Annual, perennial and interesting flowers with advice on culture, information, tips and recommended varieties
Light and shadow over Oxford Botanic Gardens. Cloud cover clears to allow sunlight through.
Crocosmia Lucifer – A great variety of Crocosmia. It is actually a deeper red, but, the midday sun made it a little washed out.
Close up of Rudbeckia.
It is invidious to select just one flower for each month so I have gone for a couple of photographs that I just like irrespective of the flower power.
Delphiniums were described in more detail earlier this month ‘Growing Delphiniums’.
To stop you getting bored with Delphiniums flowers I have included an example of active pollination as the Bee is helping to produce the hard, shiny, black seeds that can grow into future Delphinium plants.
Twice this week I have been asked why a plant has not flowered despite receiving apparently good treatment. Most plants use flowers to start the reproduction and pollination cycle but below are some of the main reasons for failure.
Reasons for None Flowering
All greenfly are Aphids but not all Aphids are greenfly.
What are Aphids
Read Gardening Products Killing Aphids
This selection of perennials are easy to grow and produce summer colours in a range of patriotic blues, reds and whites.
Centaurea shown above has many varieties in different shades and is a good cottage garden plant. It grows2-3 feet tall and needs some support. It’s red colour is much more pink but the blue is strong and long lasting.
Hardy Geraniums are attractive and easy to grow. The colour range includes the purple to blue or pink and Splish-Splash below which is a white with occassional blue patch. My black geranium has very poor flowers and rampant foliage.
Lupins flowering above are another easy perennial. In addition to red, white and blue there are bi-coloured Lupins with a white eye that can be very attractive. This pink looks a bit wishy washy in the photo but in real life it was a stunner.
Oriental Poppies are strongly coloured perennials but I have yet to see a blue one which is not a Meconopsis. There are many other poppy varieties to consider growing
Roses.
Beauty, dignity, fragrance and style. The rose is perhaps the Queen of flowers. A very rewarding plant to grow. Some of the modern cultivars have lost the beautiful old fragrance, but, the good news is that they are more disease tolerant. See: Tips on Growing roses
Sunflower
Simple, pure and fun. The sunflowers is a great flower for anyone to grow. It is hard to look at a sunflower and not be cheered a little. It is as if the sunflower is smiling at you. Tips on growing sunflowers here
Lupins. See: Growing Lupins
Sweet Peas:
Sweet peas come in many colours and offer a long flowering season, making a lovely cut flower. The fragrance helps the sweet pea to be one our most popular garden flowers.
See: Growing sweet peas
Pansy
Low growing, colourful pansies are one of the most common garden flowers because they can give such a long flowering season. One of the few annuals to flower even in the depths of winter. Great value, no wonder they are so popular!
Begonias from tubers are a very rewarding plant. If protected from frost, they are a relative easy plant to grow. They can remain relatively pest free and provide a long flowering season.
You can start plants as early in February in a heated greenhouse or indoors on windowsill. The best temperature is 18-22 degrees. They will start growing at lower temperatures but their growth will be slower.
Keep moist, but, not standing in water or overly damp as this can lead to rot and mildew problems.
Plant the top of the tuber just below the soil surface, hollow side upward.
You should be able to see where last year’s growth has been cut off. It is the concaved side (dish shaped). You may also see the first buds for new shoots.
When the first shoots appear, make sure the plant gets plenty of light and is rotated if on a windowsill to get a well rounded plant.
The begonias can grow quickly and so might outgrow their first 3 inch pot. Pot on to five or seven inch pots, before they are ready to be hardened off and planted outside.
Soil that is fit for purpose will help your plants grow, thrive and even excel.
Some plants need special soils or composts but good general principles are discussed below and this book will provide detailed information.
Purpose of Garden Soil
Features of Good Soil
Fresh lettuce from the garden is well worth cultivating. It can be a quick crop, ideal for a small garden. Planted in neat rows, it can also be an attractive veg, especially if you try growing different leaf coloured varieties.
Lettuce can be sown from late Feb to June. Though obviously, in Feb will need careful protection. Germination takes 7-12 days. It needs a moist warm environment. However, beware that if the temperature is too hot (over 21 degrees) germination may be patchy.
Sow relatively thinly, lettuce seedlings dislike being transplanted so when thinning out, just discard the excess plants.
For growing full lettuce, sow 30cm apart. However, for salad ‘cut and come’ varieties, you can sow closer and keep cutting leaves to get a second crop.
Beautiful, but a hundred potential weeds.
Weeds
There are two types of weeds. – The weed which can easily be controlled through hoeing (e.g. annuals like plantains and the persistent perennial weeds – horsetail, bindweed and japanese knotweed. These latter group of weeds need a persistent and determined strategy to rid your garden of them. It takes a combination of deep digging their roots, and then spraying or hoeing off new growth until they are finally defeated.
In the case of weeds like horsetail, it can really test your patience as it can be years of weeding before you clear the garden of it.
Other weeds still require regular maintenance to keep down. If possible follow the good old advice of hoeing before they set seeding or as the saying goes – one years weeding = seven years weeding
Neglect
Here is a common garden problem – not enough time to do what we need to do. – Weeds allowed to grow, grass too long and weedy, plants not deadheaded and a general feeling of neglect. Don’t feel too bad, nature doesn’t have a gardener, and nature doesn’t do too bad. Try to enjoy the natural aspect of the garden, even the weeds can be quite nice, if we don’t worry too much. But, if you can find a bit more time for regular maintenance you will get much more joy from the garden.
Though another less well addressed common garden problem is that of the stressed gardener. Don’t try to do everything and be perfect. There is more to the garden than immaculate edges and 100% weed free soil…