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Tips for Moving Shrubs such as Forsythia

Tips for Moving Shrubs such as Forsythia

Forsythia

How do you move shrubs that have out grow their current location? When should you move flowering shrubs?

Tips for Moving Shrubs
Move plants only when unavoidable by digging around the plant to create a big root ball of soil.
Heavy rootballs can be dragged into place on a piece of sacking or an opened out compost bag.
Dig a £10 hole for a £5 plant, loosen the bottom of the hole, mix in some bone meal, back fill, tamp down the soil and water in.
Replant at the same depth – look for the soil level on the trunk or lower branches.
If the shrub is really big and bulky, prune it back hard before moving. You may loose some blossom the following season but it should regrow.

When to Move Plants
Move flowering shrubs in early winter when the shrub is dormant.
Incase of fatality take and root cuttings before moving.
If moving house ask permission of the new owner or stipulate your intentions when selling your property.
If you must move the plant when it is growing, water well for several days before, prune off unnecessary lush growth and do not allow the roots to dry whilst moving.

After Care
Keep your shrub well watered and mulched until it settles down.
Do not stress the plant by striving for excessive blooms in year one
Revitalise the soil around the old hole for your next plant. Humus and nutrients will be needed.

The Power of a Giant Flower Tower

The Power of a Giant Flower Tower

Public gardens are building more towers of flowers using bedding plants like Busy Lizzy.

Your Own Edifice
On a small scale you can grow mound for pounds by buying mini plugs.
Build a shape using chicken wire or proper units and incorporate containers at varying levels.
Instal a watering or irrigation method as you build.

Plants to Use
Busy Lizzie are a great start as the have a loose habit and will flower in some shade and that will be important if the structure is 360 degrees around
Trailing petunias will aslo do well at covering the structure quickly.
Tyrolean window boxes should also provide the idea of using red trailing geraniums

Thompson Morgan supplied the photograph and have an advisory service for those interested in the ‘Maxi Tower’ large structure.

Harlow Carr Library & Learning Centre is Eco Friendly

Harlow Carr Library & Learning Centre is Eco Friendly

HHarlow Carr Library & Learning Center

Harlow Carr continues to be a rising star amongst the Royal Horticultural Societies Gardens.
Opening in the next few weeks will be the new library and learning centre at the gardens in Harrogate.

‘The building, designed by one of the leading practitioners of sustainable building architect Andrew Yeats (Winner of the Queens Award For Sustainable Design), is designed to be one of the ‘greenest’ buildings in the UK with a zero carbon footprint.’ (Dean Peckett)

Eco Friendly Features
Super insulated, low energy consumption building.
It will have integrated renewable energy technologies including  rainwater harvesting and a grey water recycling system.
A small wind turbine will provide energy to the building and a ground source heat pump will help with the minimal heating requirements.
A sedum roof design to help blend the building into its surroundings and provide an insulating surface, promoting biodiversity and assisting with  the absorption of carbon dioxide.

Other Energy Saving Features include:
• Solar panels and Sun pipes
• Wind turbine
• Cement replacement concrete
• Clay blocks
• Natural ventilation
• Timber from sustainable sources.
These will all be incorporated by the main contractor William Birch of York.

If you are interested in ‘Homes for a Changing Climate’,  Will Anderson has a new book out.

Book Cover

No Chelsea Flower Show This Year?

No Chelsea Flower Show This Year?

Book Cover

If you can’t visit the Great Show this year £10 or so gets you a good book with memories of Chelsea flower shows inspirational aspects. ‘RHS Take Chelsea Home: Practical Inspiration from the Chelsea Flower Show‘ by Chris Young is available from Amazon by clicking here

Well illustrated with lots of photos and a huge amount of information ‘The book features best planning, design and decoration ideas from the last five years of shows, including masterclasses with gold-medal winners, celebrity designers, RHS experts and the world’s top plantsmen and plantswomen. The design and planting ideas inside the book are not just enviable but are made achievable for show-goers and armchair gardeners alike.’ It is so good you wont need to read Gardeners Tips much longer.

May 25-29th is Showtime
Visit London and ‘The Great Show’
Take in a show after the show with an organised break.

Spring Shrubs Forsythia and Flowering Currant

Spring Shrubs Forsythia and Flowering Currant

Forsythia

Forsythia is now in rampant bloom around our village. The sunny yellow flowers compete with the Daffodils for a place in the yellow spectrum of colour.

Blossom arrives before any leaves on the twiggy growth from earlier years. This cloaks the shrub in a mass of yellow blossom that really takes some beating. Only the very old wood has not got blossom this year and I will be tempted to encourage new twiggy stems by selective pruning when the flowering has finished. This will only be a light trim like they say at the barbers not a No 1.

Forsythia grows 1-2 feet per year from cuttings taken in late spring when the wood is green. Push 6 inch stems into a gritty soil preferably with some peat added as they like acidic soil. The shrub grows to 7-10 feet tall and almost as wide if left untended but it is then open and erring towards straggly, so I recommend the post flowering trim.

Flowering Currant

Flowering Currants also called Ribes sanguineum are also early spring blossoming shrubs. The sprays of flowers are like racemes of red or dark pink that are on show as the scented grey green leaves start to open. There is also a light pink variety that is a strong grower reaching 10 feet tall if left to its own devices.It is best kept at a 4-5 foot height.

Some better know varieties include ‘King Edward VII’, with red flowers, ‘Pulborough Scarlet’, also with red flowers and ‘White Icicle’, with white flowers.

Pink Ribes

Tips for Spring Shrubs

  • Prune after flowering. This encourages new flowering wood to grow for next year.
  • Take cuttings to propagate new shrubs in spring or early summer.
  • Mulch shrubs after summer rain or a good watering to see them through a dry summer.
  • Both Flowering Currants and Forsythia are east shrubs to grow.

Forsythia

Gardening Epithets and Plant Names

Gardening Epithets and Plant Names

The purpose   botanical names of plants is to provide some information about a particular plant that distinguishes it from other plants. Starting with the species or type of plant then an adjective applied to the plant, the specific epithet, which is often helpful in describing the plant.

This second word can often tell us the colour of the flowers, the height of the plant, whether the leaves are long and thin or short and fat, whether the plant is sticky or prickly, where it comes or who discovered it. (There is only so much space for information so a bit of detective work may be needed).

Below are three lists of the Latin specific epithets often used in gardening or naming of plants. Nearly all trees and shrubs are feminine usually ending in –a, ( whilst male names end –us but mean the same). You can add to these lists as your knowledge grows.

Latin Epithets for Colour
Musa coccinea Red banana
Musa Coccinea.

alba – white
aurea – golden, yellow
chrysantha or flava,  lutea   -yellow and sulphurea – yellow
aurantiaca – orange and citronella – lemon
coccinea, rubra or punica – red and sanguinea – blood-red
purpurea – deep pink or rosea – rose pink
phoenicea – purple and violacea – violet
viridis – green
pallidia – cream,
incana – grey or glaucus – greyish- blueish
argentea – silvery,
azurea  or caerulea – blue
nigra – black

Dictionary of Botanical Epithets contains a great deal more information, derivations, stems and meanings.

Latinized Epithets Location or Origination
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Plants Around a Birdbath

Plants Around a Birdbath

Attracting wild life and birds in particular is achieved by providing food, water and safety. Your bird-bath has provided the central issue, water, and your plants can help in the other two areas. There is no need to sacrifice colour or the ability to grow flowers for cutting if you choose wisely.

Aiming for a Cool Effect
Vebascum bombyciferum the Mullein has yellow floral spires on grey green foliage and lots of seeds later in the year.
Lamb’s Ears or Stachys byzantiana have mauve flowers with hairy grey leaves.
Yarrow is easy to grow and Achillea Moonshine is the lacy leaved variety I would go for to add to the grey leaved scheme.
Grass is popular with birds and Fountain Grass ‘Pennisetium alopecuroides’ produces late summer floral spikes and winter seeds.
White flowering Rosa Nevada has pale green foliage and the Foxtail Lily Eremurus stenophyllus has white racemes.

Other Plants and Tips
Birds will be attracted by insects who visit flowers like Thyme, Sedum, Sweet Rocket (also called Hesperis matronalis) and Heather.
Background plants can overwinter insects in Virginia creeper and Ivy and also provide nesting sites.
A mixed hedges provide a place of sanctuary.
See also Gardening for Birds on Gardeners Tips or Trees and Shrubs for Birds.
Purchase a good mix of plants of varying heights including some low lying creepers for the edges.
For plants in the shade read


Getting birds in your garden
Photo Credit normanack flickr creative commons.

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.

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

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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