Innholdsfortegnelse for 20-Mar-2021 i Amateur Gardening

“Oh, how the weather changes everything! One week, my hands are painfully cold after 40 mins in the garden – a few weeks later, I’m rolling up my shirt sleeves and applying sunblock! Such are the joys of being able to get into serious gardening again, and to be surrounded by spring flowers in various stages of bloom and decline. The tasks are many and varied and plans are, as always, over-ambitious and on a scale better suited to a garden twice the size, but no matter. Spring is here, and I’m going to make the most of it!” Contact us: ■ Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 ■ Editorial: 0330 3903732 ■ Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com ■ Advertising: 0330 3906566…

THERE is a clematis for almost every time of year and although we are in the quiet zone at the moment, between the end of the wintertime show and early summer flowering, there are still jobs to be done. As ever, the old Clematis cirrhosa ‘Freckles’ that garlands our kitchen window flowered beautifully this winter, cheering the dark months and providing vital nectar for early bees. The flowers have now faded, leaving their tufty seedheads, so I have given the plants a trim and a feed. They don’t need much of a haircut, just a light pruning of wayward tendrils to keep things neat, followed by a feed of multi-purpose granular fertiliser to replenish resources. Next, I turned my attention to a couple of newer additions: a ‘Countess of Wessex’…

Listen to Peter’s free podcast every Thursday. Search for ‘This Week In The Garden with Peter Seabrook’ on iTunes ONE of the perks to my job is the opportunity to visit specialists in the cultivation of specific groups of plants, and benefit from their experience and knowledge, when such visits are possible. It gives considerable pleasure to see plants grown well and very much flourishing. I recall a trip to world-famous dianthus breeders Whetman Pinks in Dawlish, Devon, which was established in 1936. The nursery is sited at the base of a deep valley with a trout stream running through the centre. Fork-lift trucks full of rooted cuttings and young plants literally have to drive through the stream to load dispatch vehicles. Whetman Pinks propagates millions of cuttings each year…

FEW crops offer as much culinary potential as tomatoes. Sure, many are eaten fresh, but just think of their varied potential in hot and cold savoury dishes, and in sauces and ketchups. Unlike vegetables, tomatoes can be frozen just as they come or, to save space, reduced to purée first. They are easily bottled (in sterilised glass jars), and they can even be dried – with some warmth and patience. There are also sweet roles for tomatoes, such as green tomato jam (green tomatoes with lemon juice and zest, plus an equal weight of sugar), which is unexpectedly delicious. Tomato plants are tender, and they were originally only greenhouse crops; however, careful selection bred varieties that could be grown successfully outdoors during most British summers. These have proliferated, and there…

B. ciliata ‘Wilton’ This is an attention-grabbing cultivar, with huge hairy leaves, up to 50cm wide. ‘Wilton’ is native to the Himalayas and its furry leaves are possibly even more striking than its pink flowers. Flowers April to May H x S: 30cm x 45cm. Bergenia ‘Ice Queen’ The flowers of this unusual variety are a pale green and appear in a dense cluster on a strong stalk above vibrant green leaves. This is a good variety for planting beneath trees. H x S: 35cm x 50cm. Planting and growing tips ■ Plant in moist, well-drained soil in partial shade or sun. ■ Don’t plant in boggy soil – it’s the one type they don’t grow well in ■ Mulch annually with generous wellrotted compost ■ Remove any decaying leaves…

Bessera elegans ‘Coral Drops’ For something a little more unusual, try these delicate but vibrantly coloured flowers, great for a hot summer display and good for cutting too. The tender bulbs look good in pots on a sunny patio and are best started off indoors. H: 70cm Eucomis aloha x hybrida ‘Maui’ – This compact ‘pineapple lily’ is great for pots or at the front of a border, with good structural foliage and a long flowering season from late summer. Although fantastically exotic to look at, they are frost hardy in warmer parts of the country. H: 30cm Lilium ‘Tiger Babies’ A compact lily, with speckled apricot, scented blooms from early spring to midsummer. Looks good planted singly in pots or in groups of three or more in borders. H:…

John will reply personally to all your gardening questions every week When should I prune my magnolia? Q I have a 9ft (2.7m) Magnolia stellata that is about to come into flower. When should I prune it to keep it healthy and flowering well? Emma Nightingale (via email) A Pruning of magnolias should be kept to a minimum, except to remove damaged or dead wood. It should be done during midsummer when the magnolia is in full leaf. Pruning should not be carried out during spring or autumn when the wounds will bleed, or during the dormant season as the result is likely to be dieback in branches that have been cut. It is possible to renovate badly shaped or overgrown magnolias by hard pruning staged over 2-3 years. However,…

ALTHOUGH often taken for granted, the most important basic material of any garden is its soil. Why? Because this will determine which plants you can grow and how well they will perform. Plants have a pH range they prefer, in which they will thrive, and another in which they will survive but perhaps never reach their full potential. Outside this range, they may not even survive. The amount of ‘free’ lime (available to plants) in the soil is a key deciding factor for what you can grow but, all too often, the pH is confused with the soil type. There is a widely-held assumption that clay soil is alkaline, for instance, but it is possible to have clay, silt or sandy soil (or a combination) and they could all, potentially,…

Write to us: Letters, Amateur Gardening magazine, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hants GU14 7BF (please include your address). Email us: amateurgardening@futurenet.com Star letter THE great benefit of my neighbour’s oak tree is the leaf fall every autumn. I found that I was wasting my time clearing them up so now I just cover the pond with netting and let the rest stay where they fall. I find this protects tender plants in winter. I then do a good clear up in spring filling bin bags full. I punch tiny holes in the bags for aeration and stack them at the side of the shed. This is the result of my two-year-old leafmould that will warm up the soil as well as being pulled into the soil…

SHARE YOUR STORIES TIPS AND PHOTOS and you will receive a fantastic pair of Town & Country’s Master Gardener gloves — the UK’s best-selling gardening glove and a perfect companion to help you in the garden. State small, medium or large with your letter. Photo of the week Washing up is less of a chore! EVEN though I’m fortunate enough to have a garden, lockdown and continued freezing weather has meant more time spent indoors. I’ve always put food out for the birds and loved watching them from the kitchen, but I’ve just made it even more interesting. I bought a window feeder recently and literally ten minutes after putting it up, robins and blue tits were eating from it, and even a blackbird has now joined in, although that’s…

AFTER weeks of being stuck indoors because the soil was either too saturated or frozen to work, I was champing at the bit to get out and get gardening. So what a relief it was when the first warmer days arrived! At last I could tackle two of the main tasks that had been nagging away at me all winter: dividing an overgrown scabious and planting out a dejected-looking potted agapanthus. Early spring is one of the key times for working on your perennials as the soil is warming up and plants are starting to grow again, but not to the point where anything you do will knock them back. This makes it the perfect time for adding new ones to the garden, relocating any that look out of place…

IT’S all getting rather exciting now, the weather getting warmer and things really motoring along in the garden. If you haven’t already done so, this is pretty much your last call for starting your dahlia and begonia tubers and, while you’re at it, taking some more pelargonium cuttings, because in my view you can never have enough! Tuberous perennials such as dahlias, gladioli, begonias and ranunculus are widely available in garden centres, supermarkets and online at this time of year and are well worth buying as they are relatively easy to grow and will reward you with months of colour. I overwintered a few trays of dahlia and begonia tubers in the greenhouse and have potted them up, keeping fleece to throw over them on frosty nights. Always check over…

IF flowers could make sounds (and maybe they do!?) then surely the clarion call for the arrival of summer would be sounded by a phalanx of petunias. These tumbling trumpet-flowered beauties are the mainstays of containers and baskets and our gardens would be all the poorer without the explosion of colour they create. The variety we are giving away this week is Mr Fothergill’s ‘Confetti Mixed’, which produces a wealth of flowers in cheerful pinks, reds and purples. The plants are vigorous and trailing and, with the right care and conditions, should produce colour from early summer right through until October. Confetti Mixed’ are half-hardy annuals, and can be pricked out when seedlings are around 2in (5cm) tall. Grow them on somewhere cool, accustom them to outside temperatures, and plant…

MOST gardeners know that neonicotinoids, used to control harmful insects, also damage valuable pollinators including wild populations of bees. They’re usually used in seed dressings, but these motile chemicals spread through the plant’s tissues and then contaminate pollen and nectar. Studies have shown that, once ingested, they prompt an 85% drop in the production of queens in Bombus terrestris, the buff-tailed bumblebee, and 50% in Osmia bicornis, the red mason bee. Fewer queens mean much smaller colonies, and many bees are already in decline due to loss of habitat, so they don’t need an extra chemical cosh. “These products have been banned for a reason” The heaviest applications in the UK are on crops of oil seed rape, those bilious blasts of yellow. Flea beetles damage this crop at an…

This week we’re: Salivating over salvias Fascinating facts about pretty ornamental sage RED, white and blue – the colours of the Union Jack – were the most frequently seen shades found in British summer flowerbeds during the 1950s and 1960s. Our parents and grandparents grew the patriotic colours following the Second World War. It was the bedding salvia (Salvia splendens) that most often provided the reds, in the form of upright spikes of intense scarlet. These days, red bedding salvias are nowhere near as popular, yet salvias in general are at an all-time high. There are annual types, perennial types and shrubby types; there are tender and hardy types in shades of blue, purple, salmon, maroon and white; and of course, there are the fragrant herby types. So let’s look…

Q Last year, my sweetcorn set, but the cobs withered in autumn before ripening. I think I started them in mid-April – was this too late? I was scared of planting them out too early. Mags Chamberlain, Southampton A Sowing sweetcorn under cover in mid-April is text-book correct and should have given your plants sufficient time to yield well. This is a frost-tender crop, and shouldn’t be sown outdoors until around mid-May or planted out when likely to be exposed to late frosts. Some cultivars that are treated to ideal conditions will deliver two cobs per plant. However, as with all gardening, there can be pitfalls along the way. Even here in East Devon, I usually wait until mid-April before sowing one seed per cell, usually opting for deep Root…

LARGE glass of wine, or thimble? Good things, contrary to the old saying, can come in big packages, except perhaps when it comes to climbers… I’ve learnt this lesson (again) after planting what looked like an innocent maidenhair vine (Muehlenbeckia complexa – easy for you to say!) to cascade atop the wall of our drive. Maidenhair vines have always been popular with florists for adding froth and frou-frou to bouquets, but their popularity is spreading because their wiry ebony stems and small leaves, as glossy as a newly minted penny, make great Insta fodder. But while they might look delicate in a pot, five years after planting mine, a day spent in a tug of war while hacking at the shallow roots is proof that it’s anything but. I use…

A good year?: In next week’s AG I tackle the thorny issues of roses – what to do now and how to keep plants healthy and get the best blooms this year. 1 Dig around the plant’s roots (roughly the size of the top growth) and lift it, keeping soil around the roots. 2 Check the plant is healthy and remove any dead and damaged or rotten-looking material. 3 Slice the plant into pieces using a spade, two forks back-to-back or a sharp knife. This can be hard work! 4 For successful replanting, make sure that all the divisions have healthy top growth and roots. 5 Dig replanting holes and fork in some well-rotted compost/manure. Add a granular fertiliser as well. 6 Set the divisions at the same depth as…

WE often make a fuss over the patio pot plants that we refresh each year with seasonal bedding or fill with bright summer bulbs, but what about the shrubs and less flamboyant plants that we grow in containers? Maybe we take them for granted, passing a little water their way and feeding when we remember, but they are as worthy of attention as the rest. Among our potted shrubs is a small rhododendron that flowered well last year but is now looking rather sickly. I spotted the tell-tale notches cut from its leaves, indicating the presence of vine weevil adults, so wondered whether its failure to thrive could be down to vine weevil grubs eating its roots. It needed repotting anyway so I watered it well, letting the moisture soak…

IF, like me, you’re bursting to run out on to the plot and get some cropping plants in the ground, then I’ve got the perfect way for you to focus all that positive energy: cloches. By offering your precious vegetable seedlings a transition between the protective environment of a windowsill, conservatory or greenhouse and the open ground, you can scratch that horticultural itch – so let’s do it! Which cloche is best for you? Cloches come in a range of shapes and sizes (see page 20 for a few of the main styles and functions) and they are also made in various materials. These have a direct and notable effect on the crops growing beneath them, so it’s important to choose wisely. “It’s the perfect way to focus all your…

Dahlia ‘Babylon Bronze’ With long, sturdy flower stems, this large, doubleflowered dahlia is a real showstopper in the border and is great for cutting. The pale peachyorange flowers will keep going through summer, with regular deadheading. Plant tubers in spring after frosts have passed. H: 90cm Galtonia candicans ‘Viridiflora’ Fabulous for a sunny border, the fragrant greenish-white blooms of these Cape hyacinths will light up the back of a cool-coloured border from July to September. The bulbs love wet summers and are hardy but don’t like winter wet. H: 120cm Gladiolus byzantinus Great for cutting, this species has tall stems packed with zingy magenta pink flowers from early spring to midsummer. It’s best to grow them on in pots before planting out, although once established, the corms will overwinter and…