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Author: hortoris

Grow Edible Flowers For a Salad

Grow Edible Flowers For a Salad

Day Lily

Do you like flavour and fragrance in your salad or would you like some more colour? If the answer is ‘Yes’ then I suggest you grow edible flowers in your own garden.

Harvesting Edible Flowers

It is normally the petals that are eaten but small flowers may be eaten whole.
Gather the flowers early in the day when the dew has just evaporated.
Cut with a small pair of scissors
Handle them gently and carry them in a basket to avoid bruising .
Leave them aside so any insects and beetles can escape. Only wash them if necessary then pat dry with a paper towel.
Keep in a closed plastic bag in the refrigerator until required and refresh with cold water before use.
Scatter over a salad in modest proportions.

Popular Salad Flowers

Pot Marigold or Calendula petals have a vibrant range of colours and can be used fresh or dried. They add seasoning as well as colour.
Nasturtium are popular as they are easy to grow and have been eaten for centuries. Buds flowers and seeds are all peppery to taste.
Pansy and Viola have little flavour but the colour can be made available virtually all year round with winter flowering varieties.
Primroses used to be collected from the wild but it is more PC to grow your own mild flavoured flowers.
Old fashioned Roses add colour and scent but test the variety first as the base of some petals can leave an after taste.
Dianthus such as Pinks and Sweet Williams can be strongly flavoured and scented.
The flowers of herbs;  Lavender, Sweet Bergamot, Sage, and Borage are suitable to eat in moderation.

Gardeners Tips

  • Pick young, small flowers and use with subtlety to enhance a salad not over power it.
  • Check the plants are identified correctly to avoid toxic flowers.
  • Add dressing to a salad before sprinkling with flowers to avoid discolouration.
  • Experiment with a wider range of flowers, there are lots to choose from. See Whats Cooking  America ‘Edible Flowers in salads’
Home Made Plant Protection

Home Made Plant Protection

Bottle Glass House

This ‘double glazing for plants’ is getting these early onions off to a good start at the beginning of March.

Each plant has its own baseless pop bottle for individual cover. Then there is the glass sheet that will keep off the snow and the sink sides to keep out some frost. Intensive care for plants that can be treated as individuals may be worth the effort when our local vegetable show comes around (no wonder I have lost to this neighbour before.)

Winter Protection

This is another of the local money free protection schemes where the Leeks are grown in lengths of drain pipe. I guess this helps with blanching  but more importantly extends the cropping season. Talking of Leeks, yesterday I bought some seed of Swiss Giant Zermatt to pick from July as baby leeks and some Blue Green Autumn Neptune for resistance to Leek rust disease.

Tree Prevailing Against the Wind

Tree Prevailing Against the Wind

Prevailing wind

I was facing due North when I saw this tree in a local field. It shows how the prevailing wind is blowing from the West and I found it fascinating that other trees had grown in a way that supported the elongated branches.

It is not a garden sized tree, unless you have many acres, but it is a reminder that these great carbon capture devices are to be prized and cultivated.

Winter Aconites Light Up Under Trees

Winter Aconites Light Up Under Trees

March 2 Winter Aconites
With a shaft of winter sun through the branches of a decidous tree the Winter Aconites glow gold and bright yellow. The low level of the sun catches the flowers and opens the simple petals to flash the stamens at the early insects.
In the wild Aconites do exactly what bulbs are supposed to do they grow, flower and seed while light penetrates the bare branches of the trees above them.
Winter aconites grow only 3 inches high and have upturned yellow cup shaped flowers around 1 inch across. The flowers sit stalkless on a ruff of bright green leaves and they can flower for up to six weeks.
A member of the buttercup family the leaves are deeply cut and disappear back into the soil by May.

Growing Winter Aconite Tips

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Cornus Chop – Dogwoods Bark Red

Cornus Chop – Dogwoods Bark Red

Cornus Alba Siberica

The first week of March and it was time for me to chop the Cornus Dogwoods down to size. The red stems that have shown up so well during winter will never be the same again if left on the shrub so they are ‘out for the chop’.

Pruning Cornus

  • Cut all the upright stems down to within 3 – 4 inches of the ground.
  • Water well and mulch the stump with good compost or manure to encourage new growth. Dogwoods like water!
  • New stems will grow, show leaf, flower and be ready for another winter display come Autumn.
  • Some pencil thick stems, 6 inch long, can be used as cuttings for growing new plants.
  • Check around the stool of the plant as you may have several new plants available from the layering of the old stems – any with roots can be severed from the main plant and relocated.

There are many other interesting Cornus trees and shrubs or new Cornus Alba Sibirica plants can be bought via Amazon
Follow the full story of Bark on our other pages

Growing Sweet Rocket or Dame’s Rocket

Growing Sweet Rocket or Dame’s Rocket

I planted some seeds of Hesperis Matronalis also called Sweet Rocket or Dame’s Rocket, and the plants came up like grass in next to no time. I should have reacted to the advice on the packet ‘scatter thinly when sowing …..thin out as necessary. Plants will self seed in following years after flowering. Sow outdoors in May to June, transplant in autumn.’ Well now I have a veritable forest to prick-out and keep under cover until the frost goes.

Growing up to 3 foot high the open airy plant flowers in shades of purple and lilac to white.The fragrance is as sweet as a violet’s, and most pronounced in the evening. It looks good in a border or a cottage garden and is attractive to wildlife. Some plants may bloom until August but warm weather shortens the flowering period.

Treat the plant as a biennial although it can often be perennial. When established it can be invasive and seeds freely.

Seeds are available from Thompson Morgan Sweet Rocket

Photo by nicoretro on flickr

Ideas for a Purple Patch

Ideas for a Purple Patch

Primula 'Elizabeth Burrow'

This delicate little Primula ‘Elizabeth Burrow’ is not the best example of a purple patch plant as it is little bigger than a £2 coin. Primula Denticula however can be a real stunner with lilac or purple flowers on lollipop stems. This is just an example of the range of purple colourings available on modern plants ranging from deep violet to lilac.
Also from the Primula family come the Japonica and Harlow Carr Hybrids that often sport a purple hue to the flower-heads.

Kew 365
At the red end of the purple spectrum this cyclamen make a strong colour statement and it could be paired with the 18″ high Allium hollandicum ‘Purple Sensation’. There are also many purple Rhododendrons for early flowering like the compact Ramapo.

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Tips for Flowering Shrubs in Your Border

Tips for Flowering Shrubs in Your Border

Tips for Designing Shrub Borders

  • Create a tiered effect in your border by using shrubs of different heights.
  • Plant low growing types at the base and later flowering ground cover.
  • Select flowering shrubs who’s colour will lead the eye from one plant to the next.
  • Only bother to prune to take out dead wood or if the shrubs become unruly or too high.
  • Grow flowering shrubs to make a partially shaded plot for delicate flowers.
  • Plant larger trees or shrubs off-center to avoid a too formal appearance.

Plant selection for an Acid Soil Border

  • Camellia japonica can be planted at the back as it will grow 6-12 feet tall but only spread 3-5 feet. Red, white and pink are the most common colours to buy and the thick leathery leaves are evergreen.
  • Azalea Knap Hill hybrids or Mollis are very floriferous decidious plants that flower in spring before the leaves grow. Mine are now 4 feet tall after 5 years. Depending on the size of you border I would use 3, 5 or 7 of these great plants in various colours.
  • Callicarpa bodinieri produces stunning purple berries in Autumn 3-6 feet tall and wide.
  • At the front you may need some shade loving plants like Epimedium with copper tinted leaves. Trillium sessile has ivy like leaves and white, red or brown springtime flowers.
  • For shape it may be appropriate to add some Box (Boxus Sempervirens) near the front. 12-36″ tall.

Other Selections

  • The scheme above is strongly spring flowering and Mahonia x media ‘ Charity’ or Pieris japonica could also be incorporated into the planting.
  • For summer interest you may substitute or add Escallonia ‘Apple Blossom’, Hydrangea macrophylla or a hardy Fuchsia magellancia.
  • Ceanothus ‘Autumn Blue’ will fit in a sunny spot and a variegated Ilex aquifolium at up to 12 feet adds berry interest late in the year.
  • For general all year round cover the Elaegnus pungens Maculata has good colour in the leaves, Euonymus can grow to 10 feet and Skimmia has cream flowers in spring followed by red berries.

Banana Growing in England (no seriously)

Banana Growing in England (no seriously)

Kew 276
The cultivated banana comes from the genus Musa. Musa acuminata is the dessert banana and Musa balbisiana is the plantain that generally needs to be cooked. There are about 300 varieties, many of the edible varieties of which, do not produce seeds. Bananas are vegetatively propagated by means of ‘suckers’ which develop from buds on the underground rhizome.

Banana hand

Cultivation Under Glass.

  • Good drainage is crucial since saturated roots will kill and bananas will not tolerate water-logging.
  • The banana plant is a very heavy feeder. Soil should be nutrient rich, slightly acidic, and loamy enough to retain moisture and keep nutrients from leaching below the shallow roots of the plant.
  • Good organic compost and seaweed will help maintain the banana plant’s high mineral requirements.
  • A fairly well-drained soil with a high organic matter content is ideal, and plenty of water should be provided throughout the growing season.
  • Banana plants grown under glass in this country will bear fruit, particularly under warm humid conditions. Fruit should be left on the plant until fully developed and then removed for ripening.
  • Cutting the plant back to soil level after fruiting will encourage suckering.
  • Bananas can also be grown successfully as foliage pot plants if the temperature and humidity are high enough.
  • Dry air in houses is one of the main causes of leaf getting brown tips and edges.

Kew 272
Edible bananas, such as the cultivar ‘Dwarf Cavendish’ can be grown under glass although they require a large area and plenty of height. High atmospheric humidity is essential and temperatures of at least 18°C during winter nights and 24°C during summer days are required. The plants also need full sun, possibly with some shading in the summer to maintain the requisite high levels of humidity.
Musa Williams Hybrid is a banana plant grown for the large banana heads with sweet, delicious bananas from a plant only growing 6-8 feet tall.

If growing for foliage it is   important to shelter the banana plant from heavy winds that can tatter the foliage.
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Crocus corsicus or Corsican Crocus

Crocus corsicus or Corsican Crocus

Crocus corsicus

Collectors of Snowdrops are named Galanthophiles so should crocus lover be called Iridiaphiles. Perhaps there are already Iridiaphile clubs collecting the numerous Crocus species including the Corsican Crocus shown above. Wikipedia list 80 plus species.

Gardeners Tips for Corsican Crocus

  • I like the idea of growing crocus in pots in the alpine house so it is easier to inspect the blooms but they ‘go over’ quicker and the water control needs to be spot on. This pot is stood on an inverted pot to get more height on the bench.
  • Corsican crocus are best in a rockery not being robust enough to grow through grass.
  • A sandy well drained soil even in an exposed site should be fine.
  • Outdoors they go on flowering for longer than many spring crocus.
  • In early spring is a delight to see the striped buds poking up followed a few days later by the open buds showing a contrast of purples and lilacs plus the sepals, styles and anthers in orange and yellow. .

Read Crocus Tommasinianus and Crocus Planting Depth