Browsed by
Month: July 2016

Gardeners Gnome enclature

Gardeners Gnome enclature

Guardians of the Mint
Do you remember Bill & Ben the flowerpot men and their friend Little Weed?
Did they have gnomes in the garden and if not why not. These little stone or pot ornaments do not do any harm except when dropped on slugs.

The word Gnome is more pc than the German equivalent of Garden Dwarves hey-ho as Snowwhite wouldn’t say
Grumpy Gnome home
Keep Calm and talk to your Gnome
Stay off the grass only smoke tobacco
If you want to grow your own food look for bacon seeds

What do you call plant that self sows everywhere? A weed

Free weeds  – Pick Your Own!

 

Orange Flower Photo Club

Orange Flower Photo Club

I have just bought a non-stop flowering begonia cunningly entitled ‘Begonia Orange’. Here are some more orange blooms until the begonia gets going.
Harewood 052

We host a lot of our pictures on Flikr but regrettably I do not include much in the way of description, comment or location.

One feature of Flikr that I am using more progressively is the Groups feature. Here you can link your pictures to the club or group by theme. Some gardener related themes are based on flower colour or family grouping like Iridacea. I have posted several Orange Flower Photos to the club link.

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Flikr Orange Group Rules

  • Post your pictures of Orange Flowers to the group and your photos will get many more views than they would in a general flower group.
  • There are currently 3874 members displaying a total of 17,760 flowers photos. (Oct 10 2011)
  • The simple rules allow you to post 3 photos a day to the group.
  • Real flowers only that are as close to their original appearance in nature as possible.
  • Pictures should feature the flower or flowers, preferably up close. lease do not post pictures where the flowers are only a small focal point.They should be the main part of the picture.
  • Don’t post the same picture to more than one of the color flower groups. Decide which color group it best fits, and only post it to that group.

gerberas a smile
This Gerbera has been distorted by nature and other flowers from the same plant are unlikely to be the same. This feature is called fascination and can happen in many species of plants.

Poppy Polly

This poppy hints at the tints of orange from just off yellow through to the near full blooded red with orange overtones in the begonia in the featured image on the blog.

See our colour wheel article

Poppies from Seed

Poppies from Seed

Icelandic Poppy

Georgia O’Keefee painted some brilliant portraits of red Poppies some times upto 3 feet wide and high, even bigger than the real thing in my garden.The last photo shows how Red and Green work well together on a canvas or in a garden setting.
Oriental poppies are perennial and most Poppy species are easy to grow from seed of which 50 varieties are available from Thompson & Morgan

poppy seedheads

Poppy seedheads form in the capsules and when the seed is ripe the lid of the capsule opens to allow seeds to be shaken out. They are not all sown at once by this method so if conditions are not right some seed remains in the pod.
Seed is hard black and long lived.

The Poppy petals are sumptuous is texture and colour and can be very showy through-out summer if you select a range of varieties.

 

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Hippophae rhamnoides with Orange Berries

Hippophae rhamnoides with Orange Berries

Sea Buckthorn

Hippophae Rhamnoides also called Sea Buckthorn, is related to Elaeganeous and is shown here and below with it’s heavy crop of attractive Apricot coloured berries. The shrub can grow to over 15 feet but makes a nice ornamental feature. It flowers in spring followed by narrow silvery leaves through summer. Each plant is either male or female and you need both for pollination and only the female produces these great berries.

There are only 3 species of Hippophae. Hippophae elaegnaceae is excellent for seaside locations and is wind resistant. The orange berries are often retained on the plant through winter as they are a bit acid for the birds. They can and are cooked for human consumption.

Hippophae salicifolia has sage green leaves and can grow into a small tree with pendulous branches.

Tips Propagated from seed they can also be grown from root cuttings, suckers or layered.
Look for Hippophae sold under these alternative names as well as Sea Buckthorn, Seaberry, Siberian pineapple, or Alpine Sandthorn.
The berries are used in herbal medicine for a variety of ailments.

Hipppofea
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Lawns are not Eco Friendly

Lawns are not Eco Friendly

January Lawn

The green swards in front gardens throughout the UK are not as environmentally friendly as you may think.

Environmental Issues with Lawns.

  • 3 million lawns are mowed several times a year – that must be equal to 250 million miles. Petrol mowers, particularly old mowers, produce more greenhouse gas than cars. Electric mowers are not a lot better but who uses a scythe these days. Even a mechanical push style mower has used natural resources in its manufacture and delivery.
  • Feeding lawns with chemicals should be an environmental no-no. Leave clippings on the lawn to rot down instead.
  • Watering the lawn is unnecessary but is still undertaken by many at the height of the summer when resources are scarce.
  • Weed treatments, even if following organic guidelines, are likely to kill off the food and natural habitat of some creatures.

Environmental Tips for Lawns

  • Do not cut the grass too short. Longer leaves shade others and thus save moisture.
  • Short lawns weakens the grass and scalping encourages moss.
  • Wild flower meadows look good, need no feeding and provide seed and habitat for a variety of wildlife.
  • Clover is too be encouraged in lawns, it feeds the soil and the flowers provide food for bees.

wild flowers

Pittosporum for Leaves & Flowers

Pittosporum for Leaves & Flowers

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Pittosporum is a large genus of evergreen shrubs or small trees. The foliage is in demand for floristry and the shrubs make an excellent evergreen plant if the conditions are mild.
Most varieties have small scented white flowers and produce better flowers in warm conditions.

Pittosporum are also called Japenese Cheesewood

Cultivation of Pittosporum

  • Pittosporum Dallii and Pittosporum patula and Pittosporum tenufolium are more hardy species in the UK.
  • Pittosporum will grow well in seaside locations if the climate is mild.
  • Most plants originate from Australasia and like hot dry conditions.
  • Some varieties of Pittosporum produce small red berries.
  • Pittosporums can also be grown indoors as bonsai.
  • Larger plants can be used as a climbing-frame for lightweight late-flowering clematis.
  • Pittosporum tenufolium can have leaves with wavy margins and most have interesting colour, from bronzed plum to the bright butter-yellow of `Golden King’.
  • Tenuifolium ‘Purpureum’, has purple-bronze foliage and rapidly makes a decent-sized small tree

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Selected Varieties
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Growing ‘Just Joey’ Hybrid Tea Roses

Growing ‘Just Joey’ Hybrid Tea Roses

Just Joey

I love the formal Hybrid Tea Roses like ‘Just Joey‘.
Just Joey is a hybrid, bred from Fragrant Cloud and Dr A J Verhage. These parents gave the rose glossy green leaves and very fragrant, orange blooms.
Blooms arrive in flushes throughout the season each having 30 petals so they have an open appearance.

Growing Tips

  • Remove old canes, dead or diseased wood and canes that cross, in spring.
  • Cut back the remaining stems by about one-third or a half.
  • As with all HT  roses give them a good feed in spring then every 6 weeks and mulch to keep in moisture.
  • When buying a bare rooted or container plant look for at least 3 strong stems.
  • Soak in water before planting.
  • Just Joey may  occasional repeat flower later in the season but is a slow starter in very cold spring weather.

Description of Just Joey

Growing at School (a Gardening Scheme)

Growing at School (a Gardening Scheme)

Sunflower -Valentine

Gardening is not lesson time but fun time even if you do the growing at school. ‘The ‘RHS Campaign for School Gardening’ aims to inspires and supports schools to provide children with gardening opportunities to enhance their skills and boost their development.’

Quick Result Seeds

  • Sprouting seeds that grow in a jar without any soil.
  • Mustard and cress a salad crop you can grow on a wet facecloth or old sponge.
  • Annual seeds flower for just one year. They can be bought in mixtures containing lots of different plant seeds.
  • Pot marigolds also called Calendula have big seeds,  bright yellow or orange flowers and flower the same year they are planted.
  • Sunflowers are ever popular link
  • Annual seeds from Thompson & Morgan

More about the Scheme

Companion Planting

  • Waitrose, Marshalls, Dorset Cereals and the RHS are promoting a Campaign for School Gardening. The aim is to provide pupils with hands-on learning opportunities in school grounds to grow plants and garden sustainably.

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Liverwort Problems and Cures

Liverwort Problems and Cures

Liverworts are primitive plants that can become a nuisance in plant pots and lawns. Liverworts are related to mosses and can look like slimy Algae.

Liverwort Varieties

  • There are 300 species of Liverwort native to the UK and up to 10,000 worldwide.
  • Thallose Liverworts have a flattened, plate like body, called the thalus, and no leaves.
  • A common thallose is Marchantia which is topped with an umbrella like sexual organ.
  • Leafy Liverworts have two ranks of flattened leaves growing out from a stem and a third under-layer.
  • Instead of bearing regular roots, liverworts anchor themselves with simple appendages known as rhizoids

Liverwort Problems and Cures

  • These plants are a nuisance because they colonise a pot plant and form a crusty surface layer.
  • Liverworts like acidic, moist, shady  conditions so deny them these luxuries where practical.
  • Use free drainage in pot plants especially at the top couple of inches.
  • Liverworts can grow on hard surface and can be treated with acetic or pelargonic acid, (Doff Fast Acting Natural Weed Sprayor Finalsan moss killers)
  • If they infest a damp lawn scrape off the excess and spike to improve drainage. Add lawn sand if desired.
  • Some thallose Liverwort species are aquatic and grow on ponds like flecks of lettuce.
  • Liverworts reproduce by spores or gammea often transferred by water. Water pots from the bottom.
  • Glyphosate and several weed killers will work. Add a few drops of detergent in the water to try to penetrate the waxy surface of the Liverwort.


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Top 500 Gardening Books at Gardeners Tips HQ

Top 500 Gardening Books at Gardeners Tips HQ

400 gardening Books

My Top 420 Gardening Books

I wish to pay tribute and offer thanks to all those who have contributed to the tips on this web site through their words and wisdom in numerous books and published works. It is the inspirational gardeners, plantsmen and horticulturalists that are celebrated by authors, publishers and photographers, that deserve the praise.

If I have failed to cite or reference a particular comment in the past I apologise. I have tried to give appropriate credits and increase sales of some books by offering a link to an appropriate page on Amazon. This should cover the other 80 or so titles that go to make up the top 500.

Gardening Books a pdf  file highlights over 420 gardening books that I dip into from time to time.

If you have a preferred book that I have missed, or if you have written a gardening book yourself let me know and I will add it to our list.

I am an acknowledged hoarder and collecting gardening books became a passion several years ago. Most of my 12 book cases are overflowing as you can see from the picture.

The internet has made information so ubiquitous and freely available that it is good to remeber the fun and tactile joy you can get from thumbing through a specialist book.

RHS Books and Libraries

  • Additionally I volunteered at RHS library at Harlow Carr and helped move the book collection from ‘the old potting shed’ to the superb new Bramall Learning Center.
  • The new library section at Harlow Carr stocks 8,000 books, DVDs, magazines and offers online facilities.
  • Members can borrow books from the RHS at any of the ‘Lindley Libraries’, Wisley, London, Rosemoor and Hyde Hall. I think this is one of the pleasures of RHS membership.
  • There is a web search facility available to members and non-member
  • Lindley Library in London was recently closed after a small fire but should now be reopen.

Notes on my Books file

  • I have tried to arrange titles in a way that highlights the subject matter.
  • The authors should be listed by surname followed by first names.
  • The year published, number of pages and publisher is self explanatory.
  • I have a personal scoring system to highlight how useful or pleased with the book I feel at the time of recording it on the data base.
  • I have suppressed several other columns that are of less interest.

Send us a comment with your favourite gardening book details.

Thank you to those who use our link to amazon when buying a book. The small commission we recive helps pay for the site maintenance.

With around 2000 web pages we have got as much content as many books.