Garden Centre

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Cottage Gardening - Aquilegias

My columbines do not survive. Even if I label them with the proper Latin name of aquilegia, they never appear after the first year. I buy them from garden centres, I buy them from plant stalls, I buy them from specialist growers. I grow them from seed, I buy them as mature plants. They flower, they die down, and … they never come up again.

Aquilegias, or columbines as I prefer to call them, are the quintessential cottage garden plant. Their dainty flowers are supposed to be a bit of a nuisance as they self-seed everywhere (except in my garden) so I have been trying to find out what might be the problem. And everybody says that columbines suffer from few problems: mildew might be an issue in dry years and they can be attacked by sawfly and leaf miners – but don’t worry, say all the experts cheerily, ‘These things are almost never life-threatening, especially if the plants are in reasonably moist soil and growing vigorously, just cut the plant back hard to ground level immediately after flowering. This encourages a new burst of foliage.’ Actually, I think it just encourages the plant to die a bit quicker, at least in my case.

So rather than admit defeat, I’m going to indulge in the final resort of all gardeners – container growing. That way I can control light and shade, moisture, soil drainage and pH, and if I can’t grow them after that, I really shall give up!

Columbine courtesy of TieGuyII at Flickr

Labels: aquilegia, columbine, container plants, cottage garden

The All Seasons Gardener at 10:34 AM 0 Comments

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Thursday, November 8, 2007

Down the Garden Path

Isn't this one of the most gorgeous things you've seen? I love these cottage garden paths, and one of the nicest things about them is that they have interest all year round, as plants fade and others take their place, unlike formal paths where the plants are regimented and don't have the chance to 'express themselves' by billowing over the edges of the walkway.

There's only one problem. Well two, actually. The first is himself, who lives entirely to lop and chop anything he thinks is 'untidy' and plants hanging over paths suffer his pruning on an almost daily basis, and the dogs, who - particularly at this time of year - head out into the garden at sixty miles an hour, when they see a squirrel and send anything in their paths, including me, flying. Gravel wouldn't last a week under their rocket-propelled paws!

So much as I love the cottage garden path, I'm stuck with paving.

Labels: autumn colour, cottage garden, paving

The All Seasons Gardener at 2:26 AM 0 Comments

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