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Month: March 2016

Grow your Own Figs

Grow your Own Figs

The Brown Turkey fig, Ficus carica, produces large, sweet, juicy figs even in British conditions.

Fig Growing Tips

  • Grown in a large pot they can get upto 12 feet tall but to encourage fruit prune in autumn and keep to a reasonable size about 5 -6 feet tall.
  • Keep  plants well watered particularly when young.
  • Grown against a south facing wall the full sun will encourage both fruiting and ripening.
  • Expect fruit to ripen in August or  September and pick regularly leaving tiny, embryo fruit towards the ends of the shoots will over-winter and  will ripen the following year.
  • Left to grow some Figs varieties can produce very large trees but they are not suitable for the British climate.
  • Fig trees do not need a pollinator so one tree should suffice.
  • Some winter protection may be needed in very hard frost.
  • Constrain the roots to encourage fruit and suppress the desire for the fig to become a large tree.
Easy Cyclamen Houseplants

Easy Cyclamen Houseplants

Cyclamen are easy and rewarding houseplants to look after as long as you control the watering.

Watering Cyclamen

  • Keep indoor Cyclamen moist but do not stand them in water.
  • Water from the bottom and let plants soak up what they need
  • If using the immersion method do not get the crown of the plant wet
  • Keep indoor cyclamen in humid conditions by putting the plant on   damp gravel or special clay granules.
  • Put the Cyclamen, pot and all into a larger peat filled pot and keep the outer pot very damp.
  • Fertilize every fortnight if you want to keep the tuber for next year

Choosing and Caring for Florists Cyclamen

  • Pick a pot with good fresh leaves. If the pot end is heavy it has some water in the compost.
  • Indoor or florists cyclamen are more tender than outdoor cyclamen. They are usually periscum varieties in bright colours.
  • Twist off yellow leaves and spent flowers near to the stem.
  • Keep cool about 50-60° and away from direct sun and strong drafts.
  • Do not let them freeze
  • Soft leaves are a sign of needing water or having too much water. If the later stop watering take out of the pot to help drying and leave to refresh itself before repotting.
  • Plants should flower through December and January then can be rested on their sides until autumn to flower next year
Chionodoxa – Glory of The Snow

Chionodoxa – Glory of The Snow

Chindoxia

Chionodoxa are beautiful, hardy spring flowering bulbs that are easy to grow. They grow 6inches tall from small bulbs and have pretty star-shaped flowers with long narrow leaves. (Also spelled Chinodoxa and common name Glory of the Snow). The blossom has a central line on each of 6 petals.

Cultivation 0f Chionodoxa

They do well in most garden soil. Plant 2-3″ deep.
Chinodoxa are most effective when planted in clumps and allowed to naturalise.
Suitable for rockeries and growing in pots.
Flowers lasts for 3-4 weeks, after which both the flowers and the foliage die back.

Chinodoxa Varieties

Chinodoxa Lucilliae is widely available and flowers bright blue
Chinodoxa Luciliae Alba is a clear white with star shaped flowers in March.
Chinodoxa  Forbesii Pink Giant produces a wealth of pink flowers.
Chinodoxa Forbesii is bright blue with a white centre.

Chinodoxia Alba

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Windswept Gardening Plant Selections

Windswept Gardening Plant Selections

Are you a windswept gardener who suffers from prevailing and random wind (in the garden I mean). Well here are some tips and plant selections to help make the most of your conditions. Your other suggestions would be welcome.

Initial Thoughts of the Windswept (move home)

  • Screen a windy site with Trees and Shrubs then fill in with sturdy perennials.
  • Think of wind breaks when locating garden furniture or planning a new hedge.
  • Seaside gardens hint at some of the great garden features that you can incorporate into your windy garden.
  • Drought or water shortage often goes with a windswept garden so select plants that are also drought tolerant.
  • After planting give new additions some protection until they are established and water regularly until the roots grow. I put large pots, fleece barriers and even temporary trellis near new plants.

Selection of Trees

Seeing Double Flowers

Seeing Double Flowers

Double flowers are generally ‘Gardener bred’ and not naturally available in the wild.

Doubles are harder for insects to pollinate and therefore single flowers have survived and evolved more readily.

Double flowers were the aim of many Victorian breeders and plantsmen as they sought the awe factor.

These blousy double Peonies have this Awe factor with both colour, double petal form and a tremendous scent.

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Growing Anthemis a Grand Yellow Daisy

Growing Anthemis a Grand Yellow Daisy

If you like daisy flowers then you will love Anthemis. A couple of varieties, to grow, are shown above and detailed below.

Anthemis arvensis is a clump-forming plant with green, ferny foliage, that produces numerous daisy-like flowers with white petals and a bright golden centre.

  • It is a good plant in a naturalised planting or wild flower meadows.
  • Anthemis are short-lived perennials easily grown from seed.

Anthemis tinctoria has several common names including Golden Marguerite, Marguerite Daisy, Dyer’s Chamomile, Ox-eye Chamomile, Boston Daisies and Paris Daisies.

  • E.C. Buxton is a variety of Golden Marguerite that flowers from June to September
  • Also clump-forming this free-flowering perennial features branching stems bearing masses of 1 inch lemon-yellow daisy blooms which smother the compact plants all summer.
  • Anthemis is good for cutting for indoor flower arrangements.
  • It is ideal for borders growing 30 inches high and wide. It prefers sun and sandy or free draining soil.

Seeds available from Thompson Morgan

Seven Japanese Flowers of Autumn

Seven Japanese Flowers of Autumn

The Japanese poetic work, ‘Manyoshu’ published in 759 AD but written 300-400 years prior  selected 7 flowers for Autumn. This corresponds to the 7 Herbs of spring reported on an earlier post.

Autumn has a slight air of melancholy as the summer glory fades and a last bright showing of seed and flower takes pride of place in the garden.

Seven Flowers of Autumn

  • Lespedeza, Bush clover
  • Miscanthus sensis, Japanese Pampas Grass
  • Pueraria Thunbergiana, Kuzu Vine
  • Doianthus superbus longicalcinus, the Fringed Pink
  • Patrinia scabiosaefolia, Golden Valerian or Golden Lace
  • Eupatorium stoechadosmum, Orchid Herb
  • Pharbitis, Morning Glory

The names may vary as to  common names or translation. In some parts of Japanese gardening culture there are slight variations to the plants selected. Often Platycodon grandiflora the Balloon Flower is substituted for one of the above species.

Poetry in the Garden …

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Pelargonium Grandiflorum and other ‘Geraniums’

Pelargonium Grandiflorum and other ‘Geraniums’

I have tried to grow several Pelargonium varieties this year and been pleasantly surprised at the various forms and colours I have succeeded in producing.

The Grandiflorum is an upright, shrubby perennial with soft smooth stems bearing lobed leaves and large, pinkish-white flowers with dark-purple markings. The plant above I spotted in Chelsea Physic garden this summer.

Dwarf Pelargoniums

  • I have long had a plant that resembles ‘Don’s Helen Bainbridge’ that I got from Fir Trees nursery. It has tricoloured leaves and grows only 3″ above the pot.
  • After some success with this variety and liking the small habit I bought a collection of Dwarfs and they have done well in the first year. I will see how my many cuttings now perform.
  • I try feed main plants with high potash feed from spring and indoor flowering has generally been good.
  • Alice and Kerensa have been amongst my favourites with pale flowers tinged with pink.
  • The 3″ pots, I have used, dry out quite quickly and better watering would have produced better plants.

Miniature Pelargoniums

  • I didn’t realise that miniature geraniums were so varied and interesting . Without a formal description I have taken miniature to mean 4″- 7″ high with smaller than normal geranium leaves. …

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Perennials for a new Border

Perennials for a new Border

Perennials are a huge group of plants that should survive year after year. The majority of perennial plants discussed here are herbaceous in that the leaves and stems die back and new growth restarts from the buried roots in the new year.

Choosing Shapes and Colour

  • The delicate blossom of Oriental Poppies, the bristly blue spheres of Echinopsis Globe thistles, the Yellow daisy stars of Rudbeckia or the spikes of Red Hot Pokers can be a challenge for gardeners to mix in the same border.
  • Some shapes and colours go well together whilst other clash.
  • Some look good when massed together others need loose groupings or space to become a specimen plant.
  • My tip would be ‘if in doubt keep it simple’.
  • Generally put tall plants at the back of borders but occasionally vary the height in the middle.
  • Consider the foliage, as much as the flower, as it will be with you far longer than most blossom.
  • Bear in mind different flowering times, don’t expect primroses to flower with purple Monarda no matter how good the colour combination would look.

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Trim a Straight and Floral Hedge

Trim a Straight and Floral Hedge

August is a good time to trim your hedges and create a neat appearance for autumn and winter.

When of Hedge Trimming.

  • When birds have flown their nests you can trim to your hearts content without disturbing the fledglings.
  • Try to prune a wild life hedge only after the fruit have been eaten in late winter.
  • Trimming in late summer leaves enough time for hedges to to put on a bit of new growth to cover ravaged twigs.
  • Do not trim conifers later than August as they may go brown and unsightly.
  • Prune flowering hedges straight after flowering.

The How of Hedge Trimming

  • To achieve a flat top stretch taught string to provide a horizontal plumb line.
  • To make a bend in the hedge use double stakes with the string as in the photograph.
  • Trim a hedge from the bottom upwards so trimmings fall away.
  • Use secateurs to tidy up after trimmers if they leave a mess.
  • Beech, Privet, Holly and Hawthorn all recover from hard pruning. Conifers will not regrow from brown wood.

Flowering Hedges

  • Camellia will form an evergreen barrier.
  • Forsythia has brilliant yellow flowers in spring but works best in a mixed hedge.
  • Berberis creates a dense, thorny  hedge with spring flowers  and autumn berries. Deciduous and evergreen varieties are available.
  • Upright hardy varieties of Fuchsia can look good in a warm garden.
  • Lavender’s fragrant flowers add to an informal low hedge.
  • Informal hedges of large leaved Laurel are often found in old gardens