GARDENER'S WORD

Yesterday I visited the Royal Horticultural Society gardens in Harlow Carr, near Harrogate, North Yorkshire.  I had to come away with something for my garden, so I bought a carmine and two white Cosmos plants.  They are annuals but will set seed and they are so strikingly pretty with delicate leaves rather like fennel, I suppose.  Cosmos I also bought a hanging basket.  The idea is not that I want another hanging basket but I wanted the plants within it which I had never seen before - they are a mini petunia in a Fuchsia colour, called Million Bells - latin name Calibrachoa hybrid var. Sunbeirikupi    What a mouthful!  Now, the plants were to go in a semi-shady corner that is devoid of colour and while I got around to taking them out of the hanging basket and putting them in a large pot, I popped them onto my cream marble outdoor table for the time being.  They look so lovely there that I cannot bear to move them and, so, I still don't h...

Just had a little mooch around my garden and delighted to see that despite the wind and lack of rain, things are growing well.  Although not many roses are in bloom as yet, there are tons of buds getting nice and fat and they will be opening within the next week or two.  Albertine did not flower at all last year which was disappointing but it is going to make up for it this year.  It is loaded with bud.  Just got to watch out for mildew which is a problem with Albertine and can affect it badly if the rose doesn't get enough water. As it is grown in a corner with a six foot fence supporting it, and it is at the top end of the garden, I have to be vigilant. Albertine.  A vigorous rambler with savage thorns but a sweet fragrance. Iceberg - This is a shrub but there is a climbing version too.  It is floriferous and fragrant Princess Alexandra of Kent - a David Austin shrub with a divine fragrance. I have never grown raspberries befor...