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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.

Growing Scabious – Scabiosa

Growing Scabious – Scabiosa

Scabious sp. 2

Scabious is a UK native perennial plant that is available in many forms and species for growing in your garden. Grown in damp areas it is popular with insects bees, moths and butterflies. Known for powdery blue pincushions of flower on the top of long stems makes this plant is a useful cut flower.

Description, Cultivation and Growing Tips

Scabious is a hardy perennial well loved for cottage gardens.
Scabious grows well on dry, sandy soil in a sunny position or partially shaded location.
You can acquire or just admire plants as part of a collection

Small Tortoiseshell

Common Names and Varieties to Consider

  • Scabiosa is generally known as Scabious or the Pincushion Flower.
  • Our UK native Scabiosa columbaria is compact with wiry stems topped with tiny Cambridge-blue pincushion flowers
  • Scabiosa caucasica is the Caucasian Scabious first grown in the UK 200 years ago. Generally pale blue there is a white form called Miss Willmot.
  • Scabious atropurpurea is available in pink (Beaujolais Bonnets) and purple (Ace of Spades).
  • A new compact Scabious is now on the market with a height of 20″ and a spread of 16″ enough to use as ground cover.
  • Scabiosa ochroleuca or the Yellow scabious has cream pincushions
  • Varieties for growing Scabiosa; Clive Greaves (light Blue), Miss Wilmott (white), and Pink Diamond

Scabious

Unusual Facts about Scabious

  • Scabious is a member of the Teasel family Dipsacaceae
  • Scabiosa species are also used as food plants by the larvae of some butterflies.
  • Devil’s-bit scabious and field scabious are UK natives but what the Devil?.
  • Giant Scabious isn’t really Scabious it is Cephalaria gigantea which has primrose yellow flowers on a 6′ stem.

Old & Odd Tips From Gardeners Tips

  • A top dressing of grit before winter will help surface drainage as Scabious dislike cold, wet poorly drained soil conditions.
  • Deadheading will prolong flowering and if you trim flowers down to the next bud you should get two new flowers from the axil bud.
  • As a black flower Scabious Ace of Spades has fragrant blooms that attract bees and butterflies whilst making impressive cut flowers.

devil's bit scabious
Credits
Scabious sp. 2 by the justified sinner CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Small Tortoiseshell ‘It was feeding on Scabious at Ubley Warren near Cheddar’ by Annies Pics CC BY-NC 2.0
Scabious by Mike Legend CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
devil’s bit scabious by Facing North East CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Scabious

Tips for Growing Million Bells Petunia – Calibrachoa

Tips for Growing Million Bells Petunia – Calibrachoa

A very popular plants for hanging baskets, pouches and containers, due to their fantastic flower power and colour range!

Characteristics of Million Bells
Upright plant with a mound forming habit, height 12″-15″ spread up to 20″
Blooms all season long, June to October
Easy to grow and maintain, deadheading unnecessary.
Heavy bloomer, well-branching that withstands hot summers.
Versatile in baskets, containers and borders.

Some of the named varieties also hint at the colour range now available :- Million Bells® Flamingo, Crackling Fire, Terracotta, Tangerine, Peaches and Cream, Lime, Neon Yellow and Apricot. Calibrachoa is the more accepted name and the series have been developed and registered by Suntory.

Growing Tips
Buy as plug plants and pot up plugs into 4″ pots to grow on for transplanting into final containers or baskets late May. …

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Growing Strelitzia – Bird of Paradise Flower

Growing Strelitzia – Bird of Paradise Flower

Strelitzia

Strelitzia is a genus of five species of perennial plants, native to South Africa. The common name is the bird of paradise or crane flower, because of a supposed resemblance of its flowers to the bird of paradise.

Strelitzia

The leaves are similar to a banana leaf in appearance and can be upto 5 feet long.

To show the wonders of nature ‘The flowers are produced in a horizontal inflorescence emerging from a stout spathe. They are pollinated by Sunbirds, which use the spathe as a perch when visiting the flowers; the weight of the bird on the spathe opens it to release the pollen onto the bird’s feet, which is then deposited on the next flower it visits.’

Strelitzia

Resources

Growing Conservatory Flowers

Seeds available from Thompson & Morgan
Moonbells Allotment blog contains a diary of Strelitzia growing and provided these further links

http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantqrs/strelitregmandelagold.htmThe Mandela´s Gold form, yellow petals not orange. Previously known as Kirstenbosch Gold. Also tells you how to hand-pollinate.
http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantqrs/strelitziareginae.htm The main page for Strelitzia on PlantzAfrica
http://finebushpeople.co.za/farmstore/catalog/accessorystore.htmSmoke primer disks – which I´ve got two of, but have yet to try out! See next entry for seeds.
http://finebushpeople.co.za/cgi-bin/farmshop.pl?TP=Mandelas_Gold.html&ID=!ID!SEEDS!!!! Cheapest I´ve found so far… and legal to export to the EU.

 

Wikipedia
* Strelitzia alba (syn. S. augusta) – White bird of paradise;
* Strelitzia caudata – Mountain Strelitzia;
* Strelitzia nicolai – White or Giant bird of paradise; Wild banana; Blue-and-white Strelitzia[2]
* Strelitzia reginae (syn. S. parvifolia) – Strelitzia, Bird of paradise, or Crane lily;
* Strelitzia juncea (Ker Gawl.) – African desert banana. Cite.
* S. × kewensis (hybrid between S. reginae and S. augusta)

Tips for Growing Buddleia Butterfly Bushes

Tips for Growing Buddleia Butterfly Bushes

It is a good time to prune your buddleia down to about 12-30 inches. This will encourage a good shape and more flowers.
107

One of the most popular and easy to grow flowering shrubs is the Buddleia. The most common shades of flower are the various blues of Buddleia Davidii but you will often see the white form in hedge rows and embankments.

Growing Habits
Buddleia starts flowering from mid-June and continues through to Autumn
The long sprays of flowers are attractive to both gardeners and insects.
Buddleias are quick growing reaching 6 feet high and wide depending on the variety.

Cultivation Tips
Buddleias are happy in sunny position with well drained soil.
Avoid water logged soil but they can survive very dry conditions.
They can be propagated from semi-ripe cuttings in Mid-summer or hardwood cuttings November to March.
Grow in a large container if you wish. The restriction will make a smaller shrub but flowering will not be impeded.

Varieties to Grow
Buddleia White Profusion, Royal Red or traditional Buddleia davidii Empire Blue.
Buddleia davidii Black Knight is a deep purple colour
Buddleia davidii Pink Profusion not surprisingly has huge deep pink blooms.
Buddleia globosa is not one of the traditional Butterfly Bush types but has round ball shaped orange blossom.
Buddleia alternifolia a weeping shrub make excellent standards and needing gentler pruning.

Pruning Tips
Drastically cut down your Buddleia in spring to about 12 inches from the ground. (For the back of borders you can prune to 2 foot and get flowers starting higher up the bush)
This treatment encourages a fountain of new growth with arching branches capable of producing many larger flower spikes.
Prune off all the dead and faded flowers to encourage new blossom until late autumn.
Dead heading saves energy that would go into seed production and prevents unwanted self sowing.

Grow Bright Azaleas

Grow Bright Azaleas

A lazier shrub with exciting blossom I have yet to find.
Azalea

How do you tell an Azalea from a Rhododendron? Most Azaleas have only 5 or 6 stamen while most rhododendrons have 10 stamen. Azalea leaves tend to be thinner, softer and more pointed than rhododendron leaves.
In a subjective way I think Azaleas produce more flower cover per plant.

Tips for Growing Azaleas

  • Azaleas are relatively pest-free  and easy to grow plants but may need a fungal spray if leaves are attacked in spring.
  • Azaleas like some shade  but deciduous varieties do well in full sun. Sun can produce more compact plants with more blooms but not as long lasting.

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Growing Year Around Pansies

Growing Year Around Pansies

purple pansy

The smiling face of a pansy greets the gardener during most season of the year.
Pansy is a thoughtful flower as thoughtful is what the name Pansee means in French. In the wild form it is tricoloured and often called Heartsease and is a member of the Viola family.
There are many varieties to choose from including 46 on our T&M list below.

Growing Pansy

  • Great and quick results can be achieved from plug plants or seedlings.
  • Treat as annuals or biennials even though they may survive longer.
  • From seed, sow late winter/spring or mid-late summer 1.5mm deep in good seed compost excluding light as darkness helps them germinate.
  • Germination usually takes 14-21 days at 19-24C no warmer or germination suffers.
  • When seedlings are large enough to handle, transplant and grow cool.
  • Gradually acclimatise to outdoor conditions for 10-15 days before planting out after all risk of frost.
  • Prefers sun or part shade in borders or containers .
  • The flowers are edible and useful to colour a salad.
  • Summer sowings of winter flowering pansies should be  planted out in autumn or early spring.

Useful Links
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Growing Peony or Peonies

Growing Peony or Peonies

double peony

For centuries Peonies have been great favourites of the Chinese and are one of their national flowers. Peonies are easy to care for once established.

Peonies are shrubby herbaceous plants that will come back perennially (year after year). They can live 75 years and still produce a brilliant profusion of flowers. Herbaceous means the leaves and stems die back at the end of the season and new growth will start again in Spring.

Growing Peonies

  • Flowers are often strongly scented to attract bees and have double or single blooms.
  • The colours are deep red through pink to white.
  • Peonies do not like to be disturbed or moved once they are planted.
  • Because they will live in the same spot for many years add some bone meal and good compost at the bottom of the planting hole.
  • Peonies are best grow from plants bought at a nursery
  • Plants are hardy but may make take some time to flower.
  • Only plant Peonies at the same depth as they were grown, never deeper.
  • Peonies and special fertilizer from Thompson & Morgan

Tree Peonies are harder to grow successfully and cost more to buy but can have show stopping displays of flowers once they mature.

peonie

Useful Links
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Tips for Growing Nasturtiums

Tips for Growing Nasturtiums


photo by Photofarmer

Even young children can manage to plant the large seeds of nasturtiums and watch them grow into Triffid like flowering plants in reds, yellows and oranges.

Tips for Growing Nasturtiums

  • Plant the seeds individually in a sunny spot in poor soil straight in to the garden.
  • Climbing nasturtiums will spread for several feet or clamber up a near-by support. These are the sort to amuse the kids.
  • The dwarf nasturtiums are better behaved and will flower well without any fertilizer.
  • Handle the stems with care as they are brittle and easily snapped.
  • Nasturtiums are no use as cut flowers but you can pick and eat flowers and leaves.
  • Collect the fallen seed for next year. You get 3 big seeds per flower.
  • Plants are loved by black fly that may colonise the underside of leaves. Wash off with soapy water or use an insecticide if you are not going to eat them.

One variety you can plant in a hanging basket is Jewel Mixed which adds fragrance to the dwarf trailing habit. Alaska has variegated leaves and two tone flowers. Black velvet is very deep purple that it looks as it says on the packet, black.

Useful Links
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Tips for Growing Gazania

Tips for Growing Gazania

Gazina mixed colours


Gazanas are brightly coloured flowers that are easy to grow on dry sunny sites. Many of the plants flower with a striped effect on the petals that open to resemble a 6 inch daisy. The leaves are a narrow grey-green or silvery and the plants grow 6-10 inches tall.

Choose the right variety. Seed is available in a range of varieties like Mini-star White, Tiger Stripes and the Kiss seriessuch as the ‘Kiss Rose’.
Harlequin are slightly larger, growing to 15” tall spreading 18” and come in a mix of colours.

How to Grow Gazania. If buying plants choose healthy well formed clumps of lower leaves. You can buy when at least one flower is open so you have an idea of the colour you are buying but a mix of hot oranges, yellows and reds is quite popular. If you grow from seed, sow 8 weeks before the last frost is expected and keep in the warm, then gradually acclimatise them outdoors.
Whilst the plants may survive British winters, you could take cuttings in Autumn and protect from frost, however, I would treat them as annuals. The plants produce lots of flowers but you can deadhead (cut off faded flowers) to encourage more blooms.

Where to Grow. Gazania is a bright filler plant for in between shrubs or any hot dry part of the garden. They grow happily at the seaside as they are not affected by salty air. Sandy, well drained soil, that Gazanias get in there native South Africa, is best. They are  also fine for window boxes, tubs or planters and can survive if you occasionally forget to water them.
The flowers are borne on short stems making them excellent for windy sites.
Aka the Treasure Flower, Gazania have delicately cut, silvery-white foliage which makes the plant a pleasure  with the bright blooms, opening in the sun and closing at night.

 

I have cheated for 2015. I have just bought a pot of germinated seedlings from our local garden centre. For £2.99 I got and pricked out 40 plants which I will grow on until May before planting out.

Useful Links

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Growing Sprouting Seeds for Salads and Stir Fry

Growing Sprouting Seeds for Salads and Stir Fry

Seeds that have germinated and grown roots (radicles) and sprouts (plumules) can add flavour and texture to your meals. They do not take up space in your garden and can be grown all year round.

Bean sprouts in Chinese restaurants are crispy additions to the flavours and textures of your meal. The trick to growing long crisp sprouts is to grow them under pressure. In a dark, free draining container put a half inch layer of bean seeds, cover with a damp cloth and put a one pound weight on top. Rinse daily under a tap and 4-5 days later they will be ready to eat.

Open sprouting can be done like our childhood mustard and cress on a foam base covered with layers of paper towels or on moist cotton wool. Cover with tin foil to exclude the light and germinate in a warm spot.  Method 2 Put some seeds in the bottom of ajar and cover with water to soak for twelve hours. The seeds will expand a lot as they grow. Half to one inch (1cm – 2cm) of dried seeds will usually fill a jar. It varies between seeds – radish expand more than sunflowers.
After twelve hours rinse the seeds in room temperature water then drain the water leaving seeds damp. Repeat every 12 hours for 3-4 days until ready to eat.

There is a wide variety of seeds that can be eaten as sprouts or seedlings but do not eat legumes to excess. Legumes, particularly  Broad beans and French beans are  slightly toxic. Corriander, Leeks and Onions can be eaten as seedlings. Cereals are only eaten as very small sprouts. All Brassicas can be eaten as seedlings.  Buy from health food shops or specialist suppliers and keep seed cool and dry until ready to use. Below is a table of some suitable plants for sprouting.

Common Name Days to Sprout Length when edible
Lima beans 3-5 12-25 mm
Mung Beans 3-5 12- 75 mm
Fenugreek 3-5 12-50 mm
Lentil 2-4 6-20 mm
Alfalfa 1-4 very tiny
Clover 2-5 very tiny
Buckwheat 3-5 tiny
Radish 2-4 12-25 mm
Barley & Rye 3-5 very tiny
Sunflower 1-3 12-38 mm
Sweet Corn 1-3 6-12 mm