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G. T.’ S Top Ten Waterside Flowering Plants

G. T.’ S Top Ten Waterside Flowering Plants

If you need a stream of ideas of plants for your waterside look no further.

For bog gardens or the streamside there are many plants that will be happy with damp roots. This is our selection of the flowering plants that will grow well in a waterside position.

Flowering Waterside Plants a Top Ten

  1. Iris is one of the most popular waterside plants with several varieties suitable for this position including, Iris ensata Gracieuse’, Iris pseudacorus and Iris sibirica ‘Silver Edge’ .
  2. Snowflake or ‘Leucojum vernum’ is much larger than its relation the snowdrop. The flowers are held on long stems that droop gracefully. It is easy to grow  and multiplies freely in most gardens provided the soil is moist enough. Plants have been known to withstand flooding and standing water so it is an ideal choice for bog gardens
  3. Ligularia The Rocket has yellow flower heads held well clear of the foliage. Very architectural with its sturdy, upright habit giving good reflection in the water.
  4. Astilbe ‘Rheinland’ or Astilbe x arendsii ‘Spinell have wonderful plumes of flowers and love the damp conditions.
  5. Lysichiton camschatcensis The Giant white arum has beautiful white, arum-like flowers which are slightly later than yellow Lysichiton americanus. With smaller leaves it is a better plant for a small pond or bog garden. Slow to establish but very hardy.

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Brash Gardening

Brash Gardening

Shock and awe your gardening friends with these brash ideas.

Petunia

Brash Gardening.

  • Put some colour in your cheeks!    Garden naked.
  • Use brash colour schemes that are ‘rash, cheeky, saucy, or vulgarly self- assertive’
  • ‘Loose hedge refuse,  clippings etc’ will be composted – wont they!
  • Do not succumb to Summer Vomiting Virus -  ‘ Brash eruption of fluid from the stomach’.
  • Put a Petunia in your Onion Patch.
  • Dare to be different
  • Garden whilst listening to Brash radio

Ninja Radio #5 (PhotoG / Brash Lion)
‘Quotes are from the OED ‘

Who is Growing in Your Garden?

Who is Growing in Your Garden?

Flower varieties are often named after famous personages – Queen Elisabeth is probably one of the best known. Her is just a selection of others.

Terry Wogan,  King Edward VII, Charlies Angels, Alan Titchmarsh and Charles Unwin all have had Sweet Peas named after them and that is a lot easier to say than Lathyrus Odoratus. So surprise your neighbours with a patch of Terry Wogans or 3 Charlies Angels.

Leucanthemum x superbum ‘Esther Read’  now referred to like many Shasta Daisies just as Esther Read was first grown from a stolen railway embankment as a single daisy crossed with the bigger Chrysanthemum maximum by Horace Read. The Read family were plantsmen for over 200 years but it was in 1931 that this plant of it’s time was exhibited. Now the name is eponymous although the original cultivar is seldom available you may have an Esther Read derivative in your garden.

John Baggensen was brought up in his family nurseries in Cardiff and Pembury Kent before introducing a widely used honeysuckle Lonicera nitada ‘Baggensen’s Gold’. …

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Rip van Winkle and Miniature Daffodils

Rip van Winkle and Miniature Daffodils

Start early tpo plan your miniature daffodils for next year. The best bulbs sell out early and there is definately more to miniature daffodils than Tete-a-Tete.

Rip Van Winkle

Rip van Winkle is a miniature Daffodils correctly called Narcissus minor pumilus ‘Plenus.’ It grows 6-8″ tall and the yellow spiky petals that are about half an inch wide.

Cultivation

  • Rip Van Winkle look particularly eye-catching when grown close together in drifts in borders.
  • They are particularly good for growing in pots in a cold greenhouse. This facilitates close inspection of the flowers which is well worthwhile due to the shredded ribbon nature of petals.
  • For houseplants pot in bulb fiber and water when necessary to keep the compost moist. As the growing shoots reach a height of 2” move the containers to a cool bright position indoors. Buy new bulbs each year.
  • When growing narcissus outdoors allow the foliage to die back naturally before removing it in June/ July to feed the bulb for the following year.
  • Rip van Winkle will bloom even in partial shade, though generally speaking the more sun the better.

Miniatures have the same descriptive divisions as the standard daffodil, only with smaller blooms.
Read more about Miniature Daffodils on Gardeners tips.

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Growing Scindapsus Aureus

Growing Scindapsus Aureus

Scindapsus Aureus is also called Devil’s Ivy due to its invasive nature in tropical climates. In the UK it is an evergreen house plant and the Devil can take the hindmost.

Epipremnum aureum (Linden & André) G. S. Bunting

The vine like plant has variegated leaves of yellow or white (Marble Queen)and Scindapsus is very similar to Epipremnum a sister plant in the Araceae family.

Growing Tips
This climbing plant will thrive on a moss pole or grow down from a basket.
The stems can reach 6 feet high.
Avoid burning from direct sunlight but variegation will fade in poor light.
Watering. Let soil dry out between regular watering in spring and summer.
Be very sparing with winter watering.
Minimum temperature 10 degree centigrade.
Scindapsus Aureus is often used in offices to help purify the air.
It is alleged that the plant can be stood on an aquarium with its roots in water to clean up the tank.

Scindapsus aureus tutor

Photo Credits
Epipremnum aureum by adaduitokla, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Scindapsus aureus tutor by floresyplantas.net

Verbascum Austriacum and Verbascum Letitia

Verbascum Austriacum and Verbascum Letitia

Verbascum or Mulliens can be annuals, perennials or shrubs and these are some of my favourite yellow flowering varieties.

Not unlike its cousin Verbascum Banana Custard and others in the family this particular plant, Verbascum austriacum, is popular in Central Europe.

I liked the  red centre to the flower and the branching habit.

Verbascums australis can grow over 6′ tall and I like the spires in the back of my garden border.

These Verbascum seed quite freely and you will be able to scrounge a plant from any friend who grows them.


Verbascum letitia grown in a well lit alpine house.

Verbascum’Letitia’ AGM is a small bushy, evergreen shrub that grows 12″ high. , with hairy grey, oblong leaves and abundant purple-centred, bright yellow flowers

Stanhopea Basket Case Orchids

Stanhopea Basket Case Orchids

Grow your epiphytes suspended in a basket. Orchids grow on other plants including bark, moss and trees. Remember to keep the humid as such roots can die of thirst.

Stanhopea Orchids

  • There are at least 65 species of Stanhopea plus various hybrids of these fantastic orchids.
  • They originate from South and Central America notably Guatamala and Panama.
  • Stanhopea are amongst the most showy yet spectacularly orchids.
  • The flowers are large, fragrant and develop out the bottom of the basket they are grown in.

Stranhopea occulata shown above has a wild appearance and a powerful fragrance.
Dark spots that look like eyes give it the name oculata.
Spikes bloom downward, so they are best grown in open baskets lined with moss.
Flowers last just a few days, but they can grow into large specimens with multiple spikes, then blooming in succession.

Stanhopea wardii has unusual large, waxy, golden-yellow pendant blooms with a spicy fragrance.
Best for hanging in open-weave baskets to allow the spike to emerge below the plant.
The Orchid should bloom several times during summer.
Their native habitat ranges from Mexico to Panama.

Book Cover

‘Stanhopea, Stanhopea Embreei, Stanhopea Oculata, Stanhopea Tricornis, Stanhopea Martiana, Stanhopea Hernandezii, Stanh’ by Book Llc is one of several specialist books about these interesting plants.

Echinacea and Varieties of Cone Flower

Echinacea and Varieties of Cone Flower

Pick your own favourite from the variety of cone flowers available.
Cone Flower

Echinacea purpurea is commonly called the Cone Flower. There are other Echinacea varieties that will put on a long lasting and colourful display in your garden. The daisy like flower heads are attractive to insects and butterflies and are available is several warm colours.
Echinacea make good cut flowers for the house.

Echinacea Varieties

  1. Echinacea ‘Tomato Soup’ looks the colour of one of the eponymous Heinz 57 varieties. The hardy plant grows 2-3′ tall and the flowerheads can be 5-6″ across. Flowering from mid-summer they appear on the top of branching stems.
  2. Echinacea Tiki Torch grows 3′ tall and has flowers with orange petals in a ray around a prominent orange-red disc. Slightl;y scented the flowers last well and make another addition to a hot border.
  3. Echinacea Mac ‘n’ Cheese has golden yellow flowerheads from mid-summer until the first frosts if deadheaded regularly.
  4. Echinacea Pink Double Delight is a new coneflower that has the same large fully double and tufted pink flowers as Razzmatazz, but greater resistance to powdery mildew and sturdier foliage than its predecessor

Seeds of several varieties and cultivars are available from Thompson & Morgan

The 9 distinctive species of Echinacea
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A Top Ten of Green Flowers

A Top Ten of Green Flowers

Book Cover

‘Green Flowers: Unexpected Beauty for the Garden, Container or Vase’ by Alison Hoblyn is a book celebrating all that is best with green flowers. If you want to splash out on a second book try ‘Emeralds: 1000 Green Flowers and 500 Choice Green Foliage Plants’ by Karen Platt’. Who would have thought there were so many green flowers  to choose from.

Green flowers make a good foil for stronger colours on other plants and also generate a lot of interest in their own right. Flower arrangers love green plants and many traditional flowers like Chrysanths and Carnations have been bred for cutting but many florists flowers are died to look green so beware.

Green Anthurium

Top Ten Green Flowering Plants

  1. Hemerocallis the Day Lily variety Green Flutter gets our list off to a yellowish green start as shown on the book cover.
  2. Ribes laurifolium Mrs Amy Doncaster is a strong growing lime green flowering currant. It is evergreen and a strong performer that attracts bees. One of my all time favourites.
  3. Alchemilla mollis or Lady’s Mantle is a free flowering easy to grow (free seeding thus harder to control) small perennial with light airy grey-green flowers.
  4. Hecquetica epipactus has flowers or what look like flowers. Six green petaled “daisies” with domed yellow centres sit on the ground in tight clumps sometimes with a slight yellow colouring in part of the petal or bract. …

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Lobelia for Water Gardens

Lobelia for Water Gardens

Lobelia are a lot more than the trailing edge plant associated with Alyssum.

lobelis-

Some members of the Lobelia family love water and are happy to be submerged in your pond or pool others like to be planted in moist margins. These Lobelia are the hardy perennial and half hard perennials described below rather than the blue and white annuals we grow as children.

Lobelia Senssilifolia

Flowers in glorious blue to purple and has elegant lance shaped leaves growing to 2 feet tall and making a tight clump. Plant in soil and in up to 2 inches of water and propagate by division. It should not need special winter protection.

Lobelia cardinalis and ‘Dark Crusader’

The cardinal flower has striking dark red foliage made even more spectacular by a  profusion of scarlet flowers in August. The 3 feet high plants may need staking and in winter they should be moved  to drier conditions so it is best to plant in a deep planting basket. The plants like moist soil and semi-shade when growing . They work well with Hostas for contrast in shape and colour.

Lobelia Queen Victoria …

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