Innholdsfortegnelse for 4-Aug-2018 i Amateur Gardening

WHEN I planned these pages they were going to be about filling the gaps that can appear mid-season between early- and late-flowering plants. However, as most of us haven’t had any significant rainfall for several weeks, it made more sense to show you how see your new plants through drought. The ground is dry right though – dig down a spade’s spit (length of the blade) and the soil is warm and friable, every trace of moisture gone. Our fine, chalky soil feels like it’s about to turn to sand, while those of you gardening on clay will find the ground rock-hard and crazy-paved with deep cracks. Both can be improved by digging in well-rotted manure and compost to boost their structure and water-retaining abilities. Obviously, soil this dry isn’t…

Water regulators Ofwat have advised against using hosepipes on the garden, to save water supplies, so what can you do instead? Re-use water from washing up and hand washing and collect the water you run from the hot tap while it’s warming up. Don’t waste water on trees and shrubs. Use it on herbaceous perennials and annuals and your fruit and veg. Create a wall of soil around new plantings and water inside it. It acts as a temporary reservoir and will give the water time to sink down to the roots.…

Although lavender is at its most pungent when it is first in bloom, it retains its scent all summer and can still be cut now for potpourri and lavender bags. Grasp a handful of stems and carefully cut through using a sharp knife, secateurs or scissors. Tie the flowers in bunches and hang them somewhere airy, cool and out of direct sunlight. Hang a paper bag or old pillowcase underneath them to catch any falling flowers as they dry.…

Self-seeded cultivated plants brought into beds in home-made compost can be saved and planted up elsewhere. Biennials, such as these foxgloves, will sit through the winter, putting on root growth, then take off next spring and flower in May and June. Carefully lift them using a trowel and try to keep lots of soil around their little roots. Pot them up in multi-purpose compost, water well and grow them on until the autumn, when they can be planted out where you want them to flower next spring.…

1 Choose a healthy length of unflowered stem, around 4-6in (10-15cm) long and pinch off the leaves along one section. 2 Wound or cut a small area with a sharp, clean gardening knife. This is the area that will form new roots. 3 Press this area into dampened soil and weigh it down with a clothes peg or stone. You can dip it in rooting compound if you wish. 4 Water the area and make sure the stem remains in contact with the soil. Roots will form in a few weeks when the new plant can be cut from the parent and potted up.…

FOR once the lyricists have been right and it truly has been a good year for the roses. Despite – or maybe because of – this year’s topsy-turvy weather, our plants have put on their best show yet and most are still going strong. The shrub roses are still flowering and the only one to have gone over is an old white rambler that covered the front of the house with small densely packed blooms in late spring. It grows fast and has been making a concerted bid to cover up the front door, so once its flowering was over I cut it back so it is contained again. Late summer is the best time for routine pruning your rambling roses, keeping them in check and removing spindly, damaged and…

4: RHS Gardening Advice: RHS Harlow Carr, Crag Lane, Harrogate, North Yorks HG3 1QB. 0203 176 5830, rhs.org.uk/gardens 4: Garden Landscapes photography workshop: Barnsdale Gardens, The Avenue, Exton, Oakham, Rutland LE15 8AH. 01572 813200, barnsdalegardens.co.uk 4-5: All About Orchids: RHS Harlow Carr. rhs.org.uk/gardens/harlow-carr 5: Croquet and Pimm’s on the Lawn: Barnsdale Gardens, 01572 813200, barnsdalegardens.co.uk 5: Open gardens and plant fair: 1620s House, Manor Road, Donington Le Heath, Coalville, Leics LE67 2FW.planthuntersfair.co.uk 5: Dog Day: Easton Walled Gardens, Easton, Grantham, Lincs NG33 5AP. 01476 530063, visiteaston.co.uk 5: Picnic Day: Easton Walled Gardens.visiteaston.co.uk 8: RHS Hydrangea Day: Abbotsbury Sub-Tropical Gardens, Buller’s Way, Abbotsbury, Weymouth DT3 4LA. 01305 871387, abbotsbury-tourism.co.uk 8: Fruit for Smaller Gardens: RHS Garden Rosemoor, Great Torrington, Rosemoor, Torrington, Devon EX38 8PH. 0203 176 5830, rhs.org.uk/gardens/rosemoor 8: Guided Tour…

“The bees prefer the dog rose to the modern climber” WHILE walking to the village one evening in June, I couldn’t fail to notice that there were several dog roses on the front of the older cottages. We have one at Spring Cottage and it’s almost certainly a relic from a rose long gone, because roses used to be grafted onto Rosa canina , the dog rose found in hedgerows. The single pale-pink roses have a generous boss of golden stamens and small red hips follow. These hips look very festive round the door at Christmas time, so I’ve never considered removing my wilding rose, despite the fact it’s rather prickly. A few feet away, we have a miniature climber called ‘Open Arms’. The flowers are almost the same colour,…

1 Left to their own devices, runners will form a tangled mess of plants, so don’t let them! Get some 3in (7cm) flowerpots, a bag of multipurpose compost and some 6in (15cm) length of wire. Fill the pots with the compost, water well and allow to drain. 2 Select strong, healthy runners from your strawberry plants and locate the strongest plantlet on each one. Using a trowel, excavate pot-sized holes roughly where the plantlets rest on the soil. Peg each plantlet into its pot by bending the wire over the runner. 3 Water each plantlet in well, then leave it to root. You’ll need to keep the pots watered during dry spells, too – so don’t forget them. Come the autumn, the plantlets will have rooted. Detach the runner from…

WITH hardly a drop of rain falling in my county of Essex during June, and July giving us a similarly dry spell, it pays to take a look at how we can conserve water in the garden (even if you’re sitting in a deluge come August). Each and every summer is going to give us hot, dry weather at some point, so how do we ensure our crops don’t suffer as a result? Well, reusing household water is one answer – and by that, I need to explain a few terms. You may have come across the phrase ‘grey’ water – this refers to water from the kitchen bath, shower or basin. It also refers to water from washing machines and dishwashers, but these are generally too detergent-heavy to give…

Pruning is mainly needed on young trees, to create a good branch structure. Prune in summer to avoid infection by silver leaf disease. Mulch in spring with well-rotted manure, to retain moisture and provide nutrients; feed with a nitrogen fertiliser in late winter. Keep moist; the mulch will help. Bullfinches can eat the flower buds in spring. To prevent this, use fleece or netting to keep them off your tree. Look out for aphids. If you spot any, tackle with your favourite treatment. On mature trees, the weight of the crop can break branches. Support them on strings tied to a stout central post. Don’t expect to pick your entire crop in one go – plums tend to ripen over a two- or three-week season.…

Aster x frikartii ‘Mönch’ Masses of 3in (8cm)-wide lavender flowers with a golden eye smother 3ft (90cm)-tall plants from August well into until October Miscanthus sinensis ‘Ferner Osten’ Rich-red feathery flowers soar well above 3½ft (1m)-tall clumps of wide green leaves that take on coppery hues in autumn Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’ Golden-yellow daisies with a conical dark centre top 2ft (60cm) stems from late summer until the first frosts Coreopsis grandiflora Flying Saucers Large bright-yellow flowers, loved by bees and butterflies, are held above 18in (45cm) stems from June until November Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’ This grass has a tight, upright habit with 2ft (60cm)-tall stems and light-green flowers that fade to white as they…

‘Andenken an Friedrich Hahn’ AGM Fresh green, slender, pointed foliage is the ideal backdrop to the bright crimson flowers with their carmine streaks in the throat. Reliable and prolific, this is also one of the hardiest. Sometimes sold as ‘Garnet’. H: 3ft (90cm). ‘Evelyn’ AGM A neat, bushy plant with narrow foliage. Slender wiry stems support pink flowers streaked with dark magenta in their throats. Very hardy and prolific, it holds its flowers well. Can be sold as ‘Sissinghurst Pink’. H: 28in (70cm). ‘Osprey’ AGM A little taller than many penstemons and superb in the middle or towards the back of a mixed border. The large, fat, white flowers have rose pink lobes, a combination that is both harmonious and lovely. H: 4ft (1.2m). ‘Alice Hindley’ One of my favourites;…

Take cuttings of non-flowering shoots in September. Trim to 3-4in (8-10cm), just below a leaf joint, and remove the lower leaves. Place in pots of multipurpose compost, water well, then stand pots in a seed tray and cover with a propagating hood. Place tray on a cool windowsill or in a cold greenhouse – be sure to keep your cuttings out of the sun or they will soon shrivel. Once they start to grow you’ll know they are rooted. Pot on if necessary, and keep them cool, then frost-free over winter, for planting out in spring.…

Q My sister-in-law gave me these – are they lucky clover plants? Roy Ellis, via email A The black-centred leaf is from Oxalis tetraphylla ‘Iron Cross’, also known as the good luck plant. The parent is a native of Mexico. A hardy bulbous perennial whose pink flowers complement its fetchingly coloured leaves, it’s ideal for edging a border. Q This large fungus is in my veg patch built of old wooden sleepers. Should I get rid of it? Denise Beckley, via email A This fungus is likely to be growing on the wood, but may be growing on woody material in the compost. There’s no need to be overly concerned. There are many fungi and they help recycle dead plant material and are best left undisturbed. Q Is this plant…

Q My weigela and certain other shrubs never flower. I suppose it is too late now for this year? Is there anything I can do to persuade them into bloom? Claire Cahill, Telford, Shropshire A Weigela (as well as deutzia, Hydrangea macrophylla and most philadelphus) should have bloomed or be in flower by now, but I’m going to describe a scenario you may find familiar. Imagine a garden overplanted with shrubs that, after a lovely spring, put on a lot of growth. All seems well, and they go unpruned. At some point, maybe in autumn or the following spring, these shrubs begin to make a nuisance of themselves and their busy owner thinks, “I must tame them”. With no clear plan and having started to chop, it seems logical to…

Garden visiting This weekend hundreds of gardens across the UK will be open, either to raise money for charities or just to show off our gardening skills. Eleven million visitors a year flock to National Trust gardens, and if you add to this the thousands of gardens in the National Gardens Scheme (England and Wales), Scotland’s Gardens Scheme, English Heritage and those of keen amateurs who just like to do their own openings, you can see that garden visiting is something akin to a national obsession. If you fancy visiting a lovely garden, but don’t know where to start looking, go to rhs.org.uk/gardens/search-form. Just enter your postcode, and up will come dozens of suggestions of gardens near you, with opening times and other details. Buckingham Palace Gardens If there is…

NOT far from where I live, there used to be a rose nursery. I worked there as an apprentice, tending the scented rows of floribundas, climbers and hybrid teas. My boss, who was suspicious of the ‘modern world’, wasn’t one for new varieties – preferring roses bred earlier in the 20th century. He reasoned that roses were ‘new’ for 50 years, so there was little point grafting plants that few customers would have heard of and fewer still would buy. “Open-centred roses are doing so well” I thought he was wrong, believing ‘new’ was synonymous with good, but now as I walk through the town, I can see evidence of how long-lived and healthy the roses he sold to the townspeople are, even today. Although the nursery is long gone,…

1 Stand your plant in water and dig its planting hole, lining it generously with well-rotted organic matter. 2 Water the hole well, giving the water time to sink in, then adding some more. The organic layer will hold on to the moisture. 3 Tease out the roots so they will travel out, anchoring the plant and questing for food and water. Plant and firm in. 4 Water the plant well afterwards, slowly so it doesn’t run off, and layer a generous amount of mulch over the roots.…

1 Stand your plants in water first so their roots are soaked and won’t stick to the sides of their pots. 2 Add compost to the can. I use multipurpose as it has enough nutrients to see the plants through summer. 3 Start planting. Trailing varieties can be slipped under the ‘hood’ and still tumble down the sides. 4 Mix floral trailing plants with foliage and upright varieties to create height and contrast. 5 Once all the plants are in, top up the can with extra compost. Any gaps will be filled as the plants grow. 6 Water and place somewhere with sun and shade to keep the metal cool. Keep moist and check for pests.…

1 Pinch out the tops of unflowered lavender spires or cut around 6in (15cm) of new rosemary growth. 2 To keep the cuttings fresh and cool before planting, place them in a plastic bag that is slightly dampened with water. 3 Strip away the lower leaves, dip the cut ends in rooting compound and insert the cuttings into trays of dampened seed compost and perlite. 4 Place the cuttings in a light and warm place. Once you see them start to grow they will have rooted. Wait a few weeks and pot them up into individual 3in (7cm) pots.…

PINKS, and their close associates the carnation and sweet William, have been cultivated for centuries. They are treasured for their beauty, scent and easy-going nature. Thriving where many other plants falter, they delight in neglect and poor soil. In fact, if you try to grow them in enriched borders they will throw out over-large leaves and reduced flowers; for once, treating them mean really does seem to keep them keen! I have several pinks dotted around the garden and they love our thin, chalky soil. Having said that, they will do well in most places as long as they are not overshadowed and their soil drains well. Pinks – also known as dianthus –come in many shades and are versatile enough to grow well in borders as well as containers,…

IT is not much fun getting old and no one teaches you how to cope with advancing years. There is training and education pre- and post-natal, then at nursery, reception, primary and secondary schools, apprenticeships, colleges, on the job training and mature students – but nothing to help the aged. Where one in a long-term partnership falls to dementia, the other one has to become a full-time carer and learn to cope with this cruel affliction, plus all those tasks previously shared. Elderly people in residential homes do respond very well to the arrival of young children, and gardening is a good shared occupation. When we introduced school children to growing mint in teapots (for mint tea!) it worked so well, a similar exercise was tried at a residential home.…

1 This is the last chance to feed roses – do so later and the new growth risks being damaged or killed if it doesn’t have time to harden and mature before winter. 2 Roses have shallow root systems that can be easily damaged if you use a hoe. Remove weeds with a hand fork instead. 3 Pull out rose suckers from below the ground. They emerge from the plant’s rootstock and will return more vigorously if cut off. 4 Roses in containers are at risk from drying out, so water well every day during dry spells. Use mulch to help retain moisture.…

“The grubs need eradicating as soon as possible” ONE of the most insidious of garden pests is the vine weevil, and unless you’re observant they can decimate your garden plants before you even suspect that any are present. The first sign of trouble is that plants develop missing sections of leaf edge, as if they had been cut out. This may be attributed to slugs, snails, caterpillars or even leaf-cutting bees, but an inspection by torchlight will reveal black beetles with a very long snout – these are the vine weevil adults. They will drop as soon as they are disturbed, and cunning gardeners place newspapers under the plants during the day, so the offenders can be gathered up later. However, this damage to the leaves – although appearing awful…

AS soon as they’ve finished cropping, summer-cropping varieties of strawberry (such as ‘Alice’ and ‘Pegasus’) begin to throw out loads of runners. These are wiry little stems with young ‘plantlets’ forming regularly along their length. The plantlets take root and new plants are formed – it’s that simple! Strawberry plants crop well for their first three-four years so if you own young plants such as these, there’s no need to propagate from them unless you want to bulk up stock. Older plants become less vigorous, so this is when it pays to peg down their runners to get new plants, then throw away the old ones. ‘Perpetual’ strawberries (such as ‘Mara de Bois’) don’t tend to produce runners so freely, so plants are best divided in autumn. Next Week: Sow…

IF the only plums you ever eat come from the supermarket, you’ll never have experienced the wonderful flavour of a plum picked fresh from the tree. Supermarket plums are, so often, varieties chosen for their ability to travel well from growers far away. They’re hard and tasteless, and if all plums were like this you’d be justified in never considering planting a tree of your own. Luckily, they’re not. Bite into a just-picked ripe ‘Victoria’ plum, a ‘Czar’ or an old-fashioned greengage and the shock will have you reeling. They taste amazing! There are delicious varieties for eating fresh from the tree, plus options for cooking (some of the best of all plums can be eaten fresh or cooked). And the juice… They look great, too, with fruits ranging in…

All my six choices have a fine flavour, but texture is also important. AGM winners ‘Blue Tit’, ‘Marjorie’s Seedling’, ‘Opal’ and ‘Victoria’ are relatively firm, while ‘Cambridge Gage’ and ‘Oullins Gage’ have softer flesh. For jam and other cooking – rather than eating fresh – consider ‘Purple Pershore’ as well as ‘Rivers’s Early Prolific’ and ‘Yellow Pershore’, although these last two are not quite up to AGM standard. Cropping season is another consideration. If you plan to grow more than one variety, make your choice with successional cropping in mind. ‘Czar’ and ‘Opal’ are ready first, in late July, followed by ‘Oullins Gage’, ‘Purple Pershore’ (for cooking) and ‘Victoria’ in mid August, with ‘Cambridge Gage’, ‘Jefferson’ and ‘Marjorie’s Seedling’ coming in at the end of the season, in mid September.…

Apart from tackling beds and borders, keep tabs on summer bedding plants, whether they’re in pots, hanging baskets or in the ground. A few minutes’ attention every day will ensure they don’t just earn their keep until the end of summer, but will also brighten up plots until the first frosts. Water plants daily, or even twice a day during really hot periods, to ensure they continue to flourish. If you forget to water during sunny spells, stems will soon start to wilt and leaves will hang listlessly. Although flaccid plants will perk up after a drink, they never seem to return to their former glory. Many of us feed bedding once a week from late spring onwards, using a high-potash fertiliser like Tomorite. Regular watering during hot, dry periods…

On fertile soils first remove the topsoil. Create a sterile seed bed by covering the area with black plastic or a weed membrane for at least three months. Alternatively, use an application of glyphosate. Dig and rake the soil to a fine tilth. Wait four-six weeks for any weeds to germinate, then remove these with a hoe or weedkiller. On well-drained soil, autumn is a great time to sow your meadow. Mix seed with silver sand so you can see where you’ve sown – this will make it easier to get an even distribution. The amount of seed needed per m² will vary, so check the seed packet. Firm the seed into the soil, using the back of a rake or your feet. Water, and continue to water during warm,…

1 August 1935 On this date, Percy Thrower, 22, left his job at the Royal Gardens in Windsor, Berkshire, to be a journeyman-gardener at Leeds Parks Department in South Yorkshire. He later became a TV presenter. 3 August 1803 Sir Joseph Paxton, architect and landscape gardener, was born. Apart from his love of gardening, he designed the Crystal Palace, became an MP and edited The Gardeners’ Chronicle magazine. He died on 8 June 1865. 4 August 1608 Horticulturist John Tradescant (the younger) was born. He made plant-collecting trips to Virginia in the USA, and succeeded his father (c1570-1638) as Keeper of the King’s Gardens at Oatlands, Surrey. He died in 1662. 4 August 1996 Writer and TV gardener Geoff Hamilton, presenter of BBC 2’s Gardeners’ World , and arguably the…

YOUR plants are already vulnerable in dry conditions. Even if they are watered regularly, they may start to wilt in between and recovery takes a lot out of them, leaving them more susceptible to problems. The dry weather makes many pests and problems less of an issue, but you still need to keep on top of them. 1 Deadhead regularly to remove spent plant material and promote continued flowering. Check for pests at the same time. 2 Watering is essential for many plants, especially container-grown displays that will also need regular feeds of liquid fertiliser. 3 Earwigs infest dahlias. Set a plastic pot filled with paper on a cane near the plants. Earwigs climb in overnight and can be removed each morning. 4 Keep on top of weeding, even in…

WOODY herbs such as lavender, rosemary, thyme and sage are wonderful, but can become straggly with age. Falling outwards, they reveal a centre of bare, woody stems. In the wild they favour thin dry soils in warm climates where the conditions keep them in check, but here they grow with gusto, so need trimming back to maintain a tidy rounded shape. This should be done twice a year. The best time is early spring, just as they come back into growth, but you can also cut them back now, once flowering is almost finished. It’s easy to do – simply cut back the spent flower stems to a healthy pair of leaves on around one-third of the plant. In spring, when they start to grow again, cut back the other…

Cut healthy lengths of new growth that haven’t flowered immediately below a leaf node. Strip off the lower leaves and pinch out the tips, dip the cut ends in rooting powder or gel, tapping off the excess. Insert the cuttings around the edge of a 4in (10cm) pot of dampened cuttings compost and grit or perlite. Seal the pot in a plastic bag and place it somewhere light and warm until the cuttings take and grow. They can be separated and potted on individually when large enough.…

Raised beds are wheelchair friendly and suit folk suffering with damaged backs. Scented leaved pelargoniums grown in teapots can be a good alternative to mint. Don’t forget there are lots of different mints to try – including apple mint and chocolate mint! Fragrance is essential in gifted cut flowers – Dianthus ‘Bridal Star’, D. ‘Pink Ruffles’ and D. ‘Red Carpet’ (Whetman) are three new tall-stemmed, fragrant pinks, ideal for cutting.…

GLORIOUS drifts of cornflowers in the brightest imaginable shade of blue used to be a common sight around the edges of fields. Sadly, this isn’t the case any more, thanks to the widespread use of agricultural herbicides, but luckily cornflowers will happily slot into many garden planting schemes. A hardy annual native to Britain, cornflowers are easy to grow – making them ideal for novice gardeners as well as those with more experience – and will bring many bees and butterflies your way. Grown from seed, they are also an economical way of adding extra colour to gardens. This week’s free seeds are for ‘Blue Ball’ cornflowers, which bloom with intense ‘blueness’ and are a perfect addition to wildflower gardens and meadows, borders and containers. They like full sun and…

1 Inspect fruit trees on the sunny side for signs of ripening, then spread any old duvets or similar underneath to cushion falling fruits. 2 Check all your late ripening apples, pears and quinces, thinning out all the misfits so that the rest will benefit. 3 To crop next summer, plant out newly rooted strawberry runners in a new bed and keep them weeded and watered. 4 Don’t let up on picking beans – pick thoroughly and water well, so you can get another month or more of cropping.…

CAN anything be better than walking onto the plot and picking punnet upon punnet of fresh, home-grown fruit? I think not, which is why I’ve been looking at ways to extend my picking season of currants, gooseberries, strawberries and blueberries. These tend to give us a glut of fruit in June and early July, but run dry come August – how frustrating! But with a little research and careful planting, you can add late-maturing varieties to your collection, which guarantees pickings right through the summer months, rather than just at the beginning. As an added bonus, many late-maturing varieties flower later in the year too, avoiding risky frost periods. For example, take blueberries ‘Goldtraube’, ‘Dixie’ and ‘Jersey’ – all three begin cropping in August. Gooseberry ‘Martlet’ is a newly introduced…

IF you’re like me and you didn’t irrigate your alliums this year, then I empathise with your tiny bulbs! Luckily, I don’t like large onions for the kitchen and shallots are intended to be small. If, however, you’ve watered beds of shallots, onions and garlic this summer then you might have a decent harvest on your hands. The foliage of non-watered plants will be turning yellow already – a sign that the outer leaves of the bulbs are drying up, which prepares the crop for storage. If you have been irrigating, stop doing so now to give your bulbs chance to dry out. Gently sliding fork prongs under each clump to part-ease the bulbs out of the soil also helps. Then either leave them on the soil surface or (if…

Source your trees from a specialist mail order nursery: the choice is amazing compared with what’s available at garden centres. Order now and they will arrive from November. Trees will be bare root – dug from the nursery – so plant as soon as possible after receiving them. Dig a hole large enough to take all the roots without twisting them. Don’t add organic matter unless the soil is very sandy or very heavy clay, and don’t fill the planting hole with compost. Young trees need support, so get a stout stake in place before planting.…

AS far as meteorologists are concerned, autumn arrives in a few weeks’ time, but that doesn’t mean that summer’s almost over. It’s actually easy to keep the season going and even to extend interest into autumn. All you need to do is plug the gaps with some late-flowering beauties and give planting schemes some attention, ensuring that they look good for longer. Thinking about tackling planting schemes at the tail end of summer can be daunting. Most will now be looking a tad tired after the abundance of high summer, or contain a mass of overgrown plants that have seen better days. However, don’t despair, as even the most unpromisingly bed or border can be whipped back into shape. A good place to start is with multi-stemmed perennials that are…

Agastache Bold, densely packed upright spikes in two-tone purple make ‘Blackadder’ (right) a fine partner. Or, try the softer, slightly greyish tones of ‘Blue Fortune’. ‘Cotton Candy’ also harmonises well in two-tone pink. H: 32-39in (80cm-1m). Cotinus The rich purple foliage of ‘Grace’ and ‘Royal Purple’ (right) makes a fine background for showcasing penstemon flowers. Pruning is easy, and will keep these popular shrubs to the size you need for your garden. H: 5-10ft (1.5-3m). Artemisia The silvered foliage of artemisias sets off penstemons well. Shrubby kinds such as ‘Powys Castle’ help cover any bare patches at the base of penstemon stems, while ‘Lambrook Silver’ (right) can go in amongst penstemon plants. H: 1-3ft (60-90cm). Roses If you favour harmony over contrast, then roses are perfect with penstemons. Their flowers…

What is this exotic new arrival? Q This strange plant has appeared in the garden near some foxgloves. Is it a type of lily? Prue Kirby, Horam, East Sussex A This is a cultivar of the species Zantedeschia aethiopica and I think it might be ‘Pink Mist’. The flowers are narrow and have just a faint pink tinge to them. The common name for Zantedeschia is Calla Lily and they originate from southern Africa. They occur naturally in areas where soil is rich, water is plentiful and humidity is high. They prefer a sunny and sheltered spot. Many varieties can be grown out of doors all the year round, as long as the ground doesn’t freeze. If your garden is subject to frost or prolonged periods of cold temperatures, it…

Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora ‘Star of The East’ Burnt orange buds open to large, tangerine blooms from August, showing well against bright green foliage. Plants enjoy sun and reach 32in (80cm). Alstroemeria ‘Indian Summer’ If you try only one alstroemeria, try this: the dark buds of this dramatic beauty open to a fiery peach, yellow and purple against dark reddish bronze leaves. Blooms from May to autumn, to 3ft (1m). Dahlia ‘David Howard’ With dark foliage, a bushy shape and double orange blooms from summer to autumn, this dahlia sits easily in borders and pots, and reaches 30in (75cm). Salvia patens ‘Oxford Blue’ Known as gentian sage, these large, rich blue flowers will open from midsummer to autumn on plants 45cm (18in) high. Best overwintered under cover,…

Blade Tech G2 Knife & Tool Sharpener £14.95 free delivery 01492 640664 bladetech.co.uk Features Flat aluminium body 4in (10cm) long and 1 1/2in (3.6cm) wide with polished tungsten carbide sharpener. Includes lanyard and Evermore lifetime warranty. Performance Slim and small enough to fit comfortably in a pocket, and big enough to use easily. Place the Blade Tech flat and overhanging the edge of a flat surface, place the blade edge in the ‘V’ slot and draw downwards with light pressure. It’ll put a fine edge on a gardening knife in a couple of strokes. It will also sharpen shears and scissors using the shoulder of the carbide block rather than the ‘V’. Fits easily right to the back of fixed secateur blades, but can also tackle axes, rotary…

Westland Gro-Sure All-Purpose Compost is ideal for pots, containers, beds, borders and hanging baskets. It contains four months’ feed and offers ‘superior moisture control’ – which means it is easy to re-wet and has excellent moisture retention for up to 50% less watering. It is also 50% lighter than standard multi-purpose compost, making it easier to transport. We have two 50-litre sacks to give away, each worth £6.99. See below for details of how to enter the prize draw. How to enter Send your name and address on the back of a postcard to Gro-Sure All-Purpose Compost Draw (4 August), Amateur Gardening, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 7BF. Or you can email your details to ag_giveaway@ti-media.com, heading the email Gro-Sure All-Purpose Compost Draw (4 August). The closing date…

“People are amazed at how quickly it’s grown!” VIEWS over open countryside and the opportunity to create a garden from scratch were something of a deal clincher for Steve and Pam Routly when they moved into their new-build home three years ago. A few months later, they set to work on the L-shaped grassy sward around the back of their property, creating no fewer than 80 metres of borders to fill with colourful plants. At the heart of their plans was a desire to enjoy their garden – and the countryside beyond – throughout the year, with shrubs and fruit and ornamental trees providing permanent structure but not obliterating the views, while colourful bulbs, perennials and grasses would ring the changes in the seasons. Other must-haves included roses, with 50…

Roses with single flowers are loved by bees, because there are fewer petals blocking their route to the pollen – and their open structure makes them an easy landing pad. Most are scented, too, but without petals to lock in the fragrance their aroma is quickly lost to the air. That said, the price is worth paying, as they’ll produce a crop of colourful hips that look good long into winter. This is true for repeat-flowering single varieties, too, as long as the spent blooms aren’t deadheaded much beyond September.…