Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2024 i Garden Answers

SHREWSBURY FLOWER SHOW August 9–10, The Quarry, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, W Midlands SY1 1RN Specialist nurseries, TV stars, celebrity chefs, music and arena acts. Tickets from £15. • shrewsburyflowershow.org.uk PLUM WEEKEND August 10–11, 10am–3pm, Brogdale Collections, Faversham, Kent ME13 8XZ Orchard tours, plum PYO & tasting. Book a free pass. • brogdalecollections.org SOUTHPORT FLOWER SHOW August 15–18, Victoria Park, Southport, Merseyside PR8 1RX Specialist growers, talks, show gardens and refreshments. From £25. • southportflowershow.co.uk CUPAR FLOWER SHOW August 17, The Corn Exchange, Cupar, Fife, Scotland KY15 4BT Star chefs, musicians, stalls and lots of garlic. • cuparflowershow.co.uk GARLIC FESTIVAL August 17–18, Fighting Cocks Crossroads, Sandown, Isle of Wight Star chefs, musicians, stalls and lots of garlic. • garlicfestival.co.uk CHILLI FESTIVAL August 24–26, 10am–5pm, Benington Lordship Gardens, near Stevenage, Herts SG2 7BS…

1 For this displayyou’ll need a basin, about 10 dahlias (depending on size of basin), tea lights and a lighter. 2 Place the basinclose to the dinner table where it will be seen by guests. Fill it up to about 3cm below the rim with water. 3 Cut the heads off the dahlias, leaving about 5cm of stem. Pop them in the water and they will float. 4 Light the tea lightsand carefully place them in the water. 5 The dahlia headswill last for several days but be sure to take the tea lights out of the water once they have finished burning.…

Colourful South African plants add a jewel box richness to the summer garden, because their resilient, rain-resistant petals are pigment-packed. Among the most admired are crocosmias, agapanthus, kniphofias, dieramas and nerines. Many come from The Cape, a florally rich area of South Africa that gets its own rainy season, depending on location. After the rains have stopped these plants put on an impressive growth spurt and bloom, having been supercharged by plenty of moisture. These South African beauties won’t perform unless they get plenty of rain. My crocosmias and kniphofias both failed to perform during the drought of 2012, the fifth driest summer since the 1890s. My crocosmia foliage turned brown that year, although the corms survived and they came back the next year. My kniphofias sulked, too, because they…

Autumn-flowering bulbs will put on growth in the mild summer weather, so there’s time to pop some in now for a blaze of colour in a couple of months. Some autumn bulbs revel in the warmth of a sunny, sheltered wall, while others like the shade of deciduous trees until their leaves drop. The most stunning plant is the nerine, flowering in October and November with a starburst of glittering hot pink. Plant with the neck of the bulb just exposed and pair with Gladiolus murielae in a sheltered, sunny site. Sternbergia lutea and Crocus sativus (saffron crocus) are lower growers for a sunny spot, while purple colchicum ‘Waterlily’ and Cyclamen hederifolium will naturally spread beneath the part-shade of a deciduous tree. Add grit to heavy soil to make the…

For many of us, the crowning glory of gardening is flowers–all that colour and pizzazz and perfume are irresistible. Then when the fireworks fade, a tinge of sadness can seem to fall over the garden. But this need not be the end of the show. Many plants have seedheads that, left in place, can bring a more enduring quality to the garden right through the winter. Yes, they may be more low-key than the blooms that preceded them, but they have their own architectural aesthetic. And as far as the plant is concerned, the seedhead and the valuable cargo of seeds it contains are the ultimate evidence of success. A flower is just a means to an end–it is the seeds that were the goal, the guarantee of the next…

1 You’ll need a modular cell tray, peat-free compost, watering can, labels and purple kohlrabi seeds. Purple varieties are hardier and slower to mature than green, but can be sown in late summer. 2 Sow two seeds per cell of peat-free compost –making sure it has already been moistened. Cover lightly with more compost and water in well. Keep them inside in a warm spot. 3 Kohlrabi grows quickly so you will soon have seedlings. If both seeds have germinated, thin out the smallest one. Once they reach 5cm, start hardening them off outside over a couple of weeks. 4 Once you have tall, healthy seedlings of about 20cm, they’re ready to plant out. Choose a sunny spot and add lots of garden compost. Kohlrabi dislikes acidic soil so add…

Q How can I bulk up my border with more early-summer flowers? This border has bags of potential. Its owner would like more plants to flower alongside his pink and white Phlox paniculata (June–September) and wants the herbaceous borders at Arley Hall in Cheshire to act as inspiration. Arley’s herbaceous borders are indeed spectacular but they’re at least 4-6m deep. Extending the borders by 1–2m would help enormously in this border, provided lots of well-rotted organic matter is added and some stepping stones for access and maintenance. Little grows under the mature Acer tataricum ginnala (H: 7–12m, S: 8m) on the right, but some colour and height is desperately needed here. So, next winter when the tree is dormant, it’s worth thinning out some of its many stems and branches…

Grow your own delicious citrus fruit right here in the UK with this easy-grow Orange & Lemon Tree Collection. Deliciously juicy, full-size fruits in the first season. This pair of orange and lemon trees are packed full of vitamin C, smell divine and the sweetly-perfumed white flowers contrast beautifully against the deep green, citrus-fragranced foliage. In winter and early spring your trees will be covered with blossom. Fruits mature and ripen over a whole year. Grow outside in the summer, bringing indoors for winter. Supplied as a pair of 3-4ft tall, fully mature trees in 4-5L pots, with FREE 150g soluble feed. Also available individually. • Item 680021: Orange & Lemon Tree Collection for £46.97–save £30! • Item 680019: 1 x orange tree in a 4L pot for £24.99–save £10.…

Q How often do I water a potted hydrangea in an ericaceous mix? A Hydrangeas need to have moist soil/compost at all times. Water daily in summer and stand large plants in a saucer but don’t let them sit in a puddle in winter. They only need ericaceous compost if you want blue flowers. Q What How do I get potted agapanthus plants to flower? A Agapanthus can do well in pots, but take a few years to get established before flowering freely. Newly-divided plants rarely flower quickly but there are other reasons why they may not bloom. They need a reasonably rich soil and should be potted in John Innes No 3 compost. If you’re using multi-purpose compost, repot them in spring, shaking off some of the old compost…

Get expert advice, exciting ideas and easy solutions to help transform your garden into a beautiful place all year round. Whatever the size of your garden, you can make any outdoor space into a haven of colour and life - and Garden Answers is here to help. You’ll receive a FREE packet of seeds with every issue and tips on how to sow them to get the best reward for your hard work. FREE SEEDS WITH EVERY ISSUE For our latest subscription offers go to greatmagazines.co.uk/gardenanswers…

“Planting crocus and colchicum bulbs and thinking about ordering spring bulbs, too.” Sue Fisher on glorious grasses, p14 “Taking semi-ripe cuttings of salvias, penstemons and silver-leafed plants.” Val Bourne’s South African dazzlers, p22 “I'll be sowing lettuce, rocket, spinach, radish and endive for an autumn harvest.” Helen Billiald’s Showstopper, p42 “Mowing my new meadows to deal with any unwanted plants such as docks.” Adrian Thomas reflects on super seedheads, p46 “Making jams, chutneys, sauces and eating my bodyweight in crops!” What’s been happening on Olga’s allotment, p70 “Repurposing discarded bricks from a neighbour’s building project to create a new border.” Read Dan Masoliver, p106…

Hydrangeas are having something of a moment. These easy deciduous shrubs are garden stalwarts, long valued by gardeners for masses of showy blooms through summer and into autumn, though many older hydrangeas are on the large side. Now, a massive amount of new breeding over the past decade or so–partly for the pot plant market but with bonus benefits for gardeners–has resulted in a wealth of long flowering, mostly compact new cultivars such as the Living Creations and Magical series. Many only grow to around 1m, delightfully small enough for container growing, and include ‘Miss Saori’ and ‘Runaway Bride’, which helped catapult hydrangeas into the spotlight by winning the coveted RHS Chelsea Plant of the Year award in 2014 and 2018 respectively. Most of the 80 or so hydrangea species…

A crystal clear pond makes an attractive focal point in the garden, but all too often the water can turn into a smelly green pool of blanket weed and algae. Here are some key ways to keep it oxygen-rich and attractive to visiting wildlife (and humans)! 1. Top it up: Drought and dry windy weather can reduce water levels. Use rainwater to top up the pond, or leave tap water to stand for 48 hours so chlorine can evaporate. 2. Tidy marginal plants: Weed between marginals and cut back any spent flowers or dying leaves. 3. Address problem growth: Invasive blanket weed and duckweed choke the pond surface, preventing sunlight from reaching the plants below. Net duckweed and twirl out blanket weed with a stick to clean up the surface. 4.…

I always carry small brown paper envelopes in my pocket to collect seeds, whether from wildflowers or from friends’ gardens. Many germinate; most plants in my garden are from seed, each with a happy memory. My garden is probably one of the cheapest ever created! Different plants set seed at different times in the season, but I find late summer is often the most productive and with the greatest range. Here are tips for collecting seed both successfully and responsibly. • Collect on dry days, when most plants release seed. Shake into your envelope. Bags of damp seeds may rot or go mouldy. • Immediately write down what the seeds are and when and where you collected them. • It is perfectly legal to collect seeds from the countryside, apart…

Creating this beautiful walled garden in Bishopstone has been a long process for Karen and Tim Rayner. Their home, a former schoolhouse, is attached to the village hall and had no garden, so they rented the walled garden for a few years. “It was in a poor state with damaged walls and consisted mainly of grass and weeds,” says Karen. “There were hundreds of rabbits that ate whatever we planted, so we really just mowed the lawn.” They were able to buy the land in 2007 and began work on repairing and replanting it. “It was such hard work,” she says. “The ground was full of bindweed, couch grass and creeping buttercup and the south wall had blown over, but as we rebuilt the walls we were able to start…

Visit greatmagazines.co.uk/gardenanswers  PHONE 01858 438884 QUOTE SM24 At Garden Answers magazine our aim is to help you make the most of your outdoor space by creating your perfect garden–not just for summer, but all year round. Now’s the perfect time to take out a subscription. This rich source of gardening ideas and inspiration can be delivered direct to your door, 13 times a year, with a free packet of seeds with every issue if you choose the Print & Digital Subscription. Or try our Digital Subscription, which allows you to enjoy subscriber-only rewards and discounts. Simply scan the QR code (below on the left hand page) with your smartphone or tablet camera to find out more. SAVE 70% ON SHOP PRICES* FREE UK DELIVERY Subscribe Get 3 issues for just £5 when…

SEPTEMBER ISSUE on sale 14 August 2014 Inside • A look at how climate change is impacting garden wildlife • How to create a smoking hot border • Meet the head gardener of Mount Stewart, North Ireland • The best compost bins to suit every gardener + ✿ Inspirational reader gardens ✿ Olga’s lovely plot ✿ Expert Q&A ✿ Puzzles & prizes ✿ Jobs for the month…

Fruiting failures Q Can we take any action to help an ailing quince tree to fruit? LORI WILLIAMSON, BY EMAIL A Of the tree fruits, quinces require the warmest, sunniest summer weather, and the UK is the furthest north that they will viably crop. They dislike wet soils and are rather prone to mildew and scab in wet, cold weather. They need a sunny, warm spot to protect the flowers in spring from frost and to ripen the fruits. Your tree seems to be making new growth after the early leaves were damaged, possibly by scab or quince leaf blight. You could improve its vigour by removing the grass around its base. This will help avoid damage to the trunk when mowing and allow you to mulch around the tree…

To make your hedge trimming and shrub shaping as quick and as easy as possible–and save yourself wrist and arm ache from using a pair of shears–you’ll need to get your hands on a powered hedge trimmer. There are lots of factors to bear in mind before deciding on which one to buy, including power source, blade characteristics and various other features, plus its weight, balance and overall comfort when using it. Wherever possible, try to test hedge trimmers before buying by holding them in your hands to assess all these points. In some specialist machinery stores, you may even be able to start it up, which will also give you an idea of its noise output and any vibrations. “Wherever possible, try to take hedge trimmers on a test…

A new selection of agapanthus, these French varieties are longer lasting than many others, providing year-round foliage in containers or borders. From June through to September, their exotic-looking, trumpet-shaped blooms are held on robust, upright stems, forming almost spherical clusters that make excellent cut flowers. Supplied as 9cm pots, delivery in 7 days. This collection includes agapanthus ‘Vallée de l’Authion’, ‘Vallée de la Loire’ and ‘Vallée de la Sarthe’. Cultivars can also be bought separately. • Buy 1 x ‘Vallée de l’Authion’ for £16 • Buy 1 x ‘Vallée de la Loire’ for £16 • Buy 1 x ‘Vallée de la Sarthe’ for £16 • Buy French Agapanthus Collection (1 of each cultivar–3 in total) for £21–you save £27 SAVE £23 ON ALSTROEMERIA COLLECTION SUMMER ALSTROEMERIA An exotic-looking, bold trio…

GEOFF STEBBINGS gives expert answers to all your gardening problems. Geoff is an author and gardening writer and was head gardener at Myddelton House, north London. GEOFF HODGE is a freelance gardening and horticultural writer, author, editor and radio and TV broadcaster. IAN HODGSON casts an expert eye over unruly borders, providing advice on how to revamp them. Ian is the author of Great Gardens, in association with the Society of Garden Designers. GOT A QUESTION? GET IN TOUCH By post: Garden Answers, Bauer Media, Media House, Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA Email: gardenanswers@bauermedia.co.uk Web: gardenanswersmagazine.co.uk…

Q Which plants will cope in a planter on a windy site? A For exposed conditions it’s best to choose small-leaved plants, but because in your case the planter enjoys some shelter from the house, it shouldn’t be too cold. Phormiums would work well and their colourful sword-shaped leaves make a good, all-year-round feature plant. You could plant Viburnum davidii around it to offer contrasting foliage and flower shape. This compact evergreen shrub has white flowers in May and blue berries in autumn if you have both male and female plants. Hebes with their evergreen, often variegated foliage and tufts of flowers would also do well. For trailing plants, groundcover cotoneasters are definitely worth a try. Q How do we help plantsQ Do hostas prefer a sunny or shady border?…

Q Why is Christmas hippeastrum re-blooming in summer? A Hippeastrum can bloom at any time of year so those sold for Christmas flowering are lifted and dried ready for them to come into growth again in winter. Once your planted hippeastrum bulb is growing happily, it will adjust to a more normal cycle–and spring and summer are, in fact, the most usual times for them to bloom. Q Why hasn’t last year’s amaryllis reflowered this year? A After all the effort of flowering, bulbs have to recover and build up size. Although hippeastrums can be dormant in winter, they’ll reach flowering size sooner if they’re kept green for as long as possible. This means giving them a high-potash feed such as tomato fertiliser from spring to autumn while they’re growing…

Set against a border filled with the purple and burnt orange of verbena and helenium, this exotic container display really wows. It can sometimes be difficult to place the almost black aeoniums in summer gardens, but it works well here with the bronze foliage of dahlia ‘David Howard’. The robust orange flowers offer a burst of colour against them both. The tuberous red blooms of begonia dangle almost like chillies, adding to the tropical look. As summer hits its peak, the cool of the white agapanthus is a welcome respite from the heat.…

The versatile 2-in-1 cordless tool can function as either a standard or long reach hedge trimmer. The Cobra HT50LRH24V hedge trimmer (RRP £134.99) makes light work of even the most demanding jobs in the garden and allows users to easily prune and maintain those hard-to-reach plants and keep gardens healthy all year round. The 50cm, double-sided blade is sharp and effective and the 24V li-ion battery is interchangeable across the Cobra’s 24V range. Cobra is the UK’s largest powered garden machinery brand and has the biggest variety of lawnmowers in the country. The range is constantly expanding and now consists of more than 130 products across petrol, battery and electric models and includes other tools such as hedge trimmers, leaf blowers, grass strimmers and shredders. • To enter visit gardenanswersmagazine.co.uk/freeforyou…

The grace and airy movement-filled charm of ornamental grasses combined with stylish form and colour, is unmatched by any other type of plant. Their wonderful combination of architecture and durability goes hand in hand with seasonality to create a vibrant ever-changing look as the year turns. The extensive choice of evergreen and deciduous types gives incredible diversity of size, shape, and form, with foliage in greens, yellows, orange, bronze, and variegations. Though it is the clouds of long-lasting flowers produced by deciduous grasses like stipa, miscanthus, and panicum, that truly steal the show in summer and autumn, creating glorious interplays with light, especially early and late on summer days and throughout autumn as the sun’s rays drop lower in the sky. There are grasses to matchmake to every garden site…

TIME TO P0T UP YOUR STRAWBERRY RUNNERS Refresh your strawberry patch this summer by potting up new runners and growing them on. It’s a good idea to do this every three to four years because young plants are much more productive than older ones. To encourage the runners on the parent plant to root, peg their stems into the soil using U-shaped pegs of thick wire. Or, sink a 9cm pot filled with multipurpose compost into the ground underneath the new growth so it nestles in the compost. Keep the new plants well watered. When they’ve rooted, snip off the stem attaching them to the parent plant and create your new strawberry bed in a fresh site. ENJOY DAHLIAS FOR LONGER To keep dahlias looking their blousy best, give plants…

Beth Chatto’s maxim of ‘right plant, right place’ continues to resonate through the horticultural world decades after she first championed it. This Drought Resistant Garden created at Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival by her garden and nursery director David Ward celebrated her influence when she was named by the festival as Horticultural Hero in the year after she passed away. Taking inspiration from her famous Essex gravel garden, it showed just how attractive and diverse a collection of drought-tolerant plants can be. This snippet, with glowing foxtail lily at its centre, is proof of how a carefully chosen support act of contrasting foliage, texture and shape will elevate a border into something that would be beautiful even after the sunset tones of Eremurus isabellinus ‘Pinokkio’ have faded. GET STARTED WITH…

There’s an air of quiet elegance about the gardens of The White House Farm, set in the rolling countryside in an area known as High Leicestershire. Mellow old brick walls and steps, gravel paths lined with holly trees, neatly clipped box, yew and beech hedges and an impressive collection of native trees all create the feeling that it must have been here since the Georgian farmhouse was built. In fact, when Pam and Richard Smith bought the property at auction in 1999, there was no garden at all. “The yard was cracked concrete, which had been laid by Italian prisoners of war, there were some collapsing corrugated iron sheds and otherwise it was just fields and elder-filled hedges,” recalls Pam. “My aim was to make a garden that complements the…

How do you get all these creatures in your plot? It’s one of the questions I get asked the most and it’s probably my favourite one too. When I started gardening, my plot was a blank and lifeless canvas. My idea of what a growing space should look like is deeply rooted in my childhood, and I needed to find guidance on how to achieve that. I never knew I’d find my inspiration in the book section of a local charity shop! Infatuated with the Companion to Wildlife Gardening by the brilliant Chris Baines, I knew what I wanted my allotment to be after reading just a few pages–a wildlife haven. It’s how I remember my parents' and grandparents' gardens—full of caterpillars, birds, worms, butterflies dancing in the air and…

Our experts GEOFF STEBBINGS gives expert answers to all your gardening problems. Geoff is an author and gardening writer and was head gardener at Myddelton House, north London. GEOFF HODGE is a horticultural author, radio broadcaster and speaker, and former online editor for the RHS. IAN HODGSON casts an expert eye over unruly borders, providing advice on how to revamp them. Ian is the author of Great Gardens, in association with the Society of Garden Designers. CONTACT US By post: Garden Answers, Bauer Media, Media House, Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA Email: gardenanswers@bauermedia.co.uk Web: gardenanswersmagazine.co.uk Social media: Find us on Facebook as Garden Answers Twitter @GardenAnswers Instagram as gardenanswers Send us your queries!…

Wet, wet, wet Q Will my chosen plants survive in these saturated newly built garden flowerbeds? TESS PENNEY, BY EMAIL A The past spring has been unusually wet so the flooding of these beds may not be a regular event. But the plants you want to grow, shown in the photo, include erysimum, geraniums, pittosporum and dwarf pines, none of which will tolerate seasonal waterlogging. The choice is either to plant to suit the conditions and include plants that are recommended for rain gardens, such as ligularias, monarda, sedges, hostas and liatris, or you make raised beds here with new sleepers. Sleepers are usually 20cm high when stood on their sides, which would give you a sufficient depth of compost to plant into to accommodate the plants you want to…

Feeling rosy While many plants struggled in the cold, wet spring, my roses are full of blooms. Christine Hall, by email This beautiful floribunda rose named after the lovely actress ‘Hannah Gordon’ is always one of my first roses to flower. Jenny Robson, by email When my wife’s Aunty Jean sadly passed away, we brought this rose from her Somerset garden for a lovely memory of her. David Reid, Notts Nothing says summer like roses, in both sunshine and rain! June Deaton, Moulton I rescued this near-dead standard rose, and it has finally rewarded me with these blooms. Andrew Herd, by email Star letter KNOWLEDGE IS POWER When I retired three years ago from a full-time professional role, I found myself rather lonely, as family and friends had busy lives.…

CLUES ACROSS 1 Amaranthus species commonly known as Prince of - - - - - feather (5) 3 - - - - - of Holland, name given to shorter plants of the campanula genus (5) 6 Dense, spiny shrub species such as cathartica or common buckthorn (7) 7 Botanical name of the fir genus (5) 9 Jacob’s - - - -, name often given to the houseplant Acalypha wilkesiana (4) 12 The holly genus (4) 13 - - - - - garden–like Monty Don’s Longmeadow–with floral hues resembling gems (5) 16 Wild marjoram (7) 17 Melissa officinalis usually called - - - - -balm with its citrus-scented leaves (5) 18 Genus comprising alder trees in the birch family (5) CLUES DOWN 1 St John’s - - - -, yellow-flowered hypericum…

Q Buds on my peony turned brown and died. What can I do to stop that happening next year? A Often peonies fail to flower if they’re increasingly shaded as surrounding plants get bigger, but drying buds could simply be due to lack of water. The past two summers have brought hot and dry periods that may have stressed the plant. It would help if you mulch the plant in spring, then give it a general fertiliser along with some water in extremely dry spells. Q Blue flowers on my hydrangea have turned greenish! A Mophead hydrangea flowers remain on the plant long after they lose colour and it is normal for them to turn shades of green or bronze as they age. These plants also vary in colour according…

Q How do I revive my standard rose? One half died after transplanting. A You’ve done well to have successfully moved an old standard rose! With careful pruning you should be able to encourage shoots to grow on the other side. Cut out all the dead stems and prune the existing live growth so that new shoots fill in the gap. This should be possible over a few years. Q Why did leaves turn brown and die early on my rose bush? A The most likely cause is dryness at the roots because of extreme drought and heat. Don’t worry, as long as the plants are well established, they should recover and grow normally next year. Q Can I encourage flowers at the base of climbing roses? A Most climbing…