GARDENER'S WORD - IDEAS AND TIPS

I first planted Phlox paniculata 'Cherry Red' at least ten years ago, 2015, in front of my south facing fence. Over time, the nearby Acer palmatum 'Katsura' slowly grew into a monster. Well, not exactly a monster but it had grown to over 7ft high and easily as wide, and it had thrown everything growing under it and near it into shade in the process.  The phlox, meanwhile, struggled along in the shadow making flowers as best it could and, in truth, I pretty much forgot to move it. Last year, though, I attacked Katsura with my Niwaki pruners and saw, turning it into a multi-stemmed tree rather than an oversized bush, and the phlox took advantage of the light and this year has put on quite a show. I feel quite ashamed that I had let it struggle for so long. lol  It's a rather loud red; how could I have overlooked it?  Phlox paniculata 'Cherry Red' - 07 August 2025 If you want a plant that just gets on with it, without any fuss, you might like to try this reliab...

Each year, ahead of harsh weather, I make sure I bring indoors my pelargonium plants.  I've been growing the same ones for years, generation after generation, each spring taking cuttings and discarding old, woody plants.  Today, as weather forecasts hint at nighttime frosts coming soon, I removed all the young pelargoniums from a trough I have under the living room window and transplanted them into four pots (about four in each pot) which will stay in the kitchen on a window bottom until next spring.  Pelargoniums in pots for overwintering indoors Pelargoniums in an outside trough The pelargoniums are about eight months old and they have flowered all summer and are still in flower. Next spring, they will provide cuttings for a new generation.  Originally, I bought one plant and from that ancestor, I have had a yearly supply of youngsters to liven up my garden.  The flowers are a beautiful red, bordering on cerise. They are such a red that my cameras,...

Do you ever grow a herbaceous plant and when it comes back, after winter, can't remember what it is?  I do.  This year a beautiful plant started to make the loveliest of leaves, such a bright green, and I could not remember what it was and then thought it might be a potentilla, but then I couldn't remember which one.  I know now, because I have never seen such a vibrant red except for a rose.  I recommend this plant, Potentilla Monarch's Velvet .  It's lovely in the border. Potentilla Monarch's Velvet Potentilla Monarch's Velvet leaves  The label says that Potentilla Monarch's Velvet has a long succession of rich raspberry red flowers with darker centres above clumps of mid-green serrated foliage.  It is suitable for borders, in sun, on moist but well-drained soil.  It flowers mid summer to early autumn and achieves a height of 60cm (24in) x 45cm (18in).  Potentilla Monarch's Velvet Potentilla Monarch's Velvet

It's miserable out there.  It's rained all week here in West Yorkshire, in fact much of the UK, and I cannot help but think we had better weather during the third week of February when we had that unprecedented heatwave for a week!  Still, Storm Hector hit in June 2018 , right about this time, so I shouldn't complain.  Not yet anyway; who knows what next is on the meteorological cards.  What makes me most miserable is that, after waiting all year for the flowers to bloom in my garden, the rain is wrecking them.   Red / cerese pelargonium One thing that is looking mighty good though is a much loved red pelargonium (actually, it's more cerese, a colour that neither my iPhone 5s nor Canon EOS 6D can quite capture). I have placed the plant inside the garden room, for now.  Got to pay it respect; it's the mother of this year's tray of recently (April) propagated pelargonium plants.  They'll be planted into container...

For several years I have grown the same Cherry Red Phlox in my garden and every year it gives a good display of flowers.  Pretty as they are, they are somewhat wasted if the fragrance cannot be appreciated.  I originally bought one plant (they are perennials) which I divided a few years ago and they grow really well, so now I have an abundance of flowers, a number of which I have cut and brought indoors. Their perfume is quite heady. Cherry Red phlox Cherry Red phlox and September Charm Japanese anemone, 2015. 

I've grown Wisley Magic runner beans for a few years and they always provide lovely straight bean pods after the loveliest of scarlet flowers.  Bees love them, and so do I. This year I decided to just grow a few up a metal garden obelisk.  I germinated the seeds and grew the plants a while before planting, but slugs still managed to eat all but two of the plants.  So I encircled the two surviving plants with sharp gravel and they survived.  I won't have a heavy crop but I am happy with what is growing.  And watch those runners run.  It's almost like you could watch them grow, they do it so fast.  I am training the runners beans to wrap around the obelisk and it's almost as if, as soon as my back is turned, they just go any direction they please.  Coincidentally, perhaps, although the climber is coiled around the obelisk, the leaves all seem to be opening on one side, the sunnier side. Wisley Magic runner bean growing on garden obelisk...

Often, in a garden, I find that seedheads can be really attractive long after the flower petals have long gone.  I expect there are thousands and thousands of plants that create lovely seedheads, so these are just a few from my garden.  And one strange seedhead or seed case that arrived in my garden from goodness knows where and to this day I have no idea what it is.  seed case or seedhead  Astrantia major 'Hadspen Blood' seedheads Astrantia major 'Hadspen Blood' seedheads Chive seedheads after beautiful flowers Chive seedheads Pulsatilla seedhead Pulsatilla seedhead Seedhead of Clematis Gillian Blades . Seedhead of Gillian Blades clematis Seedhead of clematis Dr Ruppel Seedhead of Dr Ruppel clematis Seedhead of the spring-flowering alpine clematis 'Constance' .  Seedhead of clematis alpina 'Constance'  Japanese  anemone seedhead  Anemone seedhead (with greenfly) Japanese an...

Two years ago I planted two lilacs: Syringa vulgaris 'Madame Lemoine' (a white one) and Syringa vulgaris 'Andenken an Ludwig Spath' (a deep wine red).   The latter has come on wonderfully and is full of flowers right now but poor Madame Lemoine has had a rough time of it.  She grows not far from my garden room and, at the side of my garden room, I have a water butt which was blown over several times during gale force winds and damaged that white lilac.  It took two small paving stones on top of the water butt to keep it in place.  Anyway, Madame Lemoine has kindly provided one beautiful white flower for me and hopefully, water butt allowing, she will give me more in the future. Syringa vulgaris 'Madame Lemoine'  Syringa vulgaris 'Madame Lemoine' Have to mention before I go and forget, we have had the most glorious weather since May started off rather badly.  It has been sunshine, sunshine, and more sunshine.  My garden room has come in v...

We are having glorious weather here on the Pennines of West Yorkshire.  Yesterday it was sunshine from dawn to dusk with the gentlest of breezes, and inside the garden room it reached 27 degrees celsius with both doors and the window wide open.  The pelargonium cuttings (geranium cuttings, if you prefer to call them that) which I took this spring (I always do mine in spring) have all taken but one.  You can see how I do it in the link.   This year I put two cuttings into each small pot.  As I have mentioned before, all my zonal pelargoniums are the descendants of one plant I bought years ago.  Window box (trough) of Pelargoniums (photo taken through glass, summer 2012)   Above: If you put a trough under your living room or kitchen window and plant it with red zonal pelargoniums, this is what you might see from inside summer through autumn.  Nice, huh?  I do it every year. Zonal pelargonium cuttings ...

There's definitely a chill in the air this morning, foggy too, and for me that's a reminder that frosty nights and days are on the way.  Winter!  Under my living room window I grow a trough of pelargoniums (often called geraniums) which I plant each spring.  Pelargoniums originally come from South Africa, I understand, and they are not fully hardy.  Certainly they are not hardy enough to cope with the harsh winter sub-zero weather that we can get here on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire.  They don't like to be frozen or waterlogged.  They like sunshine and warmth (a bit like me really).  So, the other day I gently dug them out of the trough and planted them into pots and placed them under the shelter of my garden room's overhanging roof.  They'll be happy enough there for a little while longer, facing south-west, and when the weather becomes harsh (and I expect it will) I can pop them inside the unheated garden ro...