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Category: Tips for Growing Series

Help with growing popular and interesting flowers and plants. Simple, easy guidelines for growing good plants.

Help with February Gardening Jobs

Help with February Gardening Jobs

snowdrops

There are numerous jobs to start in February and most gardeners will be very busy. Perhaps too busy to read this article. Still Gardeners Tips tries to help new and experienced gardeners with a series of tips and job lists that should save time in the long run.

Jobs for New Gardeners In February

  • Do not rush, the season hasn’t started and there is a lot of time to catch up.
  • Complete any hard landscaping and design changes that you do not want to be doing when the growing season starts in earnest.
  • Plot and plan, February is a great time to be sorting out your thoughts and getting all your ‘ducks in a row’ ( do not mix ducks with an ornamental garden they eat and fertilize the wrong things.)
  • Read what the experts will be doing – plants want to grow for beginners and experts alike.

Jobs for Expert Gardeners In February

  • Sow seeds of Broad Beans and Sweet Peas in a cold greenhouse or outdoors with some protection.
  • Sow hardy annual seeds in trays
  • February is the time to dig in any green manure that has over wintered.

Fruit

  • Prune outdoor vines, blackcurrants and gooseberries using off cuts as cuttings
  • If you are troubled with moss on tree trunks use lime wash to remove it.
  • Spray peaches against leaf curl

Vegetables

  • Order any seeds and sow early carrots, parsnips or parsley
  • Draw up soil around spring cabbages
  • Plant out autumn sown lettuce and broad beans

Flowers and Shrubs

Growing Hellebore in 2016

Growing Hellebore in 2016

heleboris-niger

Hellebores are doing very well this year. The combination of the last cold winter, warm spring and now wet winter again has brought out the flowers in profusion. The Niger or Christmas rose is one of the earliest white flowers but many hybrids are now available.

Tips on Growing Hellebore

  • Buy plants in flower so you know what colour you are getting. Hellebore is very promiscuous and plants grown from seed may be crossed with other less suitable plants.
  • Try grow plants in a raised area so you can look up at the flowers which tend to have droopy flowerheads. …

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Hydrangea Shrubs and Houseplants

Hydrangea Shrubs and Houseplants

Red, White and Blue the patriotic colours of the Hydrangea are augmented by pinks and purples like H. Ayeshia above as a variation on those themes. Flowering from mid-summer these shrubs give a magnificent display with very little effort. Did you see Hydrangea maritima on seaside holidays in large displays of sugary pink and sometimes blue.

Hydrangea macrophylla is the mop head type that can change flower colour from pink too blue depending on the soil. If the soil is acid then you will get a blue flower. The pink is produced on alkaline and more neutral soils. To change to blue add Aluminium sulphate or special colouring chemicals from garden centres to get a pink add lime. Some old methods include burrying a bag of nails or putting rusting iron near the plant. For best results when the soil id wrong for your desired colour plant it in a large pot with the right type of soil and keep it well wartered.

Hint and comments on Hydrangeas

  • Named after the Greek for water keep your Hydrangeas moist
  • Hydrangea quercifolia has oak shaped leaves and flowers white in the shade.
  • Lacecap varieties have a looser form to the flowers with flat open flower heads where the florets don’t all open at once. Try variety maresii
  • Buy plants in bloom so you know what you are getting in colour and form or plant in Autumn
  • Hydrageas like rich moist soil and a bit of shade in the early morning to avoid frost damage to young shoots
  • Prune out old flower heads, dead stems and old wood from overgrown bushes in the spring
  • Hydrangeas can be used as cut flowers or dried for a papery addition to a winter arrangement
  • A dwarf species H. thunbergii grows to about 2 foot.

Some old varieties to look out for

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Grow Bouquet Garni Herbs

Grow Bouquet Garni Herbs

Book Cover

Herbs to make a bouquet garni can be grown at home and used later for cooking. All these herbs you can grow in the garden or on a suitable windowsill.
The ingredients for our basic Bouquet Garni are the herbs Parsley, Thyme, Bay and a clove of Garlic. Tie them together with undyed string. Then add other herbs that are specific to the dish you want to cook.

Herbs to Use

Use the herbs that are fresh and in season. If you have dried your own use sparingly to test the strength of flavour.
Herbs with high oil content can withstand longer cooking in stews and casseroles and include Rosemary, Oregano, Sage and Bay.
Loveage and parsley also retain flavour during lengthy cooking and combinations of stronger flavours are good for cooking meat dishes.
Poultry blends well with lemon flavour so lemon thyme, lemon grass leaves (harder to grow) and lemon balm will add the flavour you seek. You can also add a mixture of summer savoury, tarragon or hyssop.
Fish combines best with soft leaved herbs. Fennel, tarragon, dill and sweet marjoram are suitable as can be mint or welsh onion.

Jekka McVicar

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Prune Witch Hazels for more Flowers

Prune Witch Hazels for more Flowers

Witch Hazel

The Witch hazels are great winter flowering shrubs and small trees. If your garden is on the small side the Witch Hazels or Hamamelis can be kept in check by judicious pruning. Take care not to prune off and stop the scented winter flowers. Careful annual pruning can encourage the formation of more flowering sideshoots.

Witch Hazel Cultivation before Pruning

  • Witch Hazels are slow growing and can take 10 years to reach 10-12 feet.
  • Cultivars prefer full sun and in deep shade they grow sparse with few flowers.
  • If space is at a premium they can be pruned annually. Other pruning should be restricted to removing dead or damaged growth.
  • Do not plant too deeply and thus cover the grafting point.
  • Watering, feeding and mulching encourages a strong Witch Hazel

Pruning to Restrict Size

  • Prune in early spring as the flowers fade but before the leaves open.
  • As with other pruning remove congested, crossing growths, diseased wood and weak shoots.
  • To restrict an established plant cut back only two or three longer branches to a well placed side branch.
  • This thinning of the longest branches reduces height and spread.
  • Annual pruning should encourage a dense shrub that flowers well.

Harder Pruning and Suckers

UK Deciduous Azaleas

UK Deciduous Azaleas

Deciduous azalea

Description & Growing Deciduous Azalea

  • All Azalea are Rhododendron but not all Rhododendron are Azaleas. Now we have that as clear as a muddy pond what is an Azalea?
  • An Azalea can be an evergreen or deciduous flowering shrub with pale or startling coloured blooms.
  • Some Azaleas are scented whilst others are without scent. Whatever you think about deciduous Azaleas, ‘muddy and boring’ they are not.
  • Azalea are some of the most gay and brilliant flowering shrubs yet grown.
  • For the technically minded Azaleas are in the genus Rhododendron, with evergreen azaleas in the subgenus Tsutsusi and deciduous azaleas in the subgenus Pentanthera.
  • Most deciduous azaleas are hardy but asiatic species need more protection when young

 

Rhododendron occidentale #4

 

Varieties & Hybrids of Deciduous Azalea for Growing

  • The species have been much crossed and bred but the scented Rhododendron luteum and Rhododendron japonica are available as species.
  • Knapp Hill hybrids are amongst the most colourful deciduous Azaleas.
  • The Ghent hybrids have sweetly scented, honeysuckle-shaped flowers with long stamen emarging from the tube.
  • The Rhododendron Mollis Azaleas are crossed between Rhododendron mollis and Rhododendron japonicum
  • Rustica hybrids have fragrant double flowers and Occidentale hybrids flower in late May
  • The Exbury range were bred by Lionel de Rothschild who loved deciduous azaleas and carried out much breeding work to enhance colours and scent. The Solent Range was started by George Hyde a private grower in Dorset but bought for Exbury (Images).
  • For specimen plants Azalea Coccinea Speciosa or R obtusum are recommended

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Hydrangea Aspera Shrub

Hydrangea Aspera Shrub

The leaves of this Hydragea Aspera are one of its key features. As with other Aspera subspecies the branches and leaves are ‘strigose’ which botanically means ‘beset with appressed straight and stiff hairs’ that means rough and furry to me.

This  specimen shrub is 4-5 feet tall and whilst it comes from the Himalayas some plants can be a bit tender.

The Purple flowers open to a clear white (that is almost burned out on this photo) but the overall effect is pleasing. The flowerheads make good internal decorations.

The colouring of Hydrangea Aspera is not affected by aluminium or acidity of the soil.

Other Hydrangea species that are closely related include H.Involucrata, H. Strigosa and H.  Villosa.   H. Sargentiana is a taller more leggy coarse shrub brought from China by E H Wilson with a low growing H. Longipes and H. Galbripes.

For Complete Hydrangeas book click here and for cheap colourant click this link
Book Cover

Hydrangeas available from Thompson & Morgan

See Help to change Hydrangea colour

Tips for Growing Geraniums (Pelargonium)

Tips for Growing Geraniums (Pelargonium)

Pelargonium

There are two great uses for Geraniums that make it worth growing these fine flowering plants. Outdoors they make fantastic border plants and the red varieties are very popular in formal bedding schemes. The second use is as a long flowering houseplant and if you deadhead and feed you plants you will get lots of geraniums from one windowsill plant.

Geranium Cultivation

Grow from seed, plug plants or cuttings. They root quite easily from spring cuttings.
Plant out when the danger of frost has gone.
Geraniums can go straight into a border/bed or be put in containers, troughs or baskets.
Pinch-out the growing tip in April to encourage bushy plants.
Feed in summer with a high potash fertilizer to encourage more blooms.
Geraniums can survive with little water so can be planted in dry conditions but they do appreciate a drink like the rest of us.

Tips and Ideas for Planting Geraniums

Use one variety or colour and plant together to get a bold swathe of colour. …

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Growing Cannas – Facts and Fancy

Growing Cannas – Facts and Fancy

You don’t need global warming to get a warm glow in your garden if you plant some Canna. The fiery hot flowers and leaves on some Cannas are hard to beat and are worth a place in any passionate garden.

What other plant starts flowering in June and keeps flowering right through until the first frosts. Do not deadhead the flowers at any price as new blooms arise from the center of old ones. They flower in shades of red, orange, pink and yellow often bi-coloured with blotches, spots and streaks. The foliage is also a most attractive feature, and can be shades of purple/bronze, red, green and striped.

Growing Canna

  • Rhizomes have to be started into growth in February and you can be certain that if you see a new root, then a new shoot will soon follow. Start them by putting them in a hot place in a poly bag. An airing cupboard is ideal.
  • Part fill a 2 liter pot with peat based compost improved with slow release fertilizer and insecticide and lay the rhizome on the compost. If any shoots are growing, place these pointing upwards. Be very careful with any shoots because they break off very easily.
  • Fill the pot, affix a label showing the variety and the date of planting. Give the compost a good drenching, and sprinkle a few slug pellets around.
  • Place the pot in a warm frost free place. They will grow much quicker if heat is provided.
  • They can be planted out in June in sun, shade or preferably semi-shade.
  • Cannas prefer a damp soil but can survive some drought conditions. Some varieties grow well in bog gardens.
  • Large clumps can be divided in Autumn when the rizomes are stored in a frost free environment. Keep slightly damp.
  • Canna are very strong and sturdy and do not require staking. They are generally insect free in the UK.

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Growing Good Crocosmia

Growing Good Crocosmia

The national plant collection of Crocosmia in Lincolnshire has 270 different varieties.
Most are grown in containers to make use of the available growing space.

Growing Hints and Tips

  • The bronzed leaf varieties are a bit tricky being more tender and slower to bulk up. Given good drainage and a warm sunny spot then Nigricans or Dusky Maiden may be OK. ‘Dark Leaf Apricot’ (Coleton Fishacre) should be even easier.
  • Crocosmia like plenty of water in the growing season and are hardy in winter as long as they do not get too wet.
  • A warm sunny spot suits Crocosmia best but do not forget the water.
  • Crocosmia attract insects and if possible leave the leaves on through the winter as wildlife utilise these leaves to make their homes. The old leaves also help protect emerging shoots from spring frosts but you can mulch instead if you wish.
  • Montbretia can be rampant and others you should watch out for include Red King, Meteore, Red Star and Marcotijn.

Choice Varieties
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