Gardeners Tips – Page 170 – Tips and advice for gardeners about gardening

Award of Garden Merit AGM What, Where & Why

January 24, 2013 hortoris

Buy AGM plants & varieties they have been tested by the RHS!

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is the UK’s leading gardening charity. It conducts a lot of testing and trials of plants. It has key gardens open to the public (free to members) at Harlow Carr, Wisley, Hyde Hall and Rosemore. Plants that pass the trials are awarded AGM (Award of Garden Merit) status and you often see the Trophy Cup mark on plant labels to recognise this.

Why have an AGM System

The purpose of the award is to highlight the best plants available to the gardener.

It must be of outstanding excellence for ordinary garden decoration or use
It must be available
It must be of good constitution
It must not require highly specialist growing conditions or care
It must not be particularly susceptible to any pest or disease
It must not be subject to an unreasonable degree of reversion in its vegetative or floral characteristics

Dianthus Haytor White AGM

What is Included in an Award of Garden Merit

Plants of all kinds can be considered for the AGM, including fruit and vegetables. An AGM plant may be cultivated for use or decoration. It can be hardy throughout the British Isles, or suitable only for cultivation under heated glass.
Every AGM plant has a hardiness rating for example H1 needs a heated greenhouse whilst H4 would be hardy. I like to collect plants with this award as I know the results will be down to me as a gardener not to the breeder of some untested variety.

‘Plant finder’ is published by the RHS. This book contains over 73,000 plants and where to buy them. Whatever plant you are looking for you should find it in here.
Handy contact details with maps for over 750 nurseries help you locate your plants and buy them. Plus, having the correct botanical names ensures you find the right one every time.

There are over 6000 plants with the Award of Garden Merit and they all get recognition in this book.

At your garden centre or plant retailer look out for the agm symbol on the label.

Credit
Whorled Tickseed (Coreopsis verticillata) ‘Zagreb’ RHS/AGM by cliff1066â„¢ CC BY 2.0

Grow Lupins Growing Lupinus polyphyllus

January 23, 2013 hortoris

lupin

Lupin flower at their best in May and June. A second flush can be encouraged by not allowing the first flowers to set seed and cut them as son as they have flowered. The tall 2’6″ spikes can be very striking in colours from white, deep purple through reds and yellows to various bi-coloured varieties. The old railway cuttings used to have blue and pink Lupins growing alongside the tracks after escaping from old station gardens.
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Grow Leucanthemum & Shasta Daisies

January 22, 2013 hortoris

Leucanthemum is one of the RHS perennial plants of the month. The variety I grow are shasta daisy flowers that are a mass of single white blooms with yellow centres appearing from June to September. They seed and spread prolifically and form robust clumps spreading up to 3′ and flowers are on 2-3′ stems that flop if not supported.

Grow Leucanthemum Daisies

There are double and semi double varieties like Leucanthemum Superbum ‘Wirral Supreme’ or Aglaia.
The old fashioned Leucanthemum Superbum ‘Ester Read’ is popular for old cottage gardens with clumps of fluffy double white flowers growing 2′ or more.
Leucanthemum are useful as cut flowers.
Plants are floriferous and can be used in many garden situations.
Most varieities grow 12-24 inches high but Leucanthemum Superbum Phyllis Smith will reach 36 inches tall at the back of a herbaceous border.

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Tips for Growing Hellebore

January 21, 2013 hortoris

Hellebores are sturdy long lived plants that do not need a lot of attention. They flower in dark months of winter and are happy in shade or dappled sunshine.

Hellebore – Christmas Rose or Helleborus Niger

A white flower in the depths of winter from December onward.

In Autumn you can cut the old leaves off so the flowers are visible later
The plants self seed and germinate quite well – pot up young seedlings if you want to move them and grow on
Plants thrive in shade and under trees

Hellebore – Lenten Rose or Helleborus Orientalis

As the name suggests this flowers slightly later in March April
Originally flowers had 5 petals, white with green flecks but there are now many hybrid varieties with some strong colours. I like the virtually black variety
Hybrids crossed with Helleborus Odorus tend to be yellow and have some scent

Stinking Hellebore

Fresh green foliage in spring
Green flowers

National Collection of Hellebores

http://www.hadlow.ac.uk/gallery/National-Collection-of-Hellebores

Yellow Hellebores

Heleborus hybridus ‘Bradfield Buttercup Yellow’ has fewer of the speckles normally associated with helebores and looks all the better for that.

‘Heronswood Yellow’ is opening its buds from January but looks good in the March sunshine.

O’Byrne’s Mellow Yellow strain is available in USA but many so called Yellow Helebores are cream and off white. Look out for any good colour and try collect seed. If the subsequent plants are not of the right colour be ruthless in weeding them out.

Helleborus orientalis Yellow Lady is not a variety I have seen.

Gardeners Tips

Preserve the Hellebore leaves as long as possible. Trim them off one by one as they begin to look tatty and by late winter any remaining old leaves should be clipped off to make room for the new.

There are a great number of hybrid Hellebores so consider buying when they are still in flower so you get a colour you want

Hellebores can be grown from fresh seed available from Thompson & Morgan

Hellebores are not just for Christmas as in Christmas Rose there are species that are also called Lenten Roses.
Generally they bloom between December and April depending on the type and conditions.

Hellebore Facts

The majority of Hellebores are deep rooted, stout plants well-known for their thick, shiny green foliage.
The large leaves may survive through winter but not all plants are evergreen.
Once established, most Hellebores make drought resistant plants particularly if given some dappled shade in summer.
Happy in shade plants will perform their best if given some sun.
Wild species grow in open meadows with only short grass for shading the roots.
Hellebores are acaulescent which means they have leaves but flower without stems straight from the ground

Gardening with Hellebore
Hellebore heaven or hell

Visit Hellebore.org

Green Gardening Must Haves

January 20, 2013 hortoris

It is not hard to be a green gardener although green fingers are often in short supply. Here are some things you can and shouldn’t do to improve the ‘green gardening habits’ you already possess. You must already be some form of green gardener if you garden at all.

Top Steps to a Green Garden

Compost your green waste from the kitchen (no meat or fish). Then use the rotted compost on the garden. If you don’t want a heap try a big bucket or just bury the waste and it will still rot down.
Welcome wild life with appropriate plants that provide food and shelter for insects butterflies and other creatures
Grow your own fruit like apples and your own veg. You can also grow flowers for the house rather than buy imported flowers from a shop.
Conserve water and energy. A mulch will save water and if you apply any water make sure it is directed at the roots and wont evaporate in the mid day sun.

Home Grown Rhubarb

Have Nots for a Green Garden

Avoid killing creatures by too many noxious chemicals
Too much inappropriate hard landscaping can cause flooding and ‘aint green’
Too many imported plants have excessive air miles. Annuals should be home grown and native species of tree, hedge and other plants are best.
Do not be over tidy, leave some area of long grass and/or a rotting woodpile for insects.

Tips for Starting Your Garden Design

January 20, 2013 hortoris

When looking at a garden or potential garden for the first time there are some basics to consider. I recommend you spend sometime thinking about these issues and build the consequences into your plans. Brains baffles brawn in a new garden – well begun is half done.

Location Location

Understand the region and area where the garden is located and think about what it may mean. An East coast Scottish location will be colder than Essex but a West coast location may benefit from the warmer gulf stream. Seaside may be windier than a riverside spot.
What are the surrounding environmental features such as mountains that could influence rainfall
What is the underlying rock structure, limestone or chalk will not favour acid loving plants
What is the aspect of the garden or which direction is the sun
Where is the prevailing wind – in the UK this is most often from the west

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Cineraria senecio – Silver leaf for gardens

January 16, 2013 hortoris

The silver leaves of many Cineraria are almost white in amongst this greenery. The plants are grown as annuals for the leaf colour and shape. As the leaves grow older they become more deeply cut and lose the oak leaf shape to be more fern like. Keep removing long and old growths and pinching out prior to flowering to encourage more leaf formation.

The plants flower yellow and grow easily from seed.
Try Maritima varieties Silver Dust or the taller Candicans
Cuttings can be rooted successfully
The plants will often last 2 or 3 seasons but become very leggy
The colour looks good in formal beds and is often used in parks and gardens
Leaves get a dust or powdery bloom

The Cineraria is related to the ragwort family and contains 50 different species including the multi coloured house plants varieties.
Ragworts produce yellow daisy like flowers similar to those shown above.

Varieties and Named Species

Cineraria Silver Dust has slightly lobed leaves.
Cineraria Dusty Miller has a powdery white meal on the stalks.
Other names Senecio maritimus, Senecio candicans, Cineraria maritima
Cineraria silver ragwort ‘Cirrus’ has rounded leaves and a more tidy habit.

Photo credits
Senecio cineraria by Carl E Lewis CC BY-SA 2.0
les fleurs (Senecio cineraria) by yukop CC BY 2.0

Autumn Flowering Rudbeckia

January 15, 2013 hortoris

I expect my Rudbeckia to be well behaved 3 foot high plants. These Rudbeckia laciniata ‘Herbstone’ (AGM) were in excellent fettle in the late autumn sunshine and with a bit of support were growing 6-7 feet high in a compact clump. The upright branching stems and bright yellow ray-florets make ideal cut flowers.
I particularly like the conical floret discs that will form the seed heads, they look good in this photograph. …

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Slower Gardening 2013

January 14, 2013 hortoris

Five years ago I recommended taking gardening at a steady pace, I could have called it slower gardening. Shortly I will give some tips on slower gardening but as a reminder some oak, conifers and other trees come into their own when they are 1000 years old.

Who Are Slower Gardeners

A slower gardener has infinite patience and may be of any age and from any sex. …

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Allotment Neighbors

January 13, 2013 hortoris

I would like to introduce the new lady on my allotment Ms Poly Tunnel with her daughter Annet. Poly tunnel may be ugly but it is invaluable in a large garden, small holding or allotment.

These poly tunnels look like they are breeding faster than any plants. At least the ground is not a total mud bath like many gardens this autumn. A group this size probably needs planning permission but a more suitable garden variety will be OK without.
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