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Month: May 2016

Senetti, Cineraria or Senicio? No Pericallis

Senetti, Cineraria or Senicio? No Pericallis

sennico

I received a pot plant as a gift and thought it was a Cineraria. The plant was in bud but the leaves looked like soft grey-green Cineraria or Senicio.

On reading the label, not something I always do, I discovered it was named Senetti Deep Blue. Since then Senetti seem to be everywhere, agh! the power of marketing and big money.

Further research showed that the botanic name is Pericallis x hybrida. It is thought to be a hybrid between Pericallis cruenta and Pericallis lanata.
The common name is Florist’s Cineraria so I wasn’t far wrong with my first thoughts. Have you ever seen one in a florists?
Some call it Senecio cruentus Senetti Series.
Senetti may be just a brand name registered by Suntory. If so lets drop the name for now and go by Pericallis.

Pericallis Cultivation

  • Pericallis are tender, cushion-forming or loosely branched perennials. Height 12″ spread 18″.
  • The single daisy-like flowers are in a variety of vibrant blues and purples. Some have white centres like the old Cineraria
  • Pericallis will flower early, providing a splash of colour before other bedding or container plants are ready
  • After flowering cut down to 4-5″ and feed then you should get a second flush of flower.
  • Pericallis are generally raised from seed but cuttings may be possible.
  • Grow in pots or open ground but water and feed well.

Pericallis (Senetti) Update

  • I got more flowers from my fathers day present than you could shake a stick at!
  • I got 3 massive flushes of flowers often over 100 blue daisies open at once!(there are about 40 on at the moment mid October)
  • Hopefully the seed I have saved will grow next year.
  • The host plant deserves to be protected over winter so the pot I have grown the Pericallis in will go into a cool greenhouse

For information on Plant Breeeders rights read ‘I name this plant and all who sail in her’.
Pictures of Pericallis

Pictures of Senetti

Pictures of Cineraria stellata

So now you can see the difference ( can’t you).

 

Jersey Plants Direct were selling Senetti plugs check out the web site. Super Ready or Jumbo sized just type in Senetti in the search box (free postage). I had to buy some because they were such ‘Good Doers’ last year. Jersey say they are able to cope with early frost which will suit my Yorkshire garden!

 

I have  received my plugs  and potted them on. They are on an east facing window sill and I have pinched out the early flower buds to get more leaf and roots.

Tips for Your Front Garden

Tips for Your Front Garden

Iris

Lovely climbing rose on the front of this house

The Front garden is a great part of English life. Unfortunately there is increasingly a trend to replace the front garden with concrete so people can park a car. But, what better way to start the day than walking through a bit of garden at the front of your house.

The Huge Flower Approach

Front Garden Oxford

If you want to give joy to passers by, go for a real impact and fill it with lots of colour. These dahlias give an excellent summer long flowering display – you will just need to spend time watering. Every bit of space has been maximised with these hanging baskets

The Zen Approach to Front Gardens

Front Garden

A bit of gravel and reserved planting gives a very relaxed feel. It helps sooth the nerves, especially because the work to maintain is much reduced.

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Plants from Madeira

Plants from Madeira

Seductive plants from Madeira are best viewed on the island but it is tempting to bring some how as bulbs or plants. I avoid bringing plant material home as it may bring back pest and disease. As a Yorkshireman I don’t want  to loose my money and the plant markets are just tourist ‘come and buy me’ traps.

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Monte Palace Tropical Garden

  • 3 Miles from Funchal at Monte there is a tropical garden dating back to the 18th century. You can access it by 21st century cable car and return on the toboggans.
  • 70,000 square meters of garden include Proteas, Cycads, Acaias, Sequoias and Azaleas representing all the continents.
  • Close by is the wilder area of the Laurissilva Forest a Unesco world heritage site.

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Quinta do Palheiro Ferreiro Gardens

  • The gardens, owned by the Blandy family since 1885, boasts some of the most valuable and rare exotic plants on the island.
  • The gardens specialise in splendid Camellia varieties which you will be able to admire to its full extent during the main flowering season between November and April.
  • There is also topiary, great trees and views down into Funchal.

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Botanical Gardens

  • Quinta do Bom Sucesso was a private Quinta belonging to the Reid’s family. This has been the Government owned botanic garden since 1960. – where the climatic conditions are much in favour of exuberant vegetation.
  • The Botanical Garden boasts more than 2000 different plants.
  • Throughout the gardens visitors can find the plants labeled with their scientific names, common name and origin.
  • There are five distinct areas to visit including, Indigenous and endemic, Tree Garden, Succulents, Tropical/Cultivated/Aromatic/Medicinal and The Loiro Park which has some of the most exotic and rare birds.

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There are several other gardens to visit during a holiday on the Island. The walks in the country also provide ample opportunity to see a wide range of flowers, trees and plants in their natural habitats.

fritilliaria
Growing Snake’s Head Fritillary

Growing Snake’s Head Fritillary

fritilliaria-2

Fritillaria meleagris

This is a popular variety of Fritllaria grown in wet meadows. It is often found in Oxfordshire.

These Fritillarias also go by the common name ‘Snake skin’. Over the years, it has picked up several common names included chess flower, frog-cup, guinea-hen flower, guinea flower, leper lily and snake’s head fritillary.

Description

  • Fritillaria is a genus of the lily family.
  • Flowers – purple and white cheques
  • Leaves – delicate green thin leaves
  • Bulbs contain poisonous alkaloids.
  • Height: 30cm
  • Fritillarias form a nodding head from these early flowering spring bulbs that are so evocative of the British meadows and damp fields.

Growing Fritillaria

The most important thing about growing Fritillaria is they like to be in moist soil. They often grow well in meadows which get flooded.

  • Position:  Happy in full sun or partial shade
  • Soil: humus-rich, moisture-retentive soil. When planting try add well rotted compost or leaf mould.
  • Flowering period: April and May
  • Hardiness: fully hardy
  • Bulb depth: Plant bulbs four times the height of the bulb; plant on their side to avoid the base getting waterlogged and rotting. The bulbs are fragile so handle with care.

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Syringia & Unusual Garden Lilacs

Syringia & Unusual Garden Lilacs

Lilacs are members of the Syringia family and are named for the colour. There are deep lilacs verging on violet and light pinkish lilacs even some pretty floriferous white flowering Lilacs.

Persian Lilac has a more open flowerhead and is also called Chinaberry or Melia azedarach.

White flowering lilacs (below) also have the same heady perfume of the other members of the Lilac family .

Lilac species from wikipedia
* Syringa afghanica …

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Quicker Better Good Looking Compost

Quicker Better Good Looking Compost

Quicker Compost Tips

  1. For winter keep the heat in your compost heap by covering the pile of rotting waste. Use old bubble wrap, old carpet or a rubberised blanket as shown on the heap above.
  2. Turn you heap to get air into the mix. I try to turn the heap every fortnight.
  3. Use a separate pile or a punctured plastic bag for old leaves which are slower to rot and have less nutrition. They do make excellent leaf mould.
  4. Chop up waste into small bits, it will rot quicker and more thoroughly .
  5. Use  an accelerator  by adding a spadeful of soil every 4 inches or  ‘Garrotta’.

How do you Use Organic Compost

  1. Good compost mixed in with soil improves the condition, texture and water retention .
  2. Put compost in a planting hole for new trees and shrubs it helps to give them a good start.
  3. Compost around plants and trees acts as a mulch to conserve moisture and protect from frost.
  4. Feeding nutrients back into the soil particularly for heavy feeders like Dahlias, Onions or Runner Beans is one of the main uses of garden compost.
  5. Suppressing weeds can be achieved by mulching with compost.
  6. Replace the soil in the greenhouse where tomatoes have been grown.
  7. I have just made a new bed for next years Sweet peas from lots of home made compost.
  8. Recycles waste and reduces landfill or carbon dioxide emissions.

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Check how you compost looks then use these tips to make it look and perform better.

How does your compost look?

  • Black and sludgy compost has too much green waste and water. Mix it up with some shredded newspaper, saw dust or finely chopped woody prunings.
  • Compost looks the same as 3 months ago, then there is no biological activity because it is too dry. Mix in more grass clippings and green waste. Add water preferably with some comfrey or nettle leaves soaked in it for a couple of weeks. Also consider using an activator of horse manure, good soil or a commercial product like Garrotta.
  • Very twiggy but brown and sweet smelling then you need to shred the twigs of brown material and clippings more thoroughly or wait longer.

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Be Safe from Poisonous Garden Plants

Be Safe from Poisonous Garden Plants

Datura, Brugmansia or Angels Trumpets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Datura also called Brugmansia or Angels Trumpets are not very angelic particularly when it comes to dangerous plants. They could easily feature in an Agatha Christy thriller.

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After our recent post – Flowers that can be eaten. We though it worth sharing a list of plants which are dangerous if eaten. In addition avoiding consuming these plants many common problems arise from contact with the sap.

  • Aconitum – Monkshood
  • Arum – Cuckoo pint.
  • Colchicum – The autumn crocus
  • Convallaria – Lily of the Valley
  • Cytisus – the Broom – All parts can be fatal if eaten.
  • Daphne – Shrub grown for its beautifully scented flowers. Berries very dangerous
  • Delphinium – All parts Highly toxic – can be fatal if eaten
  • Digitalis – Foxgloves cause irregular heart beat and digestive problems. Digitalis is used in heart medicines but is poisonous eaten straight from plant
  • Gloriosa superba
  • Laburnum – Beautiful flowers that flower in May but can be fatal if eaten
  • Lantana – (Spanish Flag)
  • Nerium – A beautiful conservatory plant
  • Phytolacca – The poke weed
  • Ricinus communis – Castor Oil Plant. Not to be confused with Fatsia.
  • Taxus – A hedge favourite.
  • Veratrum – The false Hellebore.

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Be Also Careful Not To Eat

  • Daffodils
  • Chrysanthemums
  • Buttercups
  • Hyacinth
  • Wild mushrooms that are really Toadstools

Eating these can cause various health problems.
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Poisonous Plants For Animals

  • Ragwort is poisonous to animals and can cause kidney failure and liver damage which is irreversible. Often fatal to horses and cattle and a number of dogs die by eating a small amount.
  • Other Senicio plants and Castor beans can also be fatal to animals.
  • Leaves and branches of Oleander produces digestive problems.
  • Even the water that flowers have stood in can become poisonous to animals.
  • Datura stramonium and Angels Trumpets are poisonous to humans and animals.
  • Easter Lily is poisonous to cats and dogs should not be allowed to eat cocoa shells.
Happy Gardening With Adam the Gardener

Happy Gardening With Adam the Gardener

Book Cover

A happy and pleasant surprise has just arrived through the post at home.

I commented some time ago about celebrity gardeners and Adam the Gardener in particular. Adam featured in a pictorial guide each week in the Daily Express from the 1940’s.  The tips and advice helped many experienced gardeners and those new to gardening.

The clever publishers at Chatto & Windus have reproduced the 1940’s classic in a revival of the old tips and advice and they kindly sent me a copy.

I recommended the book earlier and am pleased to do so again – it is available now from Amazon. At £10 it is a great price for a hardback containing so many words of gardening wisdom.

It would also make a good nostalgic fathers day present.

As they say a picture saves a thousand words. The  strip format  of Adam the Gardener allows time for more gardening than reading.

  • A tip from Adam if you have an accidentally allowed a pot plant to get frost damaged. ‘Soak the soil in the coldest water you can get. Sprinkle the foliage with the same cold water. Put the plant in a frost proof shed. It should revive in a couple of hours. Only when unmistakable recovery has been made move it into warmth. Don’t cut off withered parts until a week after this treatment.’
  • That way I hope you can recover from frosting accidents – I recon it will still be frosty at night for most of May the way our weather is right now.
Monarda or Bee Balm Cultivars

Monarda or Bee Balm Cultivars

Monarda enmass

Monardia Harlow Carr

I have not grown Monarda or Bergamot as an annual or a perennial. This large bed of perennial Monarda hybrid ‘Gardenview Scarlet’ was very showy and looked exceptionally good in a sunny well mulched site.

Some plants attain a status of the must have plants or flowers of the moment, (do you remember when no one grew Verbena Bonariensis). If this Monarda isn’t already in great demand (and I have missed the boat) then it is destined to be in future. The tufty red tops on the flowers are a strong red colour and grew 2-3 foot tall.

As a suffix Ardia can mean ‘continuous quality’ (on its own it means ‘Sheep’ in Basque.) I guess the former definition is why Gallardia and Monardia are so named but then again….

Monarda Description

    • ‘Monarda astromontana Bees’ Favourite’ has masses of flower spikes bearing tiers of soft mauve flowers are produced by this quick and easy to grow border plant.
    • It flowers easily in its first season from an early sowing, producing a bold display of flowers over a long period.
    • Exceptional for its unusually shaped flowers on strong square stems and the rich minty fragrance, which is freely released when the plant is brushed.
    • Compact upright habit and makes a very neat and tidy plant which will add structure and shape to the border, particularly if planted in groups of three.
    • Excellent for cutting and beloved by bees.

Cultivation Requirements

      • One of the easiest perennials to cultivate.
      • Happy in sun or light shade and any ordinary garden soil, although they prefer a rich moisture retentive soil which doesn’t dry out in the summer.
      • The mat like roots soon form a large clump that needs dividing every couple of years.
      • In dry soils they don’t grow quite so tall.
      • deadhead for a second flush of flowers
      • Powdery mildew may be a problem, spray with fungicide when the plant is young

RHS  Selection

        • Monarda Beauty of Cobham AGM – arching pale pink blooms.
        • Monarda Garden View Scarlet as below also has an AGM
        • Monarda Schneewittchen white framed with a ruff of green bracts.
        • Other Monarda to mconsider; Jacob Cline deep red bracts and dark foliage, Croftway Pink taller variety 4′, Violet Queen with violet flowers and purple tinged foliage.

Monarda seeds as described above from Thompson and Morgan

Monarda Gardenview Scarlet

Yorkshire Rhubarb Good Enough to Eat

Yorkshire Rhubarb Good Enough to Eat

Why Yorkshire Rhubarb

The best Rhubarb is grown in the ‘Rhubarb Triangle’ in West Riding of Yorkshire. There are low brick buildings visible from the M1 around Wakefield that are used as the forcing sheds. Forced Rhubarb is kept in the dark so the stems are long thin pink and early to crop

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.

Yorkshire excels because the damp climate justifies the old sore ‘water rhubarb even when it is raining.’

ruhbarb

My last post alluded to the green shoots of economic recovery, well all I can now say is Rhubarb Rhubarb. This is a clump of my Rhubarb waiting to joins other stalks in a crumble or pie.

Growing Rhubarb to Eat

  • The stalks are the only part to be eaten, the leaves are full of poisonous Oxalic acid.
  • Rhubarb is a vegetable but despite or because of its tart flavour it is mainly eaten with sugar as a sweet.
  • Rhubarb like a bit of winter frost to encourage growth.
  • Forcing Rhubarb by covering to make dark warm conditions will produce early, thin, tender stalks. Only force the plant in alternate years to avoid weakening the crown.
  • Cropping between April to June when little else is available this is an undemanding and easy to cultivate plant
  • The flowers are borne on hollow stalks and a a greyish white. I pull them out to conserve the plants strength.

Links and Credits


Rheums are not just Rhubarb link
Rhubarb Growing Tips
Forced Rhubarb growing in Yorkshire
Buy Rhubarb from Thompson & Morgan
Yorkshire Rhubarb Good Enough to Eat
Planting and growing Rhubarb