Gardeners Tips

The perennial wallflower ‘Bowles Mauve’ is just showing its first purple flowers of the year. I expect a show from now until October and as the flowers drop off the bottom of the stem but continue to open further up I will snip them off as there will be more stems thrown up. The plant is related to the biennial wallflower but has this constant performance rather than one quick hit. It isn’t as scented as other wallflowers.

Yellow ‘Dwarf Erysimum’.

Tips

• It is vigorous making a 3′ mound in the first year but becoming leggy & woody in future years.
• Fortunately it is easy to propagate from from cuttings
• It is worth putting a few in a pot or in a spare patch in case the parents don’t survive a hard winter
• It will thrive in poor soil and flower well after deadheading.
• It can suffer from club root so don’t compost infected plants and don’t replant in the same spot
• Try other Erysimum such as ‘Moonlight’ or ‘Gold Shot ‘  yellow flowers
• Bowles Mauve is 30″ tall, evergreen with blue grey leaves and can flower in every month of the year in a mild winter

• It can be grown from seed as well as cuttings T&M

• Wallflower Seeds

Other Erysimum

• Erysimum Constance Cheer has dusky orange flowers that fade to smoky purple. It grows 14″ tall and is less woody than Bowles Mauve.
• Erysimum Parish’s has almost black buds that open deep red then fading. It grows taller at 2 feet high.
• Erysimum chieri Sunset Series are soft coloured biennials
• Erysimum Citrona have a long flowering period of clear yellow flowers.

Grow perennial and biennial wallflowers. Grow in containers, walls or with bedding.

If you grow Zonal Geraniums for their flowers you will want to get a good number of Pips (Florets) or flower buds on each head of flower. After a week in a small vase I have just counted 81 florets on one bloom.

When a geranium flower first appears it will be like a walking stick with the flower head hanging down. As the stem grows above the foliage it will progressively straighten the neck until the first floret points upward. At this stage the petals will start to break through the protective stipule and show colour opening directly upwards. Each day brings more florets open until a well formed flower head and a complete ball of flower is displayed.

If pips are damaged or finished early they can be removed with tweezers. In fact for exhibitions and shows you can remove all partially opened florets 10 days before the show (to avoid them going over) and get a full open flower head at the right time.

With care you can have a Geranium flowering every week of the year and far from ‘giving me the Pip’ they are versatile interesting and easy flowers to grow.

Quick Tips

• I have just read two books on Geraniums and both authors said they did not bother ‘Crocking’ pots (putting broken pot at the bottom to aid drainage).
• Since most of the English speaking world call Pelargoniums ‘Geraniums’  join the club and only differentiate when it really matters.
• Most Geraniums can be cross pollinated but Diploid varieties will not cross with Triploids and some varieties are harder than others. ( Diploids tend to have smoother glossier leaves whilst Triploids have the furry feel and appearance to the leaves.

Many flowers only come out when the Sun is shinning like these Osteospurnum. As the day gets later or if it is cloudy and dark the petals close up again. Often these flowers attracted by the Sun are the most colourful and bright plants like Livingstone Daisies also called Mesembryanthemum (what a mouthful).

Helianthemum are called the ‘Sun Rose’ because they flower with brilliant colours during the height of the sun. Traditional Sunflowers with big yellow heads of flower and a dark centre do not close up at night but the head follows the sun moving during the day from facing East in the morning to facing West in the evening.

These strippy flowers from Africa are called Gazinia and flower through summer. Also called The Treasure Flower they have silvery-white leaves which makes the plant a pleasure to see, even out of flower. The bright blooms open in the sun and flower in a range of colours from creams and yellows, to oranges, reds and mauves.

This is another daisy like flower called Gerbera that, like the Sunflower, will stay open but likes a lot of Sun to flower well.

Other Resources

Royal Horticultural Society RHS ‘Gardening for All’
National Council for Conservation of Plants and Gardens ‘Conservation through Cultivation.’
Garden Organic National Charity for Organic Gardening.
BBC Gardening