Gardeners Tips

The Sedum or Ice Plants are providing a treat for the bees and insects in the garden this September. Many other plants have ‘gone over’ quite early this year so these Sedum blossoms will be quite welcome as a pre-winter energy booster.

Autumn Insect Food

• Late Rose flowers seem especially well scented at the moment and this will also be attracting nectar feeding insects.

• I have left a couple of rotting apples on the ground and of course the slugs are now getting free reign on the Hostas.

• This morning I spread an old compost heap on a plot that I am renovating. The bio-activity and insects have done a great job breaking down the garden waste but there are still bits for the insects to keep feeding on as they work their way back into the garden soil. If you think about the waste products produced by insects no wonder the compost is rich in food – they provide the P in NPK!

• My sprouts have been decimated by butterfly caterpillars

• Some plants are having a final burst of individual flowers like the Cistus below.

The hot subject for discussion this Autumn seems to be the renaissance of Dahlias. For me they have never been far from my garden but I understand how fashions come and go then return.

Quick Dahlia Cultivation Tips

• Disbudding two out of three buds per stem with produce longer, stronger and more weather resistant stems.
• Support all but the very low growing Dahlias with a stake or triangle of canes.
• Keep feeding with high potash feeder until September.
• Remove dead and dying flowers regularly.
• Earwigs may be a problem for flowers destined for the house but otherwise they are good predators and should be tolerated.
• Buy new tubers from a Dahlia nursery. A plastic bagged retail plant often disappoints and I have never known one flower better than the picture on the packaging.

Single and Collerette Dahlia Varieties

• Single Dahlias bred from the dark leaved varieties like Bishop of series are popular this year.
• The garden writer Rachel de Thame has had a pink variety name after her.
• After Eight is the name of an AGM winner with  white flowers on very dark leaves.
• Collerettes are flowers of two petal layers rather than one single – see pictures
• One collerette that caught my eye was ‘Twyning’s Revel’ a 4-5′ high plant with salmon flowers, orange centre and dark fern foliage

Note
Dark leaved Bishop’s children Dahlias are looking very good as Autumn comes to an end. Children will be surprised the leaves are not green and the flowers remain so colourful read more
See a mosaic of Pink Dahlias with top ten pointers

Dahlias may still be out of fashion in many gardening circles but I am an affectionado and think they are well worth growing.

I have just started off last years tubers in big plant pots that I will plant out lock stock and barrel (literally in some cases) when the spring flowers have gone along with any danger of frost.

I left some tubers in the ground last autumn but after this winter I am not hopeful. It is damp rather than cold that does the damage so you never know.

If I was keen and earlier (around February) then I could have forced the tubers then taken cuttings and grown them on. Still last years tubers divided easily this week and I could see the eyes or young shoots.

It seemed a waste to compost some of the tubers that had no stalk to them but they would never grow so off to the bin with them.

I have been a bit precious about growing annual dahlias but some seed mixes provide great results. If it is quick late colour you want give the annuals a try.

Thompson & Morgan supply seeds and tubers.

Note
Dark leaved Bishop’s children Dahlias are looking very good as Autumn comes to an end. Children will be surprised the leaves are not green and the flowers remain so colourful read more

Dutch Iris or Iris reticulata are small bulbs for pots or rockeries.
Flag Iris are big and blousy and grow from Rhizomes.
These pictures of different Iris are grown from bulbs.

The reticulata group produce narrow, triangular leaves and a single, slender bloom per bulb.
Flowers are principally in shades of blue and purple, often with an attractively contrasting orange or yellow mark at the top of the fall.
Iris histrioides ‘George’ is proving to be a good Iris shown top.

Iris Franz Hals above or you could try the unusual Iris ‘Katharine Hodgkin’ below. Its exotic colouring of cream overlaid with a blend of light yellow and greeny-blue comes from its parents.

Read our other article Tips for Growing Spring Iris

Pamper your plants by all means but resist the urge to over feed.

Doubling up on the plant feed or recommended concentration level will not help your plants. They wont grow bigger and better, quite the opposite.

Plant Responses to Over Feeding

• A strong dose of fertilizer will ‘burn’ or cause browning of the tender leaf tips and margin of the leaves.
• If the nitrogen level is too high the growth will be soft, sappy and may lead to total collapse.
• Fertilizer salts can build up in pots as the feed is never totally used or absorbed.
• Delicate feeder roots are then damaged by the greater concentration of undissolved minerals which can kill a plant.
• Browned off leaf tips and distorted or stunted leaves are a result.
• A white crust of salts on the top of pots or compost is a sign of over feeding. This crust can burn the most delicate of plants to death.
• Unbalance feeding can cause the plant to react in a disproportionate way such as growing leggy or too leafy.
• Feeding through winter is generally a mistake. If plants aren’t growing naturally then do not force feed them!

Over Watering reminder Plants can drown! Some go limp and can be revived other ‘pop their clogs’ and you get no second chance.
Roots need nurishment and air. Water helps one but can remove the other from soil.

Young plants can often get all they need from commercial compost for several months.  Seedlings need even less feed.

Do not add a slow release fertilizer then use your weekly liquid feed.

I admire Cyclamen more and more as the years go by.

I am currently in awe of the indoor cyclamen that my wife obtained around Christmas time. The volume of strongly coloured flowers has been phenomenal on the Persian cyclamen. We have stopped watering them expecting them to rest through summer but in one case the plants have been reinvigorated.

Cyclamen coum are hardy plants. The Persian varieties will not withstand frost.
I lay the pots on their sides so the plant can die back slowly.

In late autumn I bring them back into the light and give them a gentle watering and light feed. Hopefully I will then get a new showing of these super flowers.

Keep regularly watered whist in growth. I find it better to water from the bottom to prevent the corm from rotting.

There are now 22 recognised species of Cyclamen. It is said that at least one variety is in bloom for every month of the year.
Cyclamen grow in a range of areas and environments from beech woodland, alpine meadows and windowsills through scrub and rocky areas. This tuberous family of plants are predominantly from North Africa, Turkey and Mediterranean areas.

Top Cyclamen Species

C. balearicum
C. colchicum
C. graecum
C. africanum
…

Read More Read More