Innholdsfortegnelse for 19-Mar-2022 i Amateur Gardening

“Blue is a colour that doesn’t occur much in nature because only a few organisms can create a true blue pigment. The blue we see in plants is a trick of refracted light. Less than 10 percent of plants have blue flowers, which is possibly why those that do are so special. In this week’s issue, Hazel Sillver choses her favourite varieties of delphinium (pages 28-31) – and when I saw them, I was quite taken with their beauty. It’s not something I have thought a lot about, but I realised I also get a kick out of seeing forget-me-nots, many of which display a colour I would describe as St Patrick’s blue. And then there is the holy grail of the blue rose. Will we ever see one? I…

LONG regarded as a trailblazer for the RHS flower show season, the Malvern Spring Festival returns in May after its Covid-enforced two-year absence. Held at the Three Counties Showground in Worcestershire, the 35th festival is themed to celebrate the physical and mental benefits of gardening, and will also mark the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen, which takes place in June. The four-day event will include a series of show gardens as well as giant eye-catching installations at each of the main entrances, school gardens to honour the reign of Elizabeth II and a new permanent feature garden – The Jubilee Garden – planted with the Sovereign’s favourite flowers and shrubs and the many cultivars named after her. The re-imagined Floral Green will showcase an array of beautiful blooms…

THIS week’s free seeds are for French marigold ‘Red Cherry’, perky low-growing plants that will add pops of red and gold to the garden, either in borders or baskets and containers. They are reliable bedding plants and also a useful ally in the fight against whitefly that attack tomatoes and other edible crops in summer. Research carried out at the University of Newcastle has proved that Tagetes repel whitefly by releasing a substance called limonene. The pests find the scent unbearable and try to avoid it, so if you grow Tagetes near your tomatoes and other leafy crops it will help keep them safe. Some varieties of French marigolds can look rather brash and hard, but ‘Red Cherry’ are striking, flowering a deep and lustrous red, the petals fringed with…

WHILE certain vegetables perform best when they are sown under glass, then pricked out and transplanted outdoors later, many will benefit from being sown directly where they are to crop. But to succeed with outdoor sowings takes a bit of care, so let me point you in the right direction. Best crops for sowing direct There are some crops, like courgettes, chillies and tomatoes, that I religiously sow indoors each spring (predominantly because they are tender and/or need a long growing season). But tap-rooted carrots and parsnips develop distorted harvests when confined to a module, and quick-to-mature roots such as turnip, beetroot and radish aren’t worth the fiddle of transplanting. “To succeed with outdoor sowings takes a bit of care” Speedy annuals such as rocket, dill and summer spinach can…

BOX is a dense, slow-growing evergreen shrub or small tree with small, dark-green, rather leathery leaves. It develops small spring flowers, although they are usually hidden among the leaves, and it is tolerant of a range of growing conditions. Different species grow in different parts of the world, and most grow in tropical or subtropical areas so are not tolerant of cold winters. The European Buxus sempervirens is the most widely grown and is more tolerant of cold winters than other species, although in recent years it has suffered from pests and disease problems. Box is often clipped regularly to create low hedges in formal gardens or around the edges of informal plantings. In fact, box can be clipped to be kept at any height from about 12in (30cm) to…

BECAUSE potatoes are such a staple in our modern-day eating habits, there is more information about them, stories surrounding them and folklore concerning them than almost any other edible subject. Of course, we are just at the start of the potato-planting season, so I thought there is no better a time for us to dip into the world of potato trivia. Trouble is, there is so much of it: I could easily write the next 30 instalments of Miscellany on spuds alone, and still not run out of things to say! Potatoes can commit suicide. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Cologne, Germany, have genetically engineered potatoes that commit suicide if they become infected by disease. The idea is that it prevents spread of the disease, thus reducing the…

Q I have an old and not very attractive ceropegia, also known as rosary vine. The stems are tangled, with dead or wishy-washy leaves. How can I restore this plant to its former glory? Gwen Dunman, Colchester, Essex A Rosary vine is a good name for the trailing succulent Ceropegia linearis subsp. woodii, because when mature, the long, straight, dangling stems produce small rounded tubers along their length like the beads for counting prayers. Hearts-on-a-string is another name, reflecting the pretty leaves overlaid with silvery markings and purple beneath. The rosary vine can grow successfully in low light but is apt to be spindly, with pale leaves and long gaps between one pair of leaves and the next. I’ve known stems trail to a magnificent 5ft (1.5m) or more, bearing…

WHEN I noticed my friend Ben forensically removing the coriander from the top of his veggie curry, I knew that he was what scientists call a ‘supertaster’. That is, someone with the ability to detect flavours hidden to others. And for Ben, that’s not a good thing… Coriander, coffee, rosemary, rocket leaves, radish – these are all plants with a pungent flavour that have deliberately developed their aromatic leaves, stems and seeds to put off animals like us eating them. But over millennia, we’ve genetically and culturally learnt to block or ignore these acrid, bitter elements, so most of us can scoff plants once avoided by our ancestors. I say ‘most of us’, because our genetic make-up is a unique blend passed down from our parents. Some inherited taste genes…

ONE of my favourite jobs at this time of year is tending to our perennials, making sure they are returning healthily after winter’s dormancy. Some, such as our echinaceas and heleniums, will have died right back in autumn so it is always a relief to see their new shoots poking bravely through the soil. The leaves of others, including sea hollies and globe thistles, remain in place through winter so a job for now is to remove the old, tattered foliage to pretty up the plants and make room for new shoots. We mustn’t forget late spring and summer-flowering bulbs either. Our garden is blessed with light, free-draining soil so bulbs are less likely to rot when the soil is soaked by winter rain. But having such open soil also…

SAYING it with flowers is one of the oldest forms of showing you care about someone, and with Mother’s Day falling on March 27, there’s time yet to plant up a pot or basket for someone – even yourself! A patio container or hanging basket planted with seasonal flowers is a wonderful way of brightening someone’s day and with some thoughtful choosing, many of the plants you use may be added to the garden later on and the pot reused. Although garden centres stock a wide array of ready-planted pots and baskets to give as gifts, and houseplants are another perennials favourite, it can be more personal to create your own floral gift using what you know are someone’s favourite plants. This week I planted a small wicker basket with…

HAVE you ever found that root crops, such as carrots and parsnips, can be a little tricky? Don’t be surprised: sowing, weeding and digging up beauties can be a tad difficult for some. Much depends on your soil – a sandy loam suits more than heavy clay. Stone-ridden soilinduces annoying contortions, as can uneven fertility such as when crop residues are still decaying or bits of previously applied manure remain intact. But do not despair: almost any soil can grow roots (just not prize-winners). Indeed, by far the most common problem is not about getting a good crop, but about getting any at all from a lack of (or patchy) germination. Root crops are seldom transplanted because of their nature, so are sown in situ. We want decent returns so…

John will reply personally to all your gardening questions every week When should I prune my magnolia? Q We have a large Magnolia stellata. It is beautiful when it flowers but I don’t know how to prune it. What should I do? Sheila Hoggerty (via email) A Magnolia pruning is best kept to a minimum, except to remove damaged or dead wood. It should be done during midsummer when the magnolia is in full leaf rather than 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, over two-three years. However, Magnolia stellata is slow to recover from hard…

You can listen to Steve on alternate Sundays 10am-2pm on BBC Radio Kent’s Sunday Gardening (BBC Local) AS the average garden decreases in size, more and more plants are being grown in containers rather than in the ground. This has advantages, particularly if you are renting, because you can take your plants with you when you move. You can also control the size of the plant by restricting the roots, and you can place the containers wherever you choose, bringing them forward when they look good and retiring them into the background as they fade off, or standing them by a door where there is no scope for planting into the ground. Useful for specific soil needs Even if you have a border to plant into, pots allow you to…

Write to us: Letters, Amateur Gardening magazine, Future Publishing Limited, Unit 415, Winnersh Triangle, Eskdale Road, Winnersh, RG41 5TP (please include your address). Email us: amateurgardening@futurenet.com The voice of reason IN all the years of reading AG, I have never written in, but feel compelled to do so on hearing of the sad passing of Peter Seabrook. His column was always the one I looked for, full of good, sound advice, his passion for gardening clearly shone through and his knowledge was better than almost anyone. We have lost one of the few sensible and reasonable voices in the peat debate. More people should listen to what he said instead of the rabid anti-peat lobby who only see things their way… Peter Seabrook will be sorely missed. Robert Irving “So…

DAHLIAS are one of our most popular summer and autumn plants and despite their brilliant glamour and exotic colours and shapes, they are relatively easy to grow, and pretty trouble-free. If you lifted your tubers in the autumn, or have bought some fresh ones this spring, now is the time to get them started undercover. Dahlias are not reliably hardy so it’s best to pot them up in compost and set them in a greenhouse or porch or on a windowsill indoors if you have space. If you are returning to tubers you salvaged last year, check they have remained firm and healthy through the winter and discard any that feel soft or smell bad. Make sure they still have some old stem still attached as they will promote new…

I DON’T lead a very exciting life in Cold Aston in the Cotswolds and I don’t mind one bit! I’m either working, cooking or gardening, and I spend a lot of time watching insects and birds as well. For many a year we have had three annoying pigeons: Stumpy with a damaged leg; Droopy Wing that has a wing that trails on the ground; and Fatso – well, that describes him or her perfectly. They perch on my box balls and chase off the blackbirds. Earlier this year, one of them came to grief when a sparrowhawk paid us a visit. I didn’t see it happen, as such attacks are lightning quick, but I do know that it happened at dusk. When I got up the following morning, there were…