Innholdsfortegnelse for 18-Jan-2020 i Amateur Gardening

1 Check plant protection after winter storms. Tread down frost-heaved soil, replace insulating mulch and straw, make sure tree ties are secure and that cloches won’t blow away. 2 Uneaten bird food can transmit parasites and diseases, so scrape it off and wipe down the bird table with a weak disinfectant solution. Keep birdbaths and feeders clean and stocked with fresh food and water. 3 Deadhead flowering houseplants and cut away old leaves. Water sparingly when compost is dry and only feed those that are blooming or growing. An organic invigorating spray helps keep them healthy and pest-free. 4 Turn single-use plastics into multi-use. Fruit punnets are ideal for growing seeds and plastic bottles can be cut in half to make mini-cloches. 5 Keep adding to and turning your compost,…

PLANT conservation charity Plant Heritage has launched its new website ( plantheritage.org.uk) showcasing a huge variety of plants, including rare threatened cultivars, plus information about its National Plant Collections. Visitors will be able to search for any collection, from mighty oaks to miniature orchids. The site also contains conservation and cultivation advice, how you can help to save rare plants, and details of the annual plant exchange and specialist plant fairs. Keep our horticultural history alive Vicki Cooke, plant conservation manager, says: “We’re a nation of gardeners who have a rich history, but this history does not maintain itself. Our 650 National Plant Collections have a vital part to play in keeping our horticultural history alive, so please visit the site and find out more.”…

1 Green manures are the legumes, rye, tares, buckwheat and fenugreek that are sown in late summer and autumn to replenish intensely grown and exhausted beds. They grow into a thick carpet that fixes nitrogen in the soil (the legumes) and prevents it being washed away by rain. In late winter and early spring, or a few weeks before you want to use the ground for sowing or planting, cut down the growth and let it wilt down into the soil. If it has grown very thickly you can leave most to rot down and add the rest to the compost or other bare areas of soil. 2 Once the greenery has rotted back, you should fork it and the roots back into the soil. Once you’ve done this, leave…

WHETHER they are grown in the border or in containers, lilies are the easy-to-grow supermodels of the gardening world. Asiatic lilies are among the earliest to flower. They do best in well-drained soil in full sun or very light shade, as too little sun will weaken their stems. Below I show you how to plant them in a container, but if you are growing them outside wait until the weather warms up a little before planting. Make sure the soil drains well, as bulbs rot in heavy soils that are prone to sitting wet. You can improve drainage by digging lots of manure and grit into the soil, to open it up, before planting. If you have cats, be aware that lily pollen is extremely toxic to them so try…

25: Close-up Photography: RHS Garden Wisley, Wisley Lane, Woking, Surrey GU23 6QB. ✆ 0203 176 5830, rhs.org.uk/gardens/wisley 25-Feb 2: Heralding Spring: Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London SW3 4HS. ✆ 020 7352 5646 or visit chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk 26: Big Garden Birdwalk: RHS Wisley 30: Getting The Best from Your Roses: RHS Garden Hyde Hall, Creephedge Lane, Rettendon, Chelmsford, Essex CM3 8ET. ✆ 0203 176 5830, rhs.org.uk/gardens/hyde-hall 30: Pruning and Training Climbers: RHS Garden Rosemoor, Great Torrington, Rosemoor, Torrington, Devon EX38 8PH. ✆ 0203 176 5830, rhs.org.uk/gardens/rosemoor 31: Understanding Your Soil: RHS Garden Wisley 31: What Now in Jan and Feb? RHS Garden Harlow Carr, Crag Lane, Harrogate, North Yorks HG3 1QB. ✆ 0203 176 5830, rhs.org.uk/ gardens/harlow-carr February  1-29: Festival of Snowdrops: East Lambrook Manor Gardens, South Petherton,…

LIVING in a village with a name like Cold Aston we’re not short of cold days, and when I look back to last spring and summer it was decidedly chilly in spring and far from flaming in June. It was mostly wet and windy day after day, with a mini-heatwave at the end. I think the unseasonal weather here explains why certain insects are in short supply in my garden. I usually have a small influx of harlequin ladybirds, just a few luckily, but this year there are none in the end bedroom. On the plus side, we have seen far more seven-spot ladybirds than usual, so presumably the absence of harlequins has benefited them. “These soft-bodied creatures are great predators” The most worrying thing is the lack of garden…

✓ If you can stretch to it, buy a propagator with an in-built thermostat to give precise temperature control. ✓ Keep your irrigation water at room temperature, when watering seedlings. This deters damping-off diseases. ✓ Boost light levels by cleaning any glass or polythene covers. Consider artificial lighting units, which are now more realistic in price. ✓ Buy a thermometer! This will help establish the maximum and minimum temperatures to which your seeds and seedlings are exposed. ✓ Don’t waste more pricey seed compost on larger seeds; use cheaper multi-purpose for beans, peas, squashes and sweetcorn. ✓ Write on your labels with pencil. This stays put, yet is easily removed with a scourer and soap, allowing for many years of re-use.…

1 If you’re growing potted trees, these can be moved under cover now. This crucially keeps leaves dry when they emerge later in the year, which prevents the peach curl spores from germinating. 2 If you’ve fanned your tree against a sunny wall, this can be cloaked in a polythene lean-to. Erect a wooden frame and then staple the polythene to it. Larger, free-standing trees are tricky to cover. 3 Your tree will bloom before leaves appear. Under protective covers, these need hand-pollination – dab a small paintbrush from flower to flower when they’re fully open. Remove covers in mid-May.…

South-facing Vitis ‘Brant’ AGM Ideal for cloaking a pergola in summer, the generous green leaves will burn bronze and crimson in autumn, when the vine produces bunches of small, sweet, black grapes. Likes neutral-to-alkaline soil. HxS: 20ftx39in (6x1m). East-facing Clematis ‘Helios’ A must-have for the small garden, in late summer and early autumn this compact tangutica clematis is hung with flowers in the sunniest shade of yellow. It then produces fluffy seedheads that catch the autumn light – a real talking point. H&S: 6½ft (2m). West-facing Trachelospermum jasminoides ‘Variegatum’ AGM Confederate jasmine with variegated glossy evergreen leaves that blush red in winter. In summer, its starry white flowers exude a powerful tea-like scent. Must be on a sheltered wall. HxS: 10x6½ft (3x2m). North-facing Schisandra…

What do I do with rose plant? Q I am new to gardening and was given a rose plant for Christmas. It is in a pot, and despite looking up how to plant it, I’m still scared that I’m going to do it wrong and that the rose will die, refuse to bloom or get black spot. Edina Williams, Boston, Lincolnshire A Oh, the responsibility of the gifted plant! That said, roses are incredibly resilient, it takes a lot to kill them, and your plant will stand a better chance of thriving planted out than it would left languishing in the pot. Although technically, roses can be planted from containers at any time of the year, the time between autumn and spring is best, as long as the soil is…

Miracle-Gro is giving AG readers the chance to win two gardening bundles, each worth £16.97, to ensure your garden is fully prepared for spring and summer 2020. This is the perfect bundle for keen gardeners and includes essentials such as the Miracle-Gro Growmore Garden Plant Food, which contains an essential mix of nutrients for all plants, and Miracle-Gro Compost Maker, which speeds up the composting process of kitchen vegetable waste. Eco-friendly gardeners will also love the Miracle-Gro Bone Meal Root Builder, which is a 100% organic fertiliser and naturally releases nutrients to build stronger roots and guarantees greener, healthier trees and shrubs. We have two bundles to give away, each worth £16.97. How to enter Send your name and address on the back of a postcard to Miracle-Gro Draw (18…

Unheated propagator: Plastic tray with fitting, clear plastic lid, usually with adjustable ventilation. Vermiculite: Sterile, inert, lightweight mineral that insulates and protects seeds but allows light through. Damping-off: Fungal disease that causes the base of seedlings to rot. Leggy or drawn: Seedlings that produce an abnormally long stem, which is weak. Net curtain: Fine, semi-transparent white fabric. Coldframe: A protective box with opening windows, or tiered shelving with a transparent soft plastic cover.…

Always the soft option I AM a keen gardener and ran my own gardening business for many years. I was always horrified to see people supporting their lovely plants and shrubs with wire; they would call me to have a look at a sickly climber or shrub, its life shortened by wire. I will not use the coated wire ties except for holding canes together. I started recycling everything years ago and found a perfect tie in discarded woolly winter tights. I cut across the leg part into bands and then you have all the other bits, too; they are very soft and springy, and last for years. I have 15 clematis, and each year when they start to sprout long shoots I tie them in using a loose knot,…

WINTER is a good time to break open the compost heap and harvest the good stuff from the base. If the soil isn’t frozen, it can go straight on borders, either spread evenly or piled in rings around hungry roses. You can tell when compost is ready, as it smells sweet. The longer it’s left, the less apparent the ingredient twigs and leaves will become, which makes it better for use on veg beds, where seeds are sown into it. But even before they have rotted completely, the compost is good to use around shrubs, as once spread the twigs soon disappear.…

CONTRARY to the long-held belief that plants in the natural world are always in competition new research has found that in harsh environments bigger plants help smaller ones survive, and in return they help them to thrive. The first study to examine plant interactions in a hostile environment over their lifespan found that plants sheltering seedlings actually help the smaller plants survive and are more successful themselves – a process in ecology called facilitation. ‘Ecological desert’ The study, led by Dr Rocio Perez-Barrales at the University of Portsmouth and Dr Alicia Montesinos-Navarro at the Desertification Research Center in Valencia, Spain, looked at adult and seedling plants in the ‘ecological desert’ of gypsum soil in the south-east of Spain. Dr Perez-Barrales said: “If you’re a seedling in a barren landscape –…

THIS week, I have been mainly thinking about soil, because as winter draws on I’m itching to get back outside and start sowing and planting this year’s crops and flowers. It won’t be too much longer before the first signs of spring and the warmer weather make their presence felt, but for now our best course of action is preparing the ground in readiness. If you mulched borders and beds in autumn, the winter weather will have helped to break the mulch down and enrich the soil. Any green manures sown should be ready to cut back and dig in about now (see right), but do remember to wait at least a fortnight before restarting cultivation. The cold will have penetrated right down into the soil, so over the next…

THE hot summer of 1976 and soaring vegetable prices – along with TV show The Good Life – encouraged a greater interest in grow-your-own fruit and veg. Lawns were dug up, demand for allotments increased, and sales of vegetable seeds were greater than those for flowers. Currently, we see a renewed interest in growing our own, but now it has been brought about for reasons of health and sustainability, as well as the problems of eco-unfriendly packaging and reducing food miles. Crops are now less likely to be grown in the ground, but rather in containers, growbags and raised beds, with the numbers of tomatoes grown this way becoming top of the pots! “Crops are now less likely to be grown in the ground” Growing in sterile pest-, disease-and weed-free…

If your roses are still hanging onto a few hips, this is your last chance to harvest them for seeds. The seeds need a spell of cold to germinate, a process called stratification. You can sow them and leave them outside if the temperature remains cold enough. Alternatively, after preparing them you can bag up the seeds on a paper towel soaked in cold water and peroxide, and put them in the fridge for six-10 weeks prior to sowing. To stratify the seeds you need to remove them from the hips and then soak them in a container of tap water with two teaspoons of household bleach. Stir and rinse in muslin cloth. Disinfect the seeds once more by soaking them for up to 24 hours in peroxide. Rinse again…

WE all love birds in our gardens, so let’s put up more bird boxes. Natural nest sites are in short supply and limit the ability of birds to breed, and they will be starting soon. By putting up boxes, we bring birds in that will raise families, all fed on bugs caught nearby. Blue tits and all their kin, wrens, robins, hedge sparrows and so many other small insectivorous birds are really good assistants to us. Thus, we need several nest boxes, varying a little; some with a bigger entrance hole, some smaller. We also need a few boxes with an open front, as these are preferred by some birds, such as flycatchers. “Natural nest sites are in short supply” Obviously, boxes should be somewhere the birds can fly up…

YOU know how the saying goes, ‘Proper planning prevents poor performance’. This is absolutely the case when propagating your vegetable seeds. Those carefully selected packets (often costing around £3 a pop these days) are way too precious to treat shoddily, so how do you guarantee germination success? Providing the basics Seeds need sufficient water, oxygen, heat and light to germinate. Let’s look at these in turn. Water should be clean (avoid stagnant butt water) and not ice-cold. A watering can or hose offering a steady, fine droplet supply is ideal – just don’t overdo it or let things dry out. Sufficient oxygen is important for freshly sown seeds to be able to respire (breathe) and release waste gases. Lack of oxygen, caused by waterlogging or compacted compost, can cause seed…

WE’RE all incredibly familiar with the red-skinned, white-fleshed summer radishes that grow in a flash to give peppery little roots, but how many of you have tried growing their slower-to-mature, hardier relatives? Collectively termed ‘winter radishes’, these varieties buck the visual trend and give you valuable cool season harvests now, while summer types like ‘Scarlet Globe’ are still sitting snugly in their seed packets. With a crunchy, peppery taste, why not try ‘Black Spanish Round’ with its curious black skin and white flesh, or striking ‘Mantanghong’, which has white skin and deep red flesh? These two are round and can easily grow to the size of a tennis ball. Torpedo-shaped ‘China Rose’ has red skin and white flesh, whereas ‘Mino Summer Cross’ bears elongated white cucumber-shaped roots. All are sown…

1 Winter brassicas will keep you in greens until mid-spring, but only if pigeons don’t obliterate them, so keep your netting in good order. 2 Onion and garlic ropes hung in a dry, airy spot should keep well, but check them over regularly for – and remove – any rotten bulbs. 3 Heavy snowfall may look pretty, but it can splay out the stems of woody herbs such as rosemary and lavender, so knock it off them. 4 If you’ve not already done so, cut down your autumn raspberry canes. The usual treatment is to take them all back to ground level. 5 Loose-leaf hardy salad plants may be looking tired now. Cut them back hard and cover with cloches to revive for early spring pickings.…

Subtle style Carex comans bronze-leaved A low-maintenance, arching, evergreen grass that looks lovely in mixed containers. The leaves have a reddish tint that goes particularly well with red-toned foliage plants. Flowers: Jun-Jul. HxS: 8inx1ft (20x30cm). Galanthus nivalis AGM Buy snowdrops in little pots in flower, for adding to your container display. Once they’ve gone over, you can plant them out in the garden, where their bright blooms will delight next winter. Flowers: Jan-Feb. H&S: 4in (10cm). Heuchera ‘Plum Pudding’ Heucheras are versatile evergreen bedding plants with foliage in many colours. Choose one with extra oomph, such as ‘Plum Pudding’ – its purple-red leaves will bring out the reddish tones in the carex. HxS: 26x20in (65x50cm). Striking stems Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ Unbeatable…

Chaenomeles speciosa ‘Moerloosei’ AGM A pretty Japanese quince that not only produces white-pink spring blossom but also fragrant autumn fruit (delicious mixed with apple in a pie). It’s excellent grown as a deciduous wall shrub; any aspect. HxS: 6½x10ft (2x3m). Holboellia latifolia The broad-leaved sausage vine has glossy evergreen leaves and fabulously scented spring flowers in lime-white or purple. The blooms are succeeded by sausage-shaped purple fruit. Needs a sheltered south- or west-facing wall. HxS: 16x10ft (5x3m). Ampelopsis brevipeduncylate ‘Elegans’ Owes its common name (variegated porcelain berry) to the combination of green leaves mottled with pink and white, and autumn berries that start pink-purple before eventually turning lagoon blue. The stems are also pink. South- or west-facing. HxS: 10x6½ft (3x2m). Humulus lupulus ‘Aureus’ The…

Unless it is self-clinging, you’ll need to attach trellis (or eye screws and horizontal wires) to the wall before you plant your climber. Water the plant, then dig the hole, 1½ft (45cm) from the wall. Loosen the soil well and fork in plenty of organic matter. Position a fan of hazel sticks or bamboo canes in the hole, ensuring they lean against the wall. Plant the climber at an angle, firm in and tie the shoots to your hazel or bamboo fan.…

‘S. Arnott’ AGM A tall, upright, imposing plant with rounded, strongly scented flowers – equally impressive in the garden and the vase. Easy to grow, it increases well and produces no seedlings. H. 8-12in (20-30cm). ‘Viridapice’ AGM This form of G. nivalis stands out for its consistent green marks at the tips of the outer petals – they perfectly complement the intense green tips of the inner petals. Both easy and reliable. H. 5-7in (12.5-18cm). G. elwesii ‘Comet’ AGM An undemanding snowdrop with shapely flowers held on arching stalks. The inner petals have a green mark, while the tips of the outer petals are sometimes (but not always) marked in green. H. 8-10in (20-25cm). G. x hybridus ‘Merlin’ AGM One of my…

1 Spread well-rotted garden compost, manure or other soil conditioner over the soil surface and fork in. Dig a generous hole and fork the base of the hole if it seems at all compacted. 2 Make sure the rose has moist roots. Remove it from the pot, tease out any congested roots and observe where the variety was budded onto the rootstock; this has to end up at or just below soil level. 3 Place in the hole and add or remove soil beneath the roots so the plant sits at the correct level. If in doubt, lay a cane across the hole to check. Sprinkle a product containing mycorrhizal fungi over the roots before filling in. 4 Finally, fill in around the roots with soil, firming gently and spreading…

THE first Gro-Bag was launched on this date by Fisons. It was aimed at the professional grower, and four years later was followed by the Gro-Bag for the amateur. It took the gardening world by storm. It was invented purely for gardeners who grew tomatoes, and who were fed up with having to replace all the soil in their greenhouse borders every few years (tomatoes build up soil pests and diseases over time). The bags were cheap, and they gave superb crops; a few old timber greenhouses were even reported to have collapsed under the weight of the crop being supported from hooks in the roof struts. Gro-Bag sales soared – that is, until the Great Hurricane of 1987, which flattened lots of greenhouses across southern England. Most were never…

Do ✓ Choose a bright windowsill facing south or west, preferably without a radiator directly underneath. ✓ Water compost before sowing seeds and covering them with vermiculite. ✓ Turn seedlings in pots regularly or provide a reflector to maintain upright growth. Don’t ✗ Overwater seedlings or use dirty pots, both of which encourage damping-off disease. ✗ Crowd seeds in pots or trays, as they’ll be more prone to damping-off, more prone to growing ‘leggy’ and more difficult to prick out. ✗ Let strong sunlight scorch seedlings – shade them with a net curtain or sheet of newspaper.…

GRADUALLY a rosette of pointed leaves fills out, the flower stem rises 2-3ft (60-90cm) high and in summer the creamy buds will open, usually to double blooms of a heady, sweet fragrance. This is the excitement awaiting growers of the tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa), a member of the Agave family known as ‘mistress of the night’, when perfumes intensify. Of Mexican origin, plants are thought to be extinct in the wild, possibly thanks to cultivation by the Aztecs. The tuberose reached Europe in the 17th century, and it has a long history of use in creating perfumes, from the parfum de Trianon (Trianon’s bouquet’) that was favoured by Marie Antoinette to Chloé, which was first released in 1975. Perfect scents Tuberoses were the darlings of early greenhouse and conservatory enthusiasts, and…

Cestrum nocturnum Night-blooming jasmine is a shrubby plant from the potato family with willow-like foliage and small, tubular white blooms in summer. Insignificant by day, they waft a sweet, floating perfume by night. Hardy to 23ºF (-5ºC). Heliotropium arborescens ‘Marine’ Heliotropes are frost-tender shrubs known as ‘cherry pie’, describing the perfume of the flowers. ‘Marine’ is compact compared to ‘Chatsworth’. Prune straggly plants hard from spring to late summer. Genista canariensis Florists’ broom makes a well-tempered greenhouse shrub with fruity-scented, yellow pea-like flowers that open in spring and summer. Keep cool, but frost-free. Remember to trim long flowered stems regularly. Jasminum polyanthum This attractive climber will repay frost protection with a long-lasting abundance of early fragrant blooms from slim pink buds, lasting from February or March through spring.…

Bee Hotel By Melanie von Orlow, Haynes, £10.99 WOULD you like to make your own insect hotel? This pocket-sized manual has 30 DIY insect home projects, with easy-to-follow instructions. It details the different styles of housing each species needs, so you can create homes for many different insects. It also lists the many plants and everyday objects that can be used to make your hotel perfect for its guests. This book is perfect for nature lovers who want to help the environment by ensuring their green space is fit for an insect in need of a home. I liked that it was not just about bee hotels and that I learnt a lot about a large variety of insects, like butterflies and earwigs. Bees and other insects are extremely important…

Late winter is when you need to prune your autumn-fruiting raspberries, cutting them right back to the ground. This gives new canes plenty of time to grow before next year’s harvest. Another option, if space is tight, is double cropping, which you can do once canes are properly established. Instead of pruning all autumn-fruiting canes right down, select some of the strongest and cut off the tops, leaving canes around 3ft (1m) tall. This gives a longer, staggered period of fruiting. Shortened canes should be cut right down after harvesting.…

1 Wide-based containers are advisable for stability when used to grow taller crops as, for example, with tall, multi-trussed tomatoes. 2 Carrots sown now in deep pots, then germinated and established indoors ready to move out in March/April will have lovely thinnings to harvest from May. 3 Turnips, when sown early, can be cropped in unheated greenhouses and coldframes before the space is needed for frost-tender summer fruits. 4 Strawberries, either single pot plants or six in a 20-litre bag of compost, will produce ripe fruit in an unheated greenhouse by late May. Do not move under glass until late February-early March, when the day length is extending.…

WITH a few exceptions, winter is when deciduous trees, shrubs and fruit bushes receive their annual trim, because their sap has retreated back into the trunk and they are less likely to bleed profusely. Losing sap will weaken the tree and leave it more susceptible to attacks by pests and diseases. The exceptions include members of the plum family, which can fall foul of silver leaf disease if not pruned in summer, grape vines (prune before Christmas), early flowering shrubs such as forsythia (you will lose the blossoming growth if cut back now) and evergreens, which are slightly tender and vulnerable to frost damage in winter. Willow trees also need pruning now, in the depths of winter, to avoid the loss of lots of sap. This year we acquired two…

1 On dry days, rub off scale insects (helmet-like ‘buds’) and prune aptly named coral spot from trees and shrubs. 2 On a bright day, carefully inspect greenhouse and indoor plants for any mealy bugs, scale, aphids, and woodlice and slugs underneath. 3 When moving tools or similar in a wheelbarrow, lay a piece of sack or carpet first, so they don’t slip around. 4 Check that gutters are clean, downpipes clear and butts ready, then add a couple more water butts – you can never have too many.…

1 Pots, trays, modules: Don’t let single-use plastics mount up! Re-use any containers you can, giving them a quick wash first. Large pots are handy for big seeds, modules for medium-sized seeds, and trays for tiny veg seeds. 2 Seed compost: It might be more pricey than multi-purpose, but the finely milled, low-nutrient formula of seed compost gives better results, so don’t skimp. ‘Lumps’ from transport compaction can be easily rubbed out with your fingers. 3 Vermiculite: This mineral can be useful for topping pots once seeds are sown. It is less dense than compost so doesn’t smother smaller seedlings. Its free-draining nature deters damping-off disease, too.…

HAVE your greenhouse borders supported cucumbers and tomatoes for more years than you care to remember? To guarantee continued good growth and limit buildup of soil-borne pests and diseases, this soil might benefit from your attention. Cutworms (various moth caterpillars), root knot nematodes and slug pests can readily damage glasshouse crops, as can diseases such as sclerotinia and damping-off. All linger in the soil, so how can you eliminate them? Chemicals are no longer available to home gardeners for soil sterilisation. Heat can help, but the extortionate cost of soil heat sterilisers is prohibitive for most of us, and placing soil in your domestic oven or microwave is dangerous. If crops are failing, one option is to pour boiling water over the beds. Ultimately, changing the soil or growing in…

WITH your post-festive detox in full swing, why not bypass conventional lettuce and cucumber when reaching for the salad bowl, and eat something a little more exciting instead? This perennial bellflower is most familiar to us in a sunny herbaceous border, where its blue-mauve blooms reach a crescendo in late summer. In sheltered parts of the country, however, you’ll also be greeted by rosettes of green foliage during winter. Are you dubious about raiding your flowerbeds? What if I tell you that the leaves taste surprisingly sweet, like fresh peas? You can even lift and divide sections now to gently force in pots within an unheated greenhouse; this will also provide it with the well-drained conditions it loves. Cottage gardens never tasted so good!…

Clematis ‘Apple Blossom’ AGM A vigorous climber that teams its evergreen leaves with pink-white spring flowers, the latter filling the air with the scent of marzipan. Beware: the plant is poisonous to dogs. Good for a south- or west-facing wall. HxS: 20x6½ft (6x2m). Lonicera periclymenum ‘Graham Thomas’ AGM The iconic perfume of summer has to be the sweet fragrance of honeysuckle at twilight. As well as flowering from July to September, ‘Graham Thomas’ produces scarlet autumn berries for the birds. Any aspect. HxS: 20ftx39in (6x1m).…

What can I grow to cover a trellis? Q What strong, wildlife-friendly climber can you recommend for a trellis erected up and over patio area? Will Markby, Chelmsford, Essex A This sounds like an excellent project to get on with this spring, but there are a couple of things to bear in mind before you start planting. Which way does the trellis face? Will the plants be in the sun or shade for the first couple of years until they get high enough to scramble over the top? This does affect the choice of plants. Second, what is the soil like, and how big is the planting area? Is it a small pocket at the base of the posts in the lee of the trellis that might end up quite…

CASTLES may be a bit of a random subject to cover in a gardening magazine, but you’d be surprised by the number of links there are between plants, gardening and castles. Apart from the fact that some of our finest gardens are set around castles (my favourite garden is at Powis Castle, on the Welsh border), there are around 60 plants listed in the RHS Plant Finder that have ‘castle’ in their name and are currently being sold. It also lists about 300 plants with ‘castle’ in their names that were once available, but can no longer be bought. So, let’s take a look at some of the links between castles and gardening. Castle of Mey plants THE Castle of Mey is a 16th century fortified house in Caithness, on…

WHEN I started gardening, all my seed sowing was done on windowsills indoors. A house maintained at around 20ºC/68°F through spring offers the ideal temperature to germinate seeds. Most older houses have good deep windowsills that will accommodate a couple of seed trays or small propagators, but some are better than others. Any bright sill will do, but the best are south or west facing as they offer the most sunlight, and net curtains can be helpful, too. Regulating the heat A central-heating radiator positioned directly under a window can present a problem with acute temperature fluctuation and dry air, but this can be overcome by placing pots or seed trays in an unheated propagator. The propagator evens out temperature fluctuations and holds in moist air – but remember to…

1 Use fresh seeds, fresh and good-quality seed compost, and thoroughly clean pots and unheated propagator. 2 Water compost in pots, let them drain, then sow well-spaced seeds over the surface. Cover with a sprinkling of vermiculite. 3 Set pots in an unheated propagator on a bright sill. After germination, turn pots daily to even-out growth, or make a reflector. 4 On very bright, sunny days let a net curtain hang between the seedlings and window to avoid scorching, or shade with a sheet of newspaper.…

My trial found that four tubers per 7in (18cm) pot with their tops at the surface worked well. Plant into a 50:50 mix of John Innes No2 and soilless compost with a little added grit. Water carefully by allowing the surface to almost dry out between waterings until growth is under way, then water generously. Provide a minimum of 55ºF (13ºC) while growth is starting. A general-purpose fertiliser every fortnight and high potash when flowering will help beef up the tubers for next year. After flowering, let the foliage die back naturally. The compost can dry out, and the tubers rest indoors until the following year. Many growers discard the old, slightly forced tubers and invest in new ones guaranteed to bloom well.…

I WOULDN’T usually ask in the kind of polite company you and I share now… but does a bear evacuate in the woods? Don’t feel you need to answer – it’s a rhetorical question, but one that astonishingly explains why the tallest trees in world grow so big. The West Coast of America and Canada is home to huge temperate forests filled with towering Douglas fir and sky-scraping coastal redwood. Both can top 300ft (100m) because of the nutrients put – or pooped – into the soil by generations of indigenous bears. Nutrients on land usually wash down rivers to the sea, but here they are brought back by one of nature’s most remarkable migrations: salmon that swim from the ocean to spawn in brooks and gentle creeks inland. Along…