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Category: Gardeners

People who garden for a living or for pleasure including designers, writers, presenters, plant hunters and historic figures.

Sourcing Plants that are ‘Good to Grow’

Sourcing Plants that are ‘Good to Grow’

The horticultural trades association (HTA) has over 2700 member locations, many of which are one site nurseries often specialising in a small quality range of own locally produced plants.
The UK gardening industry has a retail turnover of over £5 billion a year and according to the HTA it is a buoyant and growing market. (well it would be growing!)
Rose garden

Garden Centres

  • Like supermarkets the modern garden centres now sell more than plants and garden accessories, they even provide cafes and coffee shops.
  • Much of the stock has been grow abroad and brought to you at the cost of many ‘garden miles’.
  • Garden centres often have special offers and vouchers often designed to get you to spend in a way that extends their selling season. Not quite BOGOFF’s but 4 for 3 at Hayes or 20% off in November on selected items are examples.
  • Stock that is past the retailers sell by date may be reduced. You need to understand why the reduction is offered – if the stock is weak, damaged or unfit then stay well clear.
  • If Tulips, say are reduced in October to make way for Santa and the Christmas stock (that is so important to us gardeners) then fill your gardening boots because Tulips can be planted in November.
  • Normally look these gift horses in the mouth – a cheap wilted plant may never recover
  • There seem to be as many chains of garden centre as there are plants nowadays. Hayes, Dobbies, Strikes, Wyevale, Nocutts, Webbs, Klondyke and RHS are just some of the 130 members of the Garden Centre Association. http://www.gca.org.uk/
  • You may get a money back guarantee but will you return in 12 months to be told you killed the poor little plant.
  • Many large perennial plants can be split before you plant them to make several smaller plants that rapidly grow on. I have just bought and split a robust aster that I bought pot bound from a nursery and got 3 good and several smaller plants that will grow in the next couple of months.

Mail Order Companies

  • I like Thompson & Morgan for seeds and Jersey Direct often have good offers for annuals that provide bulk colour.
  • Buy-in seedlings and grow on yourself. Kinder pots and seedlings at the cost of a seed packet can be an economic way of getting a lot of stock for your garden.
  • Mini mail order plug plants are the next level of cost up but can be good value particularly for seeds that are difficult to germinate like begonias.
  • I like buying seedlings as a way of getting several vegetable varieties that will crop at different times and provide variety and insure against one crop failure.

    • In Praise of the Nursery

  • Of the retail choices available to gardeners my preference is to buy from Nurseries. The stock is likely to be local, hardy and ‘good to grow’.
  • The choice and selection of many varieties may be better although the overall range will be tighter.
  • The knowledge is often detailed and willingly imparted.
  • Many nurseries specialise and offer something different.
  • Owner managed business units need or help it is unnecessary for big business to cream off the profits made from hard working gardeners.
  • Nurserymen and women are some of the most knowledgeable gardeners I know.
All a Gardener Wants for Christmas

All a Gardener Wants for Christmas

What should you give your gardening relatives for Christmas?
Not an out of season plant that will doubtless die after a short indoor performance.
Nor in my mind a Poinsettia that will shed its leaves no matter how good a gardener they are (because it has already stood in a draught.)

Poinsettia

As a keen gardener I would be happy to receive vouchers at anytime and at Christmas it beats a shirt, tie or socks into a cocked hat. No I do not need a cocked hat either unless it keeps the rain off.

Vouchers for Gardeners

Amazon vouchers. The range of garden and outdoor products is now quite large and I love gardening books into the bargain.
National Garden tokens are accepted by lots of garden centers and some nurseries.
Seed and supplies are available on tokens from Thompson & Morgan They also accept Tesco Clubcard voucher, Copella voucher, Woodland Trust voucher or Garden News Society vouchers.That is just as well as their vouchers are hard to order on line!
Local nurseries and garden centers often sell vouchers which are bespoke to one nursery (I can always use them for dry goods if there are no plants I want)
Larger multiples – B&Q Gift Cards can be spent on anything at all UK B&Q stores, including the massive range of gardening goods. From sheds to shears, they make a great garden gift. Argos Gift Cards can be spent on the catalogue store’s complete garden range including barbecues, garden decoration, garden power tools and lawnmowers
RHS gift vouchers make great presents and are accepted in any RHS shop, along with HTA vouchers.


Alternative Garden Gifts
If it is a close family member we often make our own homemade gift vouchers. The gift may be cash, time or a service and is often well received as it is very personal.
You can make your own voucher from garden material or the back of a flower photograph. It is the thought that counts.
If you promise some labour don’t forget to deliver on your promise.
Small gifts can be found in cheap ‘pound’ shops – garden twine always comes in and a favourite Aunt may be amused by a plastic snail or garden ornament.

Book Cover
36 Great Christmas Presents for Green Thumbed Friends and Relatives [Kindle Edition] by R.J. Ruppenthal

Gardeners Promises

Gardeners Promises

Last winter I recorded some of the promises I had made myself about the garden and gardening. Nine months on some have worked, some have been ignored and the jury is still out on others.
This review may tip you off or give you some hints for your own set of promises.
These gardeners promises were recorded on the computer so I couldn’t escape. I also put some in a garden log book which I ‘promised’ to keep up with but seldom did – I blame the weather!

Daisy
‘Inula hookeri’

Garden Promises

  1. Get more scent from flowers particularly for the house. Fair progress with good Sweetpeas, that produced umpteen bunches and from strongly scented Phlox. Spring was a bit slow so I have just planted some ‘Narcissus Cheerfulness’ for next year.
  2. Create a plant and seed nursery. I have again failed to dedicate even a small area to sow seeds direct into the ground or a plant nursery spot for growing-on plants or taking cuttings. I am a plonker, that is I plonk in anything anywhere. The promise for next year must be to stop being a plonker.
  3. Take more care of chrysanths. I see these great flowers as high maintenance and I do not do right by them. I forget to pinch out, failed to pot on or stake as soon as needed and do not deserve to do well; nor do I.
  4. Fruit area design & order. I have reduced the veg patch and ordered more raspberries, red currants and bought a thornless blackberry. This is one promise that is well on the way.
  5. Rambler rose. I lost my rambler some year ago and intend growing another but haven’t found the space or variety yet.
  6. Lift crown on the bamboo clump. I must look out the variety of the well behaved bamboo that I grow as part of a mixed hedge. I wanted space underneath the green canopy and so pruned out some of the lower growth leaving the top untouched. Early days yet and I have probably been too cautious. 50% of a job well done I guess.
  7. Allow plants to grow old. I want to move on in the garden before plants have matured and given us the best. Again I am chopping down to early and loosing potential specimen plants before they can look old. I know I am impatient and missing out.
  8. Keep a better record of names and varieties. Failed
  9. Give plants appropriate space. Failed I still cram everything in
  10. Use more hard landscaping. Failed still clearing more ground for more plants.

Daisy

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.

John Cushnie 1943-2009

John Cushnie 1943-2009

John Cushnie 1943-2009

John Cushnie the landscape gardener, author and radio pundit has died suddenly from a heart attack on 31 December 2009 at the age of 66.

For the last 17 years John was a regular panelist on Gardeners’ Question Time, the Hedge Man on Radio 2’s Chris Evans Show, and presented Greenmount Garden for BBC One in Northern Ireland. He always used his quick wit when offering tips and guidance to his audiences. As a feature writer with the Daily Telegraph he has a list of New Years Resolutions in the paper that were printed before news of his untimely death was available.

An experienced landscape gardener, who ran his own business, Mark Damazer controller at the BBC Radio 4 said “John Cushnie was a towering figure on Gardeners’ Question Time,” “His trademark acerbic wit was deployed with terrific timing against a wide variety of plants he did not like – and it was always done with an affectionate twinkle in his eye, with an exuberance of voice and with unrelenting sympathy for fellow gardeners.”

John Cushnie Landscapes web site focuses cleverly on ‘About You’ and has useful information for those considering landscape changes. As a good employer in Northern Ireland we hope the business continues in John’s name.
John Cushnie also wrote for the Belfast News Letter, Gardens Illustrated magazine, Gardeners World magazine, Amateur Gardening, Ireland’s Homes Interiors and Living magazine and several books.

Book Cover

Book Cover

Top 100 Gardeners John Cushnie

Mothers Day for Gardeners

Mothers Day for Gardeners

daffodils-river

3rd Aprill 2011 is Gardening Mothers Day and if your mother is any form of gardener or interested in flowers (and who isn’t) then here are our tips for  presents.

Mothers Day Gardening Gifts and Ideas

  • RHS membership is being promoted on special Mums day offer – link
  • Have a family day out at a local garden or park. Take a walk looking for wild flowers or you will find a list of places to visit at the National Trust or English Heritage. Most have suitable tearooms for that important cuppa.
  • If it is going to be a bunch of flowers then seasonal Daffodils are a firm spring favourite. Do not put Daffodils in mixed bunches.
  • Tulips imported from Holland will be on offer as will Alstroemeria, Carnations and other air-mile flowers.
  • This year to be different buy a vase for all the flowers your garden is going to supply Mum this year but remember to keep filling it.
  • Pot plants in season include the fragrant Hyacinths and the colourful Azaelas.
  • Garden tokens may seem to lack thought but they may be very welcome allowing Mum too buy something special when she needs a lift.
  • Young children could buy Mum some seeds to be raised together. Sunflowers, mustard and cress or beans are popular.
  • A glossy gardening book may be the answer. I wouldn’t go for a detailed tome unless you know what would be appreciated.
  • There are many tools that would suit ladies. From pink trowels and gloves to light weight spades, choose wisely.

Gifts from Amazon our sponsor link

A mother is for life, not just for Mothering Sunday, so you can treat her at any time of year.

Gardeners Charities

Gardeners Charities

Charity begins not at home but in the garden!

Greenfingers is a small charity which is dedicated to creating magical gardens for children’s hospices around the UK.

Thrive’s aim is to enable positive change in the lives of disabled and disadvantaged people through the use of gardening.

Trellis is the national Scottish charity that supports, promotes, and develops the use of horticulture to improve health

Perennial is a UK charity dedicated to helping current and retired horticulturists in need.

Horticap is a Yorkshire based handicapped organisation where Alan Titchmarsh is a wonderful ambassador and is incredibly generous with his time and fundraising capabilities.

RHS, Chelsea Physic Garden and the AGS are also charities based on the educational work they do and doubtless for tax reasons.

If you want a garden charity mentioning on these pages send us a comment below.

Send Your Us Favourite Gardener

Send Your Us Favourite Gardener

Harlo 121

Use the comments section below to send us the name of your favourite gardener (not the gardener themselves).
We will add it to our list of 100+ Top Gardeners

Your nomination may be a gardener who inspired you or has left a legacy in the form of an outstanding garden. Both are true for me with Geoffrey Smith and his Rhododendron garden at the Royal Horticultural Garden Harlow Carr where this memorial stone is displayed.

Celebrity gardeners are well represented in our list but you may know of one we have forgotten. As we admit the plant hunter/gatherers are not well represented and we would appreciate nominations is this category.

Sponsors of gardens are becoming a regular feature at shows like Chelsea but the well-to-do have long financed the gardening exploits to create beautiful surroundings for their homes and estates. Do they deserve more recognition or should that only go to the more earthy recipients of the Victoria medal (VMH).

International gardeners deserve a bigger profile and multiple nominations would be welcome. We would all like to know whose work to look out for when visiting new places.