Innholdsfortegnelse for 1-Aug-2020 i Amateur Gardening

“It’s summer and our gardens are ablaze with colour and produce. It’s everything we’ve planned for during the long, cold nights of winter, when the idea of watching bees and butterflies dancing around colourful blooms was a distant dream. Well, I’ve barely had a chance to sit and take in my garden’s beauty, what with deadheading, watering, lawn cutting and tending crops. So make sure you take time out to enjoy the fruits of your labour – it’s what you’ve waited all year for.” Contact us: Editorial: 07814 905439 Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com Advertising: 07817 629935…

THE UK’s leading gardening body is asking the government to do more to support the British horticultural industry following a large jump in the number of plants imported from abroad. A survey by the Horticultural Trade Association (HTA) has revealed that more than half the UK’s ornamental growers are expecting a downturn in sales as they were not able to plant new stock during lockdown. This has resulted in a rise in imports, with 65% of larger retailers bringing in more bedding plants than last year, almost half importing more hardy nursery stock and 40% buying in more herbaceous perennials. “The government must support our industry” More than 70% of those canvased said they are currently unable to get the stock of bedding plants their business needs from UK growers.…

DO you love strawberries and grow your own? Not yet? Well, now is the time to change, for there are few fruits quite as delicious, simple or quick to produce. Establish plants now and you’ll have a bumper crop next summer. However, leave it any later than this month and although you may get some fruits next year, you won’t see many. You see, strawberries make their flower buds in the autumn so these are ready for the following summer – so if plants are not established and strong enough, they hold off cropping for another year, and you wouldn’t want that! You may buy pot-grown plants or get bare-rooted runners from existing plants or friends. Either way, it’s best to put these into large pots as soon as you…

ONE wildlife plant that everyone should grow is the old cottagegarden favourite red valerian (Centranthus ruber). Each head is made up of hundreds of tiny flowers and each one has a long corolla tube that’s perfect for a long-tongued bee, butterfly or moth. It’s always full of life and some of it’s rather exotic. It’s the favourite plant of the hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) in my garden, and this day-flying moth, which does hover like a hummingbird, is rarely seen on anything else. There was great excitement one sunny day in early June when I went out to photograph a hummingbird hawkmoth and discovered a rare bee hawkmoth on my red valerian instead. It’s not a great picture, because excitement took over when I realised what it was! The jury’s…

This week it’s: MY first real contact with pelargoniums came when I was asked to maintain a glasshouse full of them, at the RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey. I was a raw student and, under the tutorship of the great, late George Wells (who did not suffer fools gladly), I learnt so much. I found out how to water and feed them, the best compost to use and the best conditions in which to keep them. I learnt how to control pelargonium rust and how to propagate them – which was put to good use two years later when I worked in the nursery of the Royal Parks in London. I was part of a three-person team who took 30,000 pelargonium cuttings in a month – 500 per person, per…

How do I treat my rose problem? Q Some of my roses have rolled leaves, making them look rather odd. Could this explain why they have not grown and flowered well this year? Mags Penwick, Burnaston, Derbyshire A From April to June, the tiny adults of rose leaf-rolling sawfly hatch from pupae in the soil and the females insert their eggs into rose leaflets. At the same time, they secrete a chemical causing leaves to dip down and curl inwards along their length. Protected within these green tubes, the caterpillar-like larvae feed safely. Occasionally a leaflet is probed and no egg laid but the leaves roll anyway. By July, the larvae have left the rose and enter soil to overwinter as dormant larvae, ready to pupate in spring and hatch…

Plantsman and BBC gardening presenter ONE man’s meat is another man’s chlorinated chicken, just as one gardener’s favourite flower is someone else’s weed. But unlike the chemically cleaned American poultry (soon coming to a supermarket near you), there are weeds so beautiful and so well behaved that they deserve a place in any border. And the plume thistle or (as botanists like to call it) Cirsium rivulare is my favourite Harking from over ‘Le Puddle’ in France, it’s been on the run in Britain, gently spreading along riversides and brooks for so long it’s now considered a legitimate, if naturalised, part of our flora. I have two in my borders and I love them. Over the summer, they produce a succession of pinky red thistles, each the size and shape…

1 A little rain makes little difference, so keep watering crops, new plants, pots and baskets. A bottle of water and feed attached to a slow-drip nozzle is an easy way to hydrate containers. 2 Keep deadheading and the colour will keep coming. You will also remove possible entry points for pests and diseases. Start collecting seeds for next year’s sowing, too – it’s a great way to save money. 3 Garden birds need a constant supply of clean, fresh water and food, as do your local hedgehogs. Leave food and water somewhere safe and quiet, and never give hedgehogs mealworms. 4 Keep harvesting, particularly your courgettes, as just one left in place will become a ‘marrow’ and bring the whole plant to a halt. Cut-and-come-again salads are a great…

IT has been a great year for our lavender, probably due to the mild, very wet winter and hot, sunny start to the summer. As a result, the plants have performed better than ever, which has delighted us and kept the local bees busy, too! We have varieties of English and French lavender in the garden. The French is less hardy, so we grow it in pots ready to move undercover in winter. French lavender (Lavandula stoechas) has larger flower heads topped with little ‘ears’. All you need to do when cutting back in summer is snip off the flowers when they have faded, then feed and water. One of our French lavenders was looking very pale and wan, with yellow foliage, so I fed it with Maxicrop and am…

FOR simple gardening with beautiful results, and a plant that gives you a lot of bang for your buck, look no further than this week’s free seeds. Nigella is a traditional cottage-garden regular – a hardy annual that is easy to grow, long in flowering and with attractive seedheads that lend themselves to indoor arrangements. This week’s free seeds, Nigella ‘Midnight’, produce flowers in a captivating dark, inky purple lightly streaked with white. Growing to 3ft (90cm) tall, their blooms hover above delicate foliage, and once the petals fall you are left with statuesque seedheads. These, if left standing, will spread their seeds with merry abandon to create a new generation of plants. Alternatively, you could collect the seeds yourself so you have some control over where the new plants…

IF it’s true that we eat with our eyes, then we should all cultivate a range of edible flowers in our garden. Let’s look at the selection available and how best to eat them. I don’t know why it seems such an alien concept to us – when we merrily eat leaves, roots and tubers, why should eating flowers be any different? After all, what is a globe artichoke if not a giant flowerbud? Hopefully, you will not find it weird, because the buttery texture and range of colours can bring extra depth to many recipes. Oh, and don’t forget those amazing colours! Once picked, just remember to allow your blooms to sit for a while so pollen beetles and other insects can remove themselves. “It’s important to identify what…

FIRST we cram as many flowering plants as we can into a small basket of compost, then we hoist it into the air in a sunny spot where it bakes in the heat while whistling winds suck moisture from it. No surprise, then, that hanging baskets can go from well watered to bone dry in a matter of hours. On top of all that, reaching the basket to slake the desperate plants’ thirst can be a serious struggle. Built-in reservoir There are several ways to make things easier, such as buying a basket with a builtin water reservoir. Some have a recess in the base that traps water filtering through the compost such as the BloomAround basket ( vanmeuwen.com), while others have a separate reservoir with a wicking system, such…

HERBS are an essential part of a garden, whether you have borders fringed with lavender (see page 9), a glossy rosemary giving a traditional welcome to guests near the front door, or pots of mint and marjoram placed in seating areas, giving up their scent when touched. At this time of year it’s easy to pop out and snip a few leaves for the pot. But in the midst of winter, a stagger through the elements for a few herb cuttings isn’t an inviting prospect, so make time now to take a few cuttings to grow on close to the kitchen door. Mid to late summer is the perfect time for dividing clumping herbs such as thyme, mint and oregano once they have flowered, and also for taking semi-ripe and…

SUMMER gardens would be a lot less colourful without hydrangeas. There are lots of different colours and types available, all of which are easy to grow if given water in dry conditions. I love to see the standard pink-flowering mophead kinds in front gardens. A good plant can colour a street and needs no more than dead flowerheads removed in early spring, plus a few old branches cut hard back after flowering. These hydrangeas respond well to the secateurs and you can rejuvenate an old shrub as it will regrow from stumps. Summer is a good time to take softwood cuttings, when they root easily and get well established before autumn. Young, non-flowering shoots, 3in (7cm) or so long, with large leaves halved to reduce transpiration and make them easier…

SHAPED like a farmyard chicken, the partridge’s general plumage is a mottled pattern of browns, greys and chestnut. On its breast is a russet-brown, horseshoe-shaped patch. Partridges are essentially ground-feeding birds and spend the night in sheltered hedgerows. When alarmed they prefer to crouch on the ground rather than take to the wing and can run at great speed. I have never known them perch aloft. It is in the growth of hedgerows or in fields of growing grass or corn that the female lays her unmarked, pear-shaped, olive-brown eggs, which may be as many as 15 or 16 in number. No nest is made beyond a shallow depression in the vegetation. I have had a partridge nest in my orchard and also twice in a gone-wild plot of land…

FOR many centuries, the theory held that if some part of a plant resembled a human organ, then that plant could be used to treat the organ it resembled. At the heart of folk remedy and herbalism, this notion was nurtured throughout the classical world by respected medical scribes as far distant as Dioscorides (c40-90BC, Greek physician and botanist) and Pliny the Elder (cAD 23-79, Roman naturalist, author of Naturalis Historia, the role model for all encyclopedias). It gained theological credence in medieval times, and for a while was central to Western culture. The doctrine of signatures It was known as the Doctrine of Signatures. The 16th century Swiss physician Paracelsus declared that ‘Nature marks each growth according to its curative benefit’, and German religious mystic Jacob Boehme travelled a…

How do I care for a new ‘Piilu’ clematis? Q I have just purchased a Clematis ‘Piilu’ and was wondering how to plant it and what are the best conditions for it? Jill Anstis, via email A Clematis ‘Piilu’ is early flowering, the first flush of flowers, in May and June, are usually double or semi-double measuring up to 5in (12cm) and are produced on wood grown the previous year. These are often followed by single flowers in September on new growth. growth. Grow it up small to medium structures or in a container, as it only grows to 5-6ft (150-180cm). It can be grown in sun or semi-shade, although too much sun will fade the sepals. Clematis like to have cool roots, so if you decide to grow yours in…

I AM sure all gardeners were saddened when, at the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic, we saw pictures of nursery plants being consigned to the compost heap. There was a slump in demand followed by a substantial increase. Nurseries have responded by supplying plants to satisfy that demand. But, as wisdom has it, “there is a time to sow and a time to reap”. The British climate imposes a strict timetable. By ignoring this, it seems gardeners are being supplied with plants which are weeks behind in their development and will not give the performance or yield to be expected. Of course, there is a demand, and nurseries are trying to satisfy it – but with annual plants, in particular, timing is of the essence. Nowhere have I seen…