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.
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A favorite annual is the Marigold or Tagetes. Bold colours in Yellows, Oranges, Lemons Reds and Creams are a feature of these plants that flower from July to the first frost. Despite the names they all originate from Mexico.

• Easily grown from seed these plants flower quickly and can be sown in situ
• The ‘French’ varieties tend to be smaller flowers in clusters on bushy plants
• ‘Honeycomb’ and ‘Safari Tangerine’ have the award of garden merit
• Africans are larger and showy
• Some African varieties can grow up to 5 feet tall but have fewer poorer flowers although the finely cut leaves are still attractive. For a medium to tall selection try ‘Crackerjack’
• Marigold leaves keep white fly away from greenhouse tomatoes and I grow a few plants for that purpose. The roots are also reputed to kill or inhibit some weeds
• These plants are not to be confused with Pot Marigolds called Calendula

Grown from bulbs or tubers the Wood Sorrel and many of it’s relative in the Oxalis family are easy to grow. The shamrock shaped leaves of the low growing Oxalis flower in red, white, yellow, blue and pink. I bought 70 bulbs for £1 at Focus at the end of May and they have grown well already.

Cultivation Tips and Varieties to Grow

• Many varieties have a dark purple centre to the leaves or a patterned purple cross as in O. Deppei.
• O. trangularis has white flowers and dark purple leaves.
• The lime green of the leaves O. Ironcross is a fresh bright green in spring and this can show off the edges of a border.
• Most hardy varieties make excellent ground cover or rock plants and flower even in dry shade and poor soil.
• Oxalis Adenophylla has pale lilac flowers and neat parasol like leaves
• Better flowering may occur with a bit of high phosphate fertilizer
• Flowers are sensitive to light levels and often close early in the day
• Tender varieties need to be dug up and stored like begonia tubers
• A new red and white funnel shaped flower is now available O Versicolour
• Many varieties self sow and get into nooks and crannies needing to be weeded out when they become too rampant.

For more information particularly about potted plants from South Africa and America visit the Oxalis web site

The long spurred Aquilegias are showy perrenial plants that are easy to grow from seed sown March to June. These cottage garden favourites grow up to three feet tall on thin stems without hindering other plants. They are not too fussy about conditions tolerating some shade and dry spells.

Tips on growing Columbine - Aquilegias

• Aquilegias can be grown and used as cut flowers.
• There are smaller varieties for rock gardens and patio pots such as A .Tiddlywinks
• For a quick impact buy ready grown plants
• Spurless double flowers like A. Noral Barlow and A William Guiness tend to be longer lived but I think they are less showy.
• A. chrysatha is tolerant of shade try A. Yellow Queen and I like A. vulgaris with pure white flowers and grey green foliage.
• The plants can be short lived but self sow and hybridise with other aquilegias. This can lead to inferior smaller seedlings and it may be best to start again as the plants are so easy to grow.

When looking at a garden or potential garden for the first time there are some basics to consider. I recommend you spend sometime thinking about these issues and build the consequences into your plans.

Location Location

• Understand the region and area where the garden is located and think about what it may mean. An East coast Scottish location will be colder than Essex but a West coast location may benefit from the warmer gulf stream. Seaside may be windier than a riverside spot.
• What are the surrounding environmental features such as mountains that could influence rainfall
• What is the underlying rock structure, limestone or chalk will not favour acid loving plants
• What is the aspect of the garden or which direction is the sun
• Where is the prevailing wind - in the UK this is most often from the west

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Grow Shasta Daisies

One of the RHS perennial plants of the month. The variety I grow are daisy like flowers that are a mass of single white blooms with yellow centres appearing from June to September. They seed and spread prolifically and form robust clumps spreading up to 3′ and flowers are on 2-3′ stems that flop if not supported.

There are also double varieties like Leucanthemum Superbum ‘Wirral Supreme’ or the old fashioned Leucanthemum Superbum ‘Ester Read’. Ester Read reminds me of old cottage gardens with clumps of fluffy double white flowers growing 2′ or more and producing great cut flowers.

Grow Ox-Eye Daisies

Ox-eye Daisy is a more common form of Leucanthemum vulgaris. This is often found in meadows and is useful in a wild garden or uncut lawn. The flowers are striking at night hence an alternative name of Moon Daisy as shown © Malcolm Storey, 2005, www.bioimages.org.uk.

The whole family is hardy and easy to grow and recommended for beginners.

A Yew that can Outlive You

The worlds oldest living thing is a tree.

Which tree is the question and where is it is a supplementary that causes regular discussion.

Is it the recently discovered Scandinavian Spruce 9000 years old? Or is it the Australian Wollemi or Huon Pine or the Californian Bristlecone Pine. At the moment the general assumption is the pine recently found and dated in Sweden : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/18/ntree118.xml#form

How can you compete

Unless you own a forest in a suitably protected climatic environment you can’t compete. The next best thing might be to plant a Yew Tree but rather than the green Yew (‘Common Yew’) seen in church yards I recommend the Golden Yew ‘Taxus baccata Semperaurea’. These are very slow growing and long lived like their cousins. This plant has been awarded an RHS Award of Garden Merit..

Golden Irish Yew male trees have the same upright form as green Irish Yew. It was first cultivated in 1880. Unless planted in a particularly moist fertile site it is slow to establish itself. In the south golden Irish Yew benefits from some shade from hot sunshine and drying winds.

Tips for Yew and You

• Use Yew in hedges – they are evergreen.
• Only Female trees set berries and some varieties only come in male form
• The berries are poisonous but are now collected and used in cancer medicines
• They can be used as wind breaks but only grow slowly 4” a year when young
• They like slightly damp shade
• The Dutchy of Cornwall list 14 varieties for sale from the plant shop

http://www.duchyofcornwallnursery.co.uk/plantshop_list.asp?_page=2&ptid=3&sL=T

• Yew is a good subject for Topiary
• Plants are available from nurseries or look for seedlings near a friends tree
• Be patient with cuttings and even more patient with seeds that need 18months to break dormancy
• Plants like chalky and limestone areas but I have a healthy specimen in slightly acid soil.

Sunflowers can be excellent fun to grow. Given the right conditions they can grow quickly and provide excellent height and flower in late autumn.

Sunflowers are considered easy to grow and are often considered to be a good plant for children. However, to get the best out of sunflowers requires a few careful points.

Choose the right variety. If you want to grow a tall sunflower try a specific variety such as

• H. ‘Moonwalker’: grown for its yellow face with a chocolate-dark centre; reaches a height of 1.2m to 1.5m (4ft to 5ft).
• H. ‘Russian Giant’: If you are just interested in height and entering the record books.

Grow as a Fence. Sunflowers can make an excellent impromptu screen for late summer. The height can divide a garden creating a natural sense of rooms. - something top garden designers often go for.

• H. ‘Pastiche’: available in mixed shades of reds, and yellows. The flowers appear on multi-stemmed plants that make an effective multicoloured fence in late summer - from 1.2m to 1.5m (4ft to 5ft) high.

Proper Staking. Preventing sunflowers from falling over is one of the great challenges of growing them. Individually, you need a strong cane well dugg into the soil. If you grow sunflowers in blocks it will be easier to provide staking for the group; they will give each other support as they grow.

Feeding. Sunflowers enjoy a rich well fed soil. If going for height, use a nitrogen based fertiliser, switching to potash (tomato food) as the buds begin to appear.

Watering. Sunflowers don’t like drying out and they can soon start to wither. Make sure they are well watered; each watering should aim to reach its roots, rather than just touching the surface.

Starting in pots. To get the best start for sunflowers sow 2cm deep just covering with soil and place in a 3 inch pot. When big enough you can plant out, hardening off if necessary.

Best Location. Sunflowers like a sunny position and preferably not too windy.

Sunflower seeds at Dobies

After a wet winter it is a good lawn that has no moss.

Moss thrives in lawns where:

• the ground is compacted
• There is waterlogging or poor drainage
• The grass has been scalped by the lawn mower that cuts too short
• Moss has previously been growing
• The lawn is old and a thatch of dead grass has built up and not been raked out or areated
• The lawn is in the shade or overhung with trees

Treatments and Tips

• Don’t try to compost old moss - a normal compost heap won’t help and the moss will be returned with the compost
• Lawn sand is a proprietary formula of chemically treated fine sand using ammonium and iron sulphate. Spread evenly in April when rain is expected this can kill and turn the moss black.
• Liquid lawn moss killers and mixed granular feed and weed products like ‘Evergreen Organic Choice’ can help keep the moss at bay. Follow the instructions on the box, bottle or packet.

Prevention may be the best course

• So aerate the soil by using a hollow pronged fork - this I have found labour intensive difficult and not very satisfying.
• Other aeration methods include special motorised devices you can hire to do a similar job and remove the thatch of dead leaves and moss.
• Feed the grass in spring and autumn
• Try avoid too much compaction in difficult areas - keep the kids to a hard wearing area
• Do not cut the grass too short
• If all else fails turn the lawn into a meadow or better still flower beds

Flowering Currant ( Ribes Sanguineum)

The small currant leaves can’t hide the large amount of red or pink flowers hanging from all the leaf joints in tassel like profusion. On one tassel I have just picked there are 11 star like flowers open and at least as many buds to still open. A great show of pink and red at this early stage of the season when these colours are harder to find. They don’t last very long but are a worthwhile plant to grow. The leaves have a strong and pleasant currant smell

• Cuttings are easy to root and I just cut a 10″ length and push it into a patch of garden where I want a new plant.
• They often grow wild on patches of land or a friendly neighbour would give you several cuttings. Look for a colour that you like and ask after it has finished flowering or at the backend of the season.
• Plants can grow to 5 feet and more so keep pruning out some of the old wood and trim the plant to a manageable size.
• Pruning should be done shortly after flowering - cutting back to a new bud.
• I grow them in sun and shade at they both perform.
• You often see them at coastal areas so they do OK by the seaPieris Japonica

These shrubs are usually grown for the new bright red leaves that start emerging during April. This does them a disservice as the mature bushes are now covered in clusters of white flowers shaped like lily of the valley. This shape of flower gives the plant a common nick name of ‘Lily of the Valley Bush’.

• Pieris Forest Flame has red leaves that eventually turn pink then green. They grow slowly but robustly.
• Pieris Mountain Fire is another variety whose name implies where it came from and what to expect. Whilst ‘Flaming Silver’s new leaves are pinkish and the remaining foliage is variegated with white edges
• The new Katsura range have red or pinkish flower tassels but I have found it less vigourous.
• Pieris like an acid soil
• Cuttings can be taken in June or July when flowering has finished. They are more difficult to root than Ribes but the plants are worth the effort