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Author: hortoris

Formal Garden Design

Formal Garden Design

Not everyone has the space or finances to design and stock a formal garden on this scale but a bit of design thought can go a fairway to achieving your objectives. Gardening is primarily about plants but the setting, presentation and juxta-positioning combine to make your unique garden design. The best tip I can give is ‘design to suit and please yourself’ as you are the one who will be spending most time in the garden.

Stages of Garden Design

Make a wish list of your priorities and the features you would like to incorporate or remove. You may not like all features equally so grade priorities or mark them into order eg Essential Flowerbed, Lawn, Garden seat, Vegetable patch – Desirable Compost heap, Shrubs, Greenhouse, Fruit trees – Optional Pond, Patio, Rock garden, Wildlife area, Sculpture etc.

Measure and sketch the garden taking into account the fall or slope of the land. Mark the sun, prevailing wind and rain shadows on the plan. Make your first mistakes on paper it will be easier and cheaper to correct.

Put the plan on to gridded paper so you can do the plan to scale. Cutouts may help. Start with permanent features like the house, boundaries and fixtures that you know will not move. Do several sketches to explore ideas and  do not worry about individual plants at this stage they can change.  Look at garden books and photographs for inspiration if you are struggling.

When you get the bones of a design that you like, fill it out with textures like paths and focal points but still resist planting schemes. Peg out the design on the ground, using rope for curves, so you can get a better feel.

Prepare a planting plan to give shape and character starting with tall and feature plants. Keep an eye on planting distance, height and spread of chosen plants. Check compatability, colour shape and form so you plant to achieve a harmonious design. Finally fill in with low growing plants and ground covers.

Drafting  your formal garden design on paper gives you opportunity to test ideas and visualise what might be possible. It can and should be a happy and interesting prelude to your garden implementation phase.

Check out the BBC for design ideas

Cyclamen for Woods and Shade

Cyclamen for Woods and Shade

Cyclamen are happy in dappled shade and grow well under trees. If you want to imitate suitable conditions use un-composted bark chippings as in the photograph.

Ivy-leaved Cyclamen or Cyclamen hederifolium also formerly  called Cyclamen neapolitanum have numerous scented, white or light pink flowers in autumn that show before the leaves grow.
This species readily naturalizes and seeds prolifically.
Like other cyclamen, it resents being transplanted and corms can grow up to a foot in diameter.
Roots emerge from the upper surface and sides of the tuber and not from the lower surface.
Cyclamen like a light soil and good drainage protects the corms from rotting.

Round-leaved Cyclamen Coum flower during the early spring from January to the middle of March. They prefer some protection from bad weather.
They make interesting alpine pot plants.

Book Cover

‘Cyclamen: A Guide for Gardeners, Horticulturists and Botanists’ by C. Grey-Wilson is available from Amazon

Black Eyed Susan or Susie

Black Eyed Susan or Susie

This simple annual climbs or clambers upto 2 feet tall. Provide a simple support with a triangle of hazel twigs or canes. Black Eyed Susan do best in a sheltered position or as a conservatory plant. Also called Thunbergia Alata they are annuals that should grow easily from seed.
The late summer flowers are intense in colour and the name comes from the dark center or eye. Cream, white, yellow and orange varieties are available.

Thunbergia fragrans Angels Wings has twining stems with 2inch wide white flowers. Whilst notionally it is perennial it blooms well in the first year and can be treated as a half hardy annual.

  • Black Eyed Susan at Thompson & Morgan
    • Autumn Environmental Tips

    Autumn Environmental Tips

    Autumn Crocus
    Autumn Crocus

    Feeding birds and providing habitats continues through autumn and winter. Planning to reuse, re-purpose or recycle also contributes to the Environment. Why take your car to the garden centre to buy more plants in containers when you can derive pleasure from growing your own.

    Clear up and Clean up

    • Tidy borders, lightly hoe or fork over to deter weeds and collect up canes, pots & nets.
    • Clear away old crops, leaves and plant debris adding it to your compost heap.
    • Keep one natural corner area  and leave debris to rot down.  Add  a pile of twigs or logs to provide food for insects and shelter for small creatures through winter.
    • Wash all pots and soiled items ready for reuse next year. Save and recycle what you can.
    • Rake up tree leaves as they fall, wet them and put  in to a wire cage or plastic bag with some puncture holes and they will rot down to leaf mould in 18 months or so. (they do not rot quickly or heat up like compost but make small amounts of good friable soil).

    Plant Care

    • Plant your spring bulbs, Daffodills go in early to develop good roots but Tulips should wait until November.
    • Save buying new plants by lifting and dividing clumps of herbaceous perennials.
    • Collect your own seeds and plant those to avoid buying new next season.
    • Give your surplus plants to others so they do not need to buy new.
    • Conserve key plants by covering tender specimens such as tree ferns in hessian or move plants into a safe zone.
    • Spread your rotted compost to protect the crowns of plants through winter and give them a good start for next year.

    Tools

    • Look after your tools. Clean and oil them.
    • Use a whet stone to sharpen bladed tools and store them safely through winter.
    • Broken handles can be replaced or new long handled tools made by putting a trowel on a broom handle.
    • Think about Christmas presents for you and the garden

    Other Resources

    Royal Horticultural Society RHS ‘Gardening for All’
    National Council for Conservation of Plants and Gardens ‘Conservation through Cultivation.’
    Garden Organic National Charity for Organic Gardening.
    BBC Gardening

    Tips for growing Magnolia x soulangeana

    Tips for growing Magnolia x soulangeana

    Spring flowering Magnolia x soulangeana can be planted now. Container grown plants from grafts or cuttings will flower sooner than bare rooted shrubs. Check the container is not pot bound and older, grafted plants will perform quicker. It is a case of paying a bit more to get what you want as it can take up to 5 years for Magnolias to start flowering.

    Growing Tips

    • Blooms may fall during spells of warm weather so avoid planting in very sunny parts of the garden. Also avoid early morning sun and wind which can damage young growth. Other than that magnolias are hardy shrubs and trees.
    • You can under plant Magnolias as their structure is open but avoid damaging the shallow, delicate roots. I suggest you try Muscari (grape hyacinth) or other small bulbs.
    • You can layer your existing magnolia in August using current year shoots but rooting may take a couple of years.
    • Pruning should not be needed except crossing branches and reshaping. hard pruning can set back flowering for several years.

    Varieties to Grow

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    Knapweed Garden Gem or Invasive Weed?

    Knapweed Garden Gem or Invasive Weed?

    Centaurea macrocephala also called Knapweed is a tall perennial plant in the cornflower family. Even wikipedia can’t decide about the scale and desirability of the Centaurea family.  As with many families there are good and bad and this species seems fine in my garden.

    Growing Centaurea macrocephala

    • At 3′ to 5′ high this bold plant is ideal for providing vertical interest in a sunny, well-drained herbaceous border.
    • The golden-yellow thistle like flowers are on stiff stems from July to late summer and  mid-green, lance-shaped leaves are followed by attractive seed heads.
    • The flowers are attractive to butterflies bees and many insects as you can see. This and the attractive seed heads make this variety an eco-friendly plant to grow.
    • When dried the seed heads are excellent for use in flower arrangements.
    • Other Centaureas are blue and purple and can make fine cottage garden plants.
    • Avoid Spotted Knapweed that are invasive and ugly cousins  Centaurea biebersteinii , Centaurea maculosa and Centaurea maculosa subsp. micranthos


      • More insects on a Purple Centaurea that flowered in June.

    Heather Moors and Gardens

    Heather Moors and Gardens

    On Ilkley Moor the heather is blooming and smelling a treat. Certainly the horseflies seemed to think so until we got to the top of the moor where the heather really made a statement.
    In your garden heaths and heathers can be very useful perennial plants. They have all year round interest and are generally low maintenance plants (and being hardy they take a bit of killing).

    There is a Heather Society for the enthusiast which can be found on this link

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    Carpet Bedding Tribute to Girl Guides

    Carpet Bedding Tribute to Girl Guides

    100 years of Girl Guiding is being celebrated in September 2009 by Girl Guides around the country with a range of appropriate events.

    This floral tribute is in the grounds of Carlisle Cathedral and has been created from just 4 types of carefully chosen ‘carpet bedding plants’. Contrasting shades of leaf and low, slow growing, uniform habit are more important than flowers. In fact flowers can distort such a display.

    Carpet Bedding Plants

    • For leaf colour and regular form Alternanthera lehmannii varieties take some beating like ‘Dark Purple Black’ Alternanthera lehmannii ‘Rosy Glow’ and Alternanthera lehmannii ‘Yellow Green Betty’
    • For grey foliage Lavender or Cerastium species with compact silver foliage and a white flower in summer.
    • Sempervivum arach’ ‘Rubin’ or Sedum spathulifolium ‘Purpureum’ for reds
    • Echeveria elegans for grey or the Glauca for a blue tinge
    • Sedums are probably the easiest for your first efforts with the wide selection available

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    Making Cut Flowers Last Longer

    Making Cut Flowers Last Longer

    Generic Tips

    • For perfect freshness pick flowers when halfway between bud and opening. Gather early in the morning when they have had a chance to drink over night or later in the evening never in the middle of the day. Plunge into water as you pick. Always use tepid water and keep vases and buckets clean.
    • Condition flowers by soaking in deep water. Cut off the bottom of stems under water to prevent and airlock in the stem.
    • Sugar or lemonade can extend the life of cut flowers like Roses. Bleach and salt can also help some flowers.
    • Woody stemmed flowers should have the ends crushed. If they show signs of wilting try standing them in hot water for a short time.
    • Strip off leaves that would be below the water line and change the water frequently.
    • Spring bulb flowers do not need water changes but a pinch of salt should revive them.
    • Higher the temperature the faster cut flowers will deteriorate so place arrangements where they won’t be exposed to direct sun, heat from appliances, electric lights, or hot or cold draft.

    Flowers needing Special Treatment

    • Hydrangeas will last longer if water is taken in through the absorbent head so sink the whole flower into water first then spray the flower heads daily.
    • Forsythia should be picked when in tight bud and it will open of its own accord.
    • Poppies need to have the end sealed by singeing the cut.
    • Daffodils should not be mixed with other flowers as they poison the water.
    • Carnations need cutting between nodes as they can’t take up water if cut on a node.
    • Remember foliage needs to drink as well so condition foliage too.
    Soft Garden Colours

    Soft Garden Colours

    Planning colour schemes can be an interesting exercise for summer when the garden needs less attention. You can sit and admire your current efforts and plan from the new catalogues that are arriving.  Observe what has worked well in your local gardens this year and do not be afraid to copy or improve on someones idea. I have been take by soft colour schemes that forswear reds oranges and purples in favour of a more pastle approach.

    Pastel Pink Colours

    • Soft pink rather than shocking pink is restful and ‘the very essence of the traditional garden’ (Lance Hattatt Gardening with Colour)
    • The combination of this low growing Dahlia ‘Rosea’ has worked well with the continuous flowers of the hardy Geranium Anna Folkard. The strappy leaves of a pink Schizostylis will come in to flower in autumn hopefully before the dahlia has finished.
    • An off white or cream flower can also be used with pink to lighten up the general effect.
    • Phlox paniculata ‘Fairy’s Petticoat’ is a personal favourite with a pink eye and a lighter outer to the petals.
    • Pink can vary from the white with a pale blush through warm and cool shades to orangey pinks or blue tinged pink. This is seen in a range of single Roses   including    ‘Pink Bassino’ with a prominent white eye, the magenta ‘Pink Meidiland’ or the distinctive apricot pink of ‘Irish Elegance’.

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