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Author: hortoris

Photographs and Images of Purple Iris

Photographs and Images of Purple Iris

bearded iris

The Bearded Iris offers a huge range of colours. This is a deep purple variety growing in the Oxford Botanic Gardens. The furry hairs on the petal or ‘Fall’ give the plant the bearded image.

Bearded Iris do well in a sunny, well drained soil. They can provide years of spectacular colour in May – July.

Iris

Other Iris are well adapted to grow in damp conditions.

Iris B

Bulb Iris are useful in rockery and Alpine arrangements and in this case are appreciated by passing Bees..

Iris

The next two pictures are taken as the rain stopped and the light improved.

Iris

Some flowers veer towards the lilac in shade but just about fit into my purple patch.

Iris
Iris are able to stand without staking as this large clump demonstrates.

George Iris

Named varieties include George an Iris reticulata.

Iris reticulata

Another Iris Histroides looks similar to a Dutch Iris but smaller.

iris

Growing in the Oxford Botanic Gardens with the other Oxford beardies.
25 Iris bulbs from Amazon (the book people not the river).

Top Ten Don’ts in Gardening

Top Ten Don’ts in Gardening

Kew 295

Top Ten Don’ts in Gardening

  1. Don’t worry about getting it wrong, have fun and enjoy.
  2. Don’t buy expensive, exotic plants that you saw on holiday because they are better grown in hot countries or conditions (like the orchids above).
  3. Don’t set your sights on having a manicured bowling green type lawn unless you are a dedicated bowls player willing to act like a full-time groundsman.
  4. Don’t make your life too difficult. Put high maintenance plants where you can reach them and paths and stepping stones where they can give you good access.
  5. Don’t forget to keep everything looking tidy, trim lawn edges and put pots and tools out of sight (it’s what a garden shed is for as well as resting in).

    6. Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden

  6. Don’t skimp of the quality of your main tools like your spade, trowel, watering can and fork but avoid wasting cash on gadgets and gizmos.
  7. Don’t forget this year nationally frost will kill more annuals by early planting than insects will kill by eating.
  8. Don’t ignore your plants need for sunlight, water, food and a growing medium.
  9. Don’t judge your garden against the glossy pictures in gardening magazines (they will have been touched up) or from flower shows where prize exhibits will have been selected from 100’s or 1000’s of plants.
  10. Don’t let anyone put you off, garden the way you want, enjoy the results and share your enthusiasm.

Caution: Japanese Garden

Credits
Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden by pablo_marx CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Caution: Japanese Garden by ~dgies CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Gardening Holidays to Dream About

Gardening Holidays to Dream About

Real gardeners don’t want to go on holiday between April and September as there is too much fun to be had in the garden at home. There are other matters that come into play and well planed holiday can also give a keen gardener new interests and ideas.

Temptations are now wide spread in the form of organised tours
Alternatively you can make your own arrangements which retains flexibility and the opportunity to please other members of the family. In addition to UK resorts like  Cornwall and the Scilly Isles there are many hidden gardens in The Languedoc region of France, Monet’s Garden at Giverny, Gardens of Tuscany, the Italian Lakes, Sorrento, Ischia,  and Green Spain to list but a few.

Soil Management for Drought Conditions

Soil Management for Drought Conditions

Dry garden with arbor

Much is said about collecting and conserving water during drought conditions. Careful management of your soil and garden structure can achieve many aims without recourse to extra water.
Increasing your soil’s water holding capacity and reducing the evaporation and consumption of water will make significant management improvements during drought conditions.

Soil Conditioning

  • Dig in organic matter which can dramatically increase the soils water holding capacity.
  • Mulch heavily – 3-4″ of composted bark or garden compost reduces evaporation and discourages weeds.
  • Do not walk on heavy wet soil in winter. This causes compaction damaging the structure and reducing the capacity of the soil to hold water.
  • Stop digging or cultivating soil by the end of March. Hoe only the weeds to reduce evaporation.
  • Erect barriers to stop valuable dry soil from blowing away

Management of Growing Conditions

  • Catch ‘run off’ on slopes by building up a soil damn to keep the water we do get.
  • Build a water retaining depression around plants to form a ‘water saucer.’
  • Remove weeds promptly as they suck water out of the soil.
  • Use fine compost in large pots and baskets with water storage granules

Soil & Crop Selection for Drought Conditions

  • Delay new tree and shrub planting until Autumn when more natural water should be available. If watering water at the base of the plant at cool times.
  • Choose drought tolerant plants like Mediterranean or arid region varieties.
  • Reduce ‘water greedy’ crops & bedding plants like begonia, fuchsia and lobelia to a minimum. Pelargoniums and Livingstone daisies need less water.
  • Lawns can be thirsty, keep the grass long to reduce evaporation and do not worry about brown patches.

Credits
Dry garden with arbor by ~My aim is true~ CC BY 2.0

Grow Dog’s Tooth Violet or Dog’s Tooth Lily

Grow Dog’s Tooth Violet or Dog’s Tooth Lily

erithonium-2

Dog’s tooth violets are lilies that grow wild in cool shady locations and flower in spring. They can be grown to good effect in your garden.

What is a Dog’s Tooth Violet

  • The dog tooth violet belongs to the genus Erythronium and is a type of lily not a violet.
  • It gets its common name from the white oblong corm that resembles a tooth and the flower which resembles a violet.
  • Other names include trout lily, snow lily, Fawn lily or an adder’s tongue.
  • Dog’s Tooth Violets grow in shady cool conditions and flower at their best during March & April.

Varieties of Dog’s Tooth Violet

    Erythronium californicum ‘White Beauty’ is the easiest Dog’s Tooth violet to grow with its white flowers and a yellow centre. It is a classic spring flowering bulb with their Turk’s cap flowers that are an eye catching white. They delight in a humus rich soil either acid or alkaline and are good in dappled shade under deciduous trees in a soil that dries out in Summer. They like growing in similar conditions to Snowdrops, Trilliums and Cyclamen with which they partner quite successfully.

    Erythronium revolutum     grows about 1 foot tall and has pink flowers. . The colour in this Dog’s Tooth Violet varies and it is worth getting a strongly coloured and vigorous form such as ‘Knightshayes’ Pink’. Buy seeds from Thompson & Morgan

    Japanese dog's tooth violet

    Erythronium ‘Pagoda’ is quite a vigorous hybrid which is easily grown with lemon yellow flowers and bronzed foliage. It has large leaf growth and looks a bit untidy after flowering but is amongst the best Dog’s Tooth Violet for trouble free growing. Citronella is another yellow variety to grow for naturalising.

    etithonium-3

    Erythronium Dens Canis (Dog’s Teeth) can be bought in mixtures and are excellent for naturalising given the right conditions of moist partial shade. They tend to be lower growing than the other species mentioned above and are often found in the wild.

    If you want to know more about Erythronium they are well covered in Gardening with Woodlands Plants

    Read about Sweet Growing Violets
    Book Cover

    Dog Tooth Violets

    Credits
    Japanese dog’s tooth violet by kamonegi_jp CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
    Dog Tooth Violets by RobMan170 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Senicio Daisies of the Pericallis Genus

Senicio Daisies of the Pericallis Genus

Last year I looked at the naming for one of my good doers under the title ‘Senetti, Cineraria or Senicio? No Pericallis’. Pericallis is the small genus of Daisy like flowers and Senicio is the name I will use until I know better.
I updated the post with my growing and flowering experience.

Now I have some colourful photographs of related Daisy plants growing as indoor pot plants.

sennico 026

Daisies with salmon petals with white inner rings and yellow pollen are one of my favourites.

sennico 024

Senicio Daisies come in a variety of strong colours including deep pinks above, purples and electric blues.

sennico 021

Pericallis is not a common genus in horticultural use. These Daisy like plants have been bred of retail sale when in full flower so in those circumstances they need a trade name.

sennico 023

Whatever the name the inner disc displays the Compositae attributes of the daisy family.

sennico 018

Shocking Pink almost fluorescent pink on the plant below.

Senicio

Red Shoots of Growth

Red Shoots of Growth

Yes it seems strange but some of the new spring shoots in the garden are deep red.

Rhubarb buds

The bleeding heart or Dicentra Formosa is growing rapidly from red shoots to red stalks the plant will soon blossom with the heart shaped flower.

The strongest red and my favourite is the shoot of the paeony. When they are just breaking through the ground the look like little short domes of  a strong glossy red. Well established plants produce a large number of shoots which augers well for a show of blossom in June.

I have just seen frondy red stalks from a spirea in a neighbour’s garden and the red buds of my Rhubarb have just shot in to bright green leaf with swelling red stalks.

Don’t let anyone tell you spring is only for the yellows, look around at soil level and I hope you will agree.

 

Hot Compost Tips & Heaps

Hot Compost Tips & Heaps

layered aerobic compost

Heat in a compost heap is good. A hot compost tip will kill off pathogens and many unwanted seeds whilst it creates good friable compost.

What is a Hot Compost Tip

  • Hot compost heaps are just that, hot, they can be so hot you can’t keep your hand in (though why you should want to put your hand in the middle of a compost heap I am not sure).
  • The heat is generated by the decomposition process helped by all the biological activity. Microbes, worms and insects need food, air and water to generate this activity. They feed on the plant matter or one another so that takes care of food.
  • Much garden refuse contains enough water but if the compost is dry or the weather dries the compost out then some extra water can be added.
  • A hot compost process encourages quick breakdown and recycling of compostable waste.

Turning The Compost Heap

  • To get air into the compost as it rots down the heap needs to be turned after an initial decomposition period say 8-10 weeks
  • Special ‘Tumbler compost makers’ and spinners are now available so that compost can be turned within a plastic drum. You turn the drum daily or weekly to aerate the rotting compost. This speeds up the composting process significantly.
  • Turning the compost stops the top forming a crust that fails to rot
  • The compost should be turned so that any compost at the sides or back is brought into the middle so decomposition is even and homogenious
  • Turning the compost gives a chance for excess water to be redistributed so the heap doesn’t smell
  • If the heap is large turning the top two thirds on to a separate pile may leave one third compost ready to use.
  • Compost compacts and reduces in size by at least a third as it rots. Without turning it can be more compacted than your own soil.

Credits
layered aerobic compost by adstream CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Percy Thrower a Gardening Celebrity

Percy Thrower a Gardening Celebrity

Percy Thrower 1913-1988

One of the first iconic gardeners Percy was involved with most forms of media. Best remembered for his BBC appearances he was one of the first ‘personality gardeners’. He started on radio ‘Gardening Club’ in 1956 then TV’s ‘Gardening World’ through the 1970’s. As a regular contributor to the magazine ‘Amateur Gardening’ in the 1970’s and the Daily Mail he gave tips and information to a new generation of hobby gardeners. These gardeners were less interested in self sufficiency but had started to consider style colour and the aesthetics of gardening.

Percy started one of the first garden centres which was in Shrewsbury and is still open today. In addition to a range of plants he sold garden furniture, plastic pond liners and the like. At the time he said ‘You come in for a packet of seeds and something else catches your eye’. The centre was one of the first to develop container grown roses that could be sold out of season. Orthodox planting was November to March but growing roses in large tin cans enabled the roses to be offered through early summer for immediate planting and effect. His tips live on in his garden centre web site an example of which is given below

Garden Tips by Percy Thrower

‘If you fancy planting a magnolia, now is the time to do it. Choose its position with great care. Allow the plant plenty of space and prepare the soil well by digging in plenty of good quality ericaceous compost such as Miracle Gro Azalea, Camellia and Rhododendron compost or John Innes ericaceous compost. Water regularly over the coming months while the plant roots get established. Firm the soil, and support.’

Percy Throwers early training was at Leeds Parks and Gardens department before eventually moving to ‘The Magnolias’ in Shrewsbury. He was the gardening advisor to Blue Peter. The BBC dropped Thrower in 1975 when he agreed to a contract with ICI, for a series of commercials. He did this in the full knowledge of what the repercussions would be with the BBC. He had a good commercial sense and used his celebrity status to good effect.

He also wrote many books, which were published by Collingbridge and later Hamlyn including his memoirs ‘My Lifetime of Gardening’. Check them out on Amazon.

Top Peony Photographs & Images

Top Peony Photographs & Images

Peony
Busy bee image on my favourite magenta flowering Peony.
‘Peonies, Peony, Paeonia, Paeoniaceae In Profusion’ a Peony by any name would photograph as well!

Peony

Peony lactifolia a Bi-colour with pleasing habit and photogenic quality.

Peony

A single Peony that shows how well red flowers contrast with green leaves.

Frank Newbold peony

Peony Frank Newbold

Peony

Peony Sarah Bernhart a fluffy pink photograph.

Peony Lutea

Peony lutea the parent of many Peonies and the best yellow image by far.
Growing Peony or Peonies

Tree Peony

peony

Intensly coloured, dinner plate sized flowers are an image to behold.

Peony

Pure and white from a root stock. Growing Tree Peonies

Peony

Less scented but still vivid photographs from this deep red-maroon.

Tree Peony
Photograph credit Tree Peony by webmink CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Pink Tree Peony

Photograph credit Pink Tree Peony by buttersweet CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Book Cover
The Gardener’s Peony: Herbaceous and Tree Peonies by Martin Page
‘Over 200 photographs accompany detailed plant descriptions that will provide an invaluable reference source to peony enthusiasts….. Peonies are virtually unrivalled in a their ability to bring impact and drama to a garden. Once established they flourish for decades, bringing large quantities of flamboyant blooms in a magical range of hues and outstanding, often finely cut foliage. This informative guide highlights the best peonies for gardeners, paying particular attention to the tree peonies, herbaceous hybrids and the latest cultivars of Paeonia lactiflora. The Chinese have been growing tree peonies for 1600 years but these exotic plants still make a novel addition to the Western garden. A full-size plant bearing dozens of flowers is an awesome sight and the selection here includes the best of the Chinese and Japanese cultivar ranges, the classic hybrids and the sought-after hybrids raised by Arthur Saunders in the 1930s that range in colour from yellow to mahogany-red. Enthusiasts of herbaceous peonies will delight in the selection of Paeonia lactiflora cultivars along with the new complex hybrids between P. lactiflora, P. wittmanniana and P. macrophylla. Over 200 photographs accompany the detailed plant descriptions to provide an invaluable reference source. Advice on buying peonies along with detailed cultivation requirements for the individual groups will ensure success in the garden, while information on the history of peonies, conservation issues, and morphology complete this authoritative review. ‘

Also by Martin Page The Gardener’s Guide to Growing Peonies
Book Cover

Book Cover
Peonies: The Imperial Flower by Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall lavishly illustrated with paintings and photographs which are both informative and appealing.

 

The Peony Society formerly the British Peony Society link