Gardeners Tips – Page 158 – Tips and advice for gardeners about gardening

Peace Lily or Spathiphyllum House Plants

August 13, 2013 hortoris

Peace is not just an absence of war – Peace Lilies are superb houseplants with dark green glossy leaves and distinctive white flowers.
As well as being named Peace Lily or Spathiphyllum they are also known as Spathe flower, White Flag, White Anthurium or White Sails for obvious reasons.

Tips for Growing Peace Lily or Spathiphyllum as Houseplants

Do not let the Peace lily become too dry, they love moist but not soggy soil and a humid atmosphere.
You will be guilty of disturbing the Peace if you let temperatures drop much below 65 degrres

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Arum and Calla Lily – Zantedeschia

August 11, 2013 hortoris

Lily the pink and many other colours amongst the Zantedeschias

Arum lily or Calla Lily called Zantedeschia are available in an increasing number of shades and varieties. This Zantedeschia rehmannii can be grown to advantage in a terracotta pot that will show off the perfect spathes or funnel shaped petals.

Zantedeschia Tips

Arum Lily is the common name for the hardier outdoor variety. Usually white or pink.
Calla Lilys are often the less hardy but colourful varieties in white, yellow, pink, red or purple and are easy to grow from bulbs.
Zantedeschia have heart shaped leaves often with decorative spots.
Zantedeschia will flower for long periods throughout the summer with dramatic and exotic shaped flowers.
They are not frost hardy so they should not be planted out until after the end of May in the border or pots. I bury the pots to fill odd gaps and can easily bring them indoors in winter.
Grow them in one and a half litre pots with loam-based compost such as John Innes No 2 and plant the rhizomes just showing at the surface of the container with the eyes of the rhizome uppermost.
Water freely through the summer and feed with a balanced liquid fertiliser every two weeks until the flowers have faded.
They make exotic houseplants as well as summer border or container plants.

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Smoke Bush – Cotinus coggygiria

August 7, 2013 hortoris

Electronic smoke from cigarettes but not from these smoke bushes.

Red leaved plants seem to be doing very well in this wet summer. I spotted this healthy shrub at Harlow Carr on a recent visit. The name smoke bush comes from the clouds of very fine, fluffy, grey flowers that appear on panicles in such profusion that it looks like a cloud of smoke.

This variety is probably Royal Purple both it and other Nocutts hybrids are easy to grow at home.
Propagate by taking a spade to an existing shrub and chopping one piece out without lifting the plant. A sort of division in situ.
They are deciduous shrubs and mine have a lax habit that probably needs a bit of pruning but I don’t want to sacrifice the flowers.
The mature shrubs are a neat round shape.
The leaves are also a neat round simple leaf

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Bishop’s Dahlias and Bishop’s Children with Dark Foliage

August 6, 2013 hortoris

Should Bishops have children? Should gardeners nurture these children? I would say so!

Question What has dark red leaves and flowers like a trouper until the first frost?

Answer One of the Bishop’s family of Dahlias.

Bishop’s Offspring

Bishop of Llandaff is one of the earlier varieties flowering as a semi-double in pillarbox red.
Bishop of Cardiff flowers as a single with yellow petals with a red center.
Bishop of Auckland flowers red with many yellow stamen in the center. Bishop of Canterbury is similar but the flowers err towards magenta. Bishop of Lancaster seems very similar to me.
Bishop of Oxford is a strong plant flowering orange.
Bishop of York is a bit smaller but has nice single buttercup yellow flowers.
Bishop of Leicester has pale mauve flowers. The contrast with the leaf colour highlights the pale flowers.
Bishop of Dover is virtually white in flower.
Bishop of Cambridge is just another Dahlia trying to jump on the ecclesiastical band wagon.

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Tips for Garden Tools

August 6, 2013 hortoris

Get the key tools right to make your garden easier and more pleasurable.
A Spade that is light enough for your physique and a stainless steel blade will not get claggy with soil.
Secateurs for snipping, pruning and cutting. Have one good pair for important work and another for the ‘grunt’ jobs that are a bit tougher. I have a good bypass (scissor type) pair for pruing and an anvil pair for hard work
Lawn mower electric or petrol depending on the lawn size. As the adverts said ‘its much less bovver with a hovver’.
Trowel made from forged steel will stand hard work and cut into soil easily
Wheel barrow with a pneumatic tyre carries heavy loads and I prefer it too the ball type wheel

Gardeners Tips

Buy the best quality you can afford if you are going to make a lot of use of the tool. It is surprising how many tools don’t get used all that often so plan out what you need. Over 80% of the work will be done by the items in the list above.
Hire the tools and equipment you only need occassionally. Be sure you are trained on the use and risks of hired tools.
Pay a tree surgeon to cut hedges, prune and trim trees. They will have the right equipment andwill side away the waste.
Maintain the tools you have:
Put linseed oil on wooden handles to keep them smooth and in good condition
Store metal wheel barrows upside down to help slow rusting from the rain
Keep blades clean and honed I use a wet stone to remove dried sap and keep sharp
Power tools need a cutout and an extension lead if your garden is large
Spray tools with WD40 or similar to keep rust free and moving

Fun Growing Hollyhocks

August 5, 2013 hortoris

How high’s the Holyhock mama? 6 feet high and rising……

One distinguishing feature of Hollyhocks are the 5 inch saucer shaped flowers growing on stalks up to 8 feet tall.

They are well known in Cottage garden designs as they provide height and focal points.

Hollyhocks are known and often sold by their Latin names Alcea Rosea or Althaea

Flowers are single in a range of colours from red almost black through pinks rose to white and yellow There is a pompom type double called Chater’s mixture

Hollyhocks are best if sown from fresh seed in late summer. The plants may be treated as biennials though they are hard perennials that have a shortish life. If sown in spring they may not flower until the next season.

Keep seeds and seedlings watered and encourage good root formation

Don’t compost leaves as they may have rust. Keep plants tidy by cutting leaves and spent blooms with secateurs.

Dead heading will help a second flush of flowers

Dealing With Weeds in Ponds

August 5, 2013 hortoris

To combat Algea, Blanket Weed and Invasive aquatic species you need to be on your guard.

: Pond Weed

A small wild life pond doesn’t have to be weedy in either sense. This pond in our park for example is a fairly large size. However as you can see it is ‘Weedy’ in the gardening sense.

Removing Blanket Weed

Oxygenating plants are the best and organic method but may fill half the pond.
For a small pond you can try the winding it around a stick method but roots regrow and small critters may be thrown on the compost heap with the weed.

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Gardeners Tips for Choisya

August 3, 2013 hortoris

You pays your money and you takes your Choysia- ternata, pearl or sundance it is up to you.

This Choisya ‘Sundance’ is an evergreen shrub grown from a young shoot cutting. The plants are trouble free and create a dome shape 4-5 feet high and spread in a similar number of years.

Grown mainly for the bright yellow of the new leaves they can be nipped brown with late frosts. Such damaged, scorched or wing burnt leaves should be cut off.
The small star shaped white flowers in April and May are very aromatic. A second flush of flowers may be obtained in Autumn.
Leaves also smell of basil or a bit citrusy if crushed
Choisya ternata ‘Aztec Pearl’ commonly called Mexican Orange blossom has narrower divided leaves and I find it is a bit thin in habit. The flowers are more numerous.
Choisya ‘Sundance’ is quite dense and the leaves, even when they have turned green, remain attractive and glossy.
Choisya will stand partial shade and can be used as part of an informal hedge
Propagate in Summer or Autumn, cuttings are easy to grow
Prune to keep in shape and cut out a third of the branches to renew from the base when needed.

Duchy Originals and Organic HDRA

August 1, 2013 hortoris

Rose Yorkshire Day 1st August – Organics for southern softies.

The Daily Telegraph report that a new range of Organic Seeds are to be available from Duchy Originals. This announcement coincided with Prince Charles visit to Ryton the Garden Organic establishment (HDRA).

It amuses me to see amongst the range of tools on sale at Duchy Originals a Dutch Hoe but may be I am confused somewhere with the Prince of Orange.

Organics is as organics does and the move to chemical free gardening has been highjacked by the organic movement. We and our food is all organic in some form or other. Some organic compounds can be most dangerous including some poisonous plants.

Thoughtful gardening will enable a sensible regime to coexist within a garden without slavishly following a proscribed ‘Organic’ regime.

Plants For a White Garden

August 1, 2013 hortoris

On 1
st August the white Rose should feature on any self-respecting blog. It is Yorkshire day and this is our emblem.

white-hot-pokers

For me a garden needs a series of themes and contrasts. Showy annuals, intense herbaceous borders, seasonal planting and elegant shrubs are important features. When planning a ‘restricted colour garden‘ as in the white garden you are really planning for subtle contrasts and breathtaking clarity that is both calm and soothing. Grey foliage and variegated leaves will take their place amongst some of the purest or showiest flowers. To make a point and emphasise neutral colours a pure self colour may be introduced but there are shades of white and don’t forget buds, sepals and stamen bring shades of colour.

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