Innholdsfortegnelse for 4-Mar-2023 i Amateur Gardening

“Are you a fan of Graham Clarke’s weekly Miscellany column? I love the insight he offers on the rich history of horticulture. This week, his subject is the carnation, a flower that was once the required buttonhole for the British city gent. That must have been quite an industry back in the day. However, we don’t hear much about them now… I wonder why? With so few business folk wearing suits these days I guess the button hole is consigned to history, but it would be good to see more carnations, wouldn’t it?” Contact us: 03303331113 03303903732 03303906566…

WE are a family of preservers. In late summer and early autumn I will make chutney from anything that stays still long enough while my husband makes devilishly spicy pickled onions and chilli jam. This week I have been planting shallots for pickling. I also use them in cooking as their taste is less overpowering than onions if you are looking for a subtle dish. They have gone into a raised bed which I weeded beforehand and added a layer of homemade compost mixed with some chicken manure pellets. I then walked over the surface to firm it down and give the growing shallots a secure foothold. I am growing from sets (immature bulbs) rather than from seed, mainly for speed and ease. Shallots like a fertile, sheltered sunny site…

I AM excited about this week’s free seeds because while I have grown plenty of strawberries by propagating via runners, I have never grown them from seed. Strawberry ‘Red and White Mixed’ are little alpine fruits that taste deliciously sweet. They are happy in borders or a container and look wonderful in a rockery or planted in an alpine trough or even in a hanging basket. This unusual variety will fruit in its first year, giving you delicious goodies to decorate cakes and pastries, add to your cereals or snack on during the day. The seeds need sunlight and air to germinate so leave them uncovered apart from a seed tray lid that should be removed once germination has taken place, around 2-3 weeks after sowing. Once the plants are…

IF, like me, you’re bursting to run out on to the plot and get some cropping plants in the ground, I’ve found the perfect way to focus all that positive energy: cloches! By offering your precious veg 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 is best for you? Cloches come in a range of shapes and sizes (see next page for a few of the main styles and functions), and they are 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 energy now!” For example, clear…

Hosta ‘Francee’ AGM Excellent for filling bare earth in shade, hostas have sumptuous foliage in many shapes, sizes and tones. ‘Francee’ features olive-green leaves with white margins, plus lilac flowers in July and August. HxS: 22x39in (56cmx1m). Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ AGM Ideal for shade – even dry shade – once established, those heart-shaped silver-toned leaves will really shine out in the gloom. There’s also the bonus of blue spring flowers. HxS: 16inx2ft (41x60cm). Bergenia purpurascens AGM Featuring bold purple leaves – the young foliage emerges green before turning an attractive bronze-purple by winter. Plants will spread to provide good cover and also feature pink flowers in the spring. H&S: 16in (41cm). Asarum europaeum Wild ginger’s rich, glossy, kidney-shaped leaves will spread slowly to form an evergreen carpet. A reliable…

ONCE known as gilliflowers, carnations have been grown throughout Asia and Europe for thousands of years, probably before written records were kept. Forms of dianthus, of which the carnation is a small group, have been extensively bred over the centuries, and there are now thousands of cultivars for garden use and the cut-flower trade. And when it comes to wedding buttonholes, today you’ll see anything from an orchid to a carrot, but over the past century or so, the traditional lapel adornment was always a single carnation bloom. Let’s take a closer look at these amazing flowers. ■ The name ‘dianthus’ comes from the Greek words Dios (meaning ‘of Zeus’) and anthos (‘flower’). How the name arose THE name ‘carnation’ used to mean ‘flesh colour’, from the Latin carnatio, meaning…

BEING able to grow your own fruit and veg is a great thing on so many levels. It renders ‘food miles’ almost non-existent, you know exactly how your food has been grown and what chemicals, if any, have been used and most importantly, it tastes better than anything bought from a supermarket. There’s also the perceived idea that growing fruit and veg will save you lots of money – something we are all keen to do in the current financial situation. It is possible, but only if you are successful at growing something you eat a lot and buy every week. There is no point trying to grow something that costs 10 times more in the way of compost, fertiliser and pest deterrents than it does to buy. We don’t…

WE love a bargain here at AG, especially and I also love tall ornamental grasses that add height and contrast to a garden border. So you can imagine my delight when I popped into a garden centre and found two large Miscanthus reduced from £20 apiece to a more reasonable £7. One was a Miscanthus sinensis ‘Ferner Osten’, which grows to 5ft (1.5m) and turns dull orange in autumn, with feathery flowers. The other is a Miscanthus sinensis ‘Strictus’, which has striped leaves and feathery plumes. Both like full sun and are happy in most soils, though they prefer them free-draining. They are easy to divide should they get too large. Miscanthus suits many types of garden, from cottage and prairie-style plantings where they offset the colours of perennials and…

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Rosa Pink Flower Carpet AGM Ground-cover roses are low-growing shrubs with a spreading nature. As well as offering flowers throughout summer, this bright-pink beauty will also deter annual weeds. Flowers: Jul-Sept. HxS: 32inx4ft (81cmx1.2m). Aubrieta ‘Purple Cascade’ Why have bare earth when you can have masses of purple flowers? Aubrieta will brighten boring walls and/or any gaps in borders when planted in full sun. Flowers: Mar-May. HxS: 1x1½ft (30x45cm). Persicaria affinis ‘Darjeeling Red’ AGM Rising above a soil-smothering carpet of leaves, the red and pink poker-like flowers of this attractive perennial add a welcome burst of colour to problem areas such as slopes. Flowers: Jul-Oct. HxS: 1x3ft (30x90cm). Geranium ‘Mavis Simpson’ AGM Vigorous but low growing, and with trailing stems. Offers excellent coverage and is perfect if you’re looking for…

ERICAS are small, twiggy, evergreen, sun-loving, mostly lime-hating flowering shrubs. The short, needle-like leaves are usually dark green, though some varieties have leaves in other colours, and are carried on neat and bushy plants. The flowers are like tiny bells clustered towards the tops of the stems. The chocolate coloured, pollen-bearing anthers often peep out from inside the flowers creating a pretty two-tone effect. There are more than 800 different species of ericas, growing wild in Europe, Asia and Africa. Although only a small proportion are grown in gardens, many of the most popular varieties also bring the benefit of coloured foliage that adds to the display. Most of the familiar varieties are very cold hardy. Ericas grow wild in well-drained, often sandy, soils and replicating these conditions works well…

WE receive a lot of queries about the best time to cut back clematis. But don’t worry, it’s actually pretty simple. Clematis are gathered into three main groups, all of which are cut back now to various degrees. ■ Group 1 plants are early blooming varieties that flower on growth produced the previous year. These include Clematis cirrhosa, C. armandii, C. montana, C. macropetala, and varieties including ‘Pamela Jackman’, ‘Avalanche’ and ‘Markham’s Pink’. If newly-planted they should be hard pruned to just above a strong pair of leaf buds about a foot (30cm) above soil level to encourage lots of new shoots. Established plants simply need to be tidied up with a pair of shears. ■ Group 2 clematis bloom in early summer, after which they can be deadheaded and fed…

GARDENING is a learning curve, as I’m sure you know. Every year is different and in recent times we’ve had another complication – human-induced climate change. The effects are definitely making gardening harder than it was. For instance, I haven’t had a warm, wet spring here for years. The last six have produced dry springs with clear, sunny skies. The days have been precociously warm, but night-time temperatures have plummeted towards zero and my plants hated the extremes. We no longer get ambient warmth and plenty of rain for spring growth, and the reason is becoming clear. Our planet is warming up and our climate is becoming erratic. I wasn’t surprised to hear that 2022 was the warmest in the UK since records began in 1884. The Met Office told…

B. ‘Truffle Cream’ These cascading plants produce many creamy apricot flowers, some single, some double with ruffled centres. Their attractiveness lies in the variety of shell-like shades of cream suffused with pink, peach, apricot and yellow against deep-green foliage. H&S: 18in (45cm). B. ‘Groovy Mellow Yellow’ Here is a new trailing B. boliviensis hybrid of neat habit. Plants make an arching dome of dark foliage and contrasting pale blooms lasting all summer and into autumn. Perfect on its own, or combine with trailing purple petunia in a site receiving some sun. H&S: 12in (30cm). B. ‘Apricot Delight’ From the Fragrant Falls Improved Series, this creates a tumble of double blooms with a mix of apricot and orange shades. The flowers are fragrant and are a good choice for warming up a…

How do I grow pineapple lilies? Q I’dlove to grow pineapple lilies – are they easy to cultivate? John Wilde, Gloucester A Pineapple lily is the common name of a lovely bulb called Eucomis. It is in the lily family and each bulb produces a rosette of strap-shaped leaves and a dense spike of starry flowers topped by a tuft of small leafy bracts – which is how it got its common name. Eucomis bicolor flowers in autumn and has flowers of the palest green. Other species include E. autumnalis (pale-greenish flowers), E. Comosa (white and purple flowers) and E. Pallidiflora (greenish-white flowers). Pineapple lilies are easy to grow. They can be planted in spring or autumn, setting the bulbs 4-6in (10-16cm) deep. They prefer fertile, free-draining soil or compost…

CONTAINERS of short-term seasonal colour look great while they are in flower, but the lag time as one batch dies down and the next one grows up to flower can mean the pot looks flat for a few weeks. Die-down problem This is an issue with both summer and winter bedding, where you need the previous batch to die down, but even a little unseasonal weather can set it back. The same can be said for a display of bulbs, because they take time to die down, often long after flowering has finished. They can be emptied out of the container and placed somewhere in the garden to die back, but this is disruptive and can result in a poorer display next time around. Bulb basket One solution is to…

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MARCH at Buckland Castle is a month of expectancy and excitement, when every day a new flower opens into the sunshine. But this year, thanks to a bruising winter, instead of enjoying flowers breaking into bloom, I’m breaking into tears at the gaps where they used to be. It wasn’t that the weather was especially icy: I’ve known winters where the mercury has dipped so low a polar bear would worry. But what the cold season lacked in extremes, it made up for in repetitiveness, nagging tender agapanthus, hebes and succulents into submission. Chatting with other gardeners, it seems part of the problem was winter’s early arrival – before tender plants had toughened up and stopped growing. The first cold spell came in November, stripping away the insulating ‘coat’ of…