GARDENER'S WORD - IDEAS AND TIPS

Oh wow, I nearly overlooked posting about this fabulous narcissus called Jetfire. It has  wonderfully rich yellow petals and an orange trumpet. This year is the first time I have grown them. I stuck them all in a single pot, and it has worked out very well, I think.    Narcissus 'Jetfire' Narcissus 'Jetfire' I'm looking forward to Jetfire reappearing year after year.  Talking about reappearing, some years ago I planted a few bulbs into the garden borders after they had flowered in pots, and they never really seemed to make an impact but this year, this year they are really starting to showing off here and there!  Narcissus 'Geranium' It is highly fragrant and multi-headed. Narcissus 'Geranium' Not everything is a success as any gardener, professional or amateur, will tell you. Several varieties of Narcissi seem to have disappeared and I may buy more this autumn because they are so beautiful.  Narcissus 'Silver Chimes' Narcissus 'Silver C...

I bought and planted an awful lot of bulbs last year, literally hundreds, as I wanted a 'cheer-up-it's-spring' display after winter which, at least in West Yorkshire, seems to last forever.  I don't just have them in tubs but they are also in borders and a trough under my living room window.   A medley of spring bulbs in tubs on a sunny patio - early April In between the containers that are in full flower are containers with bulbs which have not yet flowered but soon will. In some cases, I have plastic tubs inside large terracotta containers so that when the spring bulbs have finished, I can lift out the plastic tubs and plant things for summer flowering.  When you only have small garden, (mine is under 30ft x 30ft) you have to make the most of the space you have.  A medley of spring bulbs in tubs on a sunny patio - early April At the end of February, I created a post showing the spring bulbs back then before the daffodils and tulips put on a show.  Here is...

The coronavirus known as Covid-19 has taken hold of the UK as well as many other countries in the world. Right now, the UK is in lock-down and I am self-isolating. I am going to make the best of it and keep myself mentally and physically healthy by keeping occupied. A short while ago I received an online order of seeds and two or three days ago I sowed Oranges & Lemons sunflower seeds in small pots. I have the pots in a  Stewart Premium 52cm Thermostatic Electric Propagator  that I bought a couple of months ago and it seems to be doing the trick. Already they have germinated. I wanted to grow something that pollinating insects and subsequently birds would appreciate, as well as myself. Unwins Oranges and Lemons Sunflower The label says that these sunflowers attract birds, are great for cutting, and are strong growing plants. They achieve a height of 120cm (4ft) and should be grown 45cm (18in) apart. They can be sown indoors March to April and outdoors April to May. To...

Last winter, by accident, I left an  Osteospermum juncundum  in a garden container and it survived. Osteospermums are South African plants and to think it survived all winter here, high up on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire, is remarkable, I think. When I saw it growing in spring, I repotted it and it has flowered all summer, making bud after bud. It's lovely and healthy.  In fact, it is still in flower right now, late October, and still full of buds.  This winter, though, I am taking no chances and I've  taken it into my garden room . You watch, it'll drop dead on me now I'm giving some of my tender loving care!  Osteospermum jucundum  According to the Royal Horticultural Society information on Osteospermums , they have a plant hardiness rating of H3.

I have crocosmia, or montbretia, flowers appearing each year in a ridiculous stony place right next to some concrete steps, right next to a gate.  You'd think they wouldn't survive but, each year, up they come!  This year, so that I can enjoy the sight of the flowers for longer, I have cut them and put them in a vase on the kitchen windowsill.  They look lovely between the two  Phlebodium aureum 'Blue Star ' ferns, also known as Rabbit's Foot Fern .   Crocosmia aka Montbretia, cut flowers Here is a RHS link to a post on Crocosmia vs Montbretia .

I don't often go for clashingly contrasting colours in my garden but I like this jolly little pot of violas and Osteospermum jucundums (African Daisies).   The orange Osteospermum jucundums actually survived outside, in a pot, unprotected, throughout last winter and I never expected it to keep on going.  So, I planted a tray of pretty, multi-coloured, violas around it expecting the Osteospermum to die off, but it didn't, and it's orange, bright orange.  I think it deserves to live and they all look rather jolly together in the one container. Violas surrounding a centrally planted Osteospermum jucundum (African Daisy) plant Sometimes gaudy is good.  Colourful bunch of cut flowers from M&S Violas grown in a border - 2013 Osteospermum jucundum flower, orange with yellow centre

Last year I bought several varieties of narcissus bulbs for my garden borders and containers.  The idea is that they will multiply and I plan to have them among the herbacious perennials which flower in summer.  That's the plan!  Anyway, this one is a little cutie with multiple-heads to each stalk and a fragrance which is powerful.  The flowers are small but impressive with creamy white petals and an apricot corona (the bit in the middle that sticks out).  Narcissus 'Doll Baby' The label says that the planting time is September to December with flowering April to May the following year.  The height is 30cm (12in or 1ft).  Plant the bulbs pointed end upwards and grow in moist but well draining soil or compost in sun or partial shade. 

Another gloriously sunny day for Easter Saturday.  Here, in the UK, we usually expect it to rain on bank holidays!  Anyway, it is sunny with blue sky and temperatures in the 20s.  My garden, which is mostly a summer garden, looks lovely with all the daffodils put on a show.  I bought several varieties of bulbs last year which are now in bloom and, of course, there is the ever-reliable Tete a Tete among them.  Narcissus 'Falconet' is one of my new narcissus, or daffodils if you prefer to call them that.  They are really lovely and the fragrance is divine! Narcissus 'Falconet' The label says that they enjoy sun or partial shade and like moist, humus-rich soil - I grow mine in Miracle-Gro All Purpose compost.  They achieve a height of 14", are highly-fragrant and, as you can see, are multi-headed: there are four flowers on the stem in the above image.  Narcissus 'Falconet'

Wow!  I got a surprise today when I was pottering in the garden.  It's glorious weather for Good Friday with the temperature here on the Pennines of West Yorkshire in the 20s.  I was watering and feeding plants growing in containers when I was hit by a glorious fragrance. I'm looking around, wondering where it was coming from, thinking it was from outside my garden, and realised it was right under my nose!  It was some of the narcissus which I bought and planted last year and which I am growing in a free-standing trough: Narcissus 'Geranium' is highly fragrant.  Narcissus 'Geranium' - highly scented The fragrance of narcissus Geranium reminds me of lilacs, or violas, or even hyacinth.  The perfume is sweet and heady.  Next year I shall plant them where the fragrance can be appreciated more than in a trough in front of the raspberry canes.  Additionally, narcissus Geranium is multi-flowered and I have counted between...

The other day I was mooching around the RHS garden centre at Harlow Carr and I couldn't help but notice a stunning dahlia called Tahiti Sunrise.  Fabulous pink (which went perfectly with my nail varnish!) and a soft-yellow at the base of the petals.  I had to take a photo, see below, and it has not been digitally altered in any way whatsoever.  Although I don't grow dahlias any more (too much faffing around overwintering them), I still admire their spectacular and varied flower displays and envy those who can have borders filled with them without losing them to freezing temperatures during winter months.  Dahlia 'Tahiti Sunrise' If you get confused about the difference between dahlia dead heads and flower buds , at this internal link you can see the difference quite clearly. I used to grow a lovely dahlia called Fascination but, after years or growing from the same tuber, I went and forgot to protect it one year and it is now, sadly, deceased.  It...

It's been a while since I last posted but summer can be a quiet and lazy time for me in the garden—just mowing the lawn, dead heading flowers like those on the buddleias and roses, stuff like that.  However, this morning I mowed the lawn, then edged it and cut around the paving stones with my long-handled shears.  Yesterday, I was having a chat with the neighbour and I noticed that thriving nicely in her rather bedraggled lawn was a solitary bright orange flower amid several other little plants which had not yet flowered.  Jealously, I had to know what they were but she had no idea.  She said that they had sown themselves and that down the road, in other neighbouring gardens, there were lots of them right now.  So I Googled to find out what it was.  I'm not so jealous now.  The flower is Hieracium aurantiacum also known as Orange Hawkweed which is considered to be an invasive plant and a noxious one at that, i.e. harmful to the...

Osteospermum is a strange name for a beautiful flower, don't you think?  Apparently it is named such because the seeds are very hard: osteo = bone; spermum = seed.  Osteospermum jucundums are also known as African Daisies, which I think is a much nicer name.  Anyway, while at the RHS garden centre in Harlow Carr a few days ago, I bought five osteospermum plants which were on offer.  I've stuck them in a largish container (which had held disastrous ranunculus plants) and put them in a sunny spot at the top of the garden, next to the lovely buddleia, Buddleia davidii Nanho Blue.  At least, it was a sunny spot for the last few weeks, until today.  Today we have much rain and I am so thankful for it after many many days of very dry, hot, and sunny weather.  Keeping the plants alive was getting to be a real chore, and tap water just isn't the same as rain, as rain puts nitrogen into the soil.  You can almost see the plants sit up and beg fo...

I was astounded the other day when I noticed that the gaudy yellow and red flowers of a dahlia called 'Pooh' were attracting pollinators.  I'm not talk about one or two, I am talking about bees and hoverflies jostling for space on the golden stamens.  I'm only sorry that my photographic skills let me down and I didn't manage to get all the clear photographs I would have liked.  The insects were quite civilised about getting their share.  One bumblebee trod on another bumblebee without hostile reaction while the hoverflies kept to their own, separate, space.  I managed to get a photograph with two bees and two hoverflies but there was a point when it all got very crowded, with hoverflies waiting to land, and I just did not know where to aim my macro lens.  Anyway, two shots were fairly decent. 'Pooh' dahlia flower with hoverflies and bumblebees  If 'Pooh' dahlia isn't a magnet for pollinators, I don't know what is.  A bumblebee on ...

I used to think there was a difference between Crocosmia and Montbretia but, apparently, they are the same plant.  I had called the one we commonly see, the orange one, Montbretia; and I had called the bright coloured red ones Crocosmia.  Just goes to show, you live and you learn.  Whatever we choose to call them, they are certainly survivors and are considered invasive in the United Kingdom and, apparently, it is illegal to plant them in the wild.  An indication of what survivors they are is that I have a less than pretty corner in my garden where the dustbin is, where the bag for the recycling of paper, tin, glass and plastic is, where the patio ends and there are steps to a side gate.  The ground where the post is set into the ground is rocky with aggregate and concrete, and there is little by way of soil but, still, a Montbretia has found its way there, sprouted and shot up of its own accord.  It's a survivor alright. Montbretia - Sept 20...