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Category: Flowers and Plants

Annual, perennial and interesting flowers with advice on culture, information, tips and recommended varieties

Make it a Good Year

Make it a Good Year

lemon-honeysuckle

Some years are better than others for certain plants and crops. This year seems to be an excellent year for Honeysuckle and wherever I go I see and smell the wonderful blossom. Do not assume the same plants will perform the same next year. Apple trees some times crop every other year as though they have expended more energy than they intended (see below).

Unfortunately every year seems to be a good year for weeds and Dandilion Bitter Cress and Water Avens seems to love my garden. That could be down to my husbandry so I have looked at some tips that might help for next year.

A Good Year 2010

  • Work done this year will help create a great year in 2010.
  • Buds and framework stems on fruit trees and shrubs are growing and developing ‘as we speak’ . Treated well most plants will contribute to making next year a success. …

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Tips for Annuals

Tips for Annuals

anti

Whatever annuals you choose to grow there are several ways to get the best from them in your garden.

Control Annual Seeding

  • Annual plants raison d’êtra (reason for being) is to procreate and help the species survive. Use this to your advantage by stopping your annuals setting seed. If annuals set seed it is a sign the job is done and flowering will stop.
  • Pick flowers for indoors, Sweet Peas can be picked every day to encourage new flowers and prevent early demise of the plant. Alternatively trim, deadhead or shear off old flowers as they go over but prior to setting seed to get a new flush of flowers.
  • If you wish to collect seed for next year wait until late August when plants will begin to stop producing new flowers anyway as the days get shorter.
  • Water and space are probably more important than feed. Some plants like poor soil to encourage flowering, Nasturtiums for example will produce a lot of leaf if the soil is too rich and fewer flowers.
  • Cut off flower heads of annuals you do not want to crop up everywhere. Teasels, Honesty, Welsh Poppies and  Bellis Daisies seem to get everywhere in my garden.
  • Pull out old plants and compost them when you have finished with them. Replace with some biennials for a quick show next spring or plant up some late flowering Asters or Chrysanthemums.

Remember some plants may be half-hardy perennials, like the Antirrhinum  but are best treated as Annuals and should be grown for one flowering year only. Annuals make good cut flowers and have a fast range of colours from which to choose.

Other Resources

Royal Horticultural Society RHS ‘Gardening for All’
National Council for Conservation of Plants and Gardens ‘Conservation through Cultivation.’
Garden Organic National Charity for Organic Gardening.
BBC Gardening
Buy Daisies and other annuals as seeds and plants at Thompson & Morgan

Tips for Growing Seeds

Tips for Growing Seeds

forget-me-not

June is a good month for sowing seeds to get the plants you want for next year. I have sown some biennials today and will sow other seeds after the ‘hot’ summer.

Growing from Seed General Tips

  • Do not sow in winter or in waterlogged ground or the seed will rot. ‘Sow dry and plant wet’.
  • Annuals will flower 12 weeks after sowing but perennials may take up to 12 months or more.
  • Do not cover seeds with 6 inches of soil they will never see the light of day. Generally a light covering will suffice.
  • Seed in foil packets may stay fresh for 2 years as advertised on the packet but you want good germination rates so use good fresh seed.
  • Read and follow the instructions on the packet but don’t be afraid to try collected seed.

Biennial Seeds Sown Today

  • Sweet William Early Summer Scented are a mixture of Dianthus barbatus to flower from next April. I filled a seed tray with moist seed compost (peat and peat substitute tends to dry out then be hard to re-wet) then took a pinch of seed and sprinkled them evenly.
  • Wallflower Blood Red is another fragrant spring flower sown in shallow rows outside. (Rows help show where the wallflowers grow compared to weeds which will come up at random).
  • Campanula Pyramidalis’s very fine seed has been sown in modules and also direct into cultivated soil raked to a fine tilth. (Tilth is very fine top soil with lumps broken down in which to sow your seeds). I haven’t tried these before so they got a bit more TLC.
  • I could have sown other biennials including Foxgloves and Honesty or winter flowering Pansy but there is still time for me to buy them.

Seeds to Sow this Year for Next Year

  • Perennials like Aquilegia McKana Giant mixed will be sown on the surface of compost as they need light to germinate in September or October.
  • Marigolds (Calendula not French) and Cornflower sown in September will survive the winter and should get off to a quick start next year.
  • Sweet Peas can be sown in October to over winter. They need a deep root run and can be sown in long tubes.

Seeds from T&M

Valerian Weed or Flower

Valerian Weed or Flower

valerian

A garden weed is a plant that grows in the ‘wrong  place’.

From self sown seeds I have Valerian growing in walls and cracks in pavements that despite the colour at this time of year are weeds. I must get them out before they seed and invade the few remaining gardens in our road that have not already received free plants from the overgrown Vicarage garden.

Facts about Valerian

  • When you hear it is called Jupiter’s beard and that it has fragrant, scarlet to red or white flowers growing in dense clusters on 3-foot stems you may start to like the plant.
  • They begin blooming in spring and continue over a long period if old flowering stems are removed but do not grow well if the soil is too rich.
  • If flowering stops due to hot summer weather cut plants back by about a half to promote another round of bloom in late summer.
  • This plant is best when massed and is often naturalized along old walls and rocky outcrops.
  • Valerian (Centranthus) makes a long-lasting cut flower and is a good plant to supply butterflies with nectar.
  • Centranthus rubervalerian alba has white flowers, coccineus has deep red flowers and roseus bears rose-colored flowers (no surprise with the names then).
Top Ten Annual Climbers

Top Ten Annual Climbers

sweetpea

What is your favourite annual climber? Most of these  climbers grow 6-10 feet in one season.

  1. Sweet Pea lathyrus odoratus must rank near the very top of any list of favourite annual flowers. they will grow 6-10 feet tall and if the flowers are picked regularly they will give endless scent and pleasure.
  2. Morning Glory Ipomea purpurea or convolvulus major has purple funnel-shaped flowers from summer until the frosts. Or tricolour ‘Heavenly Blue’ is a great variety
  3. Cathedral Bells Cobaea scandens may be half hardy perennial but it is best grown an an annual each spring for the purple veklvety bell shaped flowers.
  4. Caiophora lateritia Frothy has 2″ wide flowers that turn from coppery orange to white and grows 4′ tall.
  5. Black-eyed Susan Thunbergia alata has yellow or white flowers with the charecteristic dark brown eye.
  6. Nasturtium Tropaeolum majus grows in poor soil and flowers in a variety of colours. The seeds leaves and flowers can be eaten as a bonus.
  7. Canary Creeper is also from Tropaeolum family Peregrinum and as the name implies it blooms with irregular yellow flowers.
  8. Climbing Snapdragons Asarina antirrhiniflora is tender but has purple or white snapdragon like flowers and grow 4-5′ tall.
  9. Lophospermum scandens also looks like a snapdragon with nlarger more colourful flowers.
  10. Golden Hops are grown from rhizomes and are not strictly an annual but I think the format fits well with this list. Growing Hops Yourself  website is full of useful information
Tzigane Best HT Rose

Tzigane Best HT Rose

tsigane

I have always assumed this Rose that I bought as Tzigane (Tsigane) was in fact that variety. When I recently compared it to pictures by other gardeners I found 4 totally different offerings under that name. I am happy with my rose, that it is a regular flowering rose of fair scent and pleasant disposition (no bugs or diseases  of note) and it is 10+ years old. Perhaps the inner petal shade should be pinker but the bicolour effect is still noticeable.

Tips on Plant Varieties

  • Even under the same name plants will vary. Parentage, growing situation, general cultivation and environmental factors will all influence a plant which may also vary of it’s own accord from one year to the next.
  • Plants can get mis-named by nurseries by accident, carelessness or even commercial imperative. If it is important buy from a specialist nursery and select your plant when it is in flower too check it is to your specification.
  • Do not be afraid to take a wayward specimen back to the retailer.
  • Even if the plant is not exactly what you want, by the time you find out it will have made a new home in your garden and it may be worth a compromise (a bit one sided as the plant can’t do much compromising)
Dwarf Pelargonium aka Geranium

Dwarf Pelargonium aka Geranium

dwarf

This dwarf Pelargonium (called Geranium) is shorter than a paperback (I mean not as tall) and the leaves are correspondingly small. A perfect little miniature plant with all the habits and leaf colouring of a zonal Pelargonium.

Dwarf Pelargonium Tips and Hints

  • I guess you could grow them outside in summer in the rockery after the Aubretia and spring flowers have finished or in pots indoors and out..
  • I have several cuttings coming along very nicely that I took from this plant in March as I wanted to reshape it for this summer and couldn’t waste the trimmings. I used gritty compost and a normal window ledge and all 6 have rooted. I will cut them back in Autumn for growing slowly onward next spring.
  • I am looking  for other miniature Geraniums to complement this one as they are easier to maintain in good condition than the larger varieties.
  • The following varieties are suitable for exhibitions and I might give one or two a try; Dibbinsdale, Dovepoint, Barnsdale and Clatterbridge according to Fir Trees nursery where I buy my Pelargoniums.
  • I may also try a Dwarf Regal Pelargonium like Lily The pink or Tammy Ann

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Save Water Garden with a Friend

Save Water Garden with a Friend

Older gardeners may remember the water company slogan ‘Save Water bath with a friend’ used during the great water shortages of 1976. Are we in for another summer like 1976? Some thinks so others are still suffering floods and unseasonal cold still as Baden Powell said be prepared. I am suggesting help from friendly gadgets to save water in your garden this summer.

Watering Systems for Pots.

  • For a cheap system of ‘container watering’ use a big container (they hold more soil and water and have less pot surface area to soil) and mulch the top with 2″ of gravel, slate or bark. Plastic containers evaporate less from the sides but the soil gets hotter than with terracotta pots.
  • When you water make sure you give them a long drink. I stand all pots on a saucer and fill it up as well as watering from the top.
  • Self watering pots can be bought with a reservoir that avoid 2out of 3 watering requirements when compared to a normal pot.
  • The Rolls Royce system would be a full irrigation system from a header tank with computer control as used in commercial nurseries. An easy to use irrigation system based on a modular approach can start from less than £20 and be used in the greenhouse, garden or for pots and hanging baskets.

Buy an Thompson MorganIrrigation system from Thompson & Morgan from this link.

Growing Heliotrope Plants

Growing Heliotrope Plants

purple-haze

Heliotrope usually has dark green crinkled leaves and deep purple flowers. The flowers are among the most fragrant in the garden. I grow it as an annual from bought plants (a bit extravagant). Heliotrope were prized by our grandmothers in traditional cottage-gardens. There are several varieties with flowers in white and pale lavender. But I prefer the old-fashioned kind with dark green, crinkled leaves and deep purple flowers. It is quite dependable both in ease of care and reliable fragrance. Reminiscent of vanilla, the heliotrope’s scent gave rise to its common name ‘ the cherry-pie plant’.

Growing Tips

  • If over crowded they may suffer from mildew but are generally pest free.
  • Plant in plenty of sunshine.
  • Heliotrope needs pinching out when young . Pinch back the tips all over the plant early on, which forces lots of new side growth. You wait longer for flowers but get more of them eventually.
  • Removing faded blooms promptly results in a continuous show of pretty flowers starting in July.
  • Heliotrope  turns its flowers and leaves toward the sun over the course of each day. And at night it readjusts itself to face eastward, to be ready for sunrise. That tendency is at the root of the name heliotrope. It means to move with the sun.
  • Heliotrope is a member of the Borage family

Heliotropium arborescens or peruvianum are the species to consider growing but there are many species of Heliotrope not all of which are suitable for the UK.

Winter Heliotrope Petasites fragrans is native to the Mediterranean. As its name implies it produces attractive heads of fragrant, mauve flowers early in the New Year  however, the true character of the plant is thuggish. It is a large-leaved rampant perennial spreading by means of underground stems and is very invasive.

Seeds are now available from Thompson & Morgan