Innholdsfortegnelse for 28-Jan-2023 i Amateur Gardening

“Have you seen the first snowdrops yet? I am fascinated by these delicate-looking flowers, which are far hardier then they appear. There is just something magical about them, and clearly I am not alone in thinking this, for they have been venerated by the ancient Greeks and viewed as a symbol of purity by the early Christians – hardly surprising, then, that we see so many in our churchyards. I am also fascinated by the devotion of Galanthophiles: people who are obsessed with collecting rare snowdrops and often paying a small fortune for them. It’s funny how certain flowers have an emotional effect on us while others do not. I haven’t seen my first snowdrops yet, but I know it will be a special moment when I do…” Contact us:…

HERBS are an asset to any garden, and not just because we all use them so much in the kitchen. Sage, rosemary and thyme are hardy evergreens, so they add colour and structure to the garden right through the year. Fennel, though not evergreen, produces elegant, tall stems with outspread seedheads that feed the birds and look exquisite when iced by frost. Do take care with fennel though, it self-seeds easily and can quickly invade your borders. Hyssop is another attractive perennial herb. It loses its leaves in winter and needs cutting back in autumn to keep it shapely, but its flowers are a striking indigo and are attractive to pollinators. This week I have been taking cuttings of Salvia officinalis, the common sage that is used so much in…

MOST of us have a stab at growing tomatoes at some point, and I have found that some years are good, others not quite up to scratch. Last year AG gave away ‘Gardener’s delight’ tomato seeds and this year we have chosen the variety ‘Tigerella’, a medium-sized, tasty fruit with distinctive skins striped with orange. The holder of the RHS Award of Garden Merit, ‘Tigerella’ can be grown in the greenhouse and outside and is renowned for producing bumper crops that ripen earlier than some varieties. You can lengthen the cropping window by sowing some seeds now, so plants will be ready to go into the greenhouse in late April or May, and some later to grow outside when the weather is reliably warm enough. This way, you could be…

EVOCATIVE, exciting eye-candy – that’s how I’d describe chilli peppers. Plus, eye-watering if you eat the wrong one raw! The heat we taste, measured in Scoville heat units (SHUs), is due to plant chemicals in the seed coat called capsaicinoids. While milder chillies have a thicker seedcoat (known as the placenta) that protects the seeds from damage, hotter varieties like ‘Naga Viper’ and ‘Trinidad Scorpion’ have a thinner yet capsaicin-packed placenta. This protects the seed from rots as well as mammalian predators via its antimicrobial activity – and the fact that it tastes foul! Some folk get a buzz from the ‘feel-good’ endorphins produced in response to the painful heat (the oils in full-fat milk or yoghurt dissolve capsaicin; use these to quell the fire in your mouth). But seed…

BLUE Monday may have come and gone, but in late January we all need something to lift the spirits. And what better way to cheer up your entrance or patio than with a bright container? Getting out into the garden is always uplifting, and there is a huge range of plants that can bring instant gratification with their winter ‘wow’ factor. Unlike bulbs, which require months of patience, with a winter pot you’ll see a return on your efforts immediately. Position your container near the front door or somewhere it is visible from a window, and even in bad weather you can enjoy looking out at your bright and cheerful creation. To transform a container in the depths of winter, you need bright berries, vibrant stems and interesting foliage –…

A shrub to shield a coastal greenhouse Q We have moved to Cornwall, quite close to the coast, and need to screen our greenhouse from the storms that roll in. A plant that could also give privacy from walkers on the footpath next to the garden would also be handy! What can you suggest? Patrick Morgan, South Cornwall A As, presumably, you are relatively close to the sea and the winds are liable to be salty, I urge you to plant a screen of salt-resistant tamarisk (tamarix). It will not only shield your greenhouse from strong winds, but also look beautiful in late spring. There are several species and varieties of this appealing pink-flowered shrub, but I recommend Tamarix ramosissima ‘Pink Cascade’. Growing to around 3m (10ft), it is best…

LAST summer, one of these columns concerned cats and gardening. To redress the balance, I’m now looking at dogs, and their associations with plants and gardening. A recent survey by the Pet Food Manufacturing Association found that 34% of households in the UK have dogs, whereas 28% have cats. As of 2021, ‘ruff-ly’ 12.5 million dogs are kept in the UK; this number increased significantly during the pandemic. So, what are the connections between dogs and horticulture? Actually, there are many – let’s look at some of them. ■ The dog’s-tooth violet (Erythronium dens-canis) is one of our most beautiful spring plants. The white bulb is oblong and resembles a dog’s tooth, hence the common name; the dens-canis in its Latin name translates as ‘dog’s tooth’. Roses and dogs IF…

ACROSS 1 Monastery, as in Astrantia ‘_____ Road’ (5) 3 The harvest, and even what it weighs perhaps (5) 7 Mammalian subjects of this week’s Miscellany! (4) 8 River in the north-east, sounding like the prong of a garden fork! (4) 9 The ___ bud mite is a pest of blackcurrants (3) 11 Dutch city, roughly in the centre of the country, as in the tulip cultivar ‘Golden _______’ (9) 14 Stamped addressed envelope under contract – as in arisaema! (1,1,1) 16 Places to live – on waterlily leaves perhaps! (4) 17 In a khaki willow you will find the Chinese gooseberry (Actinidia deliciosa) (4) 18 Tall bearded iris ‘_____ Darkness’ and daylily ‘_____ Screamer’ have this greeting in common! (5) 19 Pertaining to moisture in the air (5)) DOWN…

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I SPENT an extremely satisfying day in the greenhouse during the Christmas break, cleaning the glass and surfaces, clearing out dead plants and last year’s pots and labels and generally getting the structure ready for the year ahead. It is so important to start the gardening year with a clean greenhouse, as diseases and pests will run riot in warmth and humidity where there are lots of plants in close proximity. You can use strong disinfectants such as Jeyes Fluid and fumigation candles to do this, but I prefer to use hot water, elbow grease and household cleaner or an ecological disinfectant such as Ecoleaf, Ecofective Natural Anti-Bacterial Multi-Surface Sanitiser or Bio D Home and Garden Cleaner. Wash down shelves and surfaces and keep the glass clean to let maximum…

BEAUTIFUL, exotic lilies can be planted any time between autumn and April, so if you have some unplanted bulbs in the shed, think about getting them in. They do well in pots as well as in the soil and right now, when the ground is wet and cold, I’d consider growing them in pots because they are prone to rotting in chilly, saturated ground. Keep planted pots somewhere frost-free until night time temperatures are reliably above freezing, then harden off the shooting plant and move them out. Asiatic lilies are among the easiest to grow and the earliest to flower. They do best in well-drained soil in full sun or very light shade, as too little sun will weaken their stems. For the best results in a container, place a…

YOU can grow wheat easily enough, so why not try growing it to make bread? Wheat’s a hardy annual grass, and as ornamental grasses are so trendy you might even make a bed in your front lawn as a feature. Wheat can be sown in situ or in multi-cell trays and planted out. Sow a suitable variety (wholefood stores stock these for making bread), harvest the stems and then separate the grains from the chaff. Then grind these in a hand-mill to wholemeal (sifting this if you want white flour), add water and yeast and bake. It is not difficult, though it is fiddly – the growing part is easier and quicker. Of course, the space required is considerable. A daily loaf for a year would take all of a…

Best of the 60s & 70s Isle of Wight Spring Festival - Warner Norton Grang. 4 days from £329pp INCLUDED: • Entertainment every night with The Legendaries - Les McKeown’s touring band perform Bay City Rollers hits, Carnaby Street, Phil Wright’s Paper Lace, Paul Da Vinci’s 60s & 70s Explosion, The Moondogs, The Jerry Lee Lewis Story, tributes to Elton John & George Benson PLUS Chris Gee’s impressions show • 3 breakfasts & 3 dinners PLUS Free selected drinks from 6pm to midnight every night • 3 nights' standard chalet (upgrade available), car ferry & parking Date: 10 March 2023 - self drive to resort £ 10pp deposit BIG Hits of the 60s & 70s Summer Festival - Warner Lakeside, Hayling Island. 4 days from £399pp INCLUDED: • Entertainment every…

AS soon as New Year celebrations are over, gardeners look eagerly for signs of their snowdrops emerging. Along with winter aconites and Lenten hellebores, these small but beautiful bulbous plants bring gardens to life by carpeting the ground with their early flowers. Snowdrops, in the genus Galanthus (derived from the Greek word for milk), belong to the daffodil and nerine family Amaryllidaceae. There are 23 species originating mainly from the eastern Mediterranean region and hybridising has produced many cultivars and some new terminology. A longing to collect the rarest and most novel snowdrops is known as ‘galanthomania’ and ‘galanthophiles’ are snowdrop lovers who meet for sales, swaps, talks and special lunches. One bulb of a new and unusual snowdrop will occasionally sell for four figures. Each bulb usually produces just…

In this extract from AG 8 February 1975, Christopher Lloyd, of Great Dixter, looks at bulbs to plant now MANY gardeners believe that bulbs are planted in autumn or not at all. But there are a number that are best planted in spring and these fall into two groups. First, those that you buy dry and plant soon in the expectation that they will flower this coming summer or autumn. Second, those that you plant green, immediately they have finished flowering, because this is the time they move best. To take this second group first, snowdrops hate being dried off for sale in the autumn, but if you plant them while their leaves and roots are still active they settle down at once and you will have no losses. Most…

It’s time for our just-for-fun puzzle – AG’s Garden Wall. This wall comprises 12 bricks in three courses. Each brick has a different word, or phrase on it. The first brick in each course, with BLOCK capitals, is cemented in place and cannot be moved. Just rearrange all the other bricks, so that the four words in each course of bricks are linked. There are three different connections to look for, one for each course. You may find that some words have more than one connection to other courses, but there is just one correct answer. You’ll either find this puzzle fiendishly difficult, or incredibly easy! Answers below. Hint: In (at least) one of the courses, the bricks are linked to dogs. Answers: DRY ENOUGH (greyhound) = LApines(spaniel), Gardentea(greatdane), Tannedbriars(SaintBernard)…

GARDEN scissors go by a number of different names, including scissors, snips or ‘deadheaders’. They are lightweight, pocket-sized tools best suited to snipping off dead flower heads, pruning soft shoots, taking tip cuttings or cutting twine. They can be used for finishing off topiary work after an initial cut, particularly where the subject has small leaves, but remember these are scissors, not secateurs, and trying to use them on hard or thick material will soon lead to damage to both the blades and the plant. Florist’s favourite Florists and flower arrangers favour these tools when secateurs are too heavy-duty or cumbersome for fiddly or delicate work, as they are good for precision cutting. They are ideal where soft shoots need to be cut with the minimum amount of bruising or…

Essential water for birds I WOULD like to appeal to AG’s readers that it’s not just food that our feathered friends need during freezing cold conditions, but they need fresh water daily as well. I sometimes have to refill the tray twice a day in winter, not only for drinking, but bathing (are they mad?). Also the bird bath I use is ideal for large and small birds. It is a paint roller tray, ideal because it has a ridged slope into the water and the water depth is just right for large and small birds to bathe. I have used this ‘bath’ for a good many years. Black is the colour they prefer, with no dried paint on and they definitely do not like white or multi-coloured trays. Also…

I HAD a bit of a calamity with our hippeastrum last month. I completely forgot it was resting in our unheated greenhouse and when the very cold snap arrived just before Christmas it completely did for the plant’s regenerating leaves. So I brought inside and repotted it and it is now on a warm, light shelf and will hopefully grow and flower as well as it did last year when its flower stem grew as tall as me! Repotting the hippeastrum (also called amaryllis) was something I had on my to-do list anyway, as they need fresh compost and a slightly larger container each year to keep them performing well. Most other houseplants need very little care through winter as the reduced light levels sends them into a dormant phase…

I BEGAN garden writing in April 1995, when Geoff Hamilton was presenting Gardeners’ World from Barnsdale in Rutland. I couldn’t wait to meet him, but sadly that didn’t happen because Geoff died on 4 August 4 1996, just eight days before his 60th birthday. At the time he was completing a charity bike ride in Merthyr Tydfil. I missed him by days, because I was due to meet him at an event later that week. In those days, Gardeners’ World was compulsory viewing. Geoff’s style was relaxed and friendly, and he always seemed to be making something out of nothing, or digging out his compost heap, or potting something on. The fact that Geoff seemed to be doing it on a shoestring was appealing to many, including this hard-up aspiring…

Yes, you read it correctly, you can now grow deliciously sweet peaches here in the UK! 'Redhaven' is apopular Augustfruiting variety with lusciously sweet yellow flesh that melts in your mouth when you bite into it and afree stone that falls away from the flesh. Its self-fertile so will crop reliably for you and needs no othertree in orderfor it to produce fruit. The gorgeous, sweetly fragrant pink blossom looks apicture in springtime. The warmer the position of yourtree when it’s in blossom, the busier the bees and other pollinating insects will be, resulting in delicious peaches for you! This variety shows resistance to peach leaf curl making it agreat choice for UK gardeners. Best eaten straight from the tree but equally delicious in desserts. "Grow delicious sweet peaches here…

MARIGOLDS are sun-loving, frost-tender, annuals with large single or double flowers that are often crowded with petals in cream, pale or bright yellow, rich gold or dazzling orange and often with markings in mahogany or other contrasting shades. Opening their flowers from early summer until the frosts, marigolds really pack a colourful punch. Range of sizes The leaves of marigolds are dark-green in colour, shaped a little like those of a rose, and most come with a slightly musty smell when crushed, although some have pleasant fresh fragrance. The neatest varieties of French marigolds remain small and bushy, reaching little more than 6in (15cm) high with single or double flowers and are ideal in window boxes and small pots. The tallest, varieties of American marigold, are far more flamboyant and…

AS from week to week we watch the fascinating spectacle of the popularity of Harold Wilson and Edward Heath see-sawing in the searching scrutiny of the public opinion polls, it is salutary to remember just how brief political reputations can be. The names of many a politician, worthy men all, stout upholders of splendid causes, are better known today for the fruits that were named after them than, often, for the fruits of their life’s work. There are, of course, exceptions. We all remember Gladstone, even if his apple, which was awarded a First Class Certificate in 1883, is not seen much today and we have completely forgotten what he said in 1887. Appropriately named ‘Winston’ Then there is that regular-cropping, long-keeping apple, ‘Winston’. Originally this was called ‘Winter King’,…

No: 656 This word search comprises words associated with plants and dogs. They are listed below; in the grid they may be read across, backwards, up, down or diagonally. Letters may be shared between words. Erroneous or duplicate words may appear in the grid, but there is only one correct solution. After the listed words are found there are 10 letters remaining; arrange these to make this week’s TWO KEYWORDS. DOGS HOUNDS TONGUE GREYHOUND BOXER CANINE CORNUS DOGWOOD GREAT DANE HUSKY LABRADOR PELLETS PET POODLE PUP ROSE SETTER SPANIEL HOW TO ENTER: Enter this week’s two keywords on the entry form, and send it to AG Word Search No 656, Amateur Gardening, Future Publishing Limited, Unit 415, Winnersh Triangle, Eskdale Road, Winnersh, RG41 5TP, to arrive by Wednesday 8 February…

Sacrificial plants for veg Q I know gardeners lure pests from their crops by using sacrificial plants such as lettuce to trap slugs, and last summer my self-sown mulleins were covered in caterpillars. If I plant these near my broccoli plants, would this be an alternative to covering them? Michelle McClarty, Telford, Shropshire A There is a superficial similarity between the speckled caterpillars of mullein moth and those of the large white butterfly, but I’m afraid this plan is not going to work. The food plants of butterflies and moths are specific, and the large white feeds only on brassicas, nasturtiums and mignonettes. Planting mulleins in your broccoli patch might make it harder for female large whites to track down brassicas, but they are as unlikely to lay their eggs…

YOU’D expect magic from a plant named ‘witch hazel’ and, true to form, the silver twiggy dome that grows outside my greenhouse is enchanting. Its summer leaves are long gone, but from the bare branches, clusters of filament-shaped orange petals sizzle in the gloom like sparks from Dumbledore’s wand. These are not only bright but also beautifully scented, with a ‘now you smell it, now you don’t’ tricksiness. Sometimes you can catch it by the flowers. At other times, it’s wafted like will-o’-the-wisp to another part of the garden. But when you do happen upon it, the zesty Chanel No5-style fragrance is moreish to the point of spell-binding. As with all scented shrubs, a sheltered spot out of the breeze helps the fragrance build – but don’t expect it to…