GARDENER'S WORD - IDEAS AND TIPS

A few years ago I bought a small variegated ivy and grew it in a small plastic pot.  I wanted more so I propagated it and ended up with three healthy plants which, this year, I have planted in a small 'Long Tom' terracotta pot.  It is so simple and yet so pretty on my doorstep.  In fact, I like it so much, I want another.  So... Ivy in a small Long Tom terracotta pot ...like before, I bought just one single ivy (hedera).  It's a slightly different one but still variegated - it's actually much prettier than the below photo.  What I chose my particularly plant for was that it had three long trailing stems which are perfect for propagation.  I planted the 'mother' plant into a Long Tom and then curled the trailing branches back towards the pot .  I found the point on the stem where it was convenient to push the stem down into the soil, removing the leaves from that point, and just pushed it into the soil with my finger.  If you look at an ...

In April last year I bought a Syringa 'Red Pixie' (a dwarf lilac) and planted it a short distance from a wooden fence at a point where it gets a few hours of sun in the morning.  After it had flowered, I trimmed the shrub in order to encourage it to grow in a fan-shape rather than as a bush.  Behind it I am growing a Dr Ruppel clematis and  jasminum officinale  (I also grow jasmine on a north-facing fence, see this link).  These three plants, two of them very fragrant (the lilac and the jasmine), are not so very far from my kitchen window and I am hoping that when the plants mature and when the kitchen window is open that the fragrance will travel into my home.  That's the plan.  I'm pleased to say that my gentle pruning, and the fact that Alfie, my Ragdoll cat, has a habit of rubbing against the lilac, haven't discouraged the lilac from flowering.  It's loaded with fragrant pink blooms right now. Syringa 'Red Pixie' So...

I love the violas that I plant just about every year in a small border, at the foot of my swing, at the top of my garden.  Did you realise that annual violas have such a sweet, delightful fragrance?  Well they have.  I also like them for their cheery 'faces' and so this year I have bought a few perennial violas which I am going to grow like my alpines in a terracotta pot surrounded by grit.  Generally speaking they are evergreen, and will tolerate exposed positions although I shall grow mine in a mostly sheltered aspect with partial shade.  They are not too fussy about soil type but do require good drainage. Here I show Moonlight, MyFanwy, Huntercombe Purple, Molly Sanderson. Viola 'Moonlight' Forgive the poor quality of some of the images.  It's blowing a gale (as it so often does) in my garden and I should have brought the plants inside, out of the wind, to photograph them.  Oh well, at least you can see the colours.  Viola 'Moonlig...

I planted Potentilla atrosanguinea 'Scarlet Starlet' last year in my perennial/herbaceous border together with many other perennials and I cannot really recall it flowering.  I think that is because I planted it close to other potentillas and I think they intertwined with each other and I didn't know which flower belonged to what plant.  Scarlet Starlet has such beautiful leaves but I realised this spring that it was in danger of being smothered under neighbouring plants and so I dug it up and put it in another part of the garden with more sunshine and less competition.  The leaves can now be truly appreciated and it has begun to flower.  They were certainly worth waiting for.   Potentilla atrosanguinea 'Scarlet Starlet' Potentilla atrosanguinea 'Scarlet Starlet' Potentilla atrosanguinea 'Scarlet Starlet'  leaves The label says that Potentilla atrosanguinea 'Scarlet Starlet' has deep scarlet flowers and luxurious grey-green le...

I planted Helianthemum 'The Bride' in a south-facing, narrow border last spring and this year it is full of white flowers with yellow centres.   I am a little disappointed with the way it has grown, though, which is rather straggly but I planted it as ground cover and it is doing just that.  The flowers, which are about 2cm dia. reminded me of little poached eggs.  Helianthemum 'The Bride' It is full of buds right now, as well as open flowers.  When it's done flowering, I am going to cut the plant back quite hard in the hope of making it bushier.  It could be my fault that it is rather leggy because I didn't cut it back last year.  We'll see.  The labels says that Helianthemum 'The Bride' is an evergreen mat-forming perennial producing masses of white flowers with a yellow centre over light green foliage.  It is suitable for rockeries, borders, walls, banks, paving, gravel gardens, and containers and pots.  It flowers from late s...

Snow in summer is such an appropriate description for Cerastium tomentosum.  It is commonly seen in gardens and, for that reason, I think we take it for granted.  It's a really useful plant though.  It's quite tolerant and grows quite rapidly, covering ugly pieces of ground and even when it's not in flower the delightful little silver leaves are pretty to look at.  The silver leaves tell us that this is a plant that really tolerates hot sunshine and likes good drainage.  Silver leaves reflect the heat of the sun.  I have planted it in a border as ground cover between taller plants.  I've also planted it near stepping stones to cover up a piece of my garden that has a drain cover just a few centimetres under the surface of the soil.  It's a must have in my garden.  It may be a horrible, rainy, start to June on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire but this plant is smiling through the rain.  Don't forget, also, that white flowers stand ...

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 ...