Lobelia Russian Princess Perennials

Lobelia Russian Princess Perennials

Growing Tips

  • Plant in deep fertile soil which is reliably moist in summer.(You can tell this is moist by the moss)
  • Lobelia grow well in sun or partial shade.
  • Some varieties are a bit short lived 3-4 years but as they are so spectacular it is worth splitting clumps or taking cuttings to get re-energised plants at least in alternate years.
  • Perennial Lobelia species make good herbaceous border plants

Lobelia to Grow

  • Lobelia Cardinalis has deep burgundy foliage and rich pinky purple or red flowers for hot coloured planting schemes. RHS is currently offering Russian Princess variety at £15 +  p&p (so the colours need to be rich).
  • A three foot high Lobelia x speciosa Vedraniensis flowers with the traditional 5 lobed blue-indigo flowers.
  • Hadspen Purple is a more compact variety that need to be planted in swathes for best effect.
  • Lobelia tupa has beautifully felted leaves and narrow tubular brick-red to orange flowers which are borne from mid summer on long racemes. It is also called the Devil’s Tobacco.

With hundreds of species, varieties and named cultivars the Lobelia family is large and wide ranging – have a look at the family for yourself.

Other Resources

Royal Horticultural Society RHS ‘Gardening for All’
National Council for Conservation of Plants and Gardens ‘Conservation through Cultivation.’
Garden Organic National Charity for Organic Gardening.
BBC Gardening

Best Cut-Flower Roses

Best Cut-Flower Roses

This selection of top ten Roses to grow as cut flowers has been chosen for their scent and the length of the vase life. If Roses are picked as the buds are breaking they will last at least a week and if they are picked fully open it will be several days.

Red Roses

‘L D Braithwaite’ is a vivid magenta with a cup shaped flower and many petals. The plant is vigourous and only needs alight prune in Autumn and again in spring.
‘Isabella’ is so intense a red colour with velvety texture that it can look black in some light. The flowers do not like rain.
‘Big Purple’ has long stems with very few thorns. A Hybrid Tea rose that needs hard pruning in winter

Orange & Golden Roses

‘Golden Celebration’ is a very popular rose with rich yellow flowers & strong scent.
‘Just Joey’ is an unusual amber colour starting Orange as a bud and opening to Deep Gold. Good as a floating flower or cut short in clusters.
‘Eveleyn ‘ is a Peachy Rose with many petals like the old fashioned varieties. One of the strongest scents.

Pink Roses

‘Princes Alexandra’ a top rose for cutting with pointed buds opening slowly to display a magenta frilled rosette.
‘Louise Odier’ is an old French rose with many pink flower heads. Mixes well with other roses.
‘Redoute’ is also a pink French rose that flowers a bit earlier than many varieties.
‘Gertrude Jekyll’ with flat pink rosettes with a good life span and great scent.

This is just my top 10 – If you know better let us know.

Tulips from Catalogues

Tulips from Catalogues

Tulips grow from bulbs not catalogues but I guess that is obvious. Nevertheless I think the first job is to check over any Tulip bulbs you lifted last spring to dry off. Bin any with mould or soft centers, do not add them to your compost heap.

There are many bulb catalogues now available and they usually supply a lot of information about the Tulips origin, size and flowering characteristics. If you are not on a mailing list you can respond to numerous off the page adverts in the press and magazines.
I like J Parker for the range and wholesale prices on larger volumes.
Bloms bulbs have been around for over 100 years and supply good size bulbs at a price and DeJager is another old established supplier.
Spalding bulbs are over marketed with too many gimmicks and free gifts so personally I tend to avoid them.
Of the many other bulb sources most seed companies supply bulbs by mail order but I particularly like the niche suppliers like Miniature Bulbs.

The big plus from mail order catalogues is that you can browse the pictures and specifications selecting the types and varieties you want. On the down side you are trusting that a good sized bulb will be supplied (a good big one beats a good small one). Remember too complain if you are unhappy with the bulbs you get, most companies value their reputation amongst gardeners.

Uses for Crab Apples

Uses for Crab Apples

Crab apples can be used as food, for ornamental effect, to help pollination, or for the wood. The wild crab apple found individually in woods has green fruit turning golden in Autumn. Cultivated crab apples vary in habit and grow upto 10 feet. Fruiting this year looks like a bumper harvest after the wet weather earlier in the year.

Crab Apples make attractive ornamental trees with their pink or white blossom, followed by colourful autumn fruits that make delicious preserves. Varieties John Downie, Golden Hornet, Laura and Red Sentinel are all self fertile. Crab apples planted near fruiting apple trees make excellent pollinators and will help pollinating bees to increase your crops.

Crab apples are used to make jelly, pickles or can be roasted and served with meat or added to winter ale or cider. Any unpicked fruits will soften after a few frosts and will create a sumptuous food source for wild birds from late January until March. For a jelly recipe with a chillie kick try Cottage Smallholder

The timber of the crab apple is uniform in texture and if dried slowly, is excellent for woodworking. At one time it was used for making set-squares and other drawing instruments. Failing that apple wood burns in your chimenea of fire grate with a nice aroma.

Order now for winter delivery Crab Apples at Thompson & Morgan

Garden Bonfires for Gardeners

Garden Bonfires for Gardeners

Once a regular weekend event, Garden Bonfires are now fewer and further between since recycling, reusing and composting got to the top of the green agenda.
There are still occasions when a fire is the right way to go and I use one of these dustbin burners. The holes at the bottom provide air flow and the chimney restricts the amount of flying debris.
I collect the none compostable (often diseased) wood and brash in the bin until I have a load then set fire to it. After 4-5 years the bin bottom burns through and I need a new bin.
For large chunks of wood I used to have a November 5th fire but now with chimineas and Council recycling they have gone the way of Guy Fawkes.

Burning Tips

  • Avoid excessive smoke by burning dry material not soggy wet compostable stuff.
  • Do not burn plastic, foam, paint, rubber or household rubbish.
  • Be safe by not using oil, methylated spirits, or petrol to light or encourage a fire.
  • Avoid lighting fires in unsuitable weather conditions such as damp, still days or when the wind will blow smoke over roads or into neighbours gardens
  • Try to avoid bonfires when people want to enjoy their gardens such as weekends or Bank Holidays.
  • Wood ash contains potassium and is good for root crops bulbs etc.
Strange and Attractive Autumn Shrubs

Strange and Attractive Autumn Shrubs

It is worth inspecting closely the plants that have waited all year to bloom or display special features.

This purple and white flower combination was covering an 8 foot high and wide bushy shrub at Thorp Perrow. It was catalogued as ‘Clerodendron trichotomum’. I have managed to kill my own Clerodendron so I was happy to see a large sweetly scented plant in such robust health. The white flowers and maroon calyces will be followed by blue berries for which the plant gets its Autumn plaudits. I would recommend this variety rather than Clerodendron bungei which is less gainly and has feotid leaves.

I am trying to work out what this shapely shrub with the long blue pods is called. Any ideas?

Cornus Kausa ‘Gold Star’ is a variety to look out for with the variegated foliage and the red seed pods in Autumn.

Other Resources

Royal Horticultural Society RHS ‘Gardening for All’
National Council for Conservation of Plants and Gardens ‘Conservation through Cultivation.’
Garden Organic National Charity for Organic Gardening.
BBC Gardening

Early Seed Sowing

Early Seed Sowing

Victorian gardeners seem to have coped very well with the winter conditions and were able to get seeds off to an early start. The climate was not too different 150 years ago to that which we endure today so how did Victorians cope. Seed was often sown earlier than we do now and the varieties of seed were no different except for some of our softer hybrids. ‘The answer lies in the soil’ and copious amounts of compost.

Soil Condition
Great quantities of manure, ashes, soot and household waste were added to the soil. This made the soil blacker and prone to absorb what heat there was making it warmer.
Ground was deep dug in a methodical and extensive manner and potentially this broke down the frozen soil quicker than on our compacted soils.
Bell cloches walled areas and other protective measures were taken. We could make more use of the cheap cloches now available to us, using lights and cold frames is more in tune with Victorian methods..
Some beds were dressed with straw that heats as it rots away making a fermenting hot bed to get seeds started.
The sweat of the gardeners brow also contributes to a warm garden, the more effort the more you are likely to succeed.

Hotbed Structure
Building a hotbed structure to protect delicate plants involves a lot of fresh manure, details of one method are found on Gardeners Calender

Seed Collecting in Autumn

Seed Collecting in Autumn

Seed collecting can be addictive. You may quickly discover you are surrounded by drying stems and paper bags but all you need is enough seeds for your immediate needs.

Shrubs may take a couple of years to develop into larger plants but you have an opportunity to increase your stock and potentially get a new cross.
Collect when the stem moves from green through yellow to brown when the seed is mature and ready. Cut the heads or stems and take inside a greenhouse, shed or garage to finally dry out hung over a sheet of paper. If seeds do not drop out naturally shake them into a paper bag. If collecting seed from berries clean away the flesh and dry the seed.

Popular Seeds
Poppy seedheads traditionally yield thousands of small black seeds from the saltshaker type head. Catch them when dry and the seed head rattles. Cut the heads and empty into a paper bag or envelope.
Foxgloves ripen progressively up the stem so to maximise seeds you may want to collect individual seed capsules. However they produce so many seeds that you may be content with taking all that are open and discarding the rest.
Some plants have ballistic mechanisms to fire seeds away from the mother plant like Pansys, Geraniums, Aquilegia and Acanthus. They need collecting and keeping in paper bags to catch the seed.
Calendula and sunflower have large seeds and are fun for kids to collect. I like Antirrhinums and plant seeds that bare a bit different or uncommon.
Not all seeds will grow true to the parent plant. Pick natural species if you want them to come true like Salvia pratensis, Lyichnis chalcedonia or Lythrum salicaria.


Mechanics of Seed Collecting

Clean the husks and plant debris away before storing the seed.
Mark the container with the variety, date collected and any notes you want to keep.
The colder and dryer, you keep the seed, the better.
Put some silica gel crystals in a lidded tupperware box with your seeds and keep them in the fridge.
Some seeds deteriorate quickly so sow by the following spring

Uses of Seeds and Seedheads

  • Poppy, Bean, Dill and Sunflower seeds are popular to eat.
  • Many other seeds feed birds through the winter so do not collect all the seed just for the sake of it.
  • Some empty seedheads look good in flower arrangements like Honesty (Lunaria) and Alliums
  • Giving excess seed away to friends or garden clubs can help other gardeners. Give them your advice as well.
  • Guerrilla gardening involves the spreading of seed in otherwise desolate places like dumping grounds and uncared for plots but only do it with care
Autumn Chrysanthemum Show

Autumn Chrysanthemum Show

I took my camera to the Autumn flower show and came back with some colourful pictures of great Chrysanthemums. On the doormat when I got home was a newly printed catalogue for Chrysanthemums  so I thought someone was trying to tell me something.

I have not been patient or focused enough to grow good Chrysanthemums so I hoped the catalogue would give me enough pointers to fire my enthusiasm but unfortunately not. If I want to know about growing Chrysanthemums I am going to have to consult my gardening book library. In the mean time it is a ‘ reflex’ action to continue with my usual spray chrysanths and pot mums but not focus on buying plants now for delivery from February onward in the hope of growing show plants for next Autumn.

Web Resources

National Chrysanthemum Society

 

Onion Family Competitions

Onion Family Competitions

Show Onions

  • These potential prize winning onions are uniform in size, colour and shape.
  • They are ‘to schedule’ in that they are 12 of the same variety grown by the show entrant.
  • Onions should be ripened at least a fortnight before the show and take off any extremely loose outer skin. Trim off the rootlets close to the base.
  • Presentation can be crucial at your local show. These onions have been neatly tied off at the neck with raffia and mounted in clean sand. Single onions are usually mounted on a cardboard ring (like an egg cup) on a black velvet cloth if you wish.
  • 2 lb Ailsa Craig are easier to grow and more consistent than 4 lb varieties and big size prizes are for the specialist (but at this show 3 onions weighed in at 41 lbs a lot to eat at one go!)

Leeks for Show

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