GARDENER'S WORD

Ferns are sporophytes with fascinating sex lives.  I noticed the other day that the undersides of my Cyrtomium fortunei fronds are studded with sori (singular - sorus), individually called sporangium (pl. sporangia).  Each individual sporangium contains spores.  When the spores fall and germinate they produce tiny gametophytes (prothallus) which are quite unlike the parent plant.  These gametophytes then produce on their surface male sex organs (antheridiums,  which in turn produce flagellate sperm) and female sex organs (archegonium, which produce an egg).   The sperm reaches the egg by swimming through water which is certainly one good reason why ferns like damp conditions, and together they form a zygote: a diploid, i.e. containing two complete sets of chromosomes!  The zygote then forms a young sporophyte on the surface of the gametophyte.     At least, that is how I understand it.  See th...

Is this some kind of a record?  I mean, I know I keep harping on about a trailing begonia that I have: Begonia Illumination, pink  which I mentioned last month.  It's got so many flowers on it now, I don't know how the stems don't snap.  It grows outside, tolerates the heat, and the sun, and the wind, and the rain, and it just keeps on flowering and scarcely ever does one flower seem to fall off.  It has to be some kind of a record, doesn't it?   It is all coming from one single, solitary tuber and I am thinking I need to find yet something else to put underneath to stop its flowers trailing on my marble table.  In fact, I have, I have now three terracotta pots stacked on top of each other so that the flowers don't trail on the marble table.  Begonia Illumination pink     Begonia Illumination pink

As a birthday present, a friend bought me  Little Sweetheart (Lathyrus odoratus) sweet pea  seeds with a small metal bucket painted white and a little compost, all in a nice gift box.  Of course, I planted the peas in the container but had my doubts as to how the plants would cope growing outside, rain or shine.  The seeds germinated but, as I suspected, the small metal container soon became pot bound and so I transferred the whole lot into a bigger plastic tub.  I think they are doing rather well.  They are a bit more vigorous than I expected Little Sweetheart to be, which is supposed to grow from 8-12 inches in height, so I put in a small frame for the tendrils to grab onto.  They look pretty and smell divine.  I shall grow these again. Little Sweetheart sweet peas

Location, location, location.  Plants are just like us and not always happy where they are living.  If your plant is not happy, trying moving it.  Sometimes it's kill or cure but I have found that, as often as not, it's cure.  First of all though, you do have to do a bit of investigating to make sure you don't move it to a position where it will be even more unhappy.  If you have a plant that is struggling, like my clematis Arctic Queen was, and it doesn't get much sun, for example, see if it needs more sun.  My Arctic Queen has been grown in three places in the back garden - in the soil in partial shade, and in a pot in two sunnier positions and yet it still wasn't happy.  Arctic Queen can produce beautiful, double white flowers but it, like many clematis, can be picky. They say they like their heads in the sun and roots in the shade.   After it managed to just, only just, survive this past winter despite being protected by bubbl...

I don't know about you, but I always dead head my roses regularly, removing old flowering heads before they get the chance to make hips and thus allowing the plant's energy to go into any remaining buds.  While dead-heading, I take the opportunity to lightly prune my rose bushes into shape once the first flush of flowers on any particular stem is over and there are no more buds left.  I think that all my rose bushes, and climbers, are repeat flowerers so I do it as soon as possible rather than leaving it until new buds start to form.  This way, I encourage strong new growths to be formed from lower down that will stand the roses in good stead over winter. However, this is not something that I do to climbers .  As you can see from the photographs taken today of the row of Arthur Bell roses that I have at the front of my home, a bit of pruning back over the last couple of weeks or so has stimulated the roses into producing new, very healt...

I have discovered today while watering my hanging baskets that bees are attracted to lobelia.  I have tried very hard to get a good 'still' photograph but they just won't stop moving long enough.  But why are they interested in lobelia when I can see hardly any sign of yellow pollen or nectar at all?  

For a couple of years now I have been growing the semi-double dahlia, 'Fascination'.  It's a beautiful plant with dark reddish leaves, rigid stems, and a good sized, vibrant-pink flower.  As we get sub-zero temperatures here in West Yorkshire, I overwinter my three dahlia tubers indoors and this spring I planted the tubers into pots of fresh compost to give them a head start.  As the roses are taking over the border, I was surprised at just how big the tubers now are.  I even had to transplant them into bigger containers when the spring-flowering bulbs had finished and the containers became available.  It's a bit inconvenient storing the tubers indoors over winter but its worth it when I see them flowering right through summer and late autumn - and the bees love them.  I rarely see honey bees in my garden for some reason but I have endless visits from the beautiful bumble bees and today one allowed me to get up close and personal to...

I was saying to a friend yesterday afternoon that it felt like rain.  It was a warm and cloudy day and I could feel the pressure in the atmosphere and I said that it felt like there could be a cracking good storm like the ones we more often get in June.   Then, last night, I had a kind of nightmare in which we'd had a gale force wind here, high up on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire, and not a solitary rose bloom, not a bud, remained in my garden.  Each climber and rose bush was devoid of leaves and all the stems were blackened.  It looked more like there had been a fire.   You know that kind of dream where, when you wake up, you have to double check to make sure it was a dream after all?  You can imagine my relief when I looked out of the kitchen window this morning and saw that my garden was still a painted canvas of white, pinks, and reds.   Rose garden - the photograph doesn't do it justice at all.    You ca...

I had a drive over to Marks and Spencer's (M&S) store today and bought some fruit and vegetables as usual.  I like their green-groceries, they last so much longer, remain so much fresher for about the same price, as the same produce bought at a local supermarket.  Having said that, I don't always see the things that M&S sell at my supermarket.  Today I spotted the Tentation apples.  I'm not an apple lover as such but if I spot something special, I will try it.  I mentioned a while ago a fabulous variety of apple that I bought, the Delbard Estivale , and I was actually looking for those when I was tempted by 'Tentation' which is also a Delbard apple.  Am I being unpatriotic, not buying English apples?   Like Adam, I am easily led astray.  'Tentation', (a.k.a. Delblush) by Georges Delbard, Delbard Nursery Group The taste test of Delbard's 'Tentation' apples: sweet, crisp, crunchy with just a little sharpness to make yo...

While I cannot brag that I am having masses of fruit from the dwarf cherry tree, Prunus Avium Stella, Gisela 5, which I bought earlier this year, I am still so very pleased that it is producing a few very healthy and delicious cherries.  I've had one or two and they are so sweet.  I've had to net them, of course; an opportunist bird managed to get the first one before I even realised one was ripening.  You know the saying, 'the early bird gets to the cherries first', or something like that.  Prunus Avium Stella - Gisela 5 Prunus Avium Stella - Gisela 5 I bought the Prunus Avium Stella tree mainly because I love trees, I mean 'really love trees', and I wanted a flowering tree, and fruit is a bonus.  Right now it's in a large terracotta pot but I may have to transplant it into the ground as the roots are already filling the container.  I don't think the pot is big enough no matter what the man at the Royal Horticultural Society garden centre ...

Oh dear.  Not exactly a great success with the gladioli then, not yet anyway.  I planted the Nanus Mix corms earlier this year expecting a fabulous display and so far only two have flowered although there are plenty of leaves to show that the other corms are not dead.  I think there are possibly one or two more flower spikes on the way but I have a feeling that some will be blind, i.e. without flowers.  It could be that they are not happy in the trough I planted them in but perhaps I am rushing things as it does say on the packet that they flower from July to September.  Have to say though that the two that are flowering right now are absolutely beautiful with a lovely combination of red and yellow. I wasn't expecting that as none of the flowers in the photograph with the corms were anything near as pretty.  Gladioli Nanus Mix - red and yellow flower I would love to cut the two gladioli spikes and bring them indoors, but I just cannot brin...

I first came across Bircher Muesli at Betty's café/restaurant near Harrogate.  My version of Bircher Muesli is oats and sultanas soaked overnight in apple juice and then mixed the following morning with fruit, fresh or frozen, or a mix of the two, as well as a good helping of chopped hazelnuts.  There are lots of different recipes on the internet, if you are interested and some include honey and yoghurt.  Lately I have been using fresh strawberries and raspberries when available, and frozen cherries, blueberries, and raspberries when not.  My Polka raspberry canes have produced a good cupful of berries for my breakfast in the morning and although there aren't many, they are healthy and without any sort of insect invasion. 

Sometimes, by accident rather by intention, perfect combinations happen in the garden.  I mentioned some posts back in spring a certain pink aquilegia growing alongside Dicentra formosa 'Luxuriant, and now, today, I have noticed another lovely combination: the David Austin roses Princess Alexandra of Kent together with The Generous Gardener.  I am growing Princess Alexandra as a shrub and The Generous Gardener is being grown as a climber.  While The Gardener is mostly supported by the fence, Alexandra has embraced The Gardener and is using it (him) as a support.  I am so pleased to see this combination, particularly because last year Alexandra, one of my favourite roses which smells divine, fared so badly.  We had a bad summer and with rain and low light which made it weak, and Alexandra then succumbed to blackspot and aphids.  Although I fought against them, the rose became straggly and weak. I really thought it had had it.  ...

When I first bought Zephirine Drouhin at the Royal Horticultural Society garden shop at Harlow Carr, I bought it because of the description on the label.  It sounded wonderful.  What the label didn't tell me is that Zephirine Drouhin is susceptible to disease like mildew.  Now, I was replacing a fabulous rambler called Albertine because that rose, apparently a favourite of the late Queen Mother, had vicious thorns and it skewered me once too often.  Because of my balance problem, I fell into it one day and it wasn't funny trying to get back out of it.  So, having chopped down and dug out Albertine, I was looking for a thornless replacement; something that would repeat flower, and have a fantastic perfume, and I found it: Zephirine Drouhin.   When I got home with ZD and read on the internet that it was prone to disease, my little heart sank but I planted it anyway.  I've been careful to keep it well watered and sprayed it against fungus and I...

Just a few days ago I mentioned in a gardening post comments that my tomato plants had flowers but no fruit .  I am growing Alicante, Gardener's Delight, and Italian Plum.  Tomato flowers are self-fertilizing and I suspected there was a lack of pollination by the action of wind or bees as my tomato plants are sheltered, this year, by a tomato house - Growhouse .  It's odd that the bees pay the tomato flowers little attention and I think they are more interested in the raspberry flowers.  I decided that the only thing to get the tomatoes setting fruit, apart from going around the flowers with a little brush and sweeping the pollen grains from the anther to the stigma (external link), was to give the flowers a gentle shake.  This I did by gently getting hold of the tomato main stem and giving the whole plant a little shake (much easier than try to shake individual flowers).  I did this a week or so ago, and have done it on a regular basis since and it would ...

I am referring back here to an slightly earlier post where I mentioned that my two Moth Orchids, or Phalaenopsis, had not flowered since I first bought them and that I had repotted them.  I also wrote about identifying a flower spike from a root.  I am pleased to say that the repotting has paid off because one of the orchids has produced a flower spike.  Tiny it may be at the moment but straight away you can identify it.  See my earlier link on Phalaenopsis Root or Flower Spike  Phalaenopsis, beginning of a flower spike It is quite easy to see that the Phalaenopsis flower spike is very different to the smooth, rounded end of a root.  I can only hope that my other orchid follows suit.

Roses grown on a north-facing border, even if the rose description says they are suitable for such a situation, have a lot to deal with and it shows, I think.  They tend to be more lax and need a bit more support.  Without much interference from me, except for dead-heading, New Dawn, Wild Eve, Aloha, and Golden Showers are surviving and blooming.  They do get some sunshine in the afternoon when the summer sun swings around but in early spring and late autumn their time in the sun is quite limited.  If prizes were to be given out for the best rose in my north border, it would have to go to David Austin's 'Wild Eve' because, dare I say, I am wild about the way it looks and its fragrance.  She produces extremely large and showy blooms quite shamelessly.  Wild Eve can be grown as either shrub or climber and it has been left to scramble up the fence between New Dawn and the honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum Scentsation.  Wild Eve - a David Austin ...

I always tend to get confused when I have my eye on a certain plant and the label tells me it needs a certain condition, partial shade, a hardiness level or zone of whatever, and I am left trying to work out if my growing conditions fit the bill.  I did a bit of research regarding hardiness (and understanding light and shade in gardening ): PLANT HARDINESS, RATINGS AND ZONES Plant hardiness is treated differently in the United States of America to the United Kingdom.  The USA which is many times larger than the UK, as we all know, is divided into United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) hardiness zones from 0 to 13b.  It's all far too complicated for me to go into but here are a few useful links for you: USDA - Plant Hardiness Zone webpage USDA - Agricultural Research Service interactive map UK - PlantMaps.Com - Plant hardiness interactive map  - Fahrenheit UK - PlantMaps.Com - Plant hardiness interactive map ...

 I have wanted an awning at the back of my home for quite a long time and yesterday it arrived.  Although you can't see very well from the photo, there are terracotta coloured stripes that pick out the red brick of the wall.  While my kitchen window gets little sunlight in the winter months, in the heat of summer the sunshine doesn't leave the patio area until well after midday and it can be quite uncomfortable trying to sit at my marble table with the sun beating down on my head and the light bouncing off the table.  My awning is motorised, electric, fully retractable, and looks kinda nice, I think.  Actually, it looks like a café.     Awning retracted Awning extended We've had several days of sunshine and very high temperatures, almost up to 30C but today it is cloudy.  Typical! 

I love the way the garden looks in early morning sunshine, before the sunlight gets too strong and leaches the colours out of everything.  It's the same as when dusk approaches, when shadows create more definition and colours are brighter just before they start turning to grey as light fades; and then the white flowers come into play, standing out as they reflect the last of the light.  I took a couple of photographs this morning of my little garden and although I haven't captured all the rose bushes (just Prima Ballerina , Carefree Days , and the climbing Iceberg ) which are mostly hidden from view behind the hanging basket, I think it's looking quite pretty out there.    My garden in early morning light 8 July 2013  The lawn is vastly improved since I threw down plenty of lawn seed two or three weeks ago when it was warm and rainy although I'm not happy at the clover which is trying to take over.  Clover in lawns can be so difficult to e...

Last year I bought three patio roses and they were planted in something like 8 inch pots.  I just didn't believe that they would do so well stuck in pots and they didn't look particularly happy about it towards the end of autumn, so I transplanted them into the front of my sunniest garden border.  They have taken off.  'Carefree Days', the prettiest of all if you ask me, has turned into a lovely shaped and small bush and is full of pink blooms with yellow centres, and so many buds getting ready to open.  You can see how neat in size it is if you compare it with the solar light next to it.  Carefree Days patio rose 07 July 2013  Carefree Days patio rose summer 2012 The other patio roses, Ruby Ruby and Sweet Wishes , are a bit behind Carefree Days but they look very promising, are healthy, disease and pest free, and full of buds.  I will post photos when they produce blooms.