Gardeners Tips

1. Sunflowers. One of the most rewarding plants to grow from seed is the sunflower. You can sow seed in March – May. April is a great time. For best results. Try sowing seed in 3 inch pots. Protect from slugs and keep well watered. After a few weeks the seedlings can be planted out. Sunflowers will need staking. But part of the fun is seeing them grow so rapidly. – Growing Sunflowers

2. Daffodils. Bulbs tend to be very easy to grow. The main thing is to plant at the correct depth in the autumn. If the bulbs are in good condition and disease free they will flower for several years. They can be helped by a liquid feed and dividing when overcrowded. Growing from seed requires great patience and expertise. Growing Daffodils

3. Sweet Peas. Sweet Peas aren’t the easiest to grow, but they are wonderful. You can sow direct outdoors but you will have to watch out for slugs. Sowing in 3inch pots will give better results. They also need something to grow up. They will soon reach 6 feet. The other secret of sweet peas is to keep cutting the flowers – this will give you wonderful cut flowers for the house and extend the flowering season. Growing Sweet Peas

4. Nigella – Love in a Mist. If you want a really easier flower to grow try ‘Nigella’ common name ‘love in a mist. You can just scatter seed in the garden and it tends to look after itself. You can sow the seed in either autumn or spring. Once it gets going, it will set seed. It is resistant to many pests as well.

5. Iris.

See: Growing Spring Iris – Bearded Iris

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As flowers age they can lose some of their colour.
The sun can have a bleaching effect and the pigment should already have done it’s job of attracting pollination insects.

Some flowers have petals that are a throw back to an earlier plant cross

Other plants may be programmed to produce flowers with a natural variety in their colouring.

Photographs can lie especially when it comes to the rendition of colour.
The colour temperature and light conditions can make the same pigments appear different in different conditions

Lantana camara often has three colours on one blossom in this case pink, yellow and red.

Hollyhock family are from the Alcea genus but I couldn’t find a UK supplier of the variety above..

Malva sylvestris Magic Hollyhock has beautiful rich purple pink flowers, veined deep glossy purple, some loosely double like Old Fashioned Roses. It thrives easily in most soils providing a magnificent display.

Cultivation

• Sow from late winter to early spring 1.5mm (1/16in) deep in John Innes Seed Compost.
• Make sure that the compost is moist but not wet and seal in a polythene bag until after germination, which normally takes 15-21 days at 21C (70F).
• Transplant when large enough to handle into 7.5cm (3 in) pots.
• Grow cool and later plant out 60cm (24in) apart into an ordinary but not rich soil in sun and some shelter. If windy tie to a stake or support.

Hollyhock Malva sylvestris ‘Magic’ is available as seed from Thompson & Morgan

 

Want to know if it is an Alcea or Malva read about Aroids

 

Read Growing Hollyhocks for Fun

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Time is up

Forget-me-not

Root for gardeners

Delphiniums are stately border perennials which come in a wonderful variety of colours. Strong blues and clear whites are colours which are often hard to find in the garden. The delphinium is one of the few plants to give a true blue colour. The delphinium also adds greatly to the height of the garden. If well staked it can tower above the other foliage to give an eye catching display.

Growing Delphinium from Seed.

Delphinium seed is expensive. A packet may only have a few seeds in. But, they are good fun to grow from seed. Make sure you get a good variety from a reputable supplier.

• Sow seed in January / February under glass and gentle heat, and keep well protected from frost and cold.
• Sow in 3 inch pots and grow one plant per pot.
• In April / May start to move outside before planting out.
• Delphinium Seed
• You can acquire or just admire plants as part of a collection

Soil Preparation for Delphinium

Like many plants delphiniums like well drained fertile soil. If possible work in leaf mould / well rotted compost into the soil to improve the humus  / organic content. Top dresser with a general fertiliser. If the soil is clay based then drainage may be a problem, in this case work in sand or grit to the place where they will grow.

Staking Delphiniums. The flower stems of Delphiniums are so dominating they are unfortunately top heavy. Therefore, they need appropriate staking to prevent blowing over.

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Conifers can be kept neat and tidy by regular pruning.
Equally Conifers can become feature plants with there own personalities.

Spiral Pruning

• Interesting patterns and shapes can also be created like this double spiral on a Golden Yew.
• Two conifer types were used the low growing ball shaped shrubs to make the spiral at ground level. Abies balsamea ‘Hudsonia’ is a bun shaped, slow growing conifer.
• The tall spiral was cut into a Chamaecyparis lawsoniana ‘Columnaris’ which can grow to 20′ high. Golden Yew could also be trained to grow in this shape.

Cloud Pruning

• Cloud pruning was a fad some years ago but it takes dedication to keep up to it.
• Ilex crenata, the small leaved holly is popular in Japan
• Taxus Yew is without equal when clear geometric shapes are required.
• Even Leylandii can be pruned into cloud shapes.
• Pines are more difficult and time-consuming to prune this way.
• Leylandii are forever needing extra trimmi9ng but if you enjoy pruning then it may be the plant for you.

Topiary Shears

I called this female statue ‘Lady Gardener’ due to the implement she was carrying that looks like Topiary Shears. In truth the shears are used in the woolen trade for shearing and working cloth. (The clue was seeing her in Dewsbury the Heart of the Woolen District of West Yorkshire.) She looks a bit too formidable to use as a garden statue but if my garden (and pockets) were big enough she could feature.

I have a large and small pair of these shears for light trimming and training of shrubs. I particularly use them to keep Lonicera nitada ‘Baggins Gold’ under control as trimming encourages new yellow leaf.

Shears by Burgon & Ball

Cacti come in all sorts of shapes and sizes with differing textures and flowers. Desert cacti are usually covered in spines and jungle or rainforest cacti are often without spines.

Tips for Growing  Cacti

• Getting the watering right is the key issue. All plants need regular water during their growing period in spring and summer.
• I water weekly in spring and early summer cutting down drastically by autumn leaving winter almost watering free.  Provide a weak fertiliser solution in spring and early summer.
• Good drainage is as important as watering. Most succulent prefer a free draining sandy or gritty soil. Do not stand in water.
• Keep most varieties free of frost.
• Plants can be grown from seed and many root well from cuttings or grafting.
• Cacti are trouble free but like adequate light, warmth and ventilation in order to thrive.

Repotting Cacti

• Cacti should be repotted as soon as roots show through the bottom of the pot.
• Repot in the spring every 2-3 years for fast growing plants.
• Water 2 days before repotting so the roots are moist but no saturated.
• Remove from the pot and discard top dressing and any dead or damaged roots.
• Increase the pot size only marginally and add slictly acidic compost.
• Plant at the original depth and trickle a thin layer of grit on the surface which will help water drain quickly.