Archive | February, 2009

Famous Celebrity Gardeners

Who features amongst your top famous Gardeners?  Percy Thrower‘   Geoff Hamilton or  Alan Titchmarsh are in the traditional mold along with Geoffrey Smith, Beth Chatto and perhaps Peter Seabrook although he is more a journalist as Alan Titchmarsh is a TV presenter. The modern off-cumdens like Diarmuid Gavin and Charlie Dimmock seem to be all [...]

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Perennial York Gate

Perennial is the name of the Gardeners Royal Benevolent Society the charity for ‘Helping Horticulturists in Need Since 1839′. They have an interesting programme of events for 2009 and a selection of garden related gifts to support the charity. Last summer I visited Perennial’s own garden near Leeds called York Gate and found the volunteers [...]

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More Space for More Crops

Gardening will help in the war against economic recession. These tips give you some ideas how to increase the area you cultivate and the number of crops you can grow even if your garden space is restricted. More Growing Area for a Small Garden Special Crops Mushrooms can be grown in a cupboard or garage, [...]

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Papery Orange Physalis

Chinese lantern, Physalis franchetii, grows from seed and is a very short lived herbaceous perennial. It will grow two feet tall and bear small, white flowers followed by large, balloon-like papery husks in July and August. Growing Chinese Lanterns The Chinese lantern plant is valued for its inflated orange-red seed coverings or calyx which resemble [...]

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Growing Good Snowdrops

Snowdrops for me signify the end of Winter rather than the coming of Spring. Tucked under this hedge row the snowdrop is left to multiply naturally by seed and by division. Tips for Snowdrops Transplant snowdrops as soon as they finish flowering and have visible leaves. This is when they are ‘in the green’ and [...]

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Housekeeping for Small Rhododendrons

My Rhododendrons hope the worst of the snow has now passed and that there will be nothing to break the young flowering shoots. The buds are swelling nicely and the rain and sun from last year should bring forth a good crop of  ‘blousy’ flowers. Housekeeping Tips With the ground still wet I have mulched [...]

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Miniature Daffodils and Narcissi Tips

Miniature daffodils grow from 4 inches to just short of a foot. Varieties Minnow, Toto and Canaliculatus have several flowers on the one stem and are particular favourites of mine. Try growing some in pots in the cold greenhouse as welcome additions to your alpine plants. Tips on Minature Daffoldils Look in spring for successful [...]

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Million Bells Competition to Grow Calibrachoa

Each year I buy some little pots of Million Bells or Surfina petunias for less than a £1 each and try to get as many plants and flowers from the one plant as I can. See how many plants from cuttings you can get. Then let us know how many flowers you achieve. Million Bells [...]

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Spotted Laurel and Garlic

February 15th and virtually all the snow has gone from this laurel and the rest of  from the garden.  I had made a raised bed so months ago so today I planted some garlic cloves  Allium Germidour. The variety was recommended for Northern Europe but to be safe I also started some cloves in pots [...]

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Your Favourite Blue Flowers

True blue flowers are hard to find in many gardens although Purple, Lavender, Lilac, Mauve and Violet exist in many shades. Since there are no true blue Roses, Peonies, Dahlias, Daffodils or even Tulips these showy flowers are out. So if you find a good strong blue then stick to it and use it with [...]

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