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Author: hortoris

Tips for Training and Growing a Topiary Cone

Tips for Training and Growing a Topiary Cone

Topiary

Topiary looks good on containers and plants are easy to control in this environment. You can also move the pots around the garden to show off your topiary skills.

Starting Your Topiary

  • Select your plant and container. Box, Laurel or Yew are good subjects to start on.
  • Plant your shrub with some slow release fertiliser making sure you fill in with compost around the root ball.
  • Use lengths of bamboo cane pushed firmly into the compost and tie them together neatly at the top to make a wigwam shape.
  • Tuck any stray shoots behind the canes and tie strong shoots to the cane framework with garden twine.
    Snip off any remaining straggly shoots.
  • Your plant will fill out the framework as it grows. Simply snip off protruding shoots until the plant completely fills the frame.

Growing and Caring For Topiary

  • Keep your plant well watered and do not allow it to dry out for lengthy periods.
  • Once you desired shape has been achieved keep your cone in tip top condition with small shears. Little and often encourages smaller tighter growth.
  • Top up the container with fresh compost in spring.
  • Feed your topiary, all your prunings need to be replaced somehow.
  • Turn your topiary by 90 degrees every few weeks so light and wind act evenly over the pot.

Other Topiary Shapes

  • You can buy or make wire frames in a variety of shapes and sizes to train your plants
  • Balls, spirals and clouds are now very popular topiary subjects
  • Trains in hedges are also hobby shapes that seem popular near my home
  • Arches and archways can be covered in topiary of Beech or Ivy
  • Good luck if you tackle something like the couple of green people shown above.

Book Cover

Topiary from Amazon

See Top Topiary Gardens
Shrub Sculpture and Topiary Tips
Conifer pruning into topiary
Thanks to pct24 for the use of the picture under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Gardeners Tips for New Coreopsis

Gardeners Tips for New Coreopsis

American tickseed
Photo from Kew at the British Museum

New for the Garden

  • I have just ordered a Collection of 6 Coreopsis varieties from Jersey Plants. You can acquire or just admire plants as part of a collection
  • Cranberry Ice, Garnet, Ruby Frost, Snowberry, Citrine and Autumn Blush are the varieties that are costing £12.99.
  • The colour range includes Cream with Red Eye, Red with White Edges and Yellow Eye, Red, Red with Yellow Eye, White with Red Eye and the now famous Yellow.

I was very pleased with the picture of Coreopsis from my garden without any comprehension of the other variety available. That was before I came across the picture below by the Dutch perennials wizard Luc Klinkhamer

Growing Coreopsis

  • ‘Autumn Blush’ is one of the latest and perhaps the most dramatic of the new Coreopsis hybrids with boldly blotched, dark-eyed peachy-yellow flowers.
  • The plants should have a flush of flowers in spring and again in autumn.
  • Cut stems back after the first flush of flowers fade to promote a repeat bloom.
  • Plant in sunshine with dark foliage plants to create a contrast.
  • Green leaves reach a height of 24″ and spread 24″

Anyway back to my small observations.

  • Originally I purchased one good plant from a nursery last Autumn and split it into 3 before planting. Two plants are now larger than the original and all are flowering in a nice group.
  • My plants are flowering very well so I buying some more.
  • Coreopsis, also called Calliopsis or Tickseed are great additions to my garden design of bright yellow and oranges that will bloom most of the summer. They fit in well with most plants and have a good compact habit.
  • Coreopsis makes a neat 14 inch tall edging plant as well as nice cut flowers.
  • Check the habit of the more exotic types as they may not be as compact or floriferous
  • Coreopsis is attracting a lot of attention from breeders and will be a perennial plant to be reckoned with over the next few years. Watch this space or the one at your garden center.

Other Selections

    Coreopsis ‘American Dream’ Thread-leaf Coreopsis, Pink Coreopsis
    Coreopsis lanceolata ‘Baby Sun’ Lanceleaf
    Coreopsis, Pot of Gold, Longstalk Tickseed
    Coreopsis Big Bang ‘Cosmic Eye’
    Coreopsis, Pot of Gold, Longstalk Tickseed
    Coreopsis ‘Creme Brulee’
    Coreopsis grandiflora ‘Domino’ Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Longstalk Tickseed
    Coreopsis ‘Dream Catcher’ and Full Moon Big Bang Series
    Coreopsis grandiflora ‘Flying Saucers’ Tickseed
    Coreopsis verticillata ‘Golden Gain’
    Coreopsis lanceolata ‘Goldfink’
    Coreopsis ‘Gold Nugget’
    Coreopsis ‘Jethro Tull’
    Coreopsis ‘Little Sundial’
    Coreopsis verticillata ‘Moonbeam’ Thread-leaf Coreopsis, Pot of Gold, Whorled Tickseed
    Coreopsis ‘Pinwheel’
    Coreopsis ‘Red Shift’
    Coreopsis ‘Route 66’
    Coreopsis ‘Sienna Sunset’
    Coreopsis ‘Snowberry’
    Coreopsis verticillata ‘Sunbeam’
    Coreopsis ‘Tequila Sunrise’
    Coreopsis, Pot of Gold
    Coreopsis verticillata ‘Zagreb’ Thread-leaf Coreopsis, Pot of Gold, Whorled Tickseed
    from Dayton Nursery Ohio

My Seed Purchase for Cloud Pruning

My Seed Purchase for Cloud Pruning

I have just updated my 50 Top Seed Companies published in 2010.

A new entrant in my list, RP Seeds, offered Ilex crenata that I want to try for small topiary projects. As usual I am not content with buying just one packet of seeds so I ordered the following.

Expensive topiary ...

 

Ilex crenata (Japanese Holly)

Evergreen small tree / shrub, native to Japan, China and Korea with very small, dark green, glossy leaves and white flowers and black fruits on mature trees.  Famous for its use as Topiary Cloud Trees and widely seen in Japanese gardens.  Makes a good alternative to box for topiary and an excellent species for Bonsai.  Note: Patience needed as seeds can take many months to germinate.

  • Hardy Tree
  • Height: 3-5m
  • Position: Sun or semi-shade

Packet of 10 seeds

Ginkgo biloba (Maidenhair Tree)

Fantastic tree for any garden which is one of the world’s oldest species dating back 180 million years to prehistoric times.  Has very ornate, fan shaped, lime green leaves which turn clear yellow in autumn.  Grows rapidly from seed, is very hardy and extremely tolerant of pollution. A favourite for Bonsai.

  • Hardy Tree
  • Height: to 25m but can be pruned to any size
  • Position: Semi-shade

Standard packet  -  5 seeds

Zelkova serrata (Japanese Grey Bark Elm)

Fantastic tree for autumn colour with sharply-toothed, finely-pointed foliage turning many shades of yellow and orange in autumn. A Bonsai classic (see photo), remarkable for how well it mimics its full grown shape in miniature. Easy to grow from seed and fully hardy when mature. Will need frost protection for the first couple of winters.
Winner of the RHS Award of Garden Merit

  • Hardy Tree
  • Height: 5m if not pruned
  • Position: Sun

Standard packet  -  20 seeds

Koelreuteria paniculata (Golden Rain Tree)

Unusual and interesting tree with pinnate foliage which emerges green in spring and turns bright yellow in autumn.  Bears lovely panicles of yellow flowers in summer followed by strange, yet attractive lantern-like, inflated, bronze-pink fruits.  Easy to grow from seed.

Winner of the Award of Garden Merit.

  • Hardy Tree (to -5C) Protect when young and in extreme winters until mature
  • Height: up to 10m
  • Position: Sun and well drained soil

Standard packet  -  25 seeds

Lupinus cruikshankii Sunrise (Lupin)

Striking annual Lupin with blue-green foliage and rising tiers of azure-blue, white and gold flowers.  Very different to the usual Lupin and excellent for cutting.  Easy to grow and can be direct sown outdoors.

  • Hardy annual
  • Height: 90-100cm
  • Flowers: Summer
  • Position: Sun or semi shade

The lupins I ordered to make up the cost to £10 to avoid paying any postage.

I am still waiting for my biennial and hardy perennial seeds to arrive from Wallis seeds who seem a bit slower than usual after I ordered on the internet for the first time.

Acknowledgments Photo Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) by wallygrom

    ‘Expensive topiary …

    An Ilex crenata topiary creation – costing £3999 … imagine forgetting to water it one day … This was at Wisley Gardens, in the garden center.

    Ilex crenata is also known as Japanese Holly. It is a small-leaved evergreen Holly of slow growth, eventually reaching 4-6 metres. It is ideal for topiary, or as a tightly clipped low hedge. The fruits are small, shiny black berries. There are a number of cultivars from this species.

    Native to Japan, Korea, and the Sakhalin Islands. Introduced to the UK in about 1864.’

I need a deal of patience and a lot of gardeners luck to succeed with theses trees but I am an eternal optimist when it comes to gardening.

Todays Top Ten Tips

Todays Top Ten Tips

September 6th 2011

  1. Despite the grey overcast skies of the last few weeks there has been very little rain and the soil is dry. Water where needed, particularly the Rhododendrons that are currently filling out their the buds for next years flowers.
  2. It is not too late to deadhead your Pelargoniums ( many people call them Geraniums). They will flower until the first frost or when the daylight fails them.
  3. Pick your ripe tomatoes and strip off any remaining leaves so what little sun we get can ripen off the remainder.
  4. Order your seeds for next year. You can sow many hardy annuals, biennials and broad beans for a quick start next spring.
  5. Turn your compost to get air into the pile of summer grass cuttings and mixed waste. This reheats the rotting process.
  6. Shred or chop twiggy waste and old stems as you put them on to your compost heap to help them rot down.
  7. Tie in Raspberry canes, climbing rose stems and any growth that you think may be damaged by high winds.
  8. Clean the greenhouse glass to maximise the light.
  9. Tidy dead leaves and garden detritus that may harbor pests and diseases.
  10. Give house plants maximum light and continue with a week feed.

September Crab Apple John Downie
crab apple

Sea Buckthorn – Hippophae Superfruit

Sea Buckthorn – Hippophae Superfruit

Sea Buckthorn

Sea Buckthorn is one of the Hippophae species. The fruit have some medicinal properties and the shrubs have been cultivated for many,  centuries. The deciduous shrubs are Dioeceus having male and female plants.

Common sea-buckthorn has distinctive  pale silvery-green and branches that are dense, stiff and very thorny.

Propagating Sea Buckthorn

  • Many seeds are available from the ornamental orange berries.
  • Seeds should be pre soaked for 24 hours prior to sowing. Old seed is less viable.
  • Hard wood cuttings taken in winter can increase stock of the shrubs.
  • Bundles of cuttings are soaked in water and covering 2/3 of their length until the beginning of formation of roots.
  • Cuttings can also be treated with rooting hormone and placed in pots filled with peat in a bottom heated propagation box. Cuttings can be transplanted when the roots are 1-2 cm long directly to the field.
  • ‘Softwood cutting (15-20cm long) are taken when shoots begin to become woody, remove the lower leaves, leaving 2-4 leaves at the tip and dip into rooting hormone before rooted in media such as sand or perlite and keep special attention to the moisture of media.’ Quote from seabuckthorn.co.uk

Hipppofea

Read Hippophae Orange Berries

Superfruit Health

  • Sea Buckthorn oil appears to prevent the effects of aging or to help restore damaged skin.
  • Some haircare products are made with Sea Buckthorn oil.
  • Sea Buckthorn oil may help to heal burnt skin. If you have acne, dermatitis, scar tissue, old burn tissue, or radiation markings, try it for a few months to see if there is a noticeable improvement.
  • Sea-Buckthorn berries have a unique composition including vitamin C, vitamin E and beta-carotenoids
  • Seed oil is a good source of anti oxidising essential fatty acids and may be used as a dietary supplement.
How To Take Cuttings for Big Shrubs

How To Take Cuttings for Big Shrubs

Forget 6 inch cuttings, for bigger shrubs use bigger cuttings. Giant cuttings of 18-36 inches may be worthwhile on the following:- Cistus, Euonymous, Hebe, Leycesteria, Weigelia, Pyracantha or Kerria japonica. I have a friend who excels with Roses taken this way.
Also read Gardeners tips Taking cuttings for beginners

Proceedure for Cuttings

  • Water the host plant well the evening before taking cuttings.
  • Take cutting early in the day, keep out of the sun and spray with water to minimise wilting.
  • Select a shoot with plenty of new growth. Cut it off cleanly at the base where it comes from a branch or cut below a swelling leaf node instead.
  • Remove any flowers, lower leaves and soft tips by pinching out
  • If the cutting has a woody bark remove a sliver an inch long to aid rooting.
  • Have available one litre pots full of a free draining mix of grit and multipurpose compost.
  • Dip the end of the cutting in fresh hormone rooting compound, such as Murphy’s, plant and water in
  • Place in a humid environment eg. a plastic bag over the pot supported by canes, so leaves don’t touch the sides, and tied with a rubber band.
  • Keep in a shady spot removing dead leaves regularly.
  • In about 5-6 weeks, when rooted, acclimatise to outside conditions and overwinter in a sheltered spot
  • Plant out in March

Climber Cutting Tips …

Read More Read More

Local Show Tips

Local Show Tips

Cynara cardunculus

I entered 10 classes in our village show including a vase of flowers with these Cynar cardunculus. The rules were to have a minimum of three varieties so I included some Sedum and Buddleia to give an Autumn feel to the vase. On the ‘basis of less is more’ I threw away a lot of flowers I had taken but didn’t use. I ended up with a second prize to a marvelous display of umpteen varieties in an airy display.

Local Show Tips on Time

  • Arrive for benching within the stipulated hours and remember it will take you longer than you expect. It gets just as rushed as Chelsea even for your village show.
  • Allow time for tweaking your exhibits, turning to best advantage and cleaning around your exhibit.
  • Judging will be at a set time when everyone had to leave the hall and our show opened to visitors in the afternoon.
  • Speeches, raffles and prize giving took up ‘gardening time’ towards the end of the show before the uncollected exhibits were auctioned off.

Local Show Tips – Presentation

  • Standard vases were provided for floral displays but fruit, vegetables and potted plants used your own imagination.
  • Onions were displayed on sand or rings except some giants that stood out on there own.
  • I entered 3 fruit classes and stood the apples on squares of white paper. I left the natural ‘bloom’ on the apples and came second, again, to some highly polished smaller fruit. (What to do next year?)
  • Several exhibits were mounted on doilies which probably says something about the age of our village. (Seriously with lots of classes for children there were lots of young villagers around.)
  • The best tip I have is aim for zero imperfections, a good small one will beat a big imperfect specimen.
  • Keep the exhibit clean and tidy using only black or white presentation aids.

Local Show Tip – Keep Too Schedule

  • Read the schedule if it says 5 items they do not mean 4 or 6, even if you think it looks better.
  • Make sure you are in the right class and leave the correct marker. We are give a reference ticket to leave under our exhibit so the judges do not know whose entry they are judging but can get a subsequent reference back.
  • I may have been disqualified in the french bean class when I entered flat pole beans, anyway they were nowhere near good enough.

End of the Show

  • I may not have thanked the organisers and volunteers adequately at the Menston 2011 Show so I do so now.
  • Our show will donate the proceeds to the Royal British Legion 90th anniversary appeal. They had a stand, bunting and poppies on display
  • Local shows are for fun and it is the taking part rather than the winning.
  • However you can get a first by being the only entry in a class or in my case by being lucky on one entry. ( not my Pelargoniums or Fuchsias unfortunately)

11.11.Poppies

Read more about Growing Show Gladioli and Show Shallots.

Check out Giant Pumpkin Growing Tips

Budget Busting Gardeners Tips

Budget Busting Gardeners Tips

boxing day 012
Sun and rain are free so optimise the use of these natural resources

Garden on a Low Budget

  • Collect seeds and start to raise your own plants. Use resources like books, the web or seed company advice flyers to find sowing and storage information. I have several interesting roses grown from collected hips.
  • Buy small plants so the can establish well and mature. Larger perennials can often be divided before being planted out.
  • Mulch you garden and key plants with 2-3″ of well rotted organic material. It will condition the soil, keep weeds down and improve water retention. Mulch on top of damp soil not dry soil.
  • Scare birds off your brassicas with a potato stuck with birds feathers and suspended from a near by tree or make your own scarecrow.
  • Reuse plant labels after rubbing them down with an abrasive or cleaning agent.
  • Grow new plants  such as fuschia, chrysanthemumns, marguerites and pelargoniums. Many others plants will grow from cuttings.
  • Buy secondhand tools and invest in a sharpening stone to hone them down.
  • Make your own compost mixing green and brown waste.
  • Scrounge form other gardeners, they often have more plants or seeds than they need and most are good hearted souls.

Make do and Mend

  • Reuse and repurpose items into the garden. You can find interesting containers this way. Just make sure there is a drainage hole.
  • Repair broken items that can be used in the garden.
  • Use hazel twigs as canes to support your growing plants.
  • Make your own crazy paving from ‘found stones’. I have rockeries and small walls from stone I have collected along the way.
  • Stables often offer free horse muck if you collect it, ditto seaweed.
  • Do not bother with chemicals in the garden. Sure you may loose some plants but an organic garden tends to get into a form of balance with nature.
Winter is Coming to Your Garden

Winter is Coming to Your Garden

Snow garden

First the bad news! The London Met Office has warned that the winter 2011/12 will be similar to our last three winters with cold and snow caused by high pressure trapped around our Islands.
Now the good news! These long range forecasts are usually rubbish and the opposite may be true.

Even better news for your garden is if you prepare in advance and now is your big opportunity to plan and execute.

Hedgerow berries

Gardeners Tips Preparing for Winter

  • Leave the berries on your shrubs to provide food and energy for birds.
  • Do not be excessively tidy, piles of leaves and twigs make safe havens for overwintering wild life.
  • Stake susceptible trees and check ties to avoid wind damage.
  • Bring all none frost proof containers into shelter. Wrap tender subjects in hessian.
  • Take cuttings of plants you want to try overwinter just in case. Keep them in frost free conditions.
  • Do not worry snow is a good insulator but the weight can bend even strong branches so be prepared to knock it off before it piles up.

Smile you are on Candid camera

Keep Smiling Plan for Spring Round the Corner

  • Buy and plant bulbs to cheer yourself up during warm spells.
  • Winter pansies, wallflowers, primulas and other plants planted now can get spring off to a colourful start.
  • Get construction and heavy maintenance jobs out of the way so you can concentrate on plants and gardening when the weather improves.
  • Dig your vegetable patch and leave large clods of earth to be broken down by the frost.
  • Sit back, buy your seeds from the many catalogues or mail order and dream of warm spring and summer next year.
Grow Seedheads for Wild Life

Grow Seedheads for Wild Life

Teasel seedheads

What you can do to help feed wild life and your garden birds.

  • Leave seed heads on your plants like the Teasel (above) which are great for Goldfinches
  • Small mammals like the bigger seeds such as nasturtiums and pulses. Peas and beans can be left on plant not only to collect seeds for next year but as a food for wildlife.
  • Berries are looking good at the moment. Enjoy their looks and as they ripen the birds will also enjoy them as dinner. Pyracantha and cotoneaster seem to be favourites at the moment.
  • Most importantly plan now to have more seed heads for next year
  • Do not be over keen to tidy up. A rough area encourages insects many of which like a feast of seeds. Insects are also more than food for thought.
  • Sun flowers are popular so try several varieties  from a seed catalogue
  • Grasses with plumes and arching flowers look good and taste good
  • Echinacea and Amaranthus are prolific seeders

Try reading a specialist book for more ideas Seedheads in the Garden

Book Cover

I have often wondered if birds and insects can tell different flavours of seeds. Humans could tell an Allium from a Sunflower or a Poppy from a Dill seed so may be wild life can too.

allium seedheads

Sea Holly or Eryngium giganteum variety Miss Willmotts Ghost (below) will produce seedheads full of nutritious seeds for the birds and insects.
With all that pollination going on I am not surprised.
Willmotts Ghost

Hedgerows

  • One of the best places to grow seeds is in your hedges.
  • Wild life has shelter safety and food on tap in a hedgerow.
  • You do not need to have an untidy area of the garden.

    • Haws

    Hawthorn and Holly are two typically British hedgerow plants that feed our native wild life.

    Holly in the Wild

    For a slender and graceful specimen tree that will help feed wild life you could try growing a Mountain Ash, The Rowan or Sorbus aucuparia

    mountain ash

    For those without the desire to grow there own seeds for the benefit of wildlife then there are many great feed mixes available. RSPB supply in large sacks and there are a host of other retailers.
    Please be consistent if you start to feed with bought seed products and wildlife become reliant on your supply.

    Read Pollinators for Green Gardening