GARDENER'S WORD - IDEAS AND TIPS

A few days ago I sowed several seeds in pots to keep indoors until the seeds have germinated and the plants are big enough, and the weather mild enough, to put them outdoors.  I've sown some Wisley Magic runner beans , Soleil F1 hybrid courgettes , and two kinds of sweet peas (Midnight Blues and Cupid Pink).   At least, I'm hoping they'll germinate.  I've put the seeds into pots of damp compost placed inside large sandwich bags which I've tied at the necks with the ties supplied.  Fingers crossed that all will be successful.  I'll let you know. Wisley Magic runner beans 2015 Potted seeds inside sandwich bags.  If and when the seeds germinate and the little seedlings raise their heads, then I'll remove the pots from the bags. Potted seeds in sandwich bags 29042016   

We're getting it all this week - rain, wind, sunshine, hail, snow, even thunder.  I hope the weather is getting it all out of its system so that we can have a gloriously warm and sunny summer here on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire.  I posted that we had hail the other day, today we have several inches of snow and it's still coming down in great big lumps.  Snow is pretty to behold but terribly heavy and it can be seriously damaging.  Many years ago a young silver birch of mine, a tree about 15ft tall, was split down the trunk due to heavy snow, just like a peeled banana.  Fleece protecting newly bought plants from snow 29/04/2016 Maybe it wasn't necessary but as I knew snow was coming, I protected with fleece my newly bought plants which are huddled together on my garden table against the house wall (above), and I've protected with bubblewrap my Japanese Maple 'Acer palmatum dissectum 'Ornatum' against it by covering with fl...

I bought my first ever tree peony today, Paeonia suffruticosa 'Shimadaijim', at the Royal Horticultural Society garden nursery in Harlow Carr.  Although I have not yet seen the actual flower, the images on the internet and the photograph on the label is promising.  I had always thought that tree peonies were somewhat tender but apparently they are hardy.  We'll see, won't we?  How many hardy plants have I bought that have never survived the winter here high on the Pennine Mountains of West (wet) Yorkshire?   Answer: a lot!  I chose 'Shimadaijin', which means Island Minister (hardly a romantic translation), because of the depth of its colour with that golden centre. Paeonia suffruticosa Shimadaijin 27042016 Many 'named' tree peonies that we find in garden nurseries have been grafted onto a rootstock.  There were only a few Shimadaijin peonies to chose from and I chose the one where I liked the growth most, except that I could see tha...

I went to a garden centre this morning, earlier than I would usually go because snow had been forecast for this afternoon; and the weatherman/woman got it right for once.  It might not settle long as the temperature is above zero but it is coming down long and plentiful, and it does feel more like winter out there than spring approaching summer.  I've bought lots of perennial plants in pots for putting into the borders but right now they are gathered together on a table against the wall of my home with a little protection from the wall and the (closed) overhead garden awning.  No, I am not thinking that the cold might damage the plants but the weight of snow can ruin flowers and snap delicate stems.  I am just hoping that the weather doesn't damage my beautiful Obdam daffodils.  I had thought I had lost them all last winter but no, up they have come yet again.  Beautiful Obdam daffodil.  Obdam daffodils, 2nd May 2013

If I didn't grow at least a few sweet peas (lathyrus odoratus) in my garden each summer, I'd feel that I was missing out.  I never quite seem to have the success that they do at, say, the Royal Horticultural Society, but I keep on trying.  I think it's maybe my soil isn't rich enough or something but anyway they'll just have to cope with what they get the same as the rest of my plants.  I like to cut them and bring them indoors and, bless them, the more I cut the flowers off, the more they keep on coming.  Cutting off fresh flowers for the home, or cutting off dead flowers before they make seed is important if you want a prolonged season of flowers. This year, instead of buying little plants that have been started off already, I've bought seeds: Sarah Raven's varieties caught my eye and I bought Midnight Blues and Cupid Pink.   They're quite expensive at £2.90 each packet but there were 25 seeds in each so it still works out cheaper than buying t...

I have a spreading plant growing a sunny border that is in full bloom right now.  The flowers, about 1cm diameter, are a deep sappire blue.  So beautiful.  It's Lithodora diffusa 'Heavenly Blue'.  I like it so much that I bought another one the other day to plant elsewhere.  I could have taken cuttings, I suppose, but I can be an impatient garden and I wanted a second plant right now.  I have lots of spaces to fill now that I have reduced the size of my lawn.  Lithodora diffusa 'Heavenly Blue'  The label says that Lithodora diffusa enjoys sun or partial shade.  It is good for ground cover and achieves a height of 10cm (4in).  It blooms June to July and is suitable for rockeries.  Lithodora diffusa is a hardy evergreen perennial.  Mine is grown in full sun and has spread about 50cm (20in).  Although the label says it flowers from June to July, mine is in flower right now, in April, with lots of buds promising many mor...

I've always been a fan of simple yellow primroses which look so natural to me, and I've always scorned the colourful primulas which can seem too gaudy in a garden border, but there is something so special and eye-catching about the denticulata variety which a neighbour grows.  Had to have some.  So I've bought three colours which I shall probably grow in partial shade. They are hardy and perennial. Primula denticulata - white 24/04/2016 The label says that primula denticulata (drumstick primula) is a delightful plant, ideal for planting in rock gardens, or by water.  They form neat rosettes of pale green leaves and bear dense round heads of typical primula flowers on strong stems in spring.  They need rich moist soil in sun or partial shade, and flower from mid spring to summer.  They achieve a height of 30cm (12in) and a spread of 25cm (10in).  Keep moist and apply an annual dressing of peat.  

A little over a month ago I bought two small tomato plants, Tumbler and Tumbling Jester .  Since then they have grown rapidly and have become quite tall which is not what I want from tumbling tomatoes.  I thought they were bush tomatoes but since have seen them described as trailing tomatoes.  Of course, it could be relatively low light that has caused them to grow tall as they are being grown inside my home until the risk of frost has passed, but they do get morning sun in the kitchen and in the afternoon I move them to where they get sunshine until evening.  Anyway, I have potted them on.  Potting on just means moving into a bigger pot.  I always repot tomatoes more deeply, burying the lower side shoots.  I don't remove the leaves.  That sounds wrong, doesn't it?  But what it does is trigger root production from the shoot and the stem below surface level.  The more roots, the more water and nutrients the plant can take in.  T...

One plant that caught my eye for its unusual colour was the Phlox 'Blue Ridge'.  It reminded me of those perfumed Parma-violet sweets I would buy as a child.  The flowers of the phlox are not a true blue as the label would have you think, but instead a soft violet.  Phlox 'Blue Ridge' 23/04/2016 The label says that Phlox 'Blue Ridge' has clear blue flower heads above evergreen spreading mats of green, oval foliage.  It is suitable for border edges, rockeries, paving, walls, banks, gravel gardens, and containers in the sun [or partial shade] on well-drained soil. It flowers from mid spring to early summer.  It spreads about 60cm (2ft) and the flower stems are about 20cm (8in).  Apparently is also grows in partial shade and has been generally described as fragrant although I haven't noticed it yet. 

I've been buying quite a few plants for my garden this last week or two because, over winter, many perennials in my borders have died.  I blame the torrential rain for that because I think the ground became just too waterlogged and the plants drowned.  Their little roots have to have air you know.  Anyway, one of my new plants is Anemone 'Bordeaux, and what a fabulous colour it is.  Anemone 'Bordeaux' 23/04/2016  I have yet to plant it out into my garden.  We have frost and wintery showers threatening us here on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire and so I am just waiting a while.  Anemone 'Bordeaux' 23/04/2016 The label says, about Anemone 'Bordeaux' that it is a hardy herbaceous perennial with stunning burgundy red flowers over filigree foliage, May to June.  It achieves a height and spread of 15cm (6" x 6").   It is suitable for moist but well-drained soil in sun or light shade and is ideal forborders, rockeries, and con...

I always understood that, unlike daffodils, there was no point in keeping tulip bulbs year after year because they didn't flower as well, but I have found that mine flower beautifully and so do their little offspring in time. Perhaps the flowers are not as big, but it's not so I have noticed.  Late last autumn I planted winter-flowering violas in a trough under my living-room window and beneath them tulip bulbs.  I had no idea what kind of tulip bulbs as I've a bad habit of getting my bulbs mixed up.  The tulips are now flowering and it seems like they are Yokohama, Orange Emperor, and Fur Elise.  Note that the little violas are still going strong, poking their way through the tulip leaves.  Cute!  They are a lovely sight to see from within my living room. Tulips in a trough with winter-flowering violas (Tulips yellow 'Yokohama', 'Orange Emperor', and 'Fur Elise'.

I'm off to a slow start this year with my gardening and my blog has been neglected. In fairness, we have had such heavy rainfall over winter that my soil has been like wet lead and not only that but I've felt like lead and not up to doing the chores.  But I am getting a move on now, little by little.  I bought some Tete a Tete daffodils a week or so ago, eight bulbs in a pot.  After taking the photographs, I put the pot on the outside kitchen window bottom.  It's wonderful to see their bright little faces through the glass.  Tete a Tete daffodils 14/04/2016 Since buying this pot, I have bought three more pots of Tete a Tete daffodils.  The thing is, Tete a Tetes don't grow tall and so are not so susceptible to strong winds knocking their heads off.  Also, one bulb will provide more than one flower stem with often two flowers on the stem.  They really are a must in my garden.  When they have finished flowering, the bulbs will...

I bought a fern from the Royal Horticultural Society at Harlow Carr the other day.  It was the only one of its type that they had on display and when I looked to see what it was, it had no identifying name other than 'fern', which was not very helpful.  Anyway, I thought I would be able to identify it when I got home, by book or by surfing the net.  Wrong!  I am wondering if the fern is still very young and will display more easily identifiable properties when it ages.  Fern Anyway, I wrote to the Royal Horticultural Society and asked what was the complete name of this fern.  I was told that they buy in bulk from a supplier and would write to the supplier and let me know.  Several messages have gone back and forth and still the RHS has been unable to supply me with the name of the fern.   Shame on the RHS.  Imagine, the Royal Horticultural Society selling plants that they cannot identify to customers.  Each fern frond h...

Many years ago when I lived in a different house that had a conservatory, I loved to grow succulents as well as many other types of indoor plants.  While cactii are interesting, they can be savage little beasts.  One succulent, crassula ovata, grew into a beautiful bush which flowered frequently, smothering itself with little white flowers.  That plant was left behind when I moved abroad for a while.  The other day at a garden centre I bought a young crassula ovata.  At least, I think that's what it is as it had no label.  I don't have a conservatory now but I am hoping that the plant will do well anyway.  Crassula ovata I'll post photos if it flowers but I doubt it'll do that any time soon. Below, a bowl of succulents which I grew many years ago

I never grow tomatoes from seeds.  I don't see the point in all that effort to nurture the seedlings in idea conditions, transplant or prick them out into pots, and generally faff around when I only want two or three plants.  This year my tomatoes of choice are again tumblers, the type that don't need you to do much else but water, feed, and eat the fruits of their labour.  There's no pinching out of side shoots with tumblers.  From previous experience, in no time at all these will need repotting.  Watch this space. The label says this about 'Tumber' F1 hybrid: This patio variety produces loads of sweet, tasty cherr-type tomatoes.  Matures in 49 days.  Best in organic-rich, well-drained soil.  Water freely in dry weather.  Requires full sun.  Apparently this one is well suited to a hanging basket and produces a good yield of tomatoes.  Some while ago I bought some ordinary red Jester tomatoes from Marks and Spencers ...

It's been a wet but mild winter and many plants in my garden have scarcely gone into hibernation—unlike me.  Today we have beautiful weather, a little cool but sunny and dry.  Of course, it could snow tomorrow.  Who knows?  A neighbour who is happily taking my row of seven Arthur Bell roses from me and planting them in her garden has shamed me into action.  I am finding gardening more and more difficult as years go by (don't we all?) and am now getting rid of plants that give me the most work; that includes roses.  I am no winter gardener and so I try to begin my spring gardening gently, to ease unused muscles into gradual awakening.  Today I cut back the dead and straggly growth on the Arctic Queen clematis to 18 inches (50cm) or so above its base.  It might be a bit early but it's planted in a pot which is overwintering in a sheltered position and will remain there for a little while yet until I can trust the weather not to turn suddenly sp...

It may only be early January but my treasured red pelargoniums, which I like to grow in a sunny trough under my living room window, and which I potted up for overwintering indoors, are producing a few flowers on a more or less east facing window bottom.  That's not the brightest aspect for pelargoniums and they do love the sun, but all the same they are doing well.  Now and then, when it is sunny outside, like yesterday, I move them onto the living room window bottom.  I make space for them by moving some of glass ornaments and give my plants a good dose of the sun's energy.  Why don't I put them outside in the sun?  Because it is still far too cold and the change in temperature would shock them.  Why don't I keep them there, on the south/west window bottom?  Because there is a huge double radiator running under the entire length of the window and the plants wouldn't be able to tolerate the intense heat when it's on and heating the room....

After weeks of mild temperatures and flood-causing rain here in West Yorkshire, we have been warned that colder weather is approaching.  My garden plants don't know what time of year it is, with temperatures occasionally in double figures.  Although leaves have fallen off many of the climbing plants, many of the penstemons are still lush and green and there is the odd rose in bloom.  Next week though sub-zero temperatures are forecast and my thoughts have turned to those more tender plants stored in my two mini-greenhouses.  One has two covers on it; a clear one and a strong clear and green outer one.  I've been out today and put a second jacket on the other mini-greenhouse.  Mini-greenhouses with plants for overwintering Inside, under protection, there are still leaves on the flat Italian parsley, the marjoram, thyme, and other small herbs are clearly not dormant, and the fuchsias in the four hanging baskets which were cut back and de-leafed, have l...

I took this photograph, using my iPhone 5s, while strolling around the Royal Horticultural Society greenhouse at Harlow Carr nearly two weeks before Christmas.  It's now January 1, 2016 with the old year behind and the promise of spring ahead.  Spring, my favourite time of year.  Imagine!  Imagine being able to grow to juicy fruition oranges, and lemons, and limes too, in your very own conservatory, picking the acid fruits when all outside is frosty and white as it was today.  Citrus orange, RHS Harlow Carr, 16 Dec 2015 Happy New Year - 2016!

We're having more rain, and snow is forecast.  While many areas further north, particularly in Cumbria, flood with too much rain saturating the land, here, high on the West Yorkshire Pennines, the rain runs down the valley to join the river Calder and my garden is left just a sodden restaurant for birds.  For it to flood where I live, there would have to be enough rain to worry Noah.  It's the wind that gets worrying here and when the snow comes it can last for weeks.  I hate that.  Meanwhile, before the snow arrives, IF it arrives, thrushes are attacking the fat balls which I hung out two days ago, and Gold Finches are extracting husked sunflower seeds from the bird feeders.  On the ground a Woodpigeon and a Blackbird are tidying up the garden by picking up fallen sunflower seeds and bits of fat that the Thrushes and Finches have dropped—thanks for that.  It might be a bit expensive feeding wild birds all year round but on days like this, wh...