Garden Centre

Friday, February 29, 2008

Garden plants: Hydrangeas

As Mother’s Day approaches, there are more and more displays of astonishing loveliness like this appearing outside flower shops and garden centres. Hydrangeas, like these, are forced into an unnaturally early bloom by placing them in temperatures below 65°F for six weeks to bring out the flower buds, then the leaves are stripped from the plant to force growth, and the plants are put into complete darkness between 33° and 40° for another six weeks! It does sound a bit like plant cruelty, doesn’t it?

And one real problem with receiving such glorious flowers as a gift is that hydrangeas are not keen to flower again after such treatment. To get them back into the flowering habit, you can prune the shoots back after flowering so that just two nodes (pairs of leaves) remain on each shoot. Then repot in a mixture of garden soil and compost and grow in dappled sun. Their natural condition is woodland, so it’s good to try and recreate that environment, where they are protected from strong winds by trees, and receive sunlight arriving through the overhead canopy.

Pruning isn't essential, especially in young plants, but once you see a lessening of the flowering, or the plant gets too big for its space, you can undertake some cutting back in spring as new shoots appear, removing one-third of the older, less productive stems at ground level and cutting back flowering stems to a strong pair of buds to maintain shape. Left unpruned, hydrangeas will continue to bloom but the size of the flower-heads will be reduced by the overcrowded stems. There’s one exception to this rule: Hydrangea paniculata needs to be cut back completely each spring.

Labels: caring for forced plants, hydrangeas, pruning hydrangeas

The All Seasons Gardener at 8:16 AM 2 Comments

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Monday, February 25, 2008

Garden planters revisited – the courtyard garden effect

This is a style I love, and when you see it in city gardens it adds a welcome splash of natural colour and exuberance to the gritty greyness of town life. As I said before, I’m drawing plans and moving tubs and planters to try and get the best use from my container plants this year, and there are several other ‘classic’ uses I need to bear in mind:

Grouping: this is where you cluster a whole collection of tubs and containers together to give a focal point to a garden design. A group of planters will look best when the collection is unified by shape, colour, or a common planting scheme. In the picture, for example, similar pots hold different plants, but the way they are lined up along the steps also emphasises regularity and repetition, given the design what’s called ‘rhythm’.

This courtyard garden also utilises the final classic use for tubs and containers which is using planters and pots to minimise the effect of large expanses of ‘hard’ landscaping. In a cityscape where what we usually see is simply a range of grey, hard surfaces and straight lines, the effect of containers of plants can be to deliver a splash of colour, scent and softness. In addition, people are generally inclined to slow down and look at flowers, which is why posh shops have orange or bay trees, or other plants in containers outside – it’s not just that they love to garden, it’s that they know we can’t help tarrying where we find a green oasis!

Labels: city gardens, container plants, courtyard garden, garden planters, garden tubs and pots, using planters in the garden

The All Seasons Gardener at 12:18 AM 0 Comments

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Saturday, February 23, 2008

More Garden Tasks for February: Clematis

I think pruning is my Achilles heel – and gardeners of the old school certainly thought that pruning separated ‘the men from the boys’ which shows you how long ago they were in charge of gardening, because there weren’t any women around.

Anyway, I’m not the world’s most confident pruner, and I frequently forget what is supposed to be cut back, when, and how. February is the month for pruning clematis – but not all clematis and not all in the same way.

The first group is large-flowered hybrids such as Nelly Moser, Miss Bateman etc. They flower in mid-June on shortish stems from the previous season's growth. They can often bloom again in late summer on new growth, though these flowers are notably smaller. The are the ones that need to be pruned back February or March: you need to entirely remove dead and weak stems, then cut back the remaining stems to the topmost pair of large buds – and as a rule of thumb, you should find you’re removing a stem length of anything from 6 inches to 18 inches. Plants in this group have the tendency to become leafless at the base as they mature and if you wish, you can try to force a flush of new growth from the base by cutting the plant back to 18 inches to two feet as soon as the June flowering is over.

Then there are late-flowering clematis – these are climbers that flower on the final two to two and a half feet of this year’s growth in mid-June and carry on in bloom until early autumn. Supposedly these are the easiest clematis to prune since no old wood needs to be kept, so at this time of year you can just cut each stem to a height of about 24-36 inches from the ground, which will of course make you wince as you will be cutting away strong stems and nice fat buds, but it’s necessary to get the right level of flowering. Plants in this group are Clematis viticella, Clematis jackmanii, 'Duchess of Albany' and others.

Labels: pruning clematis, winter pruning

The All Seasons Gardener at 7:54 AM 0 Comments

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Saturday, February 16, 2008

Gardening in February – working with tubs and planters

I’m looking at the garden in its bare state, as the evenings lengthen, to decide where to put the planters and tubs next year. There are two ways to do this, and most gardeners use them both.

The first way is the plantsman’s way. So, for example, my borders, with heavy but chalk soil (worst of all possible worlds!) doesn’t suit either lavenders or dianthus, both of which like a lighter soil, free draining soil, and a lot of sun. So I grow lavenders in pots and dianthus in ‘stone’ planters that ‘himself’ makes for me from compost, concrete and wood and they are both on the terrace where they get sunshine from early morning to mid-evening in the height of summer.

The second way is the designer’s way. This is involves putting the tubs or pots in places where they make a design statement and filling them with something classic and forgiving (a small conifer and some ivy, for example) or something cheap and cheerful (like bedding plants) that will cope with almost any positioning.

So what does the design approach entail?

How about the elegant use of two urns framing a front door, or two wooden tubs of herbs outside a back door opening onto a cottage garden? Or you can enclose an area using planters – long trough shapes can be used to mark out a dining area, or a line of pots can indicate a path: the latter is called repeating and is seen in many modern gardens where it is used to create a dramatic statement. There are dozens of ways to use plants and planters to make your garden more interesting.

At the moment, having decided where to put my Romneya tub if any of them actually germinate (that's a plantsman's decision), I’m also pondering the idea of a line of herb tubs along the barbecue area … and I really can’t make up my mind!

Labels: container plants, garden planters, garden tubs

The All Seasons Gardener at 9:50 AM 0 Comments

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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Gardening in February – weather, tasks and diaries

It’s possible you have fruit trees in your garden – if so, take this as a cautionary tale. The people who owned our house for a decade or more before us must have looked at these apple trees every day, and done absolutely nothing about pruning them! Admittedly the trees were probably oversized by the time they (the previous owners) moved in, but even so, to ignore them for so long was daft behaviour. I know what any tree surgeon would tell me, ‘They’re too old, too big and too badly shaped to do anything with. Take ‘em out.’ But the tree surgeons reckon without ‘himself’ who is mortally opposed to cutting down any tree, even one that’s three times the right size and produces only two apples a year and has diseased leaves. Himself gets up in the trees every third year and cuts them. I can’t says ‘prunes’ because that implies some kind of logical work that results in a desired outcome – all we manage is to stop the trees shading the garden entirely. But while they may not be pretty, or good croppers, they are a superb wildlife resource – this tree has a woodpecker that visits (I have pointed out to himself that woodpeckers are not a good sign for trees, but he ignores me) and the other apple, which is in a sunnier position, attracts many solitary bees. So, in February, we get out the ladders and try to make the trees reasonable for another year ….

At least this year the weather cooperated. Last year we had an unseasonal frost the night before we intended to prune and it was bitterly cold work – this year ‘himself’ took his T-shirt off, it was so hot in the tree. But the poor old frogs are frisky and it won’t do them any good, their frogspawn, assuming they lay it before the weekend, will get caught by next week’s cold snap.

And I’m starting (again) my seed diary. Every year I say I’m going to write down the dates I sow various seeds and every year I get to about April and forget to continue the plan, so I can never remember when the last frost date really was, or when I planted the begonias or salvias last year … I wish I knew a foolproof way of keeping track.

Labels: all-year gardening, apple trees, sowing seeds, winter pruning

The All Seasons Gardener at 8:27 AM 0 Comments

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Sunday, February 10, 2008

All Seasons Gardening - what happened to winter?

It seems that we are losing something – winter. Instead we have milder weather extending from autumn into spring, experts claim. The curator of Kew Gardens in London said winter had disappeared altogether, with some trees flowering months earlier than usual, while Edinburgh Botanic Gardens reported winter conditions lasting just a week. Dr Nigel Taylor of Kew, said the climate that was "behaving very strangely" English hawthorn had already started growing its leaves, while the common ash was in flower. A forecaster at the Met Office said the average temperature in December and January had been about one degree higher than the average for 1971-2000 and January in eastern Scotland had been the wettest on record.

Regardless of weather, this is the time of year to:

Pick up debris like fallen leaves that will start to weigh down pond netting as they soak up dew and rain. If you wish, you can always clear away any sludge that you see. We actually only clean our pond every three years now, as it seems to be very healthy and self-sustaining, but this is the time of year when any pond owner with a liner should check for leaks.
Wash cobbles and paths and clean up any other ornaments near the pond, it’s a horrible chore at this time of year but important to do it before frogs, toads and newts (should you be lucky enough to have them) begin breeding. Mine are actually starting to breed right now so this is a task for Tuesday at the lastest!
And it’s time to clean, repair and restore garden furniture - durable timber, such as teak and cedar may need an oil treatment if they were oil treated when you purchased them, other wooden furniture may need a recoating with clear varnish or woodstain, metal furniture needs a good scrub and if its painted may need a touch-up with enamel paint, and plastic furniture can be washed with a soft brush and hot soapy water.

Labels: february garden tasks, preparing garden for spring, winter garden tasks

The All Seasons Gardener at 4:30 AM 0 Comments

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Saturday, February 9, 2008

All Seasons Gardening – season’s superstars

Of all the things I can’t grow, this is the most wonderful and spectacular. The Chaenomeles or Chinese Quince is a profound garden performer – it produces large and fairly weather resistant blossoms on bare wood, in colours ranging from the palest pink through to deep red, but most fall in the apricot to salmon pink range. I don’t know why this shrub won’t grow for me, because it’ said to grow in most positions and soils, expect an excessively limey soil, which causes the common ailment of yellow leaves. Few pests or diseases affect the flowering quince, so all the books say.

On the other hand, in my garden it just doesn’t grow. My oldest quince is seven, my youngest two, neither produces more than four flowers, and neither has grown more than five inches! They are said to like a sunny site with well-drained moderately fertile soil and pruning is usually necessary only to thin out overcrowded branches when growing as a freestanding shrub. I’m going to put mine in a tub and see if they do better next year, but for now I’m reduced to admiring this specimen in a neighbour’s garden.

Labels: chaenomeles, winter colour, winter flowers

The All Seasons Gardener at 5:37 AM 0 Comments

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Monday, February 4, 2008

Garden pests - the natural solutions

I've made a late new year’s resolution - well, it’s not really a resolution, because we already use almost no non-organic products in the garden, but this year I am committed to trying to remove the last few baddies from our patch. The main area in which we argue, Himself and me, is pest control. I loathe all forms of pesticide, and he says he does too, but just show him a rose being attacked by aphids and he’s into the shed, to dig out the battered old packet of Aphid-cide or whatever it’s called, that he’d promised me he’d thrown away …

So what’s the problem?

Well, traditional synthetic pesticides (which is the real name for what most of us still call insecticides) are very effective. Too effective. They kill nearly everything that come into contact with and therein lies the problem. Because it’s actually a tiny proportion of insect life in our gardens that is classed as a ‘pest’ – less than 4% in fact. All the others, from massive staghorn beetles to microscopic soil organisms, are either neutral or beneficial – but the pesticides don’t care, they kill them all!

A more responsible approach is to select products that are either entirely specific to the particular pest you are trying to control or use control systems that break down swiftly into non-harmful components when exposed to the weather. We’ve been using a combination of these two approaches, so, for example, we have a problem with slugs and we’ve invested in nematodes to deal with them. Look away now if you’re squeamish …

... on my packet from last year it says ‘Phasmarhabditis Hermaphrodita. Each pack contains millions of these microscopic nematodes that kill slugs both above & below ground. Once the nematodes have been applied to the soil, they search out slugs and will enter the slug through the mantle - the saddle like structure on its back. Once inside, the nematode releases a bacterium which it feeds on and as that bacterium multiplies, the slug dies. The nematodes multiply inside the slug and within 3-5 days the slug stops feeding and will burrow underground to die. As the slug decomposes in the soil, the nematodes are released back into the soil to search out more slug and the whole process starts again.’

Lovely.

Anyway, we also use a simple mixture of water, white vinegar and washing up liquid in a spray bottle to attack aphids, and it is 100% successful within 48 hours. We simply squirt them, each morning, with the foamy spray and after 2 days the rose will be aphid free.

Labels: aphid removers, garden pest solutions, garden pests, nematodes

The All Seasons Gardener at 8:46 AM 0 Comments

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Friday, February 1, 2008

Deep mid-winter

The season’s are definitely becoming less predictable – and it’s not just British gardeners saying it! We’ve always been subject to our variable weather, that’s why it’s such a topic of conversation across the UK, but in the past ten days we’ve had the full range of winter in a little more than a week.

It started with unseasonably warm weather, which led to frogs, in the south of England at least, getting frisky. Clothes could be dried on the line in gardens bathed in cool but definite sunshine, and crocus began to open. The first frogspawn appeared, and it will definitely disappear again, as the clement spell was followed in short order by gale force winds and driving rain. Then we had a sudden cold snap which brought snow and frost, and we’re still wrestling with that one.

What it means for gardeners, of course, is more work at the least enjoyable time of the year. It means that we run around covering up, and uncovering, tender plants, wanting to protect them from bitter weather, but also wanting them to make the most of warmth, and well aware (as we all are) that as soon as the ground warms, diseases and rots begin to fester inside coverings that have been protecting plants during the cold, and that air circulation is necessary if plants are not to develop moulds as a result of sudden warm, wet air conditions. It’s a complete nuisance, but there’s nothing to be done but run in and out with horticultural fleece and old newspapers, if we want to conserve our tender plants.

Labels: protecting plants, winter plants, winter shelter

The All Seasons Gardener at 10:13 AM 0 Comments

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