Rosa Iceberg

Global warming has not made my Iceberg rose melt or disappear. On the contrary it is doing very well.

In the top picks for many rose enthusiast this is one shrub that can look after itself. Any floribunda rose should have lots of buds and blossom and Iceberg doesn’t disappoint. These buds are slightly pink, opening regularly through summer and autumn to display classic white roses.

Compared to other roses this plant is disease resistant, feeds some aphids and has sharp thorns but all is forgiven in lieu of its great display.

Tips

• Icebergs bloom on new wood so prune before Easter to get good growth.
• Encourage your Iceberg to grow tall in a ‘White Garden’ - you can also get Iceberg as a climber sport

Photo from http://mikeandphilonthehill.blogspot.com/2008/02/080113-first-icelandic-poppy.html

This is an easy to grow biennial. Plant seeds now, either where they are to flower, or under cover for planting out 9 inches apart later. Germination can be erratic but they also dislike being transplanted so you are caught between a rockery and hard-landscaping.

The reason I say they are easy, is because they self sow all over my garden and dispite the delicate petals I think of them as weeds. So much so that I forgot to photograph any earlier this year.

Other Seeds to sow for next year

• Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’ grey leaves with purple bell flowers
• Eschscholzia - Californian Poppy
• Calendula officinalis - Indian Prince mixed coloured pot marigolds

It is September and my Rhubarb is now well over and is succumbing to snails and rotting. Having divided the crowns a couple of years ago I have several vigourous plants that provided vegetables for many early summer pies. Rhubarb is easy for beginners to grow.

To force the plants to produce thin, pink, early stalks, Rhubarb needs a bit of frost to break the dormancy followed by a dark covering. In November I am going to try digging up a large root and leave it on top of the soil for a week of frost. Then I will replant it with an old black dustbin on top to draw out some stems. You can buy forcing terracotta pots for the purpose that add an authentic look.

Rhubarb can be cropped from May through July but keep half the leaves to help the crowns build up for the following year. Divide every 5-7 years when they are over grown or stalks become too thin.

I am picking more and more Cherry Tomatoes as the days get longer. I still have a lot of other vines in the greenhouse with fruit to pick and if they won’t ripen I will try some of these tips. Let me know if you have other methods.

Encourage late ripening

• If you haven’t taken the greenhouse shading off, do so and clean all the glass.
• Bunny Guinness suggests you cover plants with horticultural fleece or perforated plastic.
• Stop pinching out as it is too late and excess water can be transpired through the new leaves to help avoid splitting.
• Reduce the plants work load by selecting the fruit you want to ripen and take the rest off.
• If you pick green tomatoes hang vines in a dark dry place to ripen.
• Wrap a tomato in newspaper and put in a drawer  or cardboard box. Tomatoes ripen best in the dark and sunlight will make the skins get tough.
• Put a banana in with green tomatoes will speed up the ripening/decay process
• Pick green tomatoes as they start to change colour. Hard, dark green tomatoes get to a point where they won’t ripen and are only good for Chutney.

For a chance to win a National Trust Holiday worth £1000 enter the Yorkshire Bank and Daily Telegraph sponsored ‘Greener Gardens Competition’.

Send your greener garden ideas including pictures if you wish to greenergardens@telegraph.co.uk

There are over 1000 smaller prizes but best of all, you will be sharing your green gardening ideas with a far larger audience. A special feature will appear in the Daily Telegraph on 4th October 2008. You can also add your idea to our web site in the comments below. Postal entries should be sent to Yorkshire Bank Greener Gardens Competition, Telegraph Media Group, Longbridge Road, Trafford Park,Manchester. M17 1SN

Yorkshire Bank and the National Trust offer gardeners tips on green gardening

Wrap.org offer gardeners tips on composting.

Forget 6 inch cuttings, for bigger shrubs use bigger cuttings. Giant cuttings of 18-36 inches may be worthwhile on the following:- Cistus, Euonymous, Hebe, Leycesteria, Weigelia, Pyracantha or Kerria japonica. I have a friend who excells with Roses taken this way.

Proceedure for Cuttings

• Water the host plant well the evening before taking cuttings.
• Take cutting early in the day, keep out of the sun and spray with water to minimise wilting.
• Select a shoot with plenty of new growth. Cut it off cleanly at the base where it comes from a branch or cut below a swelling leaf node instead.
• Remove any flowers, lower leaves and soft tips by pinching out
• If the cutting has a woody bark remove a sliver an inch long to aid rooting.
• Have available one litre pots full of a free draining mix of grit and multipurpose compost.
• Dip the end of the cutting in fresh hormone rooting compound, such as Murphy’s, plant and water in
• Place in a humid environment eg. a plastic bag over the pot supported by canes, so leaves don’t touch the sides, and tied with a rubber band.
• Keep in a shady spot removing dead leaves regularly.
• In about 5-6 weeks, when rooted, acclimatise to outside conditions and overwinter in a sheltered spot
• Plant out in March

Climber Cutting Tips Read the rest of this entry »

This family of herbaceous perennials can make attractive ground cover with its wide variety of foliage. Plant in dry ground between shrubs that give some shade from hot sun. Starting to flower in May many varieties go on until the first frost.

Gardeners Tips on Lamiums

• Plants are at their best when the weather is cooler in Spring and Autumn.
• Clip or deadhead plants that are looking untidy. That will encourage new foliage and flowering.
• Some varieties are very invasive, avoid Lamium galeobdolon ‘Florentium’.
• Lamiums Canon’s Gold and Beacon Silver tend to scorch in full sun.
• Some favourites include L. Maculatum ‘Elisabeth de Haas’ with mauve flowers and green, silver and yellow foliage or ‘Roseum’, ‘White Nancy’ or ‘Checkers’.
• There are many varieties and plants that don’t live up to expectations should be composted
• L. aureum is less vigorous and does best in shade

Pros

• I am still actively deadheading many plants in the hope of a more flowers from a long, warm, sunny Autumn - some hope editor
• Plants look tidier if they are lightly trimmed when deadheading
• Energy is put into the remaining plant rather than seed production. So plants may be better able to withstand winter and some will have a better established root system.
• Softwood that has no time to ripen will probably suffer in the first frosts so it is pruned out
• Dying flowerheads may rot or damage other flowers or leaves.
• Deadheading stops unwanted seedlings from prolific seeders

Cons

• If you want to save seed you want seedheads to ripen on the plant. Some will dry in a greenhouse or garden shed before being stored in an airtight container. I put seeds in small ex-mail order envelopes first.
• Some seed heads such as Honesty, Rose rugarosa,  Echinops and Teasels are left through winter for shape and to look attractive in a frost.
• Do not deadhead ornamental plants grown for their seedheads like Iris Foettisima or Physalis
• If you want to save seed or berries for birds and wild life do not deadhead
• If you want self-sown seedlings for a natural garden then select what flowers to leave to run to seed.

Agapanthus are one of the trendy flowers of this decade. The ball shaped umbrels are masses of tubular flowers in blue, violet or white. The deciduous sword shaped leaves grow from a bulb and root clump. Since new varieties have been bred to be hardy it has been practical to move Agapanthus from the cold greenhouse into pots and now into the border.

Gardeners Tips about Agapanthus

• Commonly called the ‘African Lily’ or ‘Lily of the Nile’ this picture is Agapanthus Snow Cloud. It and  blue varieties prefer a warm sunny positions without the danger of waterlogged soil.
• Agapanthus are part of the Allium family and are not fragrant unlike so may Lilys.
• Flower stalks can be over 3 foot tall.
• Read the rest of this entry »

‘Kinlough Beauty’ is an exceptionally hardy Primrose from the Primula family. . To maintain vigour divide ‘Kinlough Beauty’ every couple of years or so after blooming. This is when your free plants arise. I have just got nine new healthy plants from one clump. Other primroses can be divided in a similar manner.

Gardeners Tips

• To divide a primrose separate new crowns with some roots from the old root. Pull apart or prise loose with two forks back to back.
• Alternatively take divisions with a trowel whilst plants are still in the ground for more reliable performance.
• Do not split into too many divisions as they take longer to establish.
• Plant firmly in soil and keep moist as new roots are established.
• Kinlough Beauty is a hardy evergreen or semi-evergreen Juliana cultivar with deep green, oval leaves 6 inches long. Plants produce loose clusters of wine red to rose-pink yellow eyed flowers held above a mound of foliage.
• Plant labeling of primrose family can be a bit hit and miss. Read the rest of this entry »