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Month: October 2014

Grow Romantic Red Flowers

Grow Romantic Red Flowers

Lust

There is a romantic red flower for virtually every month of the year. Even if your husband or partner fails to deliver the romantic bunch on St Valentines day you can grow your own and pretend.

Christmas time produces red flowers or at least sepals on the Poinsettia and following that in January, Cyclamen persicum are available in strong red colours.

Tulip

The bulbs of Amaryllis that you planted at Christmas will be flowering by February and March is my favourite time for Primulas which are available in red with a catchy yellow eye.

Hibiscus

Also an early flower for indoors why not seek out an April flowering red Orchid variety Nelly Isler. May will have seen Camellia japonica ‘Adolphe Audusson’ come and go. With June reserved for Peonies we are half way through the romantic red flower year.
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Benefits of Dead Heading Flowers

Benefits of Dead Heading Flowers

Benefits of Deadheading Flowers

Dead heading Flowers is a simple but effective way to gain a longer flowering period from your plants. Snip off or pinch out old flowers as soon as they have ‘gone over’. Those flowers have done their bit for the flower gardener and it is time to make room for new flowers.

Benefits of Dead Heading Flowers

  • When a plant starts to set seed, it automatically stops producing more flowers to focus its energy on developing the seed. If you cut off the dead flowers before they have time to set seed then this shuts off the signal enabling a longer flowering period to be enjoyed.
  • Dead heading can create a bushier more attractive plant. In the foxglove above, the traditional spike has been replaced with numerous side shoots creating a unique look as well as an extended flower season.
  • Some plants particularly annuals die after flowering and deadheading may prolong their life.
  • Dead heading keeps a plant tidy. Old flowers may attract rot or disease.
  • Dead heading stops unwanted self sowing of seeds from profligate species.
  • Dead head even if you do not expect more flowers as it will direct energy into the plant and not reproduction.

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Gerbera us a Smile

Gerbera us a Smile

Gerbera smile

Gerberas often make us smile but this flower is trying to smile for us. Like my jokes it is nothing to laugh at.

A popular house plant the Gerbera has radiant, single or double flowers. They look like their relatives the  daisy family. Best known for the range of strong colours you often see one stem in a vase. The flowers last well as cut flowers and are a regular feature in florists arrangements. They also make a colour full display on this web page.

The ray floret petals are a pale salmon with a distinctive and typical centre.

A couple of doubles, a doppleganger of a Gerbera

All the central disc florets are open on this orange Gerbera

For some more pictures of Gerbera try

New Pansy Sweet Pea

New Pansy Sweet Pea

Update on Pansy ‘Sweet Pea’ Sept 2014

Failure of a new plant to take off. Trailing behind traditional Pansy varieties I have not repeated my experiment with Pansy sweet pea varieties, nor have I tried sweet peas that grow as low as pansies.
Described below are the Pansy purchases I made in 2012. It included a new pansy that was designed to climb or be treated like a sweet pea.
They arrived in good fettle and got off to a good start in various locations.
The first flush of flowers were OK but not stunning.
The climbing habit was poor even when tied to appropriate pea sticks.
The wet spring and summer weather has seen off the rest of the pansies and all in all they were poor value.

Pansies

Jan 10th 2012
Jersey plants have just mailed me a copy of their glossy but clear catalogue of plants for 2012. I was pleased to see and order some jumbo plugs of Senetti a daisy like flower that did so well for me last year. Prices are similar to other suppliers but postage is free.

I was suckered when it came to checkout into buying another 70 garden ready Pansy Sweet Pea a variety I have not come across before.

What are Pansy Sweet Pea

  • This pansy grows to 18″ and has similar characteristics to sweet peas.
  • The flowers are bicoloured and blotched in white, rose, pink, lilac, gold, red, and blue.
  • They flower from April to October with ruffled petals.
  • They are said to be ‘Ideal as cut flowers’ my reason for buying them.
  • I will support these pansies with short canes and plant about 6″ apart.

I have joined a flickr group ‘VIOLETTA AMORE MIO’ that specialise in pansy and violet photographs and hope to get some good pictures of this variety to submit to the show.

purple pansy

Credits
Mozaic Pansies by robynejay CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Jersey Plants Direct

Good Value Garden Tools

Good Value Garden Tools

Some tools may fall in the category of BIY or bodge it yourself as opposed to DIY.

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. Some of the best tools are those you cobble together for yourself, shelving for a shed, newspaper pots for sweet peas etc.

Other Tools and Device Tips

Support Your Climbers this Autumn

Support Your Climbers this Autumn

Helmsley 194

November is a good time to retie your climbers to their supports. Climbing Roses benefit from the support of a sturdy frame that prevents ‘wind rock’. Wind rock loosens the roots grip on the soil by the action of high winds.

Variety of Support for climbers

  • The photo below shows walled garden where the brick wall supported many climbers.
  • The hoops of stiff wire on a frame in the mid distance showed another distinctive form of support.
  • A complex cast iron work acts as a sculpture, archway or arbour as well as a support.
  • In the foreground is a circular, tubular effort that can be purchased at many garden centers.

Rose garden

What makes a Good Support Tie

  • Vine ties can be used to tie growth to a wall. These are like nails with eyes or soft nails that can be bent over.
  • Support ties should be disguised by growth so they are not obtrusive.
  • Ties should not restrict the flow of sap when growth recommences.
  • Ties should not cut into the trunk, branch or stem of the plants
  • The plants should be restricted so it can not blow around and become damaged.

Burnby Hall Pocklington

This pergola was used to support sweet peas but was built to help more sturdy climbers. Not everyone can accommodate such a construction and it should be more covered in climbers to suit my taste.

Ivy

A simple support for the most basic climber or scrambler, Ivy. The swag under the growth is a chain link and is on both sides of the path at Brodsworth Hall Barnsley. I had to look underneath to be sure there was support as it looked so natural and completely covered for many yards.

See also Trellis and Supports

Growing Everlasting Sweetpea

Growing Everlasting Sweetpea

everlasting-sweetpea

The Everlasting Sweetpea  is a herbaceaous perennials unlike it’s annual cousins. Lathyrus latifolia is the latin name of everlasting sweet peas and there are several varieties including this ‘Pink Pearl’,  ‘Red Pearl’ and I also have an unnamed  variety that is a blueish white. I have grown mine from seed but you can also take cuttings in early summer.

If you can forget comparisons with annual sweet peas you will find these rapidly growing climbers a great asset in your garden. They will scramble over an untidy compost heap, grow up a tall shrub or twine over a specific frame. Ever popular, this plant is smothered in showy sprays of legume like flowers from June to September among grey-green leaves. …

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Cheap Garden Pot Mums

Cheap Garden Pot Mums

Purple Pot-Mum
Purple Pot-Mum with 130+ Flowers

I have grown a lot of Chrysanthemums in pots this year. Currently they are showing their true colours in an Autumn blaze of glory.

Tips for Cheap Chrysanthemums

  • I bought a cheap supermarket multi pack early in the year (6 for 99p). I nipped out the growing heads and in some cases the flowers that were already showing. I potted them up individually in the cold greenhouse, then put them individually in large outdoor pots at the end of June. They were of a variety prone to self branch so I only needed to stop them blooming too early by pinching out odd flowers. They are now 10 times the size the supermarket expected.

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