November weather facts

Average high temperature: 24.1°C Average low temperature: 19.8°C Average rainfall: 40mm Average rainfall days: 5.5 days

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November is the perfect time to make a second sowing of previously failed annuals. Any coleus propagates should last over winter. Make sure to also prepare plants for the cold season. Note to put tender leaved plants, including fittonias, pandanus veitchii, peperomias and anthuriums under the most sheltered positions, best under glass to stand over the winter.

Still, a lot of annuals still require potting this month. Plenty of flowers will bloom with proper care this month. Pot narcissus tazetta, also known as the Chinese sacred lily, and liliums bulbs ordered from Japan (which should have arrived by now) in beds.

If you failed your first planting of certain vegetables last month, now is the time to give it another go. Plant lettuce, since they thrive during the winter season. Unless you had a very light soil, surely you would have failed during the summer. Make sowings about once a fortnight as required, tie them up and blanch them. Summer lettuce plants will never be big enough to tie up but the cooler weather will make it big enough to work. Well dig a piece of ground for the seedbed, and din in a liberal supply of manure. Sow the seeds and water them once a day. Transplant when the seedlings are two or three inches.

November is also the time to earth up and check on your bed of celery and potatoes if you have previously planted them. Also use this time to plant cabbages, cauliflowers, brussels sprouts, endives and kohlrabi, all of which are treated similarly and are viable gardening options for the crisp autumn air.

By William James Tutcher F.L.S. (1867-1920)

Superintendent of Hong Kong Botanical Gardens. Paraphrased from his seminal 1906 work Gardening for Hong Kong.