GARDENER'S WORD - IDEAS AND TIPS

It's too miserable and too early yet to risk hanging the newly planted hanging baskets outside on the wall brackets where they can be subjected to torrential rain and/or high winds.  I am over-nighting them in the breakfast room where they are safe from frost on my east-facing window but during the day I want them outside if possible, not just because they are in the way but because lack of light will make the plants weedy looking.  It's dull out there today - is it really mid May? - with intermittent gentle rain, but no wind.  Wind is a no no at this point as the newly planted bacopa and lobelia haven't had chance to extend their roots and get a grip.  I sure don't want them blowing over the fence into the neighbour's garden!  You know something? I have to tell you that my old neighbour does absolutely zilch in his garden but he has this old fashioned rose bush with stems like Nelson's Column that flowers beautifully every year, a lilac tree that flowers every ...

Today there was no rain and just enough sun and warmth outside to enable me to brave the weather and pot up my hanging baskets.  While I was initially going to just have white trailing lobelia, I decided to hedge my bets by also adding Bacopa plants, all white (not sure you can get them in a colour).  I want to try and get as long a flowering season as I can and last year the Bacopa was flowering well past October.  There are three types of Bacopa that I have used this year: Gulliver, Atlas, and Baja.  It gets very confusing because sometimes you see Bacopa sold as Sutera or Copia, or even Scopia!  Whatever! Bacopa 'Baja' Atlas is a new type that I have not seen before. It is describe as 'heavy blooming with masses of huge giant white flowers'. Huge giant? Must be big then.  I'll post photos when there are photos to post.  I'm afraid I cut them all off to make the plants produce more flowering stems.  Better to do it now than later....

This variety of strawberry plant is Cambridge Favourite.  You'll often see the large red strawberries for sale in the supermarkets as they are grown commercially but I often wonder how much the strawberry flowers are appreciated.  They are really pretty, I think.   I have all my Cambridge Favourite varieties growing in a wrought iron trough so that they are high off the ground, the slugs cannot get at them, the strawberries don't rest in dirt so there is no need for straw or plastic protection, and they form a beautiful display.  May 14, 2012   May 14, 2012 summer 2011

There are a number of different types of Heuchera on the market nowadays and I have two that I see on display time and time again:  Marmalade and Liquorice.  Heucheras are herbaceous perennials - they die down in winter and emerge year after year in spring. Actually, they don't completely die away in winter but retain a covering of old leaves which, I think, protects the crowns again the freezing cold. They seem to tolerate some shade as well as full sun.  Heuchera 'Marmalade' You can particularly see that Marmalade has lots of new leaves growing. You know, it really is special as the top of the leaves are shades of yellow and orange and the underneath the leaves is quite pink. Beautiful.   Heuchera 'Marmalade' enhanced photograph Heuchera 'Marmalade' enhanced photograph    Liquorice Liquorice absolutely glows and looks best away from other plants of a similar colour which makes it stand out even more.  The photograph...

As I don't have the luxury of a greenhouse or conservatory, I germinate the seeds of more warmth-demanding vegetable plants indoors.  I have courgettes, cucumbers, and sweet peppers on my window bottom.  I find the zip bags that I use for freezing food, very useful for this purpose.

A few years ago I owned 12 phalaenopsis orchids which were blooming beautifully and all died when I moved home.  Since then, I have moved home yet again and am dying to give growing them another go.  So, good luck to this one.  It's on an east facing kitchen window bottom. I believe, in an earlier post, I mentioned that I had one like this before, a white one that was in bloom when I bought it and on just one stem it continued to bloom non-stop for 13 months.  That too was a casualty of my moving home and I am still grieving for it!  :)  This is it, below.  You cannot see it but the stem goes up above the top of the photo and then arches down.  The stem just kept getting longer and longer, producing more and more blooms.  Do you think 13 months might be a record for an orchid to bloom on one stem, non-stop?

In an earlier post I mentioned that I had bought all my hanging basket plants ready to put into the baskets but it is blowing a gale out there, it keeps raining, and I don't have the luxury of a greenhouse or conservatory to work in.  So for now, I am keeping my plants in what I call my breakfast room (which is hardly every used for eating breakfast).  The plants are protected from frost not only by the indoor heating but also by Alfie, my Ragdoll cat who doesn't seem to mind sharing his territory too much. 

Still buying roses for my home and, for a change, I bought red.  One of the reasons that I seldom bother with red roses is that they rarely, if ever, have a fragrance.  But these are really pretty albeit fragrance free - don't know the type.  I bought them a few days ago and they are still not in full bloom so I am expecting a few more days from them yet.   The way I keep my roses lasting is to keep shortening the stems, bit by bit, chopping off a little bit more every day or two.   It is my understanding that bacteria breeding in the water clogs up the stems and stops the rose from taking up the water, so by keep cutting off the stems, little by little, you help prevent this from happening.   Always cut your rose stems off at an angle.  Sometimes I even split the bottom of the stem a little.

The months of the year are zooming along and I suppose the wintery cold, and grey clouds, and pelting rain have made me feel that it isn't yet time to be preparing hanging baskets and so forth.  However, when I looked at my blog posts for this time last year, I see that my hanging baskets were not only planted but they were filling out.  I had been actually hanging them outside during the day and bringing them in only when frost was expected in the night.  See directly below... 13 May 2011 And they were still going strong in October 2011 although you will note that the begonias didn't fare quite so well and the trailing lobelia plants which were planted in the sides were almost finished.  You can just see straggly lobelia showing at the bottom right of the image.  The white bacopa plants, that you see almost filling the baskets, were actually only planted in the top of the baskets!  Bacopa hanging basket in October 2011 However...

It's early and I am looking out of the window at another miserable, dull, rainy day. The weather of this month and last month is seriously affecting my joie de vivre.  The BBC announced that last month, April 2012, was the rainiest for 100 years and the bets are on that this May is going to be the coldest May for the last 100 years.  Oh great!   And there was I, thinking: 'it wasn't like this last year was it, in the UK, in West Yorkshire, in my neighbourhood, in my flipping garden?'   Ok, getting a bit over the top here but take for example my garden last year at this time.  I had my hanging baskets out.  There were lots of leaves on the roses.  The strawberry plants had tiny fruits growing amid the flowers.  The honeysuckle was full of buds.  Strawberries 12 May 2011, overwintered outdoors Strawberries 09 May 2012 - overwintered and kept in polytunnel In comparison, there is hardly a flower bu...

Someone kindly bought me a 'Thank you' gift of a small, double-flowered, clematis.  I received it in a small pot and it is quite young but so very pretty.  I have no idea what the name of it is or how it likes to be cared for - different strokes for different clematis, apparently.   I want to grow it in a pot so it can clamber over my shed.  I do hope I don't go and kill it off.  Clematis I know, the flower is a little tatty as something with big 'teeth' has got at it.   It's pretty though.  I'd say it is about 2 inch across.  I only grow one other clematis which I have mentioned before, Arctic Queen.  It is doing to me exactly the same thing as last year; looking dead.  All I see so far is dark brown stems and no sign of life.  I hope it comes bursting into action like it did last year.  Arctic Queen

I'm having a change this year and trying a new variety of courgette, as well as trying my hand at growing cucumbers.  I've never been successful with sweet peppers, except when I lived in the tropics.  Here in the UK, I get the plants to grow but they never make fruit.  But I shall persevere.  The courgette I have decided to try this year - although the Soleil F1 Hybrids I grew last year were brilliant- is Sunstripe F1 Hybrid.  Courgette Sunstripe F1 Hybrid As you can see, they are yellow with a pale stripe.  Thompson and Morgan describe them thus:  British breeding of unique shiny golden yellow with striking white striped cylindrical fruits of a wonderful flavour and texture.  Compact, open bush habit plants with spineless stems produce easy to see fruits in abundance among the green foliage.     While I have grown cucumbers in the tropics and more successfully than I could believe - I ended up giving them away by the ...

Although we've had a lot of cold spells lately, the plants in my polytunnel are coming along just lovely.  I've kept a close watch on the strawberry plants so that there are no rotting leaves at their base to trigger off disease.  My strawberry plants are now in their second year and I shall allow some runners to propagate new ones this year.  I have several varieties of strawberri and there are loads of flowers on them already.  I've had to take the strawberry-planted trough out of the polytunnel to make room for the pelargoniums and tomatoes which were crowded my little breakfast room.  You can get a lot of plants in a small space  I like to keep things in pots so that I can use the spare ground I have for planting courgettes and other things that are less happy in pots.  Cambridge Favourite strawberry grown in trough The trough is now outside of the polytunnel and hopefully the plants will do well.  I'm keeping the others inside t...

Last year I was so pleased to be able to eat raspberries and loganberries straight out of my garden, even though the plants were still quite young and not producing quite as many as they might.  This year they are older and already there are hundreds of buds appearing.  Would be nice if the weather could permit fruit to completely ripen before the wind comes along and blows them all over the fence for the birds.  Loganberry buds Loganberries - fruit on last year's canes.  Loganberries fruit on last year's canes.  The above are canes from last year and already, at the base, it is pushing out new canes which will fruit next year.  The trick is, when pruning, not to cut down the wrong ones! I admit I get confused about when to prune my raspberry, Polka.  Polka is a primocane type - often called Everbearing - and primocanes bear their main crop of fruit in late summer on the present year's new canes.  You are supposed to cut down t...

Worldwide the weather is changing, and don't we all know it.  At least in the UK we do.  One minute we have no water at all, next minute it is pouring down on us and causing flooding.  Fortunately for me, I live high up, nearly 900ft above sea level, which means that I don't suffer from flooding but I do get high winds that snatch up the water out of the ground causing plants to need more water.  Often we are under threat of a hosepipe ban but I have no downpipe from my house gutters and no water for a great big water butt to collect rain.  So, today I invested in a large, lightweight but squashy 'Tubtrug'.  I know, it's hardly a water-butt or dustbin but my space is limited and when we are in a dry period I can shove it out of the way or use it for other things - like bringing in the dry washing!  As you can see, when compared with the 2 gallon watering can, the Tubtrug can hold a lot of water.   

Rain has stopped play in my garden for a week or so now and the ground is absolutely saturated.  As my soil is heavy, it is far too difficult to do anything right now but hope for sunshine.   It'll be time to planting up the hanging baskets soon and maybe today I shall sow the courgette, cucumber and sweet pepper seeds in pots.  I see that under the fleecy polytunnel where I sowed seeds over a week ago that things are germinating, particularly the radish seeds which are always first to come up.  The rain has battered the heads of the tulips that flowered a few weeks ago but another kind, which has matured much later, is now in flower:  Peaches and Cream.  It is really compact and lovely.  While with the other varieties of daffodils and tulips that I planted last year one or two bulbs didn't produce anything, Peaches and Creams has been the best.  Every one of the 8 bulbs planted has produced a perfect flower and the leaves are glorious...