Wild flower gardens are generally thought to be at their best in spring but this colourful patch was a riot of colour in the middle of August.

Gardeners Tips for Wild Flowers

• Poor soil conditions encourage flowering. Do not fertilise wild flower gardens
• Group flowers with similar flowering times together. it would look to thin and patchy to have a mix of spring and Autumn flowers together.
• Do not be too quick to tidy up. Let the seeds develop and drop so that annual plants renew themselves for next season.
• If possible avoid competition from grass particularly for autumn wild flower gardens as they can choke off the flowering plants.

This fleshy leaved Sedum Telephium Matrona is just colouring and clumping up in my garden. It is not as vigorous as Sedum spectabile Autumn Joy which can be come a bit of a thug if left unchecked.

• Look out for even stronger burgandy coloured foliage and flowerheads
• Try the ‘Chelsea chop’ on plants in May to encourage later growth that isn’t as prone to flop. Cut back the young growth and wait for the plant to rejuvenate
• Sometimes called Ice Plants the heads can be left on over winter and look good rimed in frost.
• Nearly as attractive to Bees and Butterflies as the Buddleia
• Easy to grow even in poor soil and work well in cottage gardens

Dahlia Types

• Cactus or semi-cactus like this Dana, Super (red) or Morley Lass a pale yellow
• Single flowered dahlias are open centred flowers up to 4 inches in diameter with a single ring of florets around a central disc. There are self colours or some bicolours.
• Collarette similar to singles with a extra ring of shorter florets around the middle
• Ball dahlias or the smaller pompon have tight spherical flowerheads
• Decorative dahlias are classified for shows in large (over 10 inch blooms), medium, small and miniature sizes
• Other miscellaneous dahlias that don’t fall into another category often linked to the flower formations of other plants like Chrysanthemeum, Anemone, Paeony, Orchid or Water-Lily forms.
• Annual bedding dahlias from seed

Cultivation tips for Dahlias

• Start tubers into growth in March in a frost free environment
• Thin to 3 shoots and stop them if they get to 6 inches. Spare shoots can be rooted as cuttings.
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From July to September you may see some giant sunflowers and they may be from the variety ‘Titan’ which is advertised as up to 12 foot tall. Other large varieties include Giant Yellow, Paul Bunyon and variations on Russian Giant sunflowers.

Guinness Book of Records categories for giant sunflowers

• Biggest flower measured from the petal tip to the opposite side petal tip - 32 inches
  
• Tallest Sunflower measured from the ground to the highest petal on the flower - 25 feet unless you grow better
  
• Most flowers counting all flower heads on the sunflower - 837 on one plant in America

Tips for growing Giants

• Avoid planting in a windy site or too near a wall. A north facing area may help the plant grow tall. Plant in sun for branching and lots of flower.
• Stake the plants for support. Put in a thicker stake as needed.
• Mound up soil around the base of the plant
• Water regularly
• Feed at least weekly with balanced feed and more frequently with a high potash feed when the flower develops.
• Watch out for insects, wind damage and other problems that need quick treatment.

• I was pointed to these tools by a comment from a visitor too our site - thanks Zoe
• Get the key tools right to make your garden easier and more pleasurable.
  • A Spade that is light enough for your physique and a stainless steel blade will not get claggy with soil.
  • Secateurs for snipping, pruning and cutting. Have one good pair for important work and another for the ‘grunt’ jobs that are a bit tougher. I have a good bypass (scissor type) pair for pruing and an anvil pair for hard work
  • Lawn mower electric or petrol depending on the lawn size. As the adverts said ‘its much less bovver with a hovver’.
  • Trowel made from forged steel will stand hard work and cut into soil easily
  • Wheel barrow with a pneumatic tyre carries heavy loads and I prefer it too the ball type wheel
• Buy the best quality you can afford if you are going to make a lot of use of the tool. It is surprising how many tools don’t get used all that often so plan out what you need. Over 80% of the work will be done by the items in the list above.
• Pay a tree surgeon to cut hedges, prune and trim trees. They will have the right equipment andwill side away the waste.
• Maintain the tools you have:
  • Put linseed oil on wooden handles to keep them smooth and in good condition
  • Store metal wheel barrows upside down to help slow rusting from the rain
  • Keep blades clean and honed I use a wet stone to remove dried sap and keep sharp
  • Power tools need a cutout and an extension lead if your garden is large
  • Spray tools with WD40 or similar to keep rust free and moving

These pink cornflowers are two feet tall. In a vase cut 12 inches long they last 6 or 7 days and are attractive on there own or with simple foliage. They were bought from Wallis seeds and sown broadcast in late spring.

I didn’t even bother thining the plants out and they are robust and full of bud and flower, one of the successes of this slow summer so far.

Seeds for Next Year

• New catalogues have started arriving so I have started to list a few plants I have seen around that I want to try growing next for year.
• Cornflower are available in more than the powder blue of the fields. There are Pink, Red, White, Black and Blue in packets from 50p up to 25gms for less than £2.50 which will equate to a heck of a lot of flower power.
• The perennial Malva have flowered very strongly and I like this White Musk Mallow, Malva Mocschata alba agm. Next year I may also try M. ‘Appleblossom’

The Latin part of a plant name often gives a hint about the attributes of a plant or flower.

Maculatus or maculata means spotted in leaf, bark or this case flower. It also means spotted in the insect world.

Look out for other obvious hints like odorata and fragrans which will be scented . Alba means white whilst nigrescens will be black. The spellings may differ and it isn’t a fool proof method of plant selection but it may help.

This nine foot high perennial plant has a striking spire of yellow flowers. This variety has several smaller spikes in this case an impressive fourteen at the last count and still growing. This is a Verbascum hybrida and I also have a white which is less robust but still stately.

• The leaves are hairy and can cause skin irritation
• In the wild ‘Mulliens’ produce prodigious volumes of seed as do the hybrids. I treat good specimens as biennial although they are perennial as they are easy to grow from seed.
• Flowers do not open evenly up the flowering spike but have colour for many weeks in summer. If dead headed there will often be a second flush later.
• Mulliens like sun and space but are not fussy about soil conditions

Design Tips

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If you find an old Victorian sack cart or wheelbarrow it probably won’t be cheap. However such old tools are often made from good materials are very well designed for the purpose and are proven by years of experience and wear. Look out for such tools at car boot sales and second hand market stalls as they can be a fraction of the price of new and more to the point they can do a great job.

The right tool for the right job can make things easy like this old lawn edger. However there is money to be saved by having a multi-purpose tool that will grub out weeds in paths, hoe, rake and scrape a bit like this edger in fact.

Other Tools and Device Tips

• Buy the best you can afford it should make the job easier, more pleasurable and last longer
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Image of Clarkia double mixed from Unwins to create colourful flowers from scattered seeds.

1. A Broad bean or runner bean grown in a jar with curled tube of blotting paper to hold the seed against the glass. The roots will start when the bean germinates and then a leaf will form. The bean can be planted or the shoots eaten.
2. Mustard and or Cress sown on a wet cloth or flannel will germinate by growing a jelly coating and produce a fresh smell. In about 8 days there will be cress to eat.
3. Sunflower seeds sown in the garden can make giant plants taller than the children. Put a cane in firmly as a stake to tie the growing plant too.
4. Nasturtium seeds are big enough for even the smallest fingers. Plant in poor soil and they will trail and spread and the flowers leave new seed to collect for next year. The leaves and flowers can also be eaten so use this to teach children what can and can’t be eaten.
5. Read the rest of this entry »