Innholdsfortegnelse for 21-May-2022 i Amateur Gardening

“Who would have thought that the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdown would (amongst other things) result in a stratospheric rise in plant crime and scamming? Ruth’s news story (see page 10) proves the point that there are always criminal characters who will exploit any opportunity to con gullible people. I seriously doubt that any AG reader would have paid thousands of pounds for a houseplant cutting or be fooled by plants that have been painted to look like rare examples, but I think we should be aware of what has been going on. Let’s hope that now we are no longer in lockdown, this sort of exploitation will cease.”…

IT’S the time of year when certain flowering herbaceous perennials can be cut back once they start growing robustly in order to keep them looking neat and encourage a second flush of blooms. This procedure is called the ‘Chelsea chop’ because it coincides with the world-famous RHS show in London. Our large clump of Nepeta (catmint) grows beautifully in late spring but then starts to collapse outwards, leaving the central bare stems nakedly on show. Not only does it look less attractive, it threatens to smother the other plants growing around it. By reducing the stems by a third or even up to a half of their length, you remove the weight that is holding them down and covering large areas of border, and encourage new growth that will give…

OUR garden can look picture-perfect – and then suddenly holes appear. This is of little consequence when plants are growing well. Holes in leaves allow light to pass through, illuminating lower leaves otherwise hidden. Thus, a modest percentage is no great problem for many plants – although it is visually unattractive, and of course with the likes of salad leaves it is totally unacceptable. To stop more holes, you must first work out what is causing them. The most likely culprits are slugs and snails. These have rough tongues that rasp at leaves, fruit and tubers, leaving slightly scalloped holes in edges and middles. If the holes have triangular notches in the edges, especially of succulent leaves, it’s birds pecking. But curved, notched pieces along the edges of leaves is…

Lobelia 'Crystal Palace Blue' Huge numbers of incredibly intense, rich blue flowers literally pour out of these amazing plants month after month. Grows to 10cm. Geranium 'Cabaret' Mix Stunning spheres of glorious colour throughout summer, with masses of bright upright, classic flowers all summer long. Grows to 35cm. Begonia 'Super Cascade' Mix Containing THE very best palette of bright colours ever seen in begonias, including some completely new shades - each 3-4" across! Grows to 1.2m. Lavender 'Hidcote' Hidcote's silvery grey foliage and pure purple blooms are packed with a heady scent and will provide a colourful spectacle every summer. Grows to 45cm. Lobelia 'Fountain' Mix The perfect filler plant for pots, planters and tubs. Creates a lovely frothy and delicate contrast to larger flowered petunias and geraniums. Grows to…

ALLIUMS are instantly recognised by the smell of their leaves, especially when crushed. Edible types include onions, spring onions and leeks. Herbs and flavourings include chives and garlic. Ornamental types, often known as ornamental onions, are grown for their attractive heads of tiny flowers. Ornamental onions either grow from bulbs or make clumps of fleshy roots and may have a particularly pungent smell. In all alliums, vertical stems are topped with clusters of tiny tubular or star-shaped flowers gathered into heads of anything from 20 or 30 to many hundreds and up to 12in (30cm) across. Great performers The leaves may be slender and almost thread-like, or broader and flatter and up to 3ft (90cm) long as in ‘Globemaster’. They may die away during flowering or remain green until autumn.…

Helping sickly potted plants Q Some of my potted plants (both indoors and outside) have turned pale and anaemic. Feeding them seems an obvious solution, but will this sudden boost give them indigestion – and should I repot them first? Jennifer Mawdesly, Belper, Derbyshire A Leaves turn yellow for a variety of reasons, but the main cause is an inability to make the green pigment chlorophyll, hence the technical term chlorosis. Nutrient deficiency is one of the most common problems, but anything that interferes with the ability of roots to take up nutrients can also be to blame. Overwatering could have suffocated some of the roots, while temperatures lower or higher than optimum can cause yellowing. Citrus leaves often fade when temperatures dip below 45°F (7°C). Pests sucking sap from…

OUR bath plug was blocked the other weekend and after several hours trying (mercifully successfully) to unblock it I thought I’d better check the drain under the bathroom downpipe to make sure all was working as it should. To put a positive spin on things, everything was flowing properly but when I lifted the drain cover I found a huge clutch of snails, happily nestled together and protected from the elements and predators. I fear that this year may be a bad one for pests and diseases. The generally mild winter won’t have killed them off and now our gardens are filling up with new plants and tender, young growth, it is a field day for the bad guys. In the column on the right I look at some of…

IT feels possible to spend all day, every day in the garden at this time of year – and still not get everything done! I had a non-gardening week thanks to covid last month and it feels like the weeds took advantage of my absence to run riot through the beds. Garlic mustard and shepherd’s purse are a particular nuisance. I hoe off the smaller plants and leave them to rot down on the soil and leave some of the garlic mustard standing as it is a food of orange tip butterfly caterpillars. Shepherd’s purse has small white flowers on tall stems and goes on to produce thousands of seeds a year. Tackle it before seed heads develop and don’t add ripened plants to the compost as you will only…

IF you’ve been a gardener for a long time, you must have noticed the change in the British climate in recent years. As a teenager in the 1960s (oh, that makes me feel so old) summer was very much a case of three fine days and a thunderstorm. This phrase is attributed to George II, who was king during the hot and presumably thundery summers of the 1730s. Our climate was known for growing things well, because there were regular bursts of rain in spring and summer. British winters were cold and many of the plants coming into the country during the 17th century came from hotter climes like the Mediterranean. The most clement conditions are always close to rivers and lakes because water stores warmth and the thermals make…

John has been answering reader queries for 50 years When should I move a young wisteria? Q Two years ago I planted a wisteria against our garage. I’m wondering, should I prune and move it as the tendrils are twining around themselves? Bob Bassett (via email) A The best time to move and prune your wisteria is late autumn once it has gone dormant and lost its leaves. Waiting until autumn gives you time to prepare the new planting space and to put up any trellis or other structure to train the wisteria. When the time comes you will need to dig the wisteria up with as large a root ball as possible and move and plant it straight away to prevent the roots drying out. If you do this…

This week it’s: Laburnums and cytisus Two related plants go under the Miscellany microscope THIS week, I’m combining two plant genera into one Miscellany. They are related, and have some interesting stories connected with them! Let’s start with laburnums, which are in flower now. These are garden trees known variously as ‘golden chain’ or ‘golden rain tree’. When I pass gardens with laburnums in full flower, they give me a real boost. Then there is the group of shrubs known as cytisus, one of the brooms. Few people could fail to notice a cytisus in full flower, covered with masses of pea-like blooms. There are both deciduous and evergreen types (although many have practically leafless stems). So let’s take a sideways look at them both… The laburnum-cytisus graft hybrid LABURNUM…

Star letter What a waste I READ with interest the letter from Sir Brian Donohoe (AG, 19 April) and agree completely with him, the ‘compost’ sold nowadays as all-purpose, is only fit for one purpose and that is the compost heap, that’s after you’ve removed the stones and wood. Another ‘bugbear’ of mine is the amount of withered plants outside of supermarkets. I imagine these plants are ‘factory’ raised in units with artificial lights and heating then transported hundreds of miles using lorries and basically dumped at a supermarket in their thousands. The first sight of proper daylight for these plants being a supermarket forecourt. They are then usually left to dry out and wither. It would be better and greener to transport them straight from the ‘factory’ to the…

OF all the side effects of the Coronavirus lockdown, one of the most unexpected has been a massive rise in the price of houseplants and a resulting increase in houseplants ‘scams’ and thefts. Plant sellers have been robbed at gunpoint, ordinary plants have been painted to make them look like rare varieties and people are selling ‘cuttings’ at vastly inflated prices. Not even the prestigious Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London has escaped, and has suffered thefts and illicit cuttings-taking. Plants that have become must-have accessories thanks to lifestyle posts on social media now sell for thousands of pounds – last year a Rhaphidophora tetrasperma or ‘mini Monstera’ sold for a record-breaking £14,000. The more unusual the plant the higher the demand. Cuttings of cheese plants called Monstera Albo,…

EVERYONE has a favourite flower or two and up there in my top three (with Cosmos and honeywort) is Echinacea. I love their open daisy faces, the way bees and other pollinators flock to them and the fact that they will flower well into the autumn, looking stunning when paired with other ‘prairie’ plants such as long grasses, rudbeckias and Stachys. I realise I am lucky to be able to grow them in our open, chalky soil (they hate heavy, waterlogged conditions) and this year have added a couple of the unusual green-flowered variety ‘Green Twister’ to our beds. This week’s free seeds are for a more recognised variety, ‘Large Flowered’. They produce pink blooms with bronze centres held on robust tall stems that can grow to 48in (120cm) tall.…

PICKED when young and tender, there are few crops finer than homegrown French beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), available in both dwarf and climbing varieties. Given the right conditions and treatment they’ll yield at an astounding rate, and now is a great time to sow them. Being a tender annual, compost/soil temperatures at sowing are important; at least 10°C (50°F) is needed. For early crops (pods in late June), you could start sowing dwarf varieties in late March under glass, then transplant seedlings into growbags and slide them out in late May. But if soil is light and free-draining, and you live in the south, sow under rigid cloches now; wait until May in the north. “French beans will yield at an astonishing rate” Choosing a sunny, sheltered spot is important for…

EXOTIC-LOOKING canna plants look stunning, either as single specimens or grouped together for a tropical or jungle look. They are ideal for standing in a sunny spot, with their huge attractive leaves and unusual spikes of colourful flowers. Even when they are not in flower, many have attractive foliage with large leaves displaying a range of colours from green to yellow, orange and red, often in combination together. Frost-tender sunlovers Cannas prefer a warm, sunny, sheltered spot away from damaging strong winds (which can tear the leaves), but they will grow in most gardens through the summer. However, they are frost-tender and need protection throughout the winter months because they originate from South America. As a result, unless you have a very sheltered frost-free garden, it may be easier to…

SHOULD the summer give us Cornish camping weather (aka relentless rain), tomatoes grown outside are likely to succumb to fungal blight. Although always a gamble because you can never side-step this drizzle-loving disease, there are ways to increase your odds of success. Blight tends to attack in July and August, so toms that are quick out of the stalls help to spread your bets. Even if they never reach their full potential, you’ll still get a reasonable crop to scoff. Fleet-footed types include the bush tomatoes ‘Tumbler’ and ‘Latah’ which produce as early as July, with a single hurrah of large cherry sized fruits. Both are excellent trailing out of pots or over the edge of a raised bed. But if you want a tom for a growbag/pot, classic cordon…