GARDENER'S WORD

I'm pleased to see that the Semi-Aquilegia 'Sugar Plum Fairy' that I planted last spring has not only survived the winter but is happily and healthily in full bloom and has increased in size.  It doesn't have the relatively large flowers of the more commonly seen aquilegias but it has a grace of appearance and movement, during a breeze, that looks quite lovely in a garden border.  Semi-aquilegia ecalcarata 'Sugar Plum Fairy' Semi-aquilegia ecalcarata 'Sugar Plum Fairy'

I've never been a fan of variegated leaves on flowering plants but I have to admit that when I saw Aubrieta 'Red Swan' at the garden centre last year, I had to have it.  Although it's called 'Red' Swan, it's actually more of a vibrant cerise pink.  I have a dwarf cherry tree planted in a large, plastic terracotta-coloured tub sunk into the centre of my sunny border and I wanted plants to grow around it and up against the brightness of the pot to hide it somewhat.  I planted Aubrieta 'Red Swan' about this time last year and it has more than tripled its size.  It's partly masked the pot and it's beautiful, healthy, and extremely pretty.  Aubrieta 'Red Swan' The label says that Aubrieta 'Red Swan' is a mat forming evergreen perennial with small, yellow margined leaves and purple-red flowers.  It is suitable for rockeries, borderes, walls, banks, paving, gravel gardens, containers, and pots.  It flowers from spring to ear...

I've been growing the same loganberry plant for several years now and the poor thing has been planted, transplanted and, really, kicked around since I bought it.  It is now growing in the same place that I planted it originally years ago, in the 90 degree angle between two wooden fences, until I decided to grow a rose there which became disease riddled, and so out that came.  The loganberry, clearly, is not a plant to bear grudges.  It still bears flowers, and it still bears fruit - although not so successfully last year as I might have hoped, and it still survives in a surprisingly trouble free way.  No disease, no pests, no nothing.  So far.  This year, however, it has pushed up some really powerful stems, the like of which it has never produced before.  Some stems are as thick as my fingers, which are not particularly thick, but you know what I mean.   At first I thought they were raspberry canes from Glen Doll and Glen...

One of the jobs in my garden that I least like doing and which gives me the most satisfaction is—wait for it—trimming around the lawn's stepping stones with my bread knife.  I used to do it with a small knife but it's a hard job for relatively small and not particularly strong hands, and I found that the serrated blade on the hefty(ish) bread knife does the job faster and less painfully.  I only do it once a year but when I do, and see how it looks in the green, weed-free lawn, I'm happy.  I know, I should get a life.  I don't think that a strimmer (or weed-whacker as they call them in Barbados) would do such a neat job.  Notice how the stepping stones are below lawn level so that my lawn mower just glides over them.  Lawn stepping stones after trimming Lawn stepping stones before trimming Alfie, my beloved Ragdoll cat, (he's such an angel -mostly!) always uses the stepping stones, like I do. As one quick-witted friend said, 'He's a copycat'. ...

You'll know the expression about biting the hand that feeds you.  Yesterday, shock horror, I discovered a Wood Pigeon eating the tiny, unripe cherries on my Prunus avium Stella tree.  Much as I like birds, I love my garden.  I could happily have wrung its neck and fed it to my cat.  For a long time I have been allowing these pigeons (some other irate gardener described them as 'big, fat, greedy, b**tards'.  I think that's a pretty apt description) to eat the seeds I put out for the smaller birds, totally in ignorance that Wood Pigeons can be a serious and destructive pest.  While I appreciate that birds will go for sweet red fruit—and who can blame them?—I had no idea that Wood Pigeons will not only eat embryo cherries, no bigger than little peas, but they will also strip leaves off trees and thus put the whole tree at risk of dying.  This is war.  This morning I covered the tree with netting, supported by tall canes....

I would never try and pretend that I am an authority on gardening and I tend to do things by instinct (rightly or wrongly) and that sometimes means breaking 'rules' - whatever they are.  When I decided that a rose border wasn't for me after all (having a balance problem, I spent many a moment painfully detaching myself from a thorn) I decided to dig them up and plant perennials instead.  Besides, I have always had a soft spot for perennials which I grew by the hundreds in a large garden I once created a couple of decades ago.  When I plant up a bare border, fill in a blank canvas so to speak, I always over plant.  That's to say that I plant young plants somewhat closer than they should be planted bearing in mind the size they will eventually achieve.  This might be against the 'rules' but I find that plants do not always grow as it says on their labels, and there are generally casualties over winter which leaves gaps.  Today I have been transplanting p...

Iris setosa 'Baby Blue' was a must-have as soon as I saw it.  It wasn't even in full flower but the colour of the buds and the healthy leaves were saying 'buy me', so I did.  I've placed it at the top of my garden border in rich, loamy soil where it will get full sun, and hopefully enough moisture.  I shall have to watch out for that in dry weather.   It's ideal for growing around the edge of a pond. Iris setosa 'Baby Blue' The label says that Iris setosa 'Baby Blue' has stunning blue flowers held just above a dwarf clump of fresh green foliage in early summer.  It's a hardy perennial.  It achieves a height of 30cm (12in) x 30cm (12in).  It likes a sunny position in moist neutral or acid soil (not chalky).  Faded flower stems should be removed to prevent seed formation and the leaves should be cut down in winter.  It is harmful if eaten. 

Last year I planted Anemone 'sylvestris' in my garden but I planted it in the wrong place.  It was too far to the back of the border and it got lost behind a Malva 'rosea'.  This year, I have brought it forward, towards the front of the border where its beautiful white flowers can be truly appreciated.  I love the way white flowers shine so brightly at dusk when the rest of the garden is turning to shades of grey. Anemone sylvestris The label says that Anemone sylvestris is a clump forming herbaceous perennial with divided green leaves, fragrant white cup-shaped flowers with yellow anthers, on upright stems.  It should be grown in well-drained soil in full sun and achieves a size of 40cm x 40cm (18in x 18in). 

I cannot tell you how many addiantum ferns I have killed off over the years; maybe a dozen.  Years ago, about the time I first became interested in them, a neighbour grew them all over her home; she even (foolishly) grew one with its pot plonked in a saucer on top of the television (please don't try this at home) and the point of this story is that these faddy ferns didn't seem to mind where they grew for her.  That lack of regard for addiantum needs - humidity, shade or semi-shade, a draft-free place, never allowing its compost to dry out completely -  paid off for her but that seems to be an aberration - they are really fussy plants.  Whatever I do to pander to their requirements doesn't seem to work, so it's probably as much a mystery to you as it is to me why I went and bought yet another one the other day.  On an optimistic note, this is a different house, a different aspect, a different position in the home - and, a different plant...

I know what some of you might think, that I should get a life, but I was so excited today when I saw a rather large and colourful bird helping itself to sunflower seeds from my bird-feeding station.  I had no idea what it was but I knew that I was seeing something for the first time in my life.  I didn't have time to grab my camera so I've posted an image that I found on the Wiki website.  I'll change the image if I get a better shot.  (c) Wiki ???

When I say I love Hostas, I'm not really being hyperbolic, exaggerating my feelings towards them.  If you can keep slugs away from them, and I can, they give so much.  They are herbaceous so they die back under the ground in winter—no need to care for them in the coldest months—and in the spring they push up their new leaves.  They have wonderful flowers, sometimes fragrant, that people seem to forget about.  But, there's no sorrier sight than a hosta that has been eaten ragged by slithery little pesky slugs.  I grow my hostas in large terracotta pots and I surround the base of the plants with sharp agricultural grit.  Hosta 'Sagae' is a new one for my collection.  I understand it is one of the showier hostas.  I'm all for that.  Show away! Hosta 'Sagae' in a terracotta pot, surrounded with grit Hosta 'Sagae' Apparently, hosta 'Sagae' gets bell-shaped pale purple flowers on arching stems about 1.5m long in mid summer and...

Last spring I planted Veronica gentianoides in my garden.  It produces elegant racemes* of pale blue flowers, about 45cm (18") tall from a low mound of neat, bright-green leaves.   It has doubled its size for this year.  They look beautiful in my border but when you look up close, really close, they have a hidden beauty which I never noticed before until I aimed my macro lens at them.  The reproductive organs are little bobby-dazzlers.  No wonder they attract pollinating insects. *  Apparently, a raceme is like a spike but the flowers have stalks. (Wiki external link) According to the Royal Horticultural Society they tolerate full sun to partial shade, like a loamy soil, moist but well-drained.  They can be propagated by dividing in autumn or spring. Flowers of Veronica gentianoides showing detail of reproductive organs   Veronica gentianoides Dark blue anthers and cerise stigma!

Many gardeners complain that they hate weeding, that weeds are a nuisance, and I couldn't agree more.  I have found though, over decades of gardening, that the best way to deal with weeds is prevention.  I don't care for large expanses of gravel, concrete, tree bark, or weed-control matting.  If you plant your borders so that there is little by way of space showing between mature plants, then weeds struggle to find a place to germinate.  It's true.  I might still get the odd weed now and then to deal with (they can be sneaky and hide themselves among plants) but generally speaking, the time I spend weeding in my garden wouldn't be more than an hour or so in a whole year.  Think about it.  The more exposed soil you have, the more chance of weed germination.  Perennials, grown close together, suppress weeds The same applies to lawns.  If you dig out weeds out of your lawn and leave patches of bare soil exposed to the elements, ...

In April 2014 I invested in an Acer palmatum dissectum 'Ornatum' which I planted in a terracotta pot.  Although these shrubs are often considered slow growers, this one has doubled its size.  That's good.  It is looking glorious right now and will look even more so when its colours redden in autumn.  It's a fabulous shrub to have if you can give it some shelter from the wind.  I moved mine after I first bought it and it is now against the house wall, in an east facing position, and only gets early morning sun.  It seems to like it there.  I'm not sure why mine is doing so well as the Acer Palmatum 'Orange Dream' which I bought in May 2014, planted the same way, and in the same place in my garden, has given up the ghost!   Acer palmatum dissectum 'Ornatum' May 2015 amid hostas, ferns, and ivy Acer palmatum dissectum 'Ornatum' April 2014 If I had the space, and thought they would survive, I would have a garden filled with ...

It's been another sunny day today, albeit a little chilly and I still have to watch out for night-time frost.  That means that I am still protecting the plants (begonias, fuchsias, and pelargoniums) that I have waiting to plant in the troughs and hanging baskets.  I can hardly wait to see them in full flower in a month or so.  Meanwhile, I'm glad to see that some of the hardier perennial plants are starting to flower.  I have always liked aquilegias with their pixie-hat shaped flowers and lovely leaves.  They are a good plant to have in a border and they happily self-seed without being invasive.  They even seem to transplant quite well with a little care.  Mine grow in a partially shaded border and in full sun.  Aquilegia flower Aquilegias in a sunny border White aquilegia with buds after rain White aquilegia flower with rain drops Purple aquilegia floweres just starting to open

I know, I know, I have mentioned lewisias so many times before but I just cannot get over the beauty of them, how easy they are to grow, how unforgiving of harsh winters they are, how generous they are in giving.  I have not bought a single one that has perished and yet, after planting them in a gritty compost, in terracotta or plastic pots, in a sunny aspect, I just leave them to get on with it.  And get on with it they do.  I have even split one into several and so for the price of one, I ended up with about six.  Is it any wonder that I love them so much.  Just look... Lovely Lewisias.  The orangey one in bud, on the right of the above image, is the one that, as you can see, has been split into several.  Look at all those buds just waiting to burst open, just for me.  Lewisia tweedyi 'Rosea; in a terracotta pot A cerise and a peach lewisia

If you have no room for anything else on your window ledge, your patio, your small garden, grow herbs.  I grow all mine in pots.  Although rosemary can grow into a largish shrub, I grow mine in a relatively small pot, about an 8" pot, which restricts its growth.  I don't want it as a shrub, or as a feature in my garden, or for flowers; I just want it for cooking purposes.  I have grown the same one for several years and this year it has become rather woody and needs replacing, so I have bought a new one: Rosemarinus officinalis Fota Blue .  However, every year the old rosemary has given me fresh rosemary for my kitchen and it's not dead yet!  I've also taken cuttings from it for when it gives up the ghost.  The chives grow in a large pot (I love their flowers), as does the Italian flat-leafed parsley  (I love parsley flowers too), the lemon balm (this herb is great for a herb tea and gets quite big, spreading out), the lemon verbena (po...

They said on the news the other day that April 2015 had been the sunniest since records began.  Now, when they say that, I think they mean in London.  Whatever the case, we did have some pretty decent days not so very long ago here in the north of England, on the Pennines of West Yorkshire, although this last week it feels like we've had almost enough rain to refloat the Ark.  Rain is good in moderation and the garden needed it.  Now everything is growing lush and green with the nitrogen that rainwater brings with it. Red Riding Hood tulip a short tulip with dark, striped leaves The Red Riding Hood tulips which I have in a small trough outside, near the swing, are very pretty; dazzling red when I view them from my kitchen window.  I had my doubts when I bought the bulbs but they look good in a group.  I'll say this about them - they are survivors!   I originally had them growing in a strip of soil near the swing but decided, befor...

The flowers on this little Lewisia cotyledon might be showing signs of age, but I was thrilled when I found the plant at the RHS Garden centre in Harlow Carr.  I began a little collection of Lewisias some time ago but it is limited to pinks, peachy-pinks, and a white at the moment.  I know, or at least I am sure, that before long this little, yellow-blossomed plant will be providing more flowering stalks to enjoy.  I planted it, along with the others, in its own terracotta pot in a gritty-compost.  Lewisia cotyledon - yellow While at the RHS garden centre, I asked an employee why there wasn't a wider range of lewisias on sale.  She said that, like other garden centres, they just buy in bulk rather than from specialists and that lewisias are not so much in demand.  How disappointing, to hear this from the Royal Horticultural Society no less!  Surely, lovely lewisias earn more respect.  Mine provide beautiful flowers f...