Gardeners Tips

Claiming to be the ultimate guide to plants and where to find them the new edition of the RHS Plant Finder 2012-2013 is now available from amazon.

Data Base Plant List

• The internet has far wider reaching data bases of plants if you care to search.
• The Plant List is the most comprehensive I have yet discovered.
• 2011-2020 is the United Nations decade of bio-divesity and they sponsor ‘The Plant List’

The Plant List Data Base

• The Plant List is the result of a collaboration between the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden
• The Plant List provides the Accepted Latin name for most species, with links to all Synonyms by which that species has been known.
• The Plant List aims to be comprehensive for species flowering plants, conifers and ferns. It also covers Bryophytes or mosses and liverworts.
• The Plant List contains 620 plant families and 16,167 plant genera that currently includes 1,040,426 scientific plant names of species rank. Of these 298,900 are accepted species names.

Other Useful Plant Data Bases

• Global Compositae List
• International Legume Database & Information Service
• International Organization for Plant Information
• The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) is a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes

Perennials that tolerate coastal conditions are hardened to a salt ladened atmosphere and blustery wind. It is still prudent to place delicate specimens in some shelter from the worst of the conditions. Perhaps that is why so many successful seaside perennials are mat or carpet forming plants.

Perennials for The Seaside

• Erigeron glacus is not called the Seaside Aster for no reason. Hunt out these clump forming daisy plants such as variety Elstead Pink.
• Knipfolia or Red-Hot Poker Royal Standard form clumps of sword like leaves and spikes of flower red turning to yellow. They do not like freezing winter conditions so cover the crowns if the plants are in the north of the UK.
• Osteospermum jucundum are another daisy that is covered in cerise flowers during a seaside summer.
• Centranthus ruber or Red Valerian is like a weed in my garden but the flowers are long lasting
• Anthemeis is a reliable daisy flowering cream to yellow above silver grey foliage.

Ground Carpeting Perennials for The Seaside

• Armeria maritima Thrift or the Seapink
• Carpobrotus edulis is an easy-to-grow succulent for seaside groundcover.
• Eriogonum umbellatum is a herb also known as the sulphur flower.

Other Perennials Tolerant of Coastal Exposure

• Agapanthus ASfrican lily
• Allium christophii
• Centaurea cineraria
• Eriginum various species
• Oenthera odorata
• Phormium cookianum

In 1592 Charles de l’Ecluse planted the first tulips in the sandy Dutch soil, where an enormous bulb industry now produces more than 2 billion tulips a year.

There are 100+ species of Tulip most of which are small, delicate and usually less than 8 inches tall.

There are 15 divisions or classes of tulips plus a section for multiflowered tulips.

Small flowered botanical or species types such as Tulipa tarda, Tulipa batalini, Tulipa marjoletti and Tulipa acuminata should be planted in autumn before other tulips.

Species Tulip are also sometimes called Botanical Tulips. Most are small. Some are tiny. Many, given the right conditions, will spread like wildfire.

Sources
Tulips by ComùnicaTI, on Flickr
Tulips by Xerones, on Flickr

Tulipa batalinii ‘Red Gem’ growing under the castle wall at Clitheroe Lancashire

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has come up with a new wheeze to be launched for 2012. The National Gardening Week will take place from 16th April to 22 April 2012. You can contribute your skills, cash or enthusiasm if you wish.
Not surprisingly National Gardening week is warmly welcomed by the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) whose members will be looking to benefit your garden and their bank balances.

Early Ideas for National Gardening Events

• Make your contribution to National Gardening Week by spending early.
• A Compost Clinic will help with other green initiatives and solutions.
• Gardening clubs, societies, schools and local organisations are encouraged to participate and arrange special events.
• RHS will offer a ‘Border-Boosting service’ giving 6 tips and ideas based on a photograph of your garden.
• Contribute to the Facebook question time sessions that will be supported by scientists and gardeners from the RHS
• RHS ‘will also be offering 20,000 starter packs with seeds, organising a career day at all four of its gardens and holding masterclasses, including a workshop on seed raising.’

Get Ahead of the Game for 2012

• Plan early and tidy up your own patch. There is a lot you can do just by adding or changing one garden feature.
• Start with one item that you can use to Shock and Awe from the start of April. Bulbs would fit this bill in large drifts or containers and window boxes.
• Rhododendrons and Azalea are currently growing their buds for spring’s big show. Give them a boost of liquid feed and keep the soil moist.
• Alpine gardens look their best in Spring. Check out your lay-out of rocks, top up grit levels and generally tidy the area now to avoid needing to do so later.
• If you are stuck for Christmas or birthday presents what about Garden Tokens from HTA. Then you will have money to spend during National Gardening Week.

More information from the RHS

To join in, please email the RHS at [email protected] telling them who you are and how you would like to get involved with National Gardening Week.

Garden Tokens from HTA

Must Do Contributions During National Gardening Week

• Do not forget to enjoy your garden.
• Visit other spring gardens and join in events organised for National Gardening week
• Invite folk to see the results of your contribution to National Gardening Week

Only a few Lime Free Loving Perennials exist in our gardens. Those that do have often come from Asia or North America.
The plants selected below like moist peat in summer or a raised bed with rock and peat.

Gentian for a mass of true blue trumpet shaped flowers. Originally gentians hail from mountainous regions with acidic soil.

Lewisia has been bred to produce colourful Cotyledon hybrids. They are evergreen with rosettes of strap shaped leaves.

Mecanopsis betonicifolia or the Blue Poppy grow well in the moist Scottish peat areas so gardeners looking for tips should follow nature.

Phlox species adsurgens and stolenifra are pink and white and work well together in the garden. They both make evergreen mats in humus rich well drained soil.

Smilacina racemosa or False Spikenard has plumes of white flowers and attractive foliage in spring and summer.

Where to See Lime Free Loving Perennials

• Many ferns dislike lime read about our selection
• Himalayan gardens are often a good place to see lime haters.
• Gardens that have good collections of Azaleas, Camellias and Rhododendrons have the right conditions for these perennials.

Credits
Phlox adsurgens #1 by J.G. in S.F.CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
False Solomons Seal – Smilacina..racemosa or stellata……….? by Pictoscribe CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Woods and trees are vital some would say with hyperbole, essential to life. ‘They have a myriad of different benefits for both wildlife and people. They stabilise the soil, generate oxygen, store carbon, play host to a spectacular variety of wildlife, provide us with raw materials and shelter, inspire our imaginations and our creativity.’

UK Woodland Facts

• Since 1930 almost 50% of the UK’s ancient woodland has been damaged or destroyed.
• 85% of remaining woodland has no protection from further exploitation.
• The Woodland Trust cares for over 1000 woods that are freely open to the public. They have had to fight 310 legal cases over the last 10 years.
• The UK is the least wooded country in Europe with only 12% woodland. This is despite the woodland trust planting 13 million trees.

Free Trees

• The Woodland Trust has a range of free tree packs available to schools, youth groups and communities.
• Plant your tree for the Jubilee and bring your community together to plant free trees from the Woodland Trust. A chance to grow your own food, create new homes for wildlife and bring beautiful autumn colour to your local area.
• Apply now for the chance to receive a free pack to plant in November 2012 as part of our Jubilee Woods project.
• The Woodland Trust

Main Woods Owned or Protected by the Trust

• Blackbush and Twenty Acre Shaw wood.
• Denge Wood and Dering Wood- Kent
• Dolebury Warren – North Somerset
• Folke Wood – Dorset
• Heartwood Forest – Hertfordshire
• Joyden’s Wood – Kent
• Oxmoor Copse – Surrey
• Paradise Wood – Oxfordshire
• Skipton Woods – North Yorkshire
• Staffhurst Wood – Surrey
• Uffmoor Wood – Worcestershire
• Wychwood – Oxfordshire
• Lake Wood
• Glen Finglas Estate – the Trossachs
• Brede High wood near Battle Sussex

Credits

In the woods by JR_Paris CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Vincent Wood by the.approximate.photographer CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

A Walk in the Woods: Exploring Britain’s Greatest Woodland by Archie Miles