Browsed by
Author: hortoris

Spotted Laurel Acuba Japonica Crotonifolia

Spotted Laurel Acuba Japonica Crotonifolia

Spotted Laurel

A good sized shrub the Laurels are sold under several family names.

The Spotted Laurel Acuba is an evergreen shrub for almost anywhere in the garden.

  • I grow mine 5 feet tall in quite dark shade.
  • It is quite slow growing but very hardy.
  • Shade helps the yellow spots – strong sun encourages green chlorophyll
  • The soil is moist and rich but it would also do as a hedge plant in ground.
  • Shrubs may be strictly pruned as hedges, left to grow unchecked, or lightly trimmed to shape once annually, always using secateurs to avoid cutting the large leaves.
  • All parts of the plant are poisonous, take care with the seeds.
  • Propagate by softwood cuttings in spring/summer or less reliably by seed.
  • Crotonifolia and Variegata are the best varieties. Both are female so they produce red berries which usually last from the autumn  through to spring.

 

More images

Seed Sowing March

Seed Sowing March

107

A great time to be getting your first crop of seeds sown.

The RHS seeds I ordered were late arriving but landed last week so I have 21 packets to sow this morning.

Covering Seeds

  • There is no need to cover very fine seeds or seeds that need light to germinate. This includes Begonia, Alliums, and Roscoea for example.
  • Covered with a layer of vermiculite most seeds will germinate in 30 days. If covering with compost reduce the depth of cover to little more than the size of the seed.
  • Slower germinating seeds should be covered with grit instead of vermiculite.
  • Place a glass or plastic propagating cover over the top to retain humidity and provide early protection. Ventilate as soon as seeds germinate.

Special Seed Treatments

  • Cold moist stratification involves giving seeds a period of frost or cold to break dormancy. These seeds may take over a year to germinate so do not give up hope. Try 12 weeks in the fridge if there is room.
  • Chipping (nicked with a knife or sandpaper) or softening seed coats may be needed for hard covered seeds like Lupins and Sweetpeas. This is to allow water to enter and start the germination proocess.
  • Warm stratification may be necessary to mature an embryo. Put the seeds in damp compost in an airing cupboard for a couple of weeks prior to sowing.

General Seed Sowing Tips

  • Use commonsense and read the seed packet. Follow the instructions where practical rather than slavishly.
  • Seeds are pre-programmed to grow to maintain the survival of the species – just give them half a chance.
  • Some seedlings resent root disturbance so sow where you want them to grow or in individual pots of a suitable size for the ultimate plant.
  • Do not be too greedy by planting too close, better 5 good plants than 20 poor weedy specimens.
  • Match the growing medium to the size of the seeds. Sow fine seeds in fine compost and bigger seeds in rougher compost
  • Beware of damping off – seedlings dying due to fungus before they grow leaves.

 

Read Seed Storage tips and When to sow seeds

 

Lenten Roses and Other Hellebores

Lenten Roses and Other Hellebores

Heleborus

Hellebores are not just for Christmas as in Christmas Rose there are species that are also called Lenten Roses.
Generally they bloom between December and April depending on the type and conditions.

London Heleborus

Hellebore Facts

  • The majority of Hellebores are deep rooted, stout plants well-known for their thick, shiny green foliage.
  • The large leaves may survive through winter but not all plants are evergreen.
  • Once established, most Hellebores make drought resistant plants particularly if given some dappled shade in summer.
  • Happy in shade plants will perform their best if given some sun.
  • Wild species grow in open meadows with only short grass for shading the roots.
  • Hellebores are acaulescent which means they have leaves but flower without stems straight from the ground

Helebore hybrid

Gardening with Hellebore
Hellebore heaven or hell

Helebore

VisitHellebore.org

RHS Spring Advice

RHS Spring Advice

feb harlow carr

Curves at RHS Harlow Carr Garden

 

The Royal Horticultural Society offers free advice on there web site and to members. Other membership benefits include free entry to some gardens and a monthly magazine.

Jobs to do in March

 

Spring usually arrives by mid-March and the frequent sunny days provide the opportunity for an increasing range of gardening tasks.

  1. Plant shallots, onion sets and early potatoes
  2. Protect new spring shoots from slugs
  3. Weeds come back in to growth – deal with them before they get out of hand
  4. Start feeding fish and using the pond fountain; remove pond heaters
  5. Lift and divide overgrown clumps of perennials

Get more RHS expert advice

When you have done these jobs you can cut the grass, sow some seeds, dig the veg patch and a runner bean trench then in the afternoon prune the roses, spread the compost heap and have a cup of tea!

 

 

 

Magic and Green Simmia

Magic and Green Simmia

Magic Marlot Skimmia

‘Magic Marlot’

  • Compact evergreen shrub grows perfectly in containers to give a wonderful display. Forms a  mounded, upright, evergreen that works for the border, garden bed or large containers.
  • The variegated foliage is medium green with a cream edge.
  • Autumn produces green-white buds that turn wine red as the temperature drops.
  • Spring brings rich-flowering, pink tinged white blooms.
  • Tolerant of heat, frost, shade and dry soils.
  • Spacing   24 – 36″,  Height : 12 – 18″,  Width : 12 – 24″

 

Kew Green Skimmia

Skimmia ‘Kew Green’

  • This low to medium sized shade tolerant shrub provides much needed winter blossom.
  • Scent from male plants  is followed by attractive berries on the female form.
  • Attractive foliage and makes Skimmias ideal as ground cover in problematic shady areas.
  • Skimmia ‘Kew Green’ prefers a well drained neutral to acidic soil that is reasonably fertile yet well drained,
  • Skimmia flourishes in full or partial shade.
  • Trim to shape after flowering and mulch occasionally.
  • Ideal flowering shrub for problem clay soils.

Rubella Skimmia

 

Rubella’  Award of Garden Merit (AGM)

  • There are numerous lovely skimmias, generally from the Himalayas and the Far East. Skimmias form evergreen shrubs of varying heights.
  • Most are ‘dioecious’, meaning they have male and female flowers on different plants, and both sexes must be planted to ensure a crop of fruits.
  • ‘Rubella’ is a compact male variety with attractive red-margined, dark green leaves.
  • The flower buds, which appear in autumn and winter, are a prominent feature of the plant, as are the scented flowers which open in spring.
  • It is perfect for growing in containers and provides good all year round colour.

 

Read about other Skimmia species and Skimmia for buds and berries.

Tulips in Containers

Tulips in Containers

Tulip display

My Tulips in pots, barrels and all sorts of containers are in fine health at the start of March. The pointed shoots are looking particularly good with red and lime green sprouting varieties showing through. You may remember, I planted some tulips in pots that I then buried in the garden so when they are finished flowering they can be dug up, put to one side and allowed to die back, whilst other plants go in the space. So far these pots look the part keeping the plants in a neater circle than I would have achieved with normal planting.

Tulips in Container with Euphorbia

Container Tulip Problems

    • Tulips do not like small containers. They like the right conditions for roots and bulbs and containers do not do the business
    • Two other problems have arisen firstly with mice eating some bulbs in greenhouse pots. They also took many of my broad bean seeds. I didn’t try the old trick of soaking them in paraffin, perhaps next year but my losses aren’t too serious.
    • The other problem may be worse with Tulip Fire damaging one pot and disfiguring most of the leaves. see below

Tulip Fire

  • Tulip fire is caused by a fungus Tulip Botrytis
  • All diseased plants must be removed immediately to prevent rapid spread of the disease.
  • Do not replant infested soil with tulips for at least two years.
  • When planting, reject and dispose of bulbs showing any signs of decay, or bearing sclerotia.
  • At the end of every season lift bulbs and discard, or treat with yellow sulphur  and dry before storing.

Botanic Tulips in pots
botanic tulip

Growing Phragmipedium Slipper Orchids

Growing Phragmipedium Slipper Orchids

Phragmipedium Dom Wimber

Phragmipedium

  • Phragmipediums are ladyslipper orchids that originate from Mexico and northern parts of South America.
  • Their flowering season is heaviest in the spring but some species can bloom for 6-10 months at a time.
  • Phragmipedium Don Wimber (shown) is a cross between a the orange flowering starburst Eric Young ‘Rocket Fire’ and the red flowering besseae.
  • They are strong, fast growers producing large handsome leaves (Eh? not here ed.) with tall flower spikes.
  • The 3 petals are 3 to 4 inches across and are colored in a medium orange with a deep pouch or slipper.
  • Phragmipedium are easy to grow in good strong light given plenty of water and moderate temperatures.
  • Slipper Orchids can bloom for several months and will flower on a single growth .

See Orchids at the shows

Snake Bark Maple – Acer Varieties

Snake Bark Maple – Acer Varieties

Burnby Hall Pocklington

Acer rufinerve is the tree I have always believed to be the Snake Bark Maple shown above. It has red autumn leaves and the distinctive bark. However there are other Maples with a snake bark and they tend to cross pollinate.

Acer grosseri var. hersii

  • A popular snakebark maple for small gardens, since it grows rapidly in its early years and then settles down.
  • Can be pruned in winter to control final size.
  • An established tree is unmistakable with its upright branches with green bark striped conspicuously with white.
  • The seeds in pairs of broad wings are clustered on long strings.
  • In autumn the thick, rubbery leaves turn yellow, orange and red shades.

Acer capillipes

  • The background colours may be green, dark purplish-brown or red overlayed by a vertical lattice of fine white lines giving a snake skin effect. …

    Read More Read More

Apple Spray Programme

Apple Spray Programme

Apple blossom

Apple trees can fall prey to a variety of problems.  Start spraying now!
This programme will control capsid, sawfly, wooly aphid, winter moth and codling moth insects. It also should help prevent or treat scab and mildew.

When to Spray

  • When dormant in winter I sprayed with Mortegg tar oil until it was banned by the EU. Now you need to buy a winter wash.
  • At bud burst spray a combination of Tumblebug and a fungicide like Systhane.
  • Again as green buds then pink buds appear a similar spray is needed.
  • At petal fall the worry is aphids so another spray may be needed.
  • For codling moth infestations spray Tumblebug once a month from mid June.
  • I do not spray once the fruitlets have set.
  • Savona is a fatty acid based non-toxic spray that kills by contact and leaves no residue

Organic Spraying

  • ehow have a list of spray methods that use such organic products as oil, copper sulphate, sulphur, Bacillus thuringiensis, and pyrethrin. Only nthe last of these would I think of as organic. see link
  • Best solution is no solution to be sprayed. Grow resistant varieties and wrap fruit in paperbags to keep insects off.
  • Make your own solution from garlic water or one of these recipies
  • Grease bands are worth placing on the trunks of trees each autumn.