Innholdsfortegnelse for 1-Jul-2023 i Amateur Gardening

1 Add compost and fertiliser to a pot one size larger than the plant’s existing container. 2 Free the plant from its pot, carefully rub away the old compost from the rootball and tease out tangled roots. 3 Nestle the rootball on the fresh compost and infill around the roots with more compost, firming it down. 4 Cut away dead and damaged stems and remove any leaves showing signs of disease or pests. 5 Set the plant in a sunny, sheltered spot raised on feet and water it generously.…

P. ‘Atrium’ The Unique pelargoniums are one of the earliest groups of hybrids, still well-loved for their colourful blooms and usually fragrant foliage. This one makes a neat plant of attractive, apricot-scented leaves. Take cuttings in late summer and trim plants after flowering. HxS: 20x12in (50x30cm). P. ‘Lemon Fancy’ AGM This is a proper ‘lemon-scented geranium’, whose roughly textured, deeply cut foliage emits a strong lemon fragrance said to deter mosquitoes. Large, rounded plants make attractive specimens to stand out on a sunny patio. Textural mid-green leaves clothe plants well. H&S: 18in (45cm). P. ‘Shrubland Rose’ Attractive crinkled foliage is spicily rose-scented and makes a fine accompaniment to boldly coloured scarlet blooms, whose upper petals are feathered with darker markings. It flowers well into autumn. Monthly high potash liquid feeds…

ANYONE who thought the dahlia trend was just a flash in the pan was wrong – very wrong. Five years after they were deemed to be ‘back’, they are still going strong – and with good reason. Dahlias provide the ‘wow’ factor, summer-long displays and superb value for money. Unlike most other bedding plants, you can keep the tubers going for years – a gardener friend of mine grows dahlias that have been passed down for several generations, and her tubers are the size of the kitchen sink. If you missed the planting window for tubers, you can buy dahlias from garden centres now, just coming into flower, and get them in the ground or in pots right away. Granted, this is more expensive, but on the plus side you’ll…

Hot favourite If you have the space and really want to impress, turn up the drama by teaming brightly coloured dahlias such as ‘David Howard’ with towering dark-leaved cannas, the foliage of which creates a powerful contrast. Cutting crew With a generous vase life, dahlias make great cut flowers, so opt for planting partners that will work well in arrangements and borders. Boldly coloured cosmos, zinnias, chrysanths and perennial sunflowers are all strong contenders. Fire and air You can’t go wrong with the pairing of dahlias and Verbena bonariensis – airy verbena flowers help break up the bold dahlia blooms. Choose any dahlia; just ensure you plant a minimum of three of each variety for impact. Box clever For a neat and tidy way to grow dahlias, be inspired by…

Impatiens arguta A dramatic hardy perennial, sometimes becoming woody at the base, with striking pouched lavender flowers that swing below the dark green, neatly toothed leaves. Good for: Rich soil in partial shade. Hardiness: Yes. Hardiness: RHS H5. Height: 24in (60cm). Impatiens omeiana A beautiful, steadily spreading plant with dark, often evergreen, foliage, veined in white, that is pretty from when it first emerges, and then creamy-yellow summer flowers. Good for: Rich soil in shady borders. Disease resistant: Yes. Hardiness: RHS H4. Height: 20in (50cm). Impatiens flanaganae Red-tinted stems carry bright-pink flowers with two large petals in late summer until frosts. Good for: Rich, well-drained soil in part shade. Dig up and store the tubers in the coldest areas. Disease resistant: Yes. Hardiness: RHS H4. Height: 39in (1m). Impatiens tinctoria…

ACROSS 1 Singular plant subject of this week’s Miscellany! (5) 3 Yellowish viscous liquid of plant origin, used in lacquers, varnishes and many other applications (5) 7 Common name for Mahonia aquifolium (6,5) 8 Plants that live for three years or more (10) 9 Like, or relating to, the family of plants of which the prickly pear is a common example (10) 13 Area filled beyond what is desirable – as in too many plants in a border! (10) 14 The holly variety ‘Good _____’ has flavour! (5) 15 Shear grass at the edge of a path, or against a wall – after the trade name of the powered machine (5) DOWN 1 Poor D! It hangs down backwards! (5) (anag) 2 Vessels in the Arctic – and people who…

1 Save water, using grey water from the washing up as long as it isn’t too full of food particles, and collecting water that runs while the hot tap is heating up. Also harvest boiled egg and veg cooking water once it has cooled. 2 Shear back winter heather to keep it tidy and encourage more flowers next year. Just take the top dead flowerheads off with sharp shears and avoid cutting into the old woody growth as it won’t regenerate. 3 Fill gaps with perennials and bedding and add more plants to containers if any have already failed. Deadhead regularly to encourage more flower buds and water well, especially new plants. 4 Early flowering perennials such as knapweed flop outwards and smother neighbouring plants. Remove the old stems, feed and…

WITH peat due to be consigned to history in 2024, gardeners going peat-free are searching for advice on how to succeed with eco-friendly growing media. The Wildlife Trusts, which campaigned for a peat ban, has produced a new guide called Greener Gardening, Perfecting Peat-Free – but its advice has concerned experts. A recipe for poor results? A major worry is the guide’s recommendation to ‘use a 50:50 mix of new and used compost’ to ‘save money and cut down on waste’. Steve and Val Bradley, gardening correspondents for AG and The Sun say this is ‘misleading’. They said: “The advantage of new compost is that it is (or should be) sterile and contains fertiliser at a known rate. This is important for young plants. Spent compost can contain pathogens and…

‘Café au Lait’ Very fashionable at the moment, and popular for use in summer bridal bouquets. The soft, creamy blooms can reach 10in (25cm) across – they look equally spectacular in the border and the vase. H: 4ft (1.2m). ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ AGM This deservedly popular classic matches its attractive, clear-red blooms with foliage in a dramatic bronze-red. An excellent choice for a ‘hot colours’ border scheme. Flowers from July to September. H: 39in (1m). ‘Totally Tangerine’ Ideal for use in naturalistic planting schemes – try teaming the pretty, pinky-apricot flowers with salvias, panicum grass, coreopsis and tanacetum. Short enough to make staking unnecessary, too. H: 32in (80cm). ‘Hillcrest Royal’ AGM Favoured by the late, great plantsman Christopher Lloyd, this brilliant-pink cactus dahlia will knock your socks off with its…

WE used to call them busy Lizzies (Impatiens walleriana), and grew rather straggly plants, rarely without an aphid or two, on the kitchen windowsill. If we had a conservatory, or the knack of growing flowering houseplants, then perhaps we also grew the exotic-looking cockatoo plant (Impatiens niamniamensis). Then the plant breeders got to work and busy Lizzies became the best-selling summer bedding plants in the world. Best-selling bedding plants A huge range of varieties was developed in an impressive range of colours and bicolours, combined with the development of short, bushy growth and astonishingly prolific flowering. Their adaptability, including tolerance of shade, enhanced their popularity. Alongside these developments came improved New Guinea impatiens (Impatiens hawkeri) that needed warmer summers than we usually experience, plus an enhanced interest in the many…

Do regulations only require that seed packets are stamped with the year of packing rather than when they’re harvested? As an amateur gardener with 60 years of experience growing runner beans, am I alone in seeing a marked deterioration in the quality of seed? Last year I had zero germination from ‘Tenderstar’ (right) the seeds of which arrived looking brown and dried up. I complained, but the replacement seed also rotted within four days of sowing. Luckily, I had saved some seed which gave 100% success. This spring I bought the variety ‘Snowstorm’ by mail order. The packet was stamped ‘packed in year ending 2021’. Sure enough, every one of them rotted in their pots. These beans could well have been grown in 2020 (or earlier) before being packed for…

1 Gooseberry sawfly caterpillars strip leaves from the plants. Either cover your bush in fleece before they attack or pick off the caterpillars and squash them. 2 Distinctive mullein caterpillars also do immense damage. Again, pick and squash them. 3 Earwigs go for dahlias so upend a small pot on a stake near to the plants, and fill it with newspaper. The earwigs crawl in during the day, and you can release them away from your dahlias where they will eat aphids instead.Lily beetles can strip lily foliage.  4 Pick off and squash or use Grazers G4 spray deterrent, which keeps them off and stops them laying eggs on your plants.…

1 If pot and growbag compost dries out it can be hard to re-wet. A couple of drops of detergent in the water breaks the surface tension, making it soak in more easily. 2 Cut back lupins and delphiniums to a strong side shoot, then feed and water them well. They should regenerate and produce a second flush of flowers, though they may be less impressive than the first. Premium cuts: Next week I look at pruning trees and shrubs that should be cut back in midsummer…

MY passion for pelargoniums with fragrant foliage started in childhood, with lemonscented P. graveolens, plainleaved P. crispum and peppermint P. tomentosum. They lived in pots on my bedroom windowsill, or out in our tiny greenhouse kept frost-free in winter with insulation and a paraffin heater. Most people called them ‘geraniums’, a confusing common name as it doubles as the botanical name for the genus of closely related hardy geraniums or cranesbills. Both pelargoniums and geraniums belong to the plant family Geraniaceae. Tough and undemanding Most pelargoniums originate from the Cape of South Africa and have been in cultivation since species were collected in the 17th century, giving rise to many hybrids. These tough, undemanding plants became widely grown and in Victorian Britain were typical of the plants touted door to…

‘Gallery Art Deco’ AGM Reaching just 16in (41cm) high, ‘Gallery Art Deco’ is excellent for containers and windowboxes. In shades of pink, peach and apricot, the huge double flowers will look great solo, but for added impact, partner up with hot pink ‘Art Nouveau’. ‘Twyning’s Smartie’ A fun choice for a small garden or patio pot – each magenta-and-white-striped flower has an unpredictable number of white petals. Plants will flower from July to September and attract bees. H: 2½ft (75cm). ‘Roxy’ Make a statement with this must-have for containers. Produced from late spring to the end of September, the bold-pink flowers are showy enough to shine on their own; alternatively, try with paler partners, like gaura and white petunias. H: 2ft (60cm).…

Impatiens Beacon Series Seed-raised, disease-resistant series offered in seven clean colours, with all the qualities of traditional busy Lizzies – plus mildew resistance. Good for: Patio pots and hanging baskets, window boxes, summer bedding in sun or partial shade. Disease resistant: Yes. Hardiness: RHS H1c. Height: 12in (30cm). Impatiens niamniamensis Known a cockatoo plant, or parrot plant, its colourful red-and-yellow flowers like tiny parrots are carried on fleshy, frost-tender stems. Good for: The conservatory or indoors, but is happy outside in most summers. Disease resistant: Yes. Hardiness: RHS H1b. Height: 29½in (75cm). Impatiens DeZire Series Traditional seed-raised series in 14 colours including, bicolours. Probably the best traditional type. The older Super Elfin Series is also still being offered. Good for: Patio pots, hanging baskets, window boxes, summer bedding in sun…

Q We have a very old Rhododendron‘Fragrantissimum’ in a pot we bring into a sunroom for winter, then after flowering it goes outside for summer. It is now leggy and hardly produces any flowers. Can we prune it? Selina Watkins, Reading, Berkshire A This slightly tender evergreen rhododendron, bred from two sweetly fragrant species, opens its rather glamorous funnel-shaped blooms of white flushed faintly with pink in April and May. Generally held to be among the most fragrant of its tribe, this popular hybrid is of moderate size and suits growing in pots. The downside is a straggly growth habit. Although beautiful in bloom and the holder of an RHS Award of Garden Merit, it is not a thing of beauty for the rest of the year. In many ways,…

CREATING an outside space that looks attractive while performing a variety of roles is a challenge faced by increasing numbers of garden lovers. Many of us juggle to provide a garden with competing needs, from hanging washing and storing bins to providing a relaxing place to sit and room to grow a few vegetables. Peter Allen was determined to find a way to accommodate all this and more when he moved into his new-build house in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, six years ago. The starting point for his garden was a small patio looking out towards a brick wall and wooden fence, with a path leading around the side of the plot to a garage behind. Peter’s way of making the most from what was effectively a clean sheet was to divide…