I HAVE finally got my act together this season and ordered some seed of the castor oil plant or Ricinus communis, writes TOM ATTWOOD.

The seed of this plant is used predominantly as a source for castor oil but also ricin which is contained within the seed (and the plant) in much smaller amounts. All parts are highly poisonous and should be handled with great care. For me, it’s the plant that sprouts forth (hopefully) from it that I want for the garden. They are very dramatic looking plants with glossy leaves 15-45 centimeters (5.9–17.7 in) long, long-stalked, palm shaped with five-12 deep lobes with coarsely toothed segments. My intention is to shoehorn them into my already stuffed border of semi-exotic foliage plants that crescendo in late summer. It’s not a cold hardy plant and therefore has to be treated as an annual. With annual plants like those grown for cut flowers, start as early as possible with your sowing to maximise the growing time. The temperatures over the past few weeks have varied widely and as such anything sown now wants to be done under protection to some degree to create a more sheltered environment. The ideal scenario would be to have a small propagator with a transparent lid that you can plug in and set the temperature to a constant. They’re not that expensive with basic ones starting at around £20-25. They’re marketed as electric windowsill propagators although I’m yet to meet a windowsill which could realistically accommodate a large plastic box; the seed can be sown either individually into modules or small pots or into a small seed tray and potted on once they’re large enough to handle. You can start sowing seed now and despite the lower light levels you’ll find that things really pick up a gear once we reach the end of the month. I’m going to sow my Ricinus this weekend in the hope that by the time we reach May I’ll have large enough plants to plant out straight into the soil.

Next week: growing in gravel