Innholdsfortegnelse for 26-Feb-2022 i Amateur Gardening

“The RHS has added a new feature to this year’s Chelsea Flower Show called ‘All About Plants’ (News, page 10). It is billed as the first garden category to be featured in the Great Pavilion and marks a big change as historically, the Pavilion had been the showcase for nurseries to display their finest work. However, the number exhibiting has been in decline for some years, and one assumes this initiative is a reflection of that. For me, the Great Pavilion is the best part of Chelsea because of those amazing displays, and I hope the designers create something joyful, colourful and stunning to rival the fabulous displays of the past.” Contact us: Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 Editorial: 0330 3903732 Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com Advertising: 0330 3906566…

SPRING is an ideal time for working on your herbaceous perennials. The warming weather and damp soil makes it a prime season for planting, moving and dividing – just make sure the ground isn’t frozen or waterlogged. Plants are starting to send forth new shoots after winter dormancy, and if any have succumbed to the cold and wet of the past few months, it’s an ideal excuse to buy some more now before the main ‘plant gold rush’ begins. This week I tackled a job that I have been meaning to do since the autumn. We have a young ‘Hagley Hybrid’ clematis growing in a back border and it is slowly being crowded out by other plants and an encroaching hedge. I wanted to give it more space, so decided…

LAST year we failed with three vegetable crops – carrots, runner beans and peas. We sowed them again and again, but they came up and then disappeared overnight – again and again. I must have used six or seven packets of carrot seeds and we still didn’t get many to eat at the end of it all. That’s vegetable growing, folks! Swings and roundabouts. There were small holes where the seedlings once were, so I started covering the carrot patch in chicken wire, but to no avail. At the time I blamed the partridges from the nearby farm. However, I don’t think it was them, because the Best Beloved discovered three beautifully formed mouse nests underneath our wooden containers of blueberries. We didn’t get many blueberries last year, either, due…

John will reply personally to all your gardening questions every week What can I plant against my fence? Q What can I plant against my new fence? I had to take down a lovely hedge that was too difficult to manage. Barbara Callear (via email) A Rather than grow climbers against your fence, which might weaken it, I urge you to erect a free-standing support of posts and wires in front of it and train your plants against it. ■ If your fence faces south and enjoys sunshine for most of the day, I suggest that you plant the following: Solanum crispum ‘Glasnevin’: Blue flowers over a long period in summer. Lonicera japonica ‘Halliana’: Evergreen, its scented biscuit-yellow flowers thickly sleeve twining shoots for many weeks. Clematis armandii ‘Apple Blossom’:…

ROOT pruning is a technique that has fallen from favour and you seldom see it practised today, but it is very effective when done correctly. It is a method of exposing and removing root sections from a live plant in order to control its growth or prepare it for being moved. Root pruning works because there must be balance between the root system of the plant and the upper part – the shoots and stems. The chemicals that occur in each must be in balance for the plant to grow, so by removing sections of root, the manufacture and supply of these chemicals (cytokinins) is restricted. This, in turn, restricts the chemicals (auxins) responsible for the development and extension growth of stems and branches. Pruning isn’t the only option Many…

THE cold, wet weather of the past few months has left many of our lawns in a sorry state. Now, however, as long as the soil isn’t squelchily waterlogged or frozen solid, you can start making repairs in time for ‘proper’ spring. For most of us, our lawn takes up the largest and often the most visible area of the garden, so grassy areas need corresponding levels of care. I am writing this at the start of February where we have had very cold, frosty nights followed by a run of mild, sunny days and as a result our lawns haven’t really stopped growing. Mowers have been out occasionally, their blades carefully set at their highest level, as grass will grow in temperatures of 5°C and above. Lawn weeds have…

THE past few months of low light, cold draughts and dry centrally heated air have not been kind to our houseplants. They will soon start to grow again, but for now we need to keep them ticking over. It is generally too early to restart feeding and watering, though anything in flower that was a Christmas gift will need a regular weekly water and fortnightly feed. Other plants only need watering when their compost is dry, or they look limp. Remove dead and dying leaves and make sure they have not become infested with pests. Always stand your houseplants on a bed of gravel that is kept constantly damp. This raises humidity and deters pests such as glasshouse red spider mites that like a dry spot. Wait for a few…

LOBELIA is a mainstay of many summer displays, looking glorious tumbling down the sides of containers and fountaining out of baskets. This week’s free seeds are for lobelia ‘Cascade Mixed’, which will bring a tumbling carnival of colour to pots and baskets for months on end. The plants grow to 12in (30cm) and produce a wealth of pretty flowers in white and shades of pink and purple. Do be careful when sowing though – lobelia seeds are dustlike in size and one ill-timed sneeze could lose them all! Their size makes them quite tricky to scatter evenly, so I find it helpful to mix them with a pinch of horticultural sand in the palm of my hand, and scatter the mixture over the compost. Don’t cover the seeds with compost,…

SPROUTING broccoli gets us in an excitable frenzy when it’s in season, and yet few of us remember to sow this delicious vegetable in spring. Yes, a long-term commitment it may be, but why not sow some purple (or white) sprouting broccoli now? It’s sure to satisfy your inner cook in 12 months’ time. Breeding improvements There are two key things you need to remember when you are growing sprouting broccoli: it takes a long time to mature, and the plants can become huge. Conventional types are sown now, yet they won’t produce their harvest of delicious tender spears until March or April. But advances in breeding mean that summer-maturing varieties are now available (see overleaf), and you can interplant with short drills of quick-to-mature crops such as radishes and…

ONCE spring is here we shall be inundated with jobs pressing remorselessly for our attention, so before the dormant season is at an end we should take a look at all the shrubs in our garden and decide what attention they need. Be really critical. So often we hold on to a shrub year after year for no better reason than it has always been with us. It would be much better to get rid of it altogether; it is wonderful for the plantsman, in any but the newest garden, to be presented with a gap. He will pounce on it with some thing or things that he has been longing to find room for. For example, take that lilac. Are not the blooms miserable compared with what you could…

Dealing with tender exotics Q I have pots of gloriosa and calla lilies overwintering in my porch. They were bought a few years ago in bloom, but have not grown or flowered well since. Can I bring them back to full glory, or should I start again? Maggie Linklater, Winscombe, Somerset A There is a group of slightly tender exotic plants that die back in the autumn to storage organs. Fuelled by leaves during the growing season, these contain stored food ready to propel the plants back to life when they receive water and warmth in late winter/spring. The gloriosa and calla lily mentioned rest as tubers, and you have done the right thing by keeping them in their original pots of compost dry but frost-free. Of course, you can…

WIN £20 Please continue to send us your poetry contributions. This week, Mahmuda Chowdhury transports us all to springtime, he told us: “I’ve only recently discovered Amateur Gardening magazine, in fact, I’ve only recently discovered gardening! I very much enjoyed the Sweet Robin poem in the last issue, and wanted to share my observations with you.” Not what is there, but whatwill be.In winter’s deep and daysso grey,You can bring forth the colourthat is weeks away. I look at my apple tree, bareand brown,And see the pink apple blossomfloating down,I see pots in a row beneaththe sill,Soon to be aglow with daffodils. A profusion of colour in mymind’s eye,Transforms the view before meinto a blue sky.I see myself walking amongst thegold and green,The scent of rose and lavenderborne on the…

SPRING is one of the best times to lay or sow a new lawn, and while conditions in late February are still too cold and damp for the best results, you can start laying the groundwork now. There are pros and cons for turf and seed-grown lawns. Turf gives a faster result and you can walk (carefully) on your new grass within a couple of days of laying, but it is more expensive and you don’t get the variety of grasses that you do when you grow from seed. Grass seed is the cheaper option and you are likely to be able to buy a mix of seeds for different requirements; a shady area or patch that gets more use for example. If a pristine lawn is your goal, you…

PLANTS are making a comeback at Chelsea Flower Show this year, after several years in which it felt like they were playing second fiddle to everything from concrete blocks to rusty grain silos. This year’s floral extravaganza, which takes place in May, will include a new garden category titled All About Plants. It will be staged in the Grand Pavilion and celebrate the powers of plants to benefit mental health, community and industry. Helena Pettit, RHS director of gardens and shows said: “All About Plants is the first garden category to be hosted inside the Great Pavilion and is filled by four first-time RHS Chelsea designers. “They have each interpreted the positive powers of plants in such unique and interesting ways and we can’t wait to see the fabulous designs…

LAST time I broached the subject of replacing lawns with beds, fruit cages and ponds, I received some irate responses. Now it is your choice to carry on manicuring your lawn. Indeed, I confess, I have many pieces of grass sward myself – mostly paths, which I keep mown. Nor was banning petrol lawn mowers suggested, even though these are unbelievably polluting. (I reckon if we took our mowers for an MOT to test their exhausts, we’d soon get push-mowers or gas masks.) Mind you, taxing ride-ons appeals. Anyway, back to the point: maintaining some turf is a necessary evil, especially in larger gardens, but if we can each reduce ours by a small amount, our total savings will be significant. Making beds and borders larger by trimming a slice…

Indoor Plants Mix - Great Savings! Stunning feature plants for your home Currently the must-have plants for indoor gardeners, you can't escape the rise of the easy-care houseplant - GREAT SAVINGS! Give your home a boost with this easy-care mix of popular houseplants FIND MORE INCREDIBLE OFFERS AT YOUGARDEN.COM AMAZING OFFERS ON HOUSEPLANTS AT YOUGARDEN.COM "SIX GORGEOUS HOUSEPLANTS WILL BREATHE NEW LIFE INTO YOUR HOME!" This collection of six gorgeous houseplants will breathe new life into your home! Houseplants quite literally improve the quality of the air around you and studies {by NASA no less!) have shown that many plants can improve the atmosphere in your home by adding oxygen and removing toxins, so are a worthwhile addition - plus there's the added benefit that growing plants can help your general…

THERE are few shrubs that bring us dazzling colour during this gloomy time of year. However, one such plant is forsythia. Its vivid yellow flowers line its winter branches, and if ever you see a gleam of shining canary-yellow flashing through the winter light, it will be forsythia. These are vigorous deciduous shrubs that will take almost any temperatures that the winter throws at them. If left unpruned the plants develop into large bushes that may reach 10ft (3m) in height or more, although pruning has a dramatic influence on their size. Some dwarf varieties are more compact. Flowers on bare branches The flowers line the bare branches in late winter and early spring, and in some varieties they are crowded tightly while in others they are a little more…

This week it’s: Variegated plants and leaves Add colour and interest to your garden with variegated plants PLANTS with all-green leaves provide the perfect backdrop for colourful flowers. Then there are plants with all-red, purple, bronze or copperish leaves, as well as all-gold or all-silver leaves: they all have a purpose in our beds and borders. There are also variegated plants – with green parts to the leaves, but with white, cream, yellow or silver markings. Every garden – and home – has the need for a variegated plant, and a growing army of gardeners are choosing them for added interest, colour and texture. Let’s take a sideways glance… ■ Any plant with variegata or variegatus in its name is likely to be variegated. But any plant with maculata or…

Star letter Sweet memories READING Toby Buckland’s article ‘Sweet Memories’ about Devon violets (AG, 15 January), he reminded me of one of my own, which I had forgotten. In Heywood, Lancashire in the 50s, I was a regular attender at Heady Hill Sunday School. Mothering Sunday (the forerunner of today’s commercialised Mother’s Day) was a very special occasion in the Sunday School calendar of the time, when all the pupils were ‘crocodiled’ along the pavements to church – quite a trek for little legs. We were tucked in at the back of the congregation away from our mums, who had arrived separately. At a given signal, we filed one by one to the altar where the vicar gave us, in turn, a posy of violets. We then had to find…

WITH his mighty tenor voice and stratospheric falsetto, not only did the great and late Meat Loaf create Bat Out of Hell, one of the most iconic and best-selling rock records of all time – but his music was also popular with plants! During the noughties, boffins at Sussex University aimed speakers (no doubt turned up to 11!) at potted wallflowers, busy Lizzies, carrots and mung beans. Some were played Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No2 others were treated to Bat Out of Hell, while a ‘control’ sample presumably had the sound of silence – I’m thinking the hit by Simon and Garfunkel, or it could have been no music at all… Seven days and seven nights later, it was found that plants subjected to the angst-ridden theatrical prog rock of Meat…