Brunnera Tips

• Heart shaped variegated leaves followed by blue, forget-me-not look alike, flowers make this a very attractive plant.
• Brunneras like a moist soil
• Brunneras also like shade and are useful in a woodland setting
• Grow in containers or as ground cover these 18inch high plants are versatile.
• A new golden leaved form is available www.parkseedjournal.com/2008/08/brunnera

Tips for growing Honeysuckle

• A twining, climbing plant most honeysuckles need some support as they shoot skywards for up to 30 feet. Try trellis or and old tree for support.
• Most varieties of the honeysuckle are famous for the scent of the flowers which is sweet and powerful. Aim for a red Lonicera tellmanniana or L.fragrantisima rather than the Belgica.
• Left to trail the plants can still be effective in a semi woodland enviroment
• Lonicera nitida  honeysuckle can be pruned and shaped like topiary. I can recommend Baggesens Gold a small yellow leaved variety.
• Plants root easily from summer cuttings. I have a plant that has moved house at least 5 times.

Parsley Tips

• I have grown this parsley from spring sown seed. Germination can be a bit erratic as warm temperatures are needed.
• After a summer in the herb bed I have potted a clump up in the greenhouse.
• Before the worst frosts I will bring a pot into the house for snipping onto potatoes and garnishing fish.
• The flat leaved variety is one of my favourite herbs but I am not very successful at growing it. Fortunately there are  many varieties that seem to be within my compass.
• Parsley is a hungry feeder so if growing in a container add some bone meal

Coloured Hydrangeas

• Top mophead Hydrangea Macrophylla ayesha is purple on this neutral London soil and flowers on previous seasons wood.
• Most neutral and alkaline soils produce pink Hydrangeas whilst an acid soil will have a blue flower.
• White Hydrangeas remain white or the bracts get tinged pink as they age.
• These colour rules apply to Lacecap hydrangeas where the bract-petals don’t all open and have a looser more subtle effect.
• To turn a pink Hydrangea blue add aluminium salts. You can add by powder or colourant mixes.
• A Pink hydrangea needs no aluminium and lime is used to restrict its uptake of metal salts.

Other Hydrangeas

• Hydrangea arborescens is smaller than many hydrangeas, they are around 3ft  height and spread. One of the best varieties is ‘Annabelle’ which is a mound forming shrub which is compact and requires little pruning. The flowers are a very showy, large and white.
• Hydrangea paniculata are generally larger and have a large cone or pantical of flowers
• Hydrangea quercifolia has large lobed leaves like oak leaves
• Hydrangea anomala is a climbing plant that has attractive mahogany brown stems and lush, bright green, deciduous foliage. The lacecap flowers last just a few weeks in summer.

Verbena bonariensis looks to be a special purple in the fading light of autumn. It is strange how flowers look different in different lights.

When laying out a garden for colour consider the position of the sun, in spring and autumn, which will dictate the colour temperature and saturation of the light.

This verbena is very attractive to butterflies

Anemone Japonica looks pink in the shade of the house. In full sun the colour is burnt out to a less attractive lighter shade of pink.

What Tomatoes to Grow

• New growers need to select reliable varieties to grow to develop their enthusiasm.

• If you are a regular grower you may be tempted to something different and there are 280+ varieties of Tomato at Totally Tomatoes

• Moneymaker crops so well and regularly in my greenhouse that I will be growing it again.

• Thompson Morgan have over a dozen varieties with the AGM so if I was looking for a new variety I would try one or two of them. Try Money Maker at T&M

• Personally I do not grow tomatoes outdoors perhaps I am missing something .

• Get your seed selected for germination in late February.

Selection

Tumbler for containers or hanging baskets

Beefsteak for large 1lb tomatoes

Gardeners Delight for sweetness and abundance of smaller fruit

Ailsa Craig an heirloom variety tried and tested through the years

Golden Cherry F1 thin skined as it says on the label

Tips Growing Floribunda

• The term ‘floribunda’ meaning large clusters of flowers has been taken over by rose trees with these floral characteristics.
• The flowers are usually borne over long periods and are more tolerant than Hybrid Tea roses from which they were crossed with polyantha varieties.
• When planting prune the roots back to 8 or 10 inches.  It encourages new root growth of the fibrous kind that do the feeding and watering.
• Prune floribunda roses to a bush shape rather than hard as you would an HT rose. New growth will never be stronger than the stem it grows from so prune out weak stems that are over a year old.
• The Santa Clarita rose society link has a history of Floribundas
• With over 20 buds to open on this tree in October this rose has earnt it’s keep this year.

Massive Gunnera Tips

• Gunnera with giant green leaves grow over 6 feet tall and spread even wider. They are not for small spaces!
• Gunnera are moisture loving, herbaceous plants best suited for stream or lakeside positions.
• They make specimen architectural plants for a bog garden but control the size.
• Cover the plant to protect from hard frost
• Sometimes called giant rhubarb the leaves are not edible

Tips for Good Pokers

• Kniphofia known as Red Hot Pokers come in a range of colours including reds, oranges, yellows and white.
• The sword like, strappy leaves, clump together well.
• The plants look good when massed together in clumps.
• Pokers are generally hardy herbaceous perennials -try Kniphofia Citrina a 3 foot lemon colour or giant 6 foot Royal Castle.
• If space is limited Kniphofia hirsuta is 18 inches high and forms dense, tidy clumps. The flowers are good for cutting.
• If the leaves are untidy in Autumn cut them down to half their height

rockery-in-a-pot

Save Money on Your Rockery

• Less is more so have fewer, quality plants that you maintain to high standards.
• Scavenge rocks from tips and waste land. Don’t take them from walls or important natural habitats. Each rock will be like treasure trove with many memories attached.
• Make your rockery small, very small or minute. The rockery in the picture was in a 12″ plant pot with small rocks squeezed in on their edges.
• House leeks, Sedums and other succulents throw off new plantlets very easily and they bulk up quickly so you don’t need too many plants.
• Pinch bits from around your own garden.
• Beg cuttings or ‘off-sets’ from your family, friends or foes.