S

“ Magnificent ‘Mallows’ … Ruffled, Double ‘Chiffon’

Blooms For Fabulous Summer Colour This Year
And Beyond — Easy To Grow & Totally Hardy Too!”
! ese re HIBISCUS
THY SU WERRS
IS MME S

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AR
YE R

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O
O T

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EV

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With big, beautiful blooms that grow up to 5” across, the
multi-layered petals have a gorgeous ‘Chiffon’ look, (hence
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Perfect for patio pots, they will eventually grow to 4-5ft
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£1
Britain’s most trusted an issue!
voice in gardening Go to
p.30
for full
details!
P.18 Miniature plants
with maximum appeal

Look inside!
About Now
5 Plant of the week:
Agastache ON THE
COVER

6 A shade greener
7 Know your enemy
7 Windowsill gardener
9 Boredom busters
10 60-second expert
11 Potty about plants: crocosmia
13 Wildlife
13 Weather wise

P.14 Let the sunshine in with Features

golden-hued blooms
14 Here comes the sun!
Mellow yellow flowers ON THE
COVER

18 Tiny plants with big appeal

22 Garden of the week
28 Carol Klein’s Plant Odysseys
adventure ON THE
COVER
Give your 58 Homegrown: Botanical art ON THE

houseplants P.33
COVER

a holiday What To Do This Week

33 Let houseplants out! ON THE
COVER

34 Plan ahead for autumn ON THE

COVER

Extending the 35 Give your roses a boost ON THE

COVER

36 Get a fresh flush of flowers ON THE

COVER

38 Martin Fish spices up summer

sunny days 40 Choose cold-weather crops
41 Medwyn Williams is thinning
ON THE
COVER

of summer! out his celery

42 The plant doctor: cabbage
Maybe I’m just a consummate white caterpillars
worrier, but at this point in the 44 Stretch out the season in your
calendar, I sometimes start to feel like small plot, with Mike Thurlow
45 Harvest courgettes quickly,
summer’s running away from us.
says Terry Walton
We’re four weeks past the summer
solstice, so nights are already getting The Experts
shorter, favourite plants have 47 Guide pelargoniums through
delivered their promise and it’s time tricky weather with Ken Abel
to start cutting back philadelphus, 48 Create a natural planting screen
lifting strawberries and dividing iris. with Claire Austin ON THE
COVER

So what better time to plant 50 Nigel Colborn answers

something new – bright and cheerful your questions
flowers that provide sunny colour and You and Your Gardens
lift the spirits for many more weeks to 52 Readers’ gardens
come? Our feature on p14 suggests 54 Your letters and photos
some of the best yellow blooms 66 Gardening genius
that can brighten pots and
borders and remind us all Offers & Competitions
that there’s still plenty of 37 Have you got a champion pot?
summer left to enjoy! 57 Prizewinning crossword
P.34 61 Great-value lilacs
63 Save ££s on spectacular alliums
Order autumn- 65 Free dwarf iris bulbs!
flowering bulbs
Garden News Editor

July 25 2015 / Garden News 3

AboutNOW
Colour-themed planting
complements Walmer Castle’s
cloud-pruned hedge

Chromatic
tones create
a crescendo
of colour

Photos: Rachel Clarke

Photo Cred t

Bordering on the beautiful

Distinctive historic coastal garden gets a four-year colourful revamp
Words Ian Hodgson

F
ramed by cloud-pruned
hedges, new colour-
charged borders at
Walmer Castle, Kent, are wowing
visitors. The 82m (270ft) stretch
of planting at the historic coastal
location involves a crescendo of
tone, from pale yellow, pink and
blue to vibrant oranges and
deeper tones in the centre.
“We’re very pleased with it,”
said senior gardener Brian
Addison. “The progression of
colour has real impact, and the
shapes and textures of foliage
plants work really well. There are
160 different varieties and the
season of interest runs the entire
length of summer. We needed
something dramatic to
complement the presence of our
eye-catching yew hedges.”
Planting at the English
Heritage site was devised by
previous head gardener Tom
Hooijenga, but implemented by
the Walmer team. The borders
were originally created in 1913,
influenced by the pastel style of
Edwardian designer Gertrude
Jekyll until the recent overhaul.
The unusual hedgerow was
created by accident in 1947, when
heavy snowfalls caused it to
collapse and the gardeners cut
round the new shape. The
practice continues today and
takes three months to complete.
O Tel: 01304 364288; www.
english-heritage.org.uk/walmer

A
plant-purified swimming facility
in London is proving such a hit, it
regularly has the public queuing
for a dip. Part art installation, part leisure
project, the 40m (130ft) long fresh-water
pool, which can take up to 40 bathers
at a time, is filtered naturally, helped by
Reed beds keep wetland and submerged plants, such as
the water clean reeds, bulrushes and water iris, rather
than using chemicals. The surrounding
landscape is planted with wildflowers
and other plants attractive to pollinating
insects. Tucked behind King’s Cross
railway station, the installation called
‘Of Soil and Water’ will remain open
daily for the next two years.
O Visit www.kingscrosspond.club/
find-the-pond

Plant
OF THE
WEEK
Agastache!
Towering spires and beautiful scent
make these a gardeners’ favourite
W
ith the common name
of giant hyssop,
agastache has the
same strongly-scented leaves
and two-lipped flowers as the
herb. Blue flowers are typical but
recent breeding breakthroughs
have given gardeners some
superb new varieties.
The ‘Kudos’ and ‘Summer’
series have bright spires of
flowers in a range of colours,
from dark blue to pink and citrus
shades. For the fattest blue
flower spikes, choose ‘Blue Boa’.
Not all hyssops are reliably
hardy, but most can cope with a
slight frost. Agastache bloom
from July well until September,
and bees find the flowers
irresistible. The tall spikes make
a good contrast with more
Agastache is from
the Greek for
‘many spires’.
Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn
5 agastache varieties to try
Terra Nova Nurseries
Unwins
‘Summer Glow’
Apricot-yellow flowers really stand out in the border, and
they look spectacular teamed with blue-flowered plants
varieties. Height: 90cm (2ft).
rounded flowers. Agastache
foliage is usually green but the
leaves of ‘Golden Jubilee’ are
bright yellow.
Garden World mages
Keep them happy
Unw ns
Agastache originate from North
America where they are found
growing in moist but well-drained
‘Golden Jubilee’ ‘Summer Fiesta’
Lime-yellow foliage Brick-red flower spikes
soils. Give them the same shows off the purple- fade to pink as the season
conditions in the garden and blue flowers perfectly. progresses. Height:
they’ll thrive. Height: 45cm (18in) 90cm (2ft).
They’ll tolerate some shade but
you’ll get the best blooms and
scent if they’re planted in a sunny
position. Buy plants or grow from
seed sown from February to July.
A spring sowing will give flowers
Terra Nova Nurser es
in the first year.
Shear over established plants
Unw ns
in spring for plenty of fresh
foliage followed by vigorous
flower spikes.
‘Summer Sunset’ ‘Blackadder’
Two-tone orange and This is the one to choose if
OUnwins seeds, tel: 0844 573
lemon flowers give a you want a Mediterranean-
8400; www.unwins.co.uk glowing sunshine effect. style plant for a colder
Suttons seeds, tel: 0844 922 Height: 40cm (16in). garden. Height: 90cm (2ft).
0606; www.suttons.co.uk
July 25 2015 / Garden News 5
AboutNOW
Streatham’s
borders are older
than Sissinghurst’s

Saskatoon –

Frank P Mahews
ornamental
White roses and edible
form part of
the scheme

New saskatoon!
White garden An unusual new fruit will soon be in a garden

blooms again
centre near you. Very popular in the USA and
Canada, the self-fertile saskatoon is similar
to the blueberry, but is much higher in
antioxidants, anthocyanins and other nutrients

A
historic public garden has
re-opened after restoration
by volunteers. Older than
Sissinghurst’s famous example by 30
years, the white garden at Streatham
Common in London was originally
created in 1913 and contains a double
30m (98ft) herbaceous border paved
in Yorkstone. Known as The Rookery,
after a large house of the same name
that once stood on the site, it’s the only
white garden to be found in any of
London’s public parks. After a period
of neglect, a local friends group
decided to restore the gardens to their
Edwardian glory. With financial help
from the Heritage Lottery Fund,
Lambeth council and local partners,
40 volunteers set to work.
After researching how the garden
looked in its prime and visiting
notable examples, more than 230
plants and 1,200 bulbs – representing
white forms of 40 species, such as
roses, foxgloves and hellebores – has
seen the feature revitalised.
“I’m glad local people have been
given the chance to make a change,
and hope our design will help people
see The Rookery with fresh eyes,” said
team member Kate Daly.
Visit www.streathamcommon.org
– around three times the amount found in
strawberries and raspberries. Ripening in June
and July, they can be eaten fresh, dried or made
into jams, pies, salad dressings or wine. What’s
more, being an amelanchier or June berry
(A. alnifolia), it’s also extremely ornamental,
producing white flowers in spring and red leaves
in autumn. With a height and spread of 3-4m
(10-13ft), it will also fit right in with your other
shrub plantings and is tolerant of a wide range
of conditions, except dry soils.
Supplier Frank P Matthews is introducing five
different varieties – ‘Martin’, ‘Northline’, ‘Smoky’,
‘Thiessen’ and ‘JB30’. Available in 3-litre
pots for £15.99 from September. Visit www.
frankpmatthews.com for local stockists.

Harvest rainwater
D
ripping off roofs,
flowing down gutters
and disappearing
into drains, water has
become something to be
shed quickly and efficiently
– and many of our homes
and gardens have been
designed to be ‘hydrophobic’.
But much rainwater can
be captured, stored and
diverted towards uses that
benefit our gardens and the
Install a bu
environment. And why not?
for a free
Words: Lucy Purdy
resource for gardeners.
Installing water butts and
tanks is a great place to start.
Fix up a hose attachment
or a tap from which to fill
your watering can, and you
should be able to collect
enough to regularly water
your plants and vegetables.
Hosepipe ban? No problem!
A pond is another
water-storing option, and
has the benefit of creating
a wildlife-friendly space at
‘single easiest way to add
wildlife value to a garden’.
Depending on the size of
your growing plot, you could
think bigger. Creating swales
– long, meandering basins
placed on contour lines so as
to be exactly level – capture
water and enable it to be
slowly released into the
ground over time. This
reduces erosion and helps
take water to where you
need it: under the soil level,

supply of water After all, it’s a free, untreated the same time. The RHS ready for thirsty plants
and increasingly precious recommends this as the during dry periods.

6 Garden News / July 25 2015

 Check pots
for the
destructive
larvae
Know
YOUR #7 Vine weevil
Enemy An evil weevil to strike you have to watch! The maggoty larvae
fear into the heart of all burrow through the soil to feast on
those who love their pot tender roots, which is far more dangerous
plants. This critter can kill them stone dead than the unsightly leaf nibblings of older
in just a few days – and it’s the young ones family members. C-shaped, with creamy-
white bodies and brown heads, they lurk
Adult weevils in pots and do most damage in spring Responsible for

Neil Hepworth
cause notches in
leaves (top right) and summer. Plants suddenly wilting and
not recovering, notches in
Self defence: If you garden organically, leaf margins, especially
biological control comes from nematodes broadleaf evergreens.
that enjoy eating weevil larvae as much as Affects
larvae enjoy eating roots. Mix them with Pot plants, evergreens
water and drench the soil or compost. such as rhododendrons,
Otherwise, reach for the Provado… strawberries.
Shuerstock

pelargoniums. Zonal
or trailing ivy-leaved
pelargoniums, are the

Try a container display traditional choice for indoor

pots but regal and Angel
varieties make a nice change.

T
his is the time of year
when container plants
are filling out and
borders are looking their best.
Windowsill gardeners may
feel a bit envious of growers
with plenty of space, but it’s
still possible to enjoy a proper
summer container display
indoors if you choose the
right plants.
Petunias and tuberous
begonias perform best on
west-facing windowsills – add
ferns or ivies to trail. Fuchsias,
ivies and fibrous-rooted
begonias, such as Begonia
semperflorens, all enjoy
moist soil and warm, shady
conditions, so they’re ideal for
an indoor display on a north-
or east-facing windowsill. For
real summer appeal, grow
them together in one
container, just as you would
in an outdoor window-box.
If you want your indoor
summer display to sit in a hot
conservatory or on a south-
facing windowsill, choose
Mediterranean plants that can
cope with heat and strong
sunshine, such as bright
Scented-leaved pelargoniums
are usually grown for their
foliage and stand more shade
than the other types.
In warm bathrooms and
humid kitchens, keep a
watchful eye for green or
whitefly and spider mites.
No-mess tips
O Use a pot cover or stand
containers on a tray, and
water carefully to avoid
messy drips.
O Deadhead flowers as
they fade to prolong the
display and to reduce the
risk of grey mould.

For this shade-tolerant

display we used
bronze-leaved Begonia
semperflorens , basket
Neil Hepworth

fuchsia, tuberous begonia

‘Firewings’, and glechoma
(trailing nepeta)
 AboutNOW
Help butterflies, Plants
urges Attenborough
F
amed naturalist Sir David Attenborough
is calling on the public to help reverse
to shine
declining populations of butterflies and
other pollinators by planting more nectar sources
in their gardens.
‘The UK’s butterflies really need your help this
at new
summer,” said Sir David. “Three-quarters are in
decline and one-third is in danger of extinction.
The ongoing and alarming loss of their habitat
is a major and worrying factor in their falling
therapy
centre
numbers.” National treasure Sir David is
encouraging everyone to plant pollinator-attracting
species and varieties – even planting up pots in
your garden or on a window ledge can provide a
lifeline of food and shelter. Plants such as catmint,
lavender, pelargonium, origanum and echinacea Bridge designer creates
are viewed as particularly valuable.
As president of charity Butterfly Conservation,
a building of pots

A
Sir David also launched the Big Butterfly Count, a new centre for cancer patients is to be
nationwide survey encouraging people to help spot enveloped by canopies of plants. Plans for
and record 18 species of common butterflies and the new Maggie’s Centre in Leeds, recently
two day-time flying moths from July 17 to August 9. unveiled by garden bridge designer Thomas
Around 4,500 people took part last year, Heatherwick, presents an iconic building inspired
spotting 56,000 butterflies. Results revealed that by a group of containers of various sizes and levels,
the small tortoiseshell populations continued to in which trees, shrubs and flowers will grow in
rise, stemmi decline. Peacock was found stepped planters located on the roof. The idea is to
to be the m species. create a quiet domestic space for its users, while also offering “something positive
Submit si e at www. and hopeful to people passing by”. Private spaces between the cluster of ‘pots’
bigbutterflycount.org will be glazed to create secluded, sheltered spaces and an uplifting environment
for those using the facilities. The new building, located at St James Institute of
Oncology in Leeds, West Yorkshire, will open in 2017.
Maggie’s, an organisation providing free support for people living with cancer,
opened its first centre in 1996 and now has 16 in the UK and overseas. Visit www.
Tim Melling

maggiescentres.org

Breaking old grounds

ch

ustomers of an international coffee chain can now take away coffee

Buerfly bonanza:
peacock (left), marbled grounds to use in their gardens. Costa is offering the waste material
white (right) and large to customers as part of their drive to be more sustainable, rather than
skipper ( below) sending it to landfill. Some of the coffee grounds are recycled to create bio-gas,
used to power some of the company’s vehicles.
Coffee grounds contain essential trace
elements, such as slow-release nitrogen, Giant veg supremo Kevin
calcium and magnesium, making it useful Fortey measures up
both as a fertiliser and mulch, as well as a
compost additive. Some gardeners have been
known to use grounds as a slug and snail
repellant, but as the product is not passed for
such use by the EU, it is considered illegal.
Giant veg grower Kevin Fortey is already a
convert. “I have been using Costa’s coffee
grounds for some months and I’ve seen a
huge improvement in the quality of my
vegetables.” Grounds are available in old
coffee bean bags, or customers can bring
Steve Maskell

their own containers.

Visit www.costa.co.uk/responsibility/
environment

8 Garden News / July 25 2015

 The new Maggie’s Centre in Leeds
has trees, shrubs and perennials
incorporated into the building
Trees will grow in
stepped planters

The building is
designed to look
like a cluster of
plant pots

Heatherwick Studio
Summer holida Margarine tubs
make a perfect
slug trap

With Mandy Morrison

Slimy schemes!
I
don’t know about you, but with all
this rain the slugs are taking over
my garden! So why not enlist the
help of your children to experiment
and build some traps to ‘dispose’ of
these pests? I find boys and girls are
equally up for this challenge.
Making your own traps and trying
different bait can make a great science
project – you can even turn it into a
competition! Draw up a chart to see
who has collected the most, and which
Let children decorate or personalise
the trap with marker pens, before
putting a few centimetres of the
following in the bottom: beer (watch the
older boys here!), yeast mixed with
water and a little sugar, Marmite, milk,
cat or dog food (chicken pellets seem
to work, too!), or get children to suggest
their own.
Go back each
day and check
for numbers, and
Photos: Mandy Morrison

substance was the most effective. then dispose of

Traps can be made from all sorts of the critters any
items, from an old margarine tub to a way you see fit.
milk bottle. The key to success, though, Your child might
is to make sure you cut a window or slit discover something SPONSORED BY
near the top for the slugs to crawl in, amazing and you
which you site level with the soil, and could save money on Keep a tally of
a roof on top to prevent the rain from slug pellets – and help your captives
diluting your bait. the environment too!
Costa

Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn July 25 2015 / Garden News 9

 AboutNOW
60
SECOND
New collections
Expert
swell the ranks
C
onservation charity Plant
Heritage has announced the Trillium
addition of three new National grandiflorum
Plant Collections to its portfolio. A
collection of hemerocallis (daylily)
varieties possessing the RHS Award
of Garden Merit has been brought
together by nurseryman Paul Harris
A 5cm layer of of Brookfield Plants, a family run
Words: And Clevely

mulch will help business specialising in daylilies

reduce weeds and hostas.
The woodland garden at the Royal
Botanic Garden Edinburgh is the

Shuerstock
Mulching location of an important scientific
collection of species and natural
obin,
Hemerocallis

T
he term o the
‘Ruby Spider’
German
‘startin
commonest kind of mulching: covering the flamboyant flowering shrubs, such as
ground with a hat od on
gradually rots d 1 na
into the soil. W als
This is nature’s way. In the wild, bare soil is home for rhododendron breeding,
always concealed, either by a ground-cover creating its own hybrids and now Bodnant’s
rhododendron

Nat onal Trust

of plants or by a carpet of tree leaves and
plant debris. This surface layer shields the
ground beneath from rapid change and the
impact of extreme weather. In hot sunshine
or wind, 1cm (½in) of rainfall can evaporate
from bare ground in just three days, for
example, compared with up to six weeks
where the surface is mulched.
A mulch can even improve soil texture
and a healthy rooting environment. Scrape
aside a loose mulch and you’ll usually find
worms busily foraging underneath, whereas
you have to dig deep for them in bare earth.
Other vital soil micro-life will be more active
in the moist, friable surroundings.
Mulches can also keep the ground
relatively weed-free. Most weed seeds
germinate in the top 5cm (2in) of soil, so a
5cm mulch is a low-maintenance way to stop
them growing, whether you use compost or
straw on a veg bed or shredded bark on a
path or flower border.
Covering a large area with an organic
mulch can be expensive, but the same
benefits can be achieved by
A straw mulch using black polythene
conserves moisture or geotextile
membrane to
suppress weeds
and keep the
ground moist,
although this
kind of inorganic
mulch will not
contribute to
improving soil
fertility or texture.
the nucleus of a national collection. ‘Mikado’
Visit www.plantheritage.com
ig t e i !
he end of this month sees the
shopping streets of central
Manchester dramatically
transformed. The Dig the City Festival,
now in its third year, plans to create
spectacular gardens in challenging
spaces to inspire visitors of all interests
and capabilities.
This year, a special show garden – staged
in association with Coronation Street The
Tour – will create a ‘green alleyway’ to
illustrate what the rear access way behind
the iconic pub The Rover’s Return might
look like when transformed by plants.
BBC presenter and garden designer
Diarmuid Gavin will also lecture and give
advice at the event.
The festival takes place between July 31
Actress Jennie
McAlpine helps green and August 6. For further details, call 0161
The Rover’s Return 838 3250 or visit www.digthecity.co.uk
Carol’s odyssey
Garden News columnist and Gardeners’ World star Carol Klein has a
new TV series. Carol Klein’s Plant Odysseys, a four-part series, sees her
discuss the origins of the rose, tulip, iris and water lily. Created by
Oxford Scientific Films, footage will show plants growing in their
natural habitats around the world.
O Starts July 27 at 7pm on BBC2. See Carol’s feature on page 28.

10 Garden News / July 25 2015


Words: Karen Murphy Photos: Mark Wash
Late-flowering crocosmia
‘Tamar Golden Ring’ has
large, rich orange blooms
“Crocosmia are
gloriously vivid!”
Brookfield Plants
What’s your background
in the gardening world?
I’ve always been in the
gardening world in one way or
another – from selling plants at
school to the ten years I worked
in nurseries, and subsequent 15
years in the garden-centre trade.
But, as the years went on, I was
dealing increasingly less with
plants. It was then, about 15
years ago, that I decided to run
my own nursery again and get
back to my roots.
Why crocosmia?
During my garden-centre years
I imported many sorts of bulbs
from around the world and
my eye was drawn to South
African crocosmia. It was so
vivid and gloriously bright
compared to all the pastel
shades and creams
and whites that were
fashionable at the time.
My interest was piqued, so
I set off on a research trip to
South Africa, taking photos
as I went and finding out
how these fantastic plants
grow in their natural
habitat. I came away with a ‘Tamar New Dawn’ is
love of other South African a fiery yellow-orange
plants as a bi-product.
Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn
‘Tamar Peace’
is a new red and
yellow bi-colour
Potty
About
PLANTS
What was the result of
your trip over there?
Well, it turns out that much of
the information you get told in
books over here really doesn’t
tally with the conditions they
thrive in in the wild. When I was
over there they were in places
you’d never expect, such as
underneath rock formations.
Everyone knows crocosmia
‘Lucifer’ and its lovely tilting
habit, and probably asks
themselves why it arches over
like that. I found the answer in
its parent plants, which were
naturally arching gracefully over
steep banks.
What’s your favourite
crocosmia?
Probably one of my favourites
‘Tamar Glow’ bears up
to 30 scarlet flowers
has to be Crocosmia fucata – a
very tall red species. Unlike all
its cousins, it flowers really early,
in April, due to the fact that it
originates on the western cape of
South Africa, as opposed to the
eastern cape, where most others
come from. It took 25 years for
Edinburgh Royal Botanic
Gardens to get it to thrive, but
I’m proud to say it took me only
six! In future I want to find out
more about how the species can
be developed. I have a passion
for unusual colours of crocosmia,
instead of the common yellows,
oranges and reds. There’s the
wonderful salmon-coloured
‘Culzean Pink’ as well as the
really creamy pale ‘Lemon
Spray’, which go great with
blue agapanthus.
What unusual plants
do you have at the
nursery?
We have eucomis, new
tulbaghias – ‘Cornish
Beauty’ is this year’s
lovely one – kniphofia,
nerines, beautiful albuca,
murraya, aloes – and
many more. We develop
our own crocosmia
hybrids now, which is
Mark Wash, 51
Lives: Cornwall
Works: Owner of
Trecanna Nursery
Potty since:
his school days!
really exciting. You never quite
know what will come out from
the process, and it’s always
fantastic to see the results. For
example, most red crocosmia are
dominated by ‘Lucifer’, but it’s
too tall, and they don’t really
work too well in tiny gardens.
We aim to play around with it to
make it a bit more manageable.
What are the ideal
conditions for crocosmia?
Everyone thinks South Africa is
hot and dry, but it’s not at all – it’s
extremely lush, getting rain in
summer most afternoons. That’s
the ideal combination – sunshine
and a lot of rain. In British
gardens, if they spend half a day
in the sun, and are kept moist,
they should be okay.
Did you enjoy the
RHS Hampton Court Show?
We normally take with us a
massive range of crocosmia. This
year, due to the early timing of
the show, we took a variety of
other South African plants
instead, as our crocosmia weren’t
yet flowering! By the very end of
the show though, they were all
out and looked magnificent.
O Trecanna are a specialist
plant nursery set on the
Cornish banks of the beautiful
Tamar Valley where they grow
hardier South African plants,
plus more unusual bulbs
from around the globe. See
www.trecanna.com for more,
or call 01822 834680.
July 25 2015 / Garden News 11
Adored Anemone rare | unusual | exciting

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The name Windflower is accounted for in several ways, one of which is William Turner’s statement ‘The flower never openth
itselfe, but when the wynde bloweth’. Essential ingredients in the late summer garden, blooming proudly and reliably from July
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AboutNOW
With Julian Rollins

Flight of fancy
Create a butterfly haven in your garden

B
utterflies turn up in offers plenty of nectar plants and Peacock buerflies

serious numbers. in late
July They’ve been out
there as caterpillars, and now’s
the time they finally get their
moment to fly.
Peacock caterpillars hatch out
of their eggs and get eating in
early summer. If all goes well
they emerge as butterflies about
now – and in good years that
makes for a surge in numbers.
It’s a similar story with the
small tortoiseshell, another
familiar garden visitor. Only a
few survive the winter to mate
in spring and produce hungry
caterpillars in May and June.
Their lives as flying adults start
in late June and July, and
numbers usually peak in
mid-August.
It means that if your garden
has what butterflies are looking
for, they should turn up.
Butterflies will visit any garden,
however small it might be, but
only if it’s worth a visit.
The Butterfly Conservation
charity says that a garden that
Photos: Shuerstock
some breeding habitat can feast on nectar-
attract up to 18 different species. rich buddleia
Over the years I’ve tried adding
butterfly appeal to my garden by
growing nectar-rich flowers and And, last year, one iridescent purple
food plants for caterpillars. or two blue wings that look
Caterpillars can be quite butterflies appear altogether too
choosy, so you need to grow the Hopefully this year exotic for the UK.
right plants. I particularly like they’ll be back and For a chance to spot
the common blue, which is a real some might even breed one, you need to visit
jewel of a butterfly, and its in my garden this summer. an emperor wood and wait
caterpillars are especially fond of for them to come down from
bird’s-foot trefoil. So, I’ve planted Emperor watching the tree canopy.
it in a patch of meadow, which Purple emperor (Apatura iris) is The best places are listed
took a year or two to get started, Britain’s most impressive on the ‘locations’ section of
but it’s now going strong. butterfly – the male has striking, www.thepurpleempire.com
5 ways to make a butterfly friendly garden
O Buerflies like warmth, so spring to late autumn. 100 best nectar-rich plants.
put nectar-rich plants in sunny, O Deadhead, mulch and water The top five are: buddleia, ice
sheltered spots. to keep plants flowering. plant, lavender, Michaelmas
O Choose a mix of nectar-rich O Don’t use insecticides daisy and marjoram. Download
plants to aract a variety of and pesticides – they kill the list from the ‘Gardening’
species, and grow in blocks. buerflies. page of the ‘How you can help’
O Have flowers in bloom right Butterfly Conservation section of www.butterfly-
through the season, from early has compiled a list of the conservation.org

s Ian Currie
of grey water is being used especially
as here and across much of central,
With Ian Currie eastern and southern England, the
temperature has been above par
by up to one and half degrees celsius.

Looking like On a visit to south east London, I was

amazed at the dryness of the grass
on Plumstead Common that looked

savannah! savannah-like (see picture).

Just before mid month it became
particularly humid with warm night London’s savannah-like
Plumstead common

W
e’re half way through the summer
period of June to August and I
thought I would take stock of the
rainfall in my area of Surrey. My total of just
33mm (1¼in) is only around 40 per cent of
the long term average and accounts for why
I have often resorted to putting grey water
from sinks, hand basins and showers on
to the garden.
The average person creates up to 1,350
gallons (6075 litres) of grey water per month.
In Hampshire, where there has been less than
3mm of rain so far this July, I expect quite a bit
values not below 16C to 17C (61-63F).
The origin of this air has been in the
area near to the Azores, islands around
850 miles west of Portugal. The temperature
here is about 24C to 26C (76-78F) of late with
sea temperatures of 22C to 23C (about 73F).
The air cools by the time it reached us but is
still around 21C (69F) by day and not falling
much at night and creates low cloud, mist and
drizzle. This air mass is called tropical
maritime air by meteorologists.
Many places were dry on St. Swithin’s Day
this year, but that is no guarantee that it will
remain so. The meek but venerated Bishop
Swithin wanted a simple grave under the
eaves of the church so the ‘sweet rain of
heaven’ could fall on him. But in AD 971 he
was reburied within, but not before it was said
to have poured down for 40 days holding up
the service, but this is the stuff of legend.
However, weather patterns can be
persistent and it does look like being on the
unsettled side for the second half of July.

July 25 2015 / Garden News 13

 Summer’s W
hen it comes to warm and sunny
weather, we can’t complain about
the summer so far – in fact, in
some parts of the country there have been
record high temperatures. There is no

sunniest
denying that sunshine cheers us up, and it
livens up our beds and borders too. And even
on a dull day it’s possible to give your garden
the Midas touch by choosing a range of
flowers in brilliant golden tones.
For a long time, yellow was considered

fl wers
Lift your spirits and light up your garden
with these golden-hued blooms
Words Pam Richardson
a rather unfashionable shade; garden
designers went more for moody blues, pinks
and silvers. Yellow flowers were accents
rather than the stars of the show. Anyone
who saw the bright colours in show gardens
at Hampton Court and Chelsea will see that
times have changed; yellow is back in the
limelight. Whether you choose old favourites
or new introductions, go for gold in all its
shades and give sunshine flowers a starring
role in the garden!

14 Garden News / July 25 2015

 Crocosmia and Plant in bold
achillea, for clumps for the
contrasting biggest impact
flower shapes

Golden ‘Peace’ rose and

tiger-striped Welsh poppies
alstroemeria

Perennial
sunshine!
O
ne way to ensure that
every summer has its
golden days is to plant
your own perennial ‘sunshine’.
Begin summer with the bright
canary yellow flowers of early Inula and dahlia
flowering rose ’Canary Bird’, ‘Ludwig Helfert’
followed in June by yellow roses
such as ‘Korresia’, ‘Chinatown’
and ‘Graham Stuart Thomas’;
they’ll repeat flower throughout
the summer. If full-on yellow
seems too bright, choose ‘Peace’
– its yellow petals are tinged with Helenium owes
pink, making them more sunrise its name to the
than midday sun! sun-like blooms
By high summer some
flowers are already rivalling
the sunshine. Flat gold heads of
Achillea filipendulina rise above Gold’. Hemerocallis and mound studded with flowers orange they’ll reflect in pools to
the border; teamed with bronze alstroemeria are easy to grow and also gives plenty of berries give double impact. Moist soils
fennel they make a good and totally reliable, as is in autumn. This plant thrives are also the place for spikes of
combination, the froth of yellow hypericum, commonly known in alkaline soils. yellow lysimachia.
fennel flowers contrasts well as rose of Sharon or St John’s In wet soil grow globeflowers: Plants such as helenium,
with achilleas such as ‘Cloth of wort. It makes an evergreen trollius, in shades of yellow and helianthus, helianthemum and
heliopsis (ox eye), all owe their
botanical names to their sun-like

Bring in the blooms – the name is taken from

Helios, who in Greek mythology
personified the sun. Heleniums
pollinators such as ‘Butterpat’, ‘Chelsey’
and ‘Helena Gold’ will keep the
Yellow flowers aract insects, borders bright, well into autumn.
such as buerflies and hoverflies All these sunflower-like plants
although, surprisingly, bees are said to keep on blooming, flowering
prefer blue and mauve-toned flowers. with yellow dahlias, crocosmia
Get the best of all worlds and team your and late-flowering perennial
sunshine-yellow flowers with partners rudbeckias – Rudbeckia laciniata
such as purple-blue buddleia and Verbena ‘Herbstonne’ aptly translates
bonariensis. Choose plants with open as ‘Autumn Sun’. Leave the
flowers; or flat heads of tiny flowers, seedheads on these plants
so insects can land safely and access for goldfinches to feed on
the nectar and pollen. over winter.
Continues over the page

Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn July 25 2015 / Garden News 15

 “The resurgence in popularity
of yellow-flowered plants has
resulted in new strains”
Osteospermum
‘Voltage Yellow’ teams
perfectly with French
marigold ‘Alumia
Vanilla Cream’
Annuals
I
f you’re nervous about a
permanent display of yellow
perennials, plant annuals
into patio pots, hanging baskets
and containers, or use them in
seasonal bedding displays.
These are the perfect places to
experiment with colours and
Sunflowers
It almost goes without saying that
annual sunflowers are a must for sunny
planting schemes! With scores of
varieties to choose from, they’ll fit in to
any part of the garden, whether it’s tall
giant sunflowers standing sentinel in the
veg patch or more compact varieties
that are happy to sit at the front of a
border or in a container.
16 Garden News / July 25 2015
different plant combinations.
The resurgence in popularity
of yellow-flowered plants has
resulted in new strains of
bedding plants such as
osteospermum ‘Voltage Yellow’
and new, bright but soft-yellow
French marigold ‘Alumia Vanilla
Cream’. Plant these two together
into a patio container for a
cheerful sunny display that
Bidens light
up a container
display
defies the dullest weather. Add
some ferny trailing stems of
bidens to triple the sunshine
effect. This favourite trailing
plant bears a profusion of small
gold flowers; some strains such
as ‘Pirates Treasure’ have
semi-double flowers. Bidens is
a member of the dahlia family,
so the flowers will keep coming
until the frosts. Shear over spent
blooms to keep the display fresh.
Team annuals such as
low-growing bedding dahlias
or annual Rudbeckia hirta with
golden yellow nasturtiums for a
bright and long-lasting container
or bedding display. English
marigolds, gaillardia (often
known as blanket flowers), and
yellow marguerites are other
traditional bedding and
container favourites.
Yellow-flowered Calla lily,
zantedeschia ‘Yellow Jacket Blz’
looks sensational in a container
or planted into moist soil next to
a pool or pond. If you’re growing
 WORT

1
ASTER
‘Duchess Yellow’ £ .99H
How to sow Fully-double pale
lemon blooms

your free
aster ‘Duchesse
Yellow’ seeds
Keep your free aster seeds safe, ready to
sow for flowers next year. Aster ‘Duchesse Yellow’ has large,
full-petalled flowers on compact plants. The plants flower from
July until October and they make a big impact in the smallest space.
OSow seed from February to May.
OSow seeds singly into modules of good-quality compost, keep
moist but not wet. Plant out when all risk of frost has passed.
OAlternatively sow direct when soil warms up in May.
OIn open ground, space plants around 20cm (8in) apart, space
more closely if planting into containers.

Annuals are so
easy to grow
from seed

Brightly coloured
gaillardia, known
as blanket flowers

Tender Calla
lily ‘Yellow
Jacket Blz’
needs moist soil

it in a container keep the compost you start hoeing out any

reliably moist, and bring these
frost-tender tubers under cover
at the end of the season to store
for replanting next year.
On poor dry soils in full sun,
nothing beats Californian
poppies for vibrant colour. With
single to frilly double flowers,
they come in every golden shade
from sunset orange to palest
creamy yellow. Scatter the seeds
in early summer where you want
them to flower and wait for the
ferny foliage to appear before
competing weeds.
Cosmos, another relative
of the dahlia, is usually Californian
associated with pastel pinks poppies and annual
and rose shades, but Cosmos
chrysanthemums
sulphureus has yellow and
orange flowers on tall plants.
They look wonderful in a
natural-style planting scheme
combined with tall grasses
such as golden oats – Stipa
gigantea – or green and gold-
striped zebra grass, Miscanthus
sinensis ‘Zebrinus’.

Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn July 25 2015 / Garden News 17

 Mini
They say the best things come in small packages
VE LS
– that’s certainly true with these wonderful wee
brighten the smallest of spaces
Words Karen Murphy

e do love it when things come in neat and petite

sizes! Whether it’s miniature model railways or
tiny dolls’ houses, we’re fascinated by all things
down-scale. The same can be said of our love of plants – it’s
fascinating to find delightfully compact versions of our
favourite flowers, trees and shrubs, and even better because
we can pack more of them into our increasingly smaller
spaces. We can watch them in wonder as they stay concise
while your larger lovelies become unkempt and unwieldy!
Here are some examples of perfectly pocket-sized plants
with impact that are well worth growing.

White ‘Nana Alba’

is a lovely mix with
purple lavenders

Dwarf lavender
Our beautifully-scented cottage and
herb garden favourite – there are
many dwarf varieties of lavender
now that help us create
billowing country-cottage feel
in very limited space. Nice and
compact, many reach only up
to about 30cm (12in) and stay
intact as neat, rounded, dense
bushes. For low-growing
ground cover, patio pots and
as trouble-free
‘Thumbelina Leigh’ forms evergreens at the
a small rounded bush,
perfect for clumping
front of borders, lavender can’t be beaten!
Give them a lot of sunshine, water and
a bit of a prune after flowering, and
they’ll be happy – plus, bees love them!
TRY Lavender ‘Nana Alba’ is a gloriously
small, white-flowered variety that would
thrive in a rockery, or perhaps nestled
among other, purple-flowered varieties
for contrast. Purple ‘Thumbelina Leigh’
and ‘Mini Blue’ have short stems and
a neat, concise habit, and would look
superb in a few little clumps around
the garden.
A mini eucalyptus
is perfect for a
small garden

Eucalyptus vernicosa
A true delight from Down Under, this is the
smallest gum tree in the world! Perhaps you’d
love to try something different, and favour very
hardy evergreens? Maybe you love trees but
your garden is tiny – or you don’t have one at all!
This little eucalyptus will never grow above 1m
(about 3ft), and even then it’ll take a while to get
that big. Prune it, however, and you’ve got a
compact, easy-to-grow, lovely apple-green
shrub with a sweet minty-pine scent to enjoy.
TRY It’s a fantastic patio pot plant, but it would
also work as a small, low-growing hedge.
Eucalyptus love sun, as you’d imagine, but
actually tolerate very bad weather too, so don’t
worry about them being tender and exotic!
Give them a go indoors in a really bright, sunny
spot. It doesn’t need constant water or a
particular soil type, so it’ll be fine in a pot,
livening up your conservatory.
Pint-sized hostas
There’s something rather enchanting
about a mini version of a large, arching
foliage plant usually chosen to take up
lots of space. There are many varieties of
hosta being bred now that don’t even
reach beyond about 18cm (7in) in height,
if that, and with impossibly small, lovely
‘mouse-ear’ leaves. Just as hardy and low
maintenance as their giant counterparts,
they’re brilliantly versatile, and you can
enjoy many different varieties without
‘Teeny-weeny Bikini’,
with its colourful
variegation in a
range of greens
taking up acres of room! They love moist,
well-draining soil in moderate shade.
TRY Bunch together ‘Teeny-weeny
Bikini’ and ‘Little Aurora’ in containers,
or on their own in little bowls or pots.
They can often be charmingly used as
similarly tiny accent plants for bonsai
trees, or as low-maintenance edging
plants in an array of greens. They’re also
brilliant tucked together with alpines in
rockeries and troughs.

‘Tiny Urchin’ and other small

sedums will spread and
produce flowers in spring

Shutterstock

Small succulents
Who needs conventional flowers when you’ve got all the
colours of the rainbow in the form of sedums and rosebud-
like sempervivums? They’re a really fantastic way to create
a condensed landscape of sculptural, colourful plants,
without taking up much room, any of your time, or breaking
the bank. The best bit is they’re extremely hardy, drought-
tolerant and really quite beautiful. The tinier ones such
as ‘Tiny Urchin’ and ‘Mini Joy’ look like they might have
been plucked as little corals from the bottom of the sea.
TRY Succulents are very versatile and low-growing, and
perfect for keeping things compact. All you need is an alpine
container, a trough or a little corner of a border, and they’ll
delight you by mingling together and making a pretty
spreading pattern. Little star-like sedum flowers are
Shutterstock

gorgeous in summer and autumn too, and insects such

as bees and hoverflies can’t get enough of them.

Continues over the page

Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn July 25 2015 / Garden News 19

 Tiny trees –
the backdrop
to tiny worlds

Bijou bonsai trees

This ancient Japanese art form is a wonderful
way to celebrate trees and shrubs and their
beautiful shapes, without giving up much
space! A meticulous gardener with a touch of
artistic flair will have great fun developing tiny
worlds. All bonsai need a lot of moisture,
ideally rainwater, but indoor ones also need
a lot of light, humidity and a constant
temperature. Hard prune around winter time,
but a light pruning can be done for most trees
through the year – just like their larger cousins!
TRY Create a charming mini landscape in a
shallow bowl for outdoors,. Ideal plants would
be azalea, Scot’s pine or Japanese maple,
surrounded by mini hostas, moss, mini alpines
or small ferns. A weeping fig, Chinese sweet
plum or a silver jade tree are perfect for indoors.
Compact conifers
Get a sense of bulk in your garden, while
keeping it closely packed. Tiny conifer
trees lend themselves to all types of
planting and give structure in small
gardens. Many miniature varieties will
only ever reach 40cm (just over 1ft) in ten
years of growing. They’ll give you barely
any trouble – all they need is excellent
drainage and a little sun, and they’ll
thrive. To keep your little conifers extra
Mini conifers add low-
maintenance form
and structure to pots
small, try planting the tree, pot included,
just below the soil surface. This will
restrict root growth.
TRY Mini conifers are a fantastic
addition to a hanging basket, a patio pot,
and best of all, a rockery. You can create
a mountainous land in miniscule, with
conifers, heathers, alpines, sedums and
succulents, or lovely coastal plants such
as thrift.

Mini edibles Grow your own mini allotment

Little veg
There’s always room for veg growing, however big your garden
is – or even if you’re just keen to pack in a lot of growing goodness
into any space possible! Pack your pots and beds with tasty mini
morsels, and there’ll be no need for an allotment-sized plot.
TRY Dwarf French beans don’t need staking, are quite low
growing, and you can sow them in succession every three weeks
between April and July. Try mini cauliflower ‘Igloo’, which
produces small heads – perfect if you’ve not many mouths to feed!
However, many conventional cauliflowers can be planted at a
smaller 15cm (6in) spacing to give mini heads too. Give baby beets
and dwarf kales a go as well.

Raspberries and
cape gooseberries
(inset) can be
grown small-scale
Dwarf beans can be
tucked away in the Tiny fruit
corner of a bed You might usually think of large, trailing, espaliered fences
and beds of sprawling fruit trees, but we can all try tasty fruit
straight from the smallest of bushes and trees on the patio.
You’ll have mini orchards of lovely produce in no time!
TRY The gorgeously striped yellow-green fruit of little fig
Grow only what tree ‘Panachee’, is perfect for a patio in full sun. Dwarf cape
you need with gooseberry ‘Pineapple’ is a neat bush for a pot, as well as
dwarf varieties dwarf raspberry ‘Ruby Beauty’, which is a little thornless
variety – both will give you good yields in full sun. Delicious!

20 Garden News / July 25 2015

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Garden
OF THE Gardeners Chris and Denise Wallis
WEEK Location Dove Cottage, Rhos Road,
Penyffordd, near Chester CH4 0JR
Been in garden 19 years
Visited July
Size of garden 1½ acre
Soil Mixed, including improved clay
More info: Visit their garden on Sunday
August 2 (2-5pm).Admission is £3.50 and
children go free. Home-made cakes and teas.
Find out more at www.ngs.org.uk

Words Pam Richardson work that running a B&B entails,

Photos Neil Hepworth the couple find time to keep the
garden looking immaculate.

S
et in a small village in
Flintshire, just three miles
from the Wales-England
border, Denise and Chris Wallis’
North Wales garden is picture
perfect and as breathtakingly
beautiful as the countryside that
surrounds it. Denise and Chris
can simply step across the fields
from Dove Cottage to enjoy
idyllic rural scenery.
Enchanting vistas and painterly The couple moved into Dove
Cottage 19 years ago and they
planting in a peaceful and run a small five-star bed and
breakfast from their 18th-
informal rural garden century home. Despite the hard
Denise says: “The B&B fits in
with our lifestyle because it
means we spend a lot of time at
home, and therefore seem to
manage both very well.”
Part of the couple’s front
garden is shared with guests,
who appreciate the peaceful
surroundings and regularly give
the garden rave reviews, as well as
praising the hospitality on offer.
Over the years the garden has
changed completely, expanding
to fill the original site, as Denise
explains: “When we first moved
here we only had a front garden,

22 Garden News / July 25 2015

 Spectacular rural vistas
and dense planting

A lush ribbon of
lawn curves
through the borders

the back of the property was
just fields, so we decided to
move the boundary fence and
create a garden at the rear of
the property.”
Today the garden covers
around 1½ acres and winds
sinuously around the house,
changing style as it goes. The
couple introduced the broad
expanses of gravel that invite
further exploration and shows
off the borders, allowing visitors
to admire immaculate lawns,
bordered by summer perennials.
Trees and hedges enclose the
borders, and vistas are revealed
throughout the garden.
Denise admits there was no
master plan at the start, she says:
“When we first started to create
the garden we didn’t really have
any specific ideas, it just sort of
developed over time. Chris and
I were just amateur gardeners
trying to create a pleasant
environment to enjoy.”
The garden was created over
several years. Denise says: “We
created the lawned areas first.
Chris seeded the main lawn, but
the smaller lawns were the
original meadow grass.”
Over the years these smaller A gap in the hedge
areas have responded well to shows off some
Chris’ regime of lawn care, and clever contrasts
are now lush ribbons of green.
Continues over the page

Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn July 25 2015 / Garden News 23

 Garden
OF THE Chris and
WEEK Denise
prefer beds Two p gi y of
and lawns to plant p s
undulate, and
Denise confesses: “The lawn just
got smaller as the beds filled and
we both like curves.
“Once the lawns were done we
decided to have two ponds. We
got a digger in for the wildlife
one because it’s lined with
puddled clay. The other
rectangular one has a liner and
we have some goldfish in it. We
do have a heron that flies over
but luckily he doesn’t seem to be
too interested in the fish.”
Chris constructed the
summerhouse that overlooks
the pond a few years after the
couple moved in, and they are
now planning to put a new
barbecue and seating area
somewhere in the garden.
Denise and Chris share the
gardening tasks. Denise says:
“Chris looks after the lawns, and
he cuts the hedges to keep them
looking good. He also does any
heavy digging work. I look after
the planting and weeding. The
woodland area was one of Chris’
projects, but we tend to discuss
ideas before forging ahead. Most
of the time we either agree or
make a compromise in order to
reach our goal.”
Denise’s skilful planting
keeps the herbaceous borders
colourful. They are filled with
flowers and shrubs and enclosed
by shrubs, hedges and mature
trees. The summer flowers such
as monarda, delphiniums and
daylilies are taking centre stage a lot of the planting is geared up a particular plant as a favourite. that are planted around one
now, leaving the tapestry of for late July to early August.” In the summer there are so many of the ponds look lovely when
green to make a cooling Denise’s passion for plants favourites to choose from, such they’re in flower, as does
backdrop. extends right through the as the delphiniums, echinacea, the stand of giant yellow
Denise says: “As we open for season. “I find it hard to choose and penstemons. The dierama Himalayan primulas.
the NGS once a year in August,

Bees love this

combination of
monarda and
delphiniums

The pond is home

to masses of
water lilies

24 Garden News / July 25 2015


“I also love to see the
hellebores come into flower in
the cold winter months, and it’s
so encouraging when you see the
spring bulbs pushing through
the soil. I could go on and on!”
As well as flowering plants
there is some well-established
beech hedging and some mature
trees, including oaks, walnut,
birch, poplars and willow. The
couple have used the solid
shapes and different foliage of
these mature trees and hedges
to add shape and punctuation in
the garden.
The garden at Dove Cottage is
productive as well as beautiful.
Denise and Chris have a
vegetable garden to grow their
own food. Denise says: “We enjoy
growing as much veg, salad and
fruit as possible.”
The garden has a large bird
population, so they have a fruit
Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn
Denise’s pick
of moisture-
loving plants
Ligularia Arum lilies
Protect these moisture-loving plants from Exotic to look at but remarkably tough,
slugs and snails. ‘The Rocket’ lives up to its Zantedeschia aethiopica and Z. pentlandii
name, with tall spires. are the hardiest of the Arum lilies
Dierama Astilbe
Thriving in moist soils, the flowers – commonly In colours from creamy white and sugar pink to
known as angel’s fishing rods – droop prettily. vivid crimson, they need moist soil to thrive.
cage to keep the birds from to grow our brassicas. open, so I try to choose rabbit-
getting to the ripe fruit before “We also have problems with proof plants. They don’t seem to
they do. Denise says: “We do rabbits trying to get into the go for plants such as euphorbia,
experience problems with garden. The rear garden is well agapanthus and hemerocallis.”
pigeons, especially in the winter. protected with wire mesh
We also have another caged area fencing, but the front garden is Continues over the page
Denise’s four rules for success
1 With a large garden you
really have to keep on top
and weedkiller four times
a year.
can get very wet.
4 We keep horses, and have
of the day-to-day maintenance,
like weeding and dead heading. 3 Choose plants to suit your
soil. The soil here is quite
an abundance of manure
which we use to improve the
2 Chris keeps the lawns in
tip-top condition by
treating them with fertiliser
mixed, some is quite well
drained, but some of the
garden is set on clay and
condition of the soil. We also try
to make as much compost
ourselves as possible.
July 25 2015 / Garden News 25
 Garden
OF THE Denise’s best
WEEK
impact plants

Callistemon
Perfect for a patio container in a sunny position.
Give bottle brush plants some winter protection.

Monarda
A must for attracting pollinating insects and the leaves smell of bergamot.
Water monarda well to avoid mildew.

Alstroemeria aurea Hemerocallis

Undemanding perennials that are great as long-lasting cut flowers, Beautiful, drought resistant and pest proof rabbits
and for livening up the border. will leave these daylily flowers alone.

Delphiniums Crocosmia
Quintessential summer blooms, cut spent stems to Sword-shaped foliage, brilliant red flowers and attractive seedpods
get a second flush of flowers. that last well on the plants.

26 Garden News / July 25 2015

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 Carol’s Plant Odyssey quest has
CAROL KLEIN taken her to Turkey, Italy, Korea and
Holland as well as closer to home

Carol’s
PLANT
ODYSSEYS
F
or many years I’d been
nurturing an idea for a
television series – and on
July 27 at 7pm its first episode
will be screened on BBC2.
It had often struck me that
some of our most popular garden
flowers, many of which have
become so familiar that we
almost take them for granted,
have arrived in our gardens by
fascinating, often circuitous
routes. Not only that, but their
involvement with us, mankind,
is merely the latest leg in an
evolutionary saga that has
stretched back millions of years.
‘I travelled through
We would have loved to have
made six hour-long programmes
primeval swamps in the
for this first series of Plant
Odysseys – but had to limit it to
Upo Wetlands and
four 30-minute episodes. As a
result, we had to leave out lots of
paddled in a wild pond’
aspects, but I hope you’ll find the
programmes exciting, enjoyable

a l i ’s
and compelling viewing.
An independent production
company, Oxford Scientific
Films, made the films for the

la
BBC. They’re a brilliant outfit
and it has been an interesting
journey, though it doesn’t
compare with the journey our Episode 1 focuses
on The Rose
four plants have made – they are
truly ‘plant odysseys’.
We chose The Rose (which

y
opens the series), The Tulip, The
Iris and The Water Lily, and the
programmes trace the history of
these four from their emergence
on the earth, their evolution
over millions of years through
to the time they first came into
cultivation, and onwards to the
present day and the part they
play in our lives now. In her brand-new programme, Carol explores
Oxford Scientific Films are
renowned for their innovative the fascinating evolution of our best-loved plants
28 Garden News / July 25 2015
 techniques and our films are rich
in these – thermal imaging, time
lapse, endoscopic photography,
ultra-violet and selective
chromatography reveal the
secret lives of these flowers.
The photography throughout is
excellent – Ian Salvage was our
brilliant cameraman for almost
all the projects and his camera
work is superb. The water lily
sequences were shot in South
Korea by camerawoman Sun
Ryung Kim, who is all of 4ft 10in
tall. She’s a Buddhist who works
out and she shot nearly all the
footage by hand in sizzling
temperatures. Both our British
and Korean crews were
incredibly industrious!
It wasn’t just the plants who
travelled – our crew had to make
pretty epic journeys too and
face their own Odyssean
adventures! On one occasion we
almost missed our flight back
home from Istanbul airport,
where we’d spent most of the
previous night having arrived in
the early hours after filming high
in the mountains in the east of
Turkey, searching for species
tulips among snow-capped
peaks. Customs officials made
Ian and our sound man Alan
unpack every item of equipment
to check its serial number
against the manifest. In the end
we had to run to catch the plane!
On another occasion, arriving
at Florence airport, my suitcase
was lost so we had to go late-
night shopping for clothes and
all-important make-up before
travelling out to Perugia that
Jonathan Buckley
night to film irises grown for the
perfume industry in terraced
vineyards next day. Needless to
say the case turned up as we left!
For our water lily episode
I travelled through primeval
swamps in the Upo Wetlands
in Korea, paddled in a wild pond
on the Isle of Wight, and came
face to face with a brand-new
Amazonian water lily hybrid in
Ventnor Botanic Gardens in the
middle of the night.
I mistakenly put my wetsuit
on inside out but kept it that way
because the red ‘inside’ showed
up much better in the dark than
its black exterior would have
done. It was a difficult shoot but
at least by filming from midnight
to 4am we had no issues with
‘crowd control’!
I hope you’ll switch on and
that you’ll find Carol Klein’s
Plant Odysseys as enjoyable to
watch as it was to make.
Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn
Week by week
Episode 1 THE ROSE
Fossils of roses have been discovered dating back
37 million years. These first roses were probably
climbers bearing similarities to our own wild dog How did wild roses
rose, Rosa canina. We find out that its ‘thorns’ are develop into highly
not thorns at all, but collections of tiny hairs that bred doubles?
meld together to form prickles. They serve two
purposes – one as crampons to climb through pollinating insects.
trees to find daylight, and the other as self- Did you know that the Romans propagated
defence to ward off herbivores. Not only are they naturally occurring double roses? We find out
sharp but they also contain bacteria-causing how cuttings work and that plants have the
irritation as well as injury. facility to change the function of their cells, so
As rose growers will know, roses are often that a cell from a stem can become that of a root
attacked by aphis but we see evidence of how the – also how double flowers develop.
rose defends itself by releasing chemical We also visit outstanding rose gardens and talk
messages to draw in insects like ladybirds that to botanists and rosarians, discuss the history of
predate on aphis.On the other hand we see rose the rose, and try to find out what it is that makes
flowers sending out plumes of scent to attract it so special.
Episode 2 THE TULIP
In Turkey’s mountains we find species tulip, Tulipa armena
growing in thin, poor soil, baked in summer, and buried under
snow through long winters. Its short, sturdy stems withstand
battering winds, and its spreading narrow leaves have waved
edges for protection and to collect moisture.
In time lapse, we see how the bulb develops roots, leaves
and flowers and thermal imaging photography reveals a bee
revelling within the centrally heated tulip petals.
We trace the tulip’s trek along ancient silk routes to Istanbul
and find out how it came to be revered both as a garden
ornament, hybridised and bred by the Sultan’s gardeners,
and became a symbol of Mohammed.
Following the
tulip’s trek along The tulip journeyed on, crossing into Europe where, in The
ancient silk routes Netherlands it had a huge, and near-disastrous effect, on society.
We examine a hand-painted tulip ‘catalogue’ from 1643, and
visit modern-day tulip breeder Jan Ligthart.
Episode 3 THE IRIS
The third episode celebrates colourful and variable iris. We visit Italy Variable and
to find out how a white iris on a red ground – the emblem of Florence – colourful iris
was reversed by the all-powerful Medicis to a red iris on a white ground.
How did it make the journey to France with Napoleon’s troops and why
did it become so popular in the French Court? Eventually it crossed to
mainland Britain where some of its most successful breeders include the
artist Cedric Morris, whose exquisite varieties were almost lost to
cultivation until Sarah Cooke, ex-head gardener at Sissinghurst, made it
her mission to find and re-introduce them. She staged a gold-medal
exhibit of them at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.
We visit Turkey again and learn of the significance of the iris to the
dead, especially to women and also its representation in Greek history.
Episode 4 THE WATER LILY
Full of fascinating facts, not only about the history of the water
Photos: Shutterstock
lily but also about the whole development and evolution of
flowers, our water-lily filming took us all over South Korea,
from festival to formal lotus-tea ceremonies with Buddhist
monks, and back millions of years to a time when
dinosaurs roamed the earth.
The water lily is incredibly successful, appearing
on almost every continent – and we compare
our native water lily with its giant cousin –
Water lilies appear Amazonian by name and by nature. We find
on almost every out about its bizarre sex-life and are present
continent at the birth of a brand-new hybrid.
July 25 2015 / Garden News 29
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T here’s always something

to do in the garden, but
there’s definitely more time to
stop working and enjoy your
outside space during the
summer months. All we need is the weather
to get a little bit warmer, and I’m envisaging
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 THIS
WEEK

Clare Foggett
Horticulturist Clare’s
50m (165ft) garden is home
to fruit, cut flowers and
tea m ornamental borders.

Give houseplants
some fresh air
Put them outside now and they’ll
benefit from the natural elements

Y
ou can move most
of your houseplants
outside at this time
of year – they often get a
bit cooped up and musty
during colder months, and
will appreciate you dusting
off their cobwebs, giving
them some fresh air, a bit
of sun and a few weeks of
natural warmth.
If you’re worried about
them getting scorched or
windswept, acclimatise
them gradually, making
sure to keep them out of
full sun and wind. Bring
them indoors if very bad
weather arrives, and also
when frosts come in
Ne l Hepworth
and aphids too. It’s not
all bad news with pests
though – they’ll be safer
from some, such as red
spider mite, outdoors.
Just like other containers
outside, they’ll need extra
watering and shouldn’t be
allowed to dry out – give
them a little houseplant
feed when watering to help
them along too.
There are some
exceptions to the rule
– more tender plants such
as dieffenbachia, and other
tender tropicals including
orchids and African violets
should stay indoors,
because the conditions

autumn. Beware of pests won’t be quite right for

such as slugs and snails, them outside.

Three indoor plants that love the British summer weather Shuerstock

Indoor foliage Indoor jasmine Succulents and cacti

To grow healthy and strong, some To encourage it to flower well, indoor Your trusty li le indoor cacti and

1 architectural houseplants such as ferns

and palms like a rain shower and a
dusting off in the sun outside. Plus they look
a ractive nestled among other plants.
2 jasmine really benefits from being
outside in a sheltered spot, kept away
from hot sun. When it buds, and when frosts
3 succulents need a lot of fresh air and
ventilation in summer, as well as some
good light and warmth to keep them happy,
are due, bring it indoors again. so make a li le display of them outside.

Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn July 25 2015 / Garden News 33

What to do this week
IN YOUR FLOWER GARDEN
Order autumn
flowering bulbs
They’ll be blooming as days start to get shorter, says Clare
T
here’s nothing like doing
some gardening from
your armchair – it’s
almost the best bit, sitting with
your cup of tea, scrolling or
flicking through pages and
pages of gorgeous new plants
and bulbs to try.
Bulbs are arguably one of the
most lovely and easiest-to-look-
after plants you can add to your
garden. They always seem to
pop up at a time when you least
expect them, and during times
of the year when they’re the
34 Garden News / July 25 2015
most welcome in the garden.
This is certainly true of
autumn-flowering bulbs, which
bring a pleasant instalment of
blooming as the days get shorter,
a few months after you’ve
probably forgotten about
planting them!
There’s so many to choose
from – bulbs such as the lovely
yellow and pink flower funnels
of oxalis, the mini lily-like
Zephyranthes candida, or
Peruvian swamp lilies, and the
lilac cups of meadow saffron, are
all sweet, seemingly delicate
plants, but brilliantly hardy.
It’s always nice to keep some
room for autumn bulbs, despite
packing out your garden already
through the year, and thinking
of where they might make a
point of looking splendid on a
chilly autumn morning. You
could jazz up an otherwise bleak
and empty container, find
corners to tuck them grouped
together in a border, or think
about naturalising them in drifts
in your lawn.
Garden News
RECOMMENDS
Three ‘must-have’
bulbs to order
Crocus ‘Conqueror’
Rich violet-blue flowers from
late September to late October.
Ideal for naturalising in a
sunny border or lawn. Often
the earliest autumn crocus to
bloom, and it spreads nicely.
Sternbergia
Carpets of luminous yellow
flowers can be achieved
over time with these. Very
floriferous – plant them in sun
and where they won’t get too
wet, and they will multiply.
Photos: Neil Hepworth unless stated
Cyclamen cilicium
Slender rose-pink flowers give
this pre y cyclamen a delicate
appearance. Nodding flowers
appear at the same time as the
foliage, and last for several
weeks. Prefers shelter.
O These are all available online
from www.crocus.co.uk. For
offers on crocus bulbs, search
for ‘Autumn Crocus Collection’,
or call 01344 578000. Get 30
bulbs for £9.99, or 90 bulbs for
only £19.98.
 Deadhead pinks
Your pinks will no doubt be looking a bit
scrappy by now, unless you’ve been
deadheading them continuously. As they
flower quite liberally in the bright sunshine
during the summer, there’s always some
unsightly crispy brown heads to do away
with – just keep snipping their heads off
every time you see one wilting. At the end of
the summer, fewer buds will form, simply
because they’re packing up for the season.

Feed
roses
Roses are one of those
plants that demand
lashings of feed – they’re
rather hungry things
during summer, and
need a good supply of
fertiliser around once
a month. Apply it after
rain as nutrients will

Summer prune wisteria travel to the roots easily.

Fertilisers with high levels
Nothing beats the elegance of a wisteria in full flower, of magnesium and potash,
but the blooms are over, and now is the time to summer which you can mix into
prune in readiness for next year’s show. Summer the top of the soil around
pruning lets air and light in to the plant and encourages your roses, will help
flower shoots to form on the short flowering spurs. encourage lots of blooms.
Cut long stems, and shorten the new green whippy Don’t keep adding fertiliser
growth back to five or six leaves. Work systematically into the later months of the
up from the base of the wisteria to ensure flowers all year, though, because new
the way up the plants. growth can be damaged
by frosts.

Prune rampant
climbers
Some plants just keep
on growing, and while
this is generally a good
trait, when it comes
to the more rampant
climbers, such as this
mile-a-minute vine,
things can get out of
hand unless we step
in with the shears!
Untangle congested
growth and cut out
any overlong whippy
stems, then prune
back the rest of the
plant to maintain a
manageable height
and create a neat
outline. Unlike spring
pruning, which
encourages growth,
summer pruning
helps to restrict
growth and keeps
the plant manageable.

Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn July 25 2015 / Garden News 35

 Take pelargonium cuttings now
Pelargoniums are looking
their best in the height of
summer – they thrive in
hot weather. If you have
some favourite varieties
that you’d like more of, take
cuttings now.
Unlike most cuttings,
pelargoniums seem to
root best when they are
slightly dry, so deal with
them promptly, but there
is no need to put them in a
‘Tomboy’
is a rich
dark plum
Rose-scented
old variety ‘Lady
Plymouth’
36 Garden News / July 25 2015
St e p
Choose strong,
1 non-flowering
shoots, 5-7cm (2-3in)
long. Cut just below a
leaf joint. Remove the
lower leaves.
Dip the cuing into
2 rooting powder
and dib into a
small pot of cuings
compost or Vermiculite.
plastic bag as you’re taking Deadhead
them from the parent.
Make sure you label the ‘Bowles’s Mauve’
cuttings with the variety These perennial wallflowers have
or flower colour if you’re flowered their socks off, but
taking lots with similar they’re beginning to look leggy
leaf-shapes. and the flowers have gone over.
Water well and
3
Cuttings can rot if the Encourage a fresh flush of leaves
airflow is poor, so leave put somewhere and more flowers by shearing over
ample space around each warm but out of the plants now. Cut just below the
cutting when potting. A direct sunlight until the flowering stems and they’ll send
small 7cm (3in) pot will cuings are well rooted. up more flowering shoots. With
hold around four cuttings. luck, you’ll have those pretty
mauve blooms well until autumn.
Pick of the pelargoniums
From the vivid scarlet flowers of zonal every shade from white ‘Blanche Roche’ to
pelargoniums, often called geraniums, to darkest plum ‘Tomboy’.
velvety regal pelargoniums and scented leaf Scented leaf pelargoniums have small
varieties, there are plenty to choose from, flowers, but their main attraction is the foliage.
and they all grow well from cuttings. Scents range from oranges and lemons to
Angel pelargoniums have small flowers, cinnamon and clove. For cream-variegated
but there are masses of them, smothering the foliage with a rose scent, choose old variety
plants in bright, usually bi-coloured flowers. ‘Lady Plymouth’.
All of them look good in containers, and are ‘Sarah Don’ has
perfect for window boxes because unusual golden-
they stay neat and colourful edged foliage
The variety ‘Sarah Don’ is
named for Monty Don’s wife.
Ivy leaved pelargoniums
are the ones to choose for
hanging baskets. The ivy-
shaped leaves trail prettily
and the flowers come in

Impress us with your
container and you
W I N £500!
Time is running out to enter our
Container of the Year Competition
with the chance to win £500
I
t’s simple to enter our
Container of the Year
competition – just send us a
clear, date-marked colour photo(s)
of your container or hanging
basket, no later than August 4.
We are running the
competition in association with
Richard Jackson’s Flower Power
premium plant food, and if you
used Flower Power to help boost
your flowering display, simply
include a picture of your
container with a tub of Flower
Power beside it – or of you
holding the Flower Power
standing beside your hanging
basket, for the opportunity to
win some bonus prize money.
Flower Power is a premium
plant food with high levels of
potash to encourage maximum
flowers, colour and amazing
Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn
results. Inspired by the fertilisers
used by professional growers, it’s
the brainchild of TV gardener
Richard Jackson, who worked
with leading plant scientist Dr
Arnie Rainbow to perfect the
formula. It was launched on
shopping channel QVC to
become one of their best-selling
products. And its results speak
for themselves!
To get the best results from
your pots, keep feeding with
Flower Power twice a week until
September, diluting the fertiliser
by mixing one 5g scoop into one
gallon of water in a watering can.
The concentrated formula
goes a long way. The 750g pack
makes 150 gallons (675 litres)
and the 1.5kg pack makes 300
gallons (1,350 litres) – enough for
even the most packed patio!
How to enter our Container
of the Year competition
We have prizes worth a total of
£650 for our Containers of the
Year. First prize is £250, the
second place winner gets £100
and third place wins £50. If you
used Flower Power to help your
container win first prize then
you’ll scoop a £250 bonus,
making the total prize for first
place £500! Simply include a
picture of your container with a
tub of Flower Power beside it (or
if it’s a hanging basket then you
could stand by it, holding the
pack for the photo!) to be eligible
to win the bonus prize money.
Entering couldn’t be easier.
Simply send us a clear,
date-marked colour photo(s)
of your container or hanging
basket, no later than August 4
2015. The winners will be those
judged to have the best
container from all the entries
received. Don’t forget to include
your tub of Flower Power in the
Potash-rich plant
food to give your
more blooms
picture if you used it.
Prizes are non-transferable
and no alternative is offered. The
competition is open to UK
residents, excluding employees
of Bauer Media. The winners will
be notified within 30 days of the
closing date. No correspondence
will be entered into.
Send your entry to
Victoria Williams, Garden News Flower
Power Competition, Bauer Media, Media
House, Lynch Wood, Peterborough,
PE2 6EA, or email gn.leers@
bauermedia.co.uk
For full terms and conditions please
write to the editorial address on page 57.
The prize is non-transferable and no cash
alternative is offered. The competition is
open to UK residents only, excluding
employees of Bauer Media. The winners
will be selected at random and notified
within 30 days of the closing date. No
correspondence will be entered into.
For more information on Richard
Jackson’s Flower Power Premium plant
food, visit www.richardjacksonsgarden.
co.uk and buy Flower Power online at
www.qvcuk.com
July 25 2015 / Garden News 37
 MARTIN FISH
The undercover
Former head gardener, TV and radio broadcaster and RHS judge

Feel the heat!

Sweet peppers and hot chillies
are spicing up our summer

I
’m growing lots of peppers
in the greenhouse and in
my Haygrove polytunnel.
All are being grown in large
pots rather than the border soil,
because I seem to get a better
crop of fruits when the roots are
a little restricted. I’m growing a
selection of the larger sweet
peppers and some small hot
chilli peppers.
The sweet types we eat mainly
in salads, or grilled, and the hot
ones are used to flavour many
dishes. My wife Jill also makes a
lovely chilli jam that’s delicious
with cold meats and cheeses.
When we give talks to garden
groups, Jill usually takes some
chilli jam along for people to try
– it always goes down well!
My chilli peppers include
‘NuMex Twilight’, ‘Friar’s Hat’,
‘Bulgarian Carrot’ and one
with attractive variegated
leaves called ‘Fish’, which
came as young plants from
Robinson’s. All in all, we have
a good mixture that should
produce some interesting
colours and shapes of fruits,
from very mild to blow-your-
head-off hot!
All the plants are growing
well and some are starting to
fruit. The grafted plants are
slightly ahead of the seed-raised
plants, which is what I’d expect,
but all look as though they’re
going to fruit well. The good
thing about peppers is you can
keep them growing well into Fruiting peppers
are fed weekly with
Photos: Martin Fish

The majority of the plants autumn and early winter when

were grown from seed and
include varieties such as ‘Capino’,
‘Sweet Bell’ and ‘Banana’, which
are all sweet peppers, together
with ‘Jericho’, which are being
grown from grafted plants.
grown under cover. high-potash fertiliser
At this time of year regular
watering is essential in order to Sponsored by
keep the plants growing, and check for snails, which, if not
I’m feeding weekly with a caught, will happily eat holes
high-potash fertiliser. I also in the young foliage. Tel: 01531 633659; www.haygrove.co.uk

pus
r
Tie in cucumbers Protect blueberry bushes
oca on
My cucumbers have been slow geing started
this summer, but at last are making some
To protect the fruits on my blueberry bushes
from birds, I’m bringing the pot-grown plant ept ati
r
strong growth, so I need to make sure the into the polytunnel. I did this last year and w
: St opag
soft stems are tied to the trellis support. got a good crop.
eek pr
t w and
x
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What to do this week
ON YOUR FRUIT & VEG PLOT
It’s the perfect time to
decide on cold weather

Sow crops, says Karen

P
lanning ahead is the ultimate tool

winter
to success for a gardener, but it can
often be difficult to think of warming
winter veg during July, whatever the weather!
Nevertheless, it’s the perfect time now to
decide on your old favourite cold-weather

veg
crops, or even to think about trying
something new.
There are several robust ones that need
planting now, so they have plenty of time to
mature for winter, such as Brussels sprouts,
kale, sprouting broccoli and leeks. You can
sow leafy veg from now, which will be ready
by the autumn, and by that time you can sow
winter salads so you’ll always have a supply
at your fingertips during the colder months.
Whoever said summer and autumn were
prime harvest times? There’s such a wide
range of winter veg to pack into gardens,
that the coldest season can be just as fruitful!
If you’re sowing successional brassicas,
remember that the soil is being worked
continuously and all the nutrients are being

Photos: Neil Hepworth, unless stated

used up, so with each sowing, give a good
dose of general fertiliser to the area so all
the goodness is boosted.
Also watch out for flea beetles on your
brassicas and oriental leaves. Insect-proof
netting can help deter them, though.

Garden News Six of the best to sow now

Give the soil a good rake to RECOMMENDS
1 make it fine, airy and crumbly,
ready for your seeds.

Cabbage ‘Spring Hero’ Pak Choi ‘Blizzard’ Choi Sum ‘Moulin Rouge’
The first ballhead spring cabbage Harvest young and add to stir-fries. Crisp, aractive, red-veined
has large, heavy heads in winter. Sow under glass for baby leaves. leaves for salads and stir-fries.
Sow directly, making a drill

2 about 1cm (½in) deep, and

sow seed quite thinly.
Photos: D. T. Brown

Lettuce ‘Valdor’ Radish ‘Chinese Dragon’ Winter purslane

Cover drill over with soil, Tasty buerhead variety, and one Long, pink-skinned roots, which High in Vitamin C, this is a hardy,

3 and water well if dry. Use

cloches before frosts arrive.
of the best winter-hardy types. are crisp even when large.

O All are available from D.T. Brown Seeds, tel: 0333 003 0869; www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk
cut-and-come-again salad crop.

40 Garden News / July 25 2015

 MEDWYN WILLIAMS
Growing for
SHOWING
Watch out for blossom end rot
Tomatoes, squashes and peppers can all be susceptible
to blossom end rot, so called because dark sunken
blotches appear at the end of the fruit where the flowers
Winner of 11 Chelsea golds and awarded an MBE!
were. While it looks like some sort of disease, it is in fact
caused by calcium deficiency. Lack of moisture and an
erratic watering regime is usually the cause, but high
humidity and feeding plants when the soil is dry also
affects the plants' ability to take up calcium from the
soil. Luckily, blossom end rot can be remedied fairly
easily by regular and thorough watering – water plants
in pots and growing bags at least twice a day in really hot
weather. The fruits that are affected can’t be eaten, but
once the calcium imbalance is corrected, the plants will
start to produce healthy fruit again.
Star quality!
My blanch celery is bulking out nicely
I
t’s time to look at the blanch
celery I planted specifically for
the Malvern Autumn Show in
late September. This year I’m
trying ‘Evening Star’, which seems
to be winning consistently on the
show bench. I don’t think the
petioles or stalks are as wide as
Harvest onions ‘Morning Star’, which I usually
grow, but it’s bulking quite quickly
In many parts of the UK, the warm, dry and pulls up to a good length.
weather has been perfect for onions, Since I planted my celery out
ripening the bulbs and helping the skins around mid May, I’ve left every
to become papery. Onions are one of those head to its own devices – just
crops that let you know when they’re applying a few slug pellets when
ready to pick – dig them up when the tops needed, hoeing the bed a few
start to flop over. But don’t be tempted to pull them out of the times, and hand weeding around
ground, instead loosen the soil with a fork and lift them out. Dry the heads. It’s now time to thin
the bulbs off for a few days. Either lay or hang them somewhere down the clumps, removing all
airy and dry outside, or if rain is forecast, keep them under cover the outer stalks until I reach the
in a cool, empty greenhouse or shed. really thick petioles. At this point
O For a copy of the Top Tray rules, our vegetable class that’s I’ll fit a loose collar for support.
sponsored by D.T. Brown, visit www.gardennewsmag.co.uk
Destroyed by disease
Last year I couldn’t stage any
celery, despite growing two
batches for the Tatton Park and
late Malvern shows, because both
had a foliage disease. Strangely,
the celery for Tatton appeared fine
when I lifted it, yet when I arrived
at the show the fire blight or
septoria had gone right through it.
Septoria leaf spot or late blight is
caused by the fungus Septoria
apiicola. It’s most pronounced
during extended periods of leaf
wetness and high humidity levels.
Septoria initially develops as small
brown spots on older, outer leaves,
which quickly turn dark brown to
Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn
Celery 'Evening Star'
Medwyn Williams
shows consistency
black, and several small lesions
may join to form a larger spot.
I’m worried that some spores
might have been left behind in
the soil and could spread again.
To try to alleviate this condition,
I’ve soaked the bed with a strong
dilution of Armillatox, once in
March after the beds had been
prepared and again a week before
planting. I’ll also spray them after
collaring with Bayer Fruit and
Vegetable Disease Control, which
is a protective fungicide. I remove
the collars periodically to check
on the condition of the heart and
remove any suckers growing
between the main stalks.
From this point on and right
through the growing season, I
douse the plants weekly around
the base with calcium nitrate to
prevent heart rot. This heart-
breaking cultural problem occurs
very quickly, even overnight,
rendering the whole head useless.
Every Friday, I give each plant
a pint of solution made up with
10ml to a gallon of water. To help
the calcium nitrate dissolve
quicker, I mix it first with a small
amount of hot water then add
another 10ml of liquid nutrimate,
Liquid Gold. This has a high
concentration of fulvic acid, which
acts as a carrier and transports the
calcium nitrate around the plant
much better. Remember, never let
your celery bed go dry throughout
its growing period, because it’s
naturally a bog plant.
July 25 2015 / Garden News 41
What to do this week
ON YOUR FRUIT & VEG PLOT EFAN BUCZACKI
Help give e plant
runners
a boost Broadcaster and author of more than 50 books

Beans that were planted out at

the beginning of summer have The caterpillars
grown well, but now they need feed for about
a boost. Runner beans like a month
warm weather and lots of
water. The plants fix their own
nitrogen in the soil, but they’ll
repay some extra attention
now to keep them healthy and
productive. Water well and
mist the plants to increase

Photos: Shuerstock
humidity and to set the beans. Runners do best on neutral
to alkaline soils, so add lime if your soil is acidic.

Harvest gooseberries Get rid of cabbage

Gooseberries should be getting
plump and juicy and sweeter, so
pick them now, taking care
not to squash them. Sweet
white caterpillars!
ripe fruits should be
around 10p coin-sized, They’ll create
and can be reduced
down to a lovely
mayhem among
compote, adding water your brassicas O Holes eaten in brassic
and sugar to taste. a
leaves

I
Smaller, unripe fruits t’s the smell that lingers still
can still be picked for in my memory! Gardeners of
putting in pies and jam, my generation will recognise
but if you’ve picked the reference because it was in
too many, don’t worry, the 1950s, when I was a boy, that
they can be frozen. we had several plague years of
caterpillars in our gardens.   droppings
The principle culprits were
the short hairy caterpillars of the
Pick courgettes large white butterfly, often called
the cabbage white. After feeding
It’s great to see a thriving, unruly courgette plant with loads of for about a month and creating
shiny veg poking through! Pick fruits when they’re young and mayhem with brassicas of all
about 12cm (5in) long, as they’re best then, but also because the kinds, as well as nasturtiums,
plant will then furnish you with another crop pretty quickly. they find places to pupate.
Plus you may not want them to turn into hulking great marrows! Eating large amounts of foliage,
Always keep courgettes well watered, and add a fertiliser such they'd soil the remainder with
as Growmore if growth is not speedy enough. their droppings or frass.
A second generation of adults
emerges at this time of year and
the caterpillars developing from
eggs laid by females are often
O Yellow and black
caterpillars present,
often in large numbers
O Foul-smelling plants
contaminated with
abundant in late summer.
A further adult generation may
develop in September or October
but most pupae developing in
autumn stay quiet over the
winter to produce the first adult
generation of the following year.
The large white is much the
most important leaf eating
brassica pest, mainly because its
eggs are laid in large batches so
a massive caterpillar population
can build up rapidly.

Treatment
OCheck plants regularly and
crush any egg clusters found
beneath leaves
OSpray with an approved
control, starting as soon as
caterpillars are seen
OCover brassica plants
with ne ing to exclude Neing keeps
egg-laying bu erflies cabbage whites
at bay
Bauer

42 Garden News / July 25 2015


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 MIKE THURLOW
Small plot
BIG CROPS Former head gardener at Audley End’s organic kitchen garden

Stretch

Shuerstock
Harvested root
crops can make

out the
way for other
leafy greens

harvest!
Small plots help trap
heat, for a longer
growing period

M
id-summer’s day passed
a couple of weeks ago.
This usually means
the chances of experiencing
Looking ahead to
the festive season
why not plant a co ,
uple of

really hot weather is reduced. seed potatoes in a
container
Now is the time to push on to give you new po
tatoes at
and sow the seeds of crops Christmas time. Us
e a reliable
that will appreciate the cooler second early varie
ty, such
temperatures and will carry as ‘Charlo e’, for th
e best-
on the harvest well into the tasting ‘taters.
autumn. For example, tomatoes
and peppers growing in pots replace it with
will fruit up to October, but aubergines and fresh potting compost. You can then sow
courgettes will have finished cropping by the directly, or transplant knowing that
end of September. Now is the perfect time to sufficient nutrients will be present to get
think about filling in any gaps in the supply them off to a good start; although you will
as crops gradually go out of production. One have to commence supplementary feeding
major advantage of a balcony or courtyard after six weeks.
garden is that they trap heat, creating a warm I like to use small pellets of general
microclimate that protects plants against fertiliser that are pushed under the surface
the chills of autumn. of the compost. They only release their
As the old plants growing in containers nutrients to the plants when the growing
are cleared out, it is best to remove the top conditions are favourable. This prevents too
10cm (4in) or so of the old compost and much soft, lush growth developing.
Shuerstock
Broccoli-like
Cime di rapa
Other crops
that can be sown
now are early carrots for an autumn harvest,
endive, chicory, radicchio and Cime di rapa
(a quick-growing broccoli), which takes about
60-80 days to mature. You could also try
sowing a few pots of peas to produce young
shoots. All members of the oriental vegetable
family can be grown in containers or small
beds. They are perfect for sowing this month
and next, to provide a bountiful supply of
roots, shoots and leaves that can be eaten raw
or cooked, especially in stir fries.

Salad: it’s not just for summer!

Salad crops are great at cropping
over long periods, providing a
healthy supply of leaves well
into the autumn. Make fresh
sowings of autumn and winter
varieties of le uce or mixed
salad leaves now. They have
been bred to be hardy enough
to grow at lower temperatures
and shorter day lengths. Sow
round-seeded spinach for an
autumn crop and use the prickly
seed type to take over in winter.
Winter radish is a vegetable
that is often underrated, but they
are milder than the summer
types. One you may like to try is
the mooli but, be warned, this
one is hot! It can be eaten raw or
cooked. Mooli is a giant of the
radish world, often growing to
45cm (18in) in length and about Cut-and-come-
5cm (2in) in diameter, but don’t again salads crop
compare it with the monsters over long periods
that are grown for the show Keep on sowing
autumn salad crops
bench.

44 Garden News / July 25 2015

 TERRY WALTON

Tales from the

ALLOTMENT
Star of BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show and best-selling author. His allotment sits in the Rhondda Valley

‘Seek and search’ for courgettes

Miss one fruit and the young,
tender ones will shrivel and die Missed courgees
will quickly
become marrows

R
ipe crops need to be harvested
quickly now – particularly beans.
Courgettes, too, need picking
small and young so the plant continues
o w
O Keep cuing sweet pea
to produce more fruits. Miss one among s
the foliage and a large marrow will to prevent them from
form. This results in many of the forming seed
young, tender ones dying as the plant O Water salad crops
concentrates all its efforts into feeding regularly to keep them
the larger one. crisp and crunchy
My daily walk about the plot now O Control pumpkin
involves lots of ‘seek and search’ skills, sideshoots to stop
but the rewards are generous harvests plants roaming
of young, tasty food. Harvesting also
means I have less time for weeding
and digging. But it’s not wise to ignore weed be stored or frozen,
seedlings that quickly colonise any empty much has to be used
spaces and soon quickly. It’s also
run riot. Attack when plotholders
newly-emerging can share and swap
weeds with a hoe excess crops. Despite
before they set having a full-sized
more seeds. If they allotment, I can’t
grow among your grow the diverse
plants, the harder range of veg
task of hand available. I use
weeding will the majority of my
become plot to grow my
necessary. favourites but, like
This ongoing most allotmenteers, I also try a few unusual opportunity to experience new tastes. This
harvesting brings ones – and this year oca is my experiment. is the advantage of being an allotment
Harvesting surpluses and These quirky vegetables are often shared gardener – you often get access to a wide
garlic while some can among fellow plot holders to give them the range of veg not always grown by yourself.
If I like them, packets of the seed will be on
next year’s shopping list.
Keep picking tomatoes and cucumbers Regretfully, my bumper strawberry
harvest is nearing its end. It’s been a great
Cucumbers and tomatoes These hot days are making year for strawberries. I’ve enjoyed a range of
are now joining the contents the atmosphere in the d t f k d th l d ’ l
of my salad bowl. Again, greenhouse very dry. This is
it’s important to pick them when red spider mite a
acks
when they’re ready and cucumber leaves and suck
not leave them on the them dry of sap. Yellowing
plant. Tomatoes can be leaves are a sure sign of
used in many ways and
frozen, but cucumbers are
a
ack. It’s time to make it
unpleasantly wet in there eed
limited in their use, so at by soaking the paths with
p sp ng
the moment I’ve got water. Spider mite don’t like l
e eni
plenty of happy damp conditions so they : H p
Don’t leave
ripe toms on neighbours! should hopefully move on.
eek to ri
the plant
xt w ma
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Gardening with the
EXPERTS
The world’s finest share their tips for success
My tips for surviving a
difficult growing season
Make provisions for changeable weather
W
hat a year it’s been for growing
pelargoniums! I’ve had the
worst growing conditions since
I started growing for showing, and with all
the changeable weather I’ve been inundated
with yellow leaves –the Stellars and Angels
were worst affected.
Yellowing leaves
I’ve had countless emails asking for advice
from growers thinking that yellowing leaves
on their plants are due to faults with
watering. If, like me, you get yellow leaves
and know that your watering is OK, it’s
probably the result of having one or two
days of heat followed by temperatures
dropping back down again.
The problems might be more noticeable on
show plants because they tend to be bigger
and therefore produce far more growth.
Plants can’t cope with these fluctuating
temperatures – so in the run-up to show time,
to keep things on an even keel, I shut my
greenhouses at night and when the daytime
Show plants revelled
in the warmth of
the sun lounge
Ken Abel
Growing pelargoniums for
over 17 years, Ken is regarded
as the UK’s top pelargonium
exhibitor, winning 16 national
titles and 67 ‘Best in Show’
awards. He appeared in the
second series of The Great British Garden
Revival. Ken is always keen to share what
he knows through this column or online at
www.prize-pelargoniums.com
temperatures soared, I added some extra
shading by placing green 40 per cent
shade netting on top of the Nixol on my
greenhouses. This did help to lessen the
difference between the night and daytime
temperatures from 8C/28C (46F/82F) to
12C/24F (54F/75F).
Boosting flowering
It’s certainly a stressful time when plants are
reluctant to flower. Many of my plants sat
there with plenty of bud but refusing to open,
My Angels finally
came into bloom
however nicely – or threateningly – I talked
to them! So I’ve had to put some extreme
measures in place in an effort to beat the
vagaries of the weather.
From mid-May, and all through June,
I shut the greenhouses up at about 8pm in
a bid to keep the heat in and push up the
nighttime temperature. But although I had
some reasonable plants for my first show
on June 6, I realised that I had just over two
weeks to go until my next show on June 21,
but my best and biggest Angel pelargoniums
had hardly any flowers open.
In sheer desperation I moved a pair of
‘Rockwell Sophie’ pelargoniums, which
I’d worked up into 15cm (6in) pots over a
three-year period, three ‘Berkswell Fiesta’
plants in various-sized pots, and an ‘Oldbury
Duet’ with eight blooms into my sun lounge.
It was amazing what a difference a week
could make. The ‘Oldbury Duet’ had started
to look like a Best in Show contender, even
with the blinds pulled down to keep the
worst of the sun out!
To me this proves without doubt that
plants need warmth to produce flowers
because we only had three full days of sun
that week but the average temperature in the
sun lounge was at least 8C warmer than
my greenhouses, especially at night.
Correctly potted?
If soil is
showing,
pots are
too big
Shuuterstock
Just lately I’ve spoed a lot of show
bench plants that have been over poed
or grown in too big a pot for the plant. For
example, if the class says 15cm (6in) that
is the maximum pot size, so plants can be
shown in a smaller pot.
If the growth doesn’t hide or just covers
the edge of the pot when looked at from
above, the pot is too big. As a guideline,
the judges should allow 2.5 to 3 times the
Photos: Ken Abel
pot size for the overall width of plant.
July 25 2015 / Garden News 47
 Gardening with the EXPERTS
P nials for scre ning
Choose statuesque flowering plants to provide colourful cover-ups!
Claire Austin
Claire has been involved
in horticulture since 1983.
Over the years she has
grown thousands of different
perennials, including a
large collection of irises and
peonies. Aside from publishing four books,
including this year’s Book of Perennials,
she runs her own perennial nursery.
www.claireaustin-hardyplants.co.uk
Eye-catching
spiky echinops
heads
Shutterstock
Eupatorium
cannabinum is a
buerfly magnet
Create a haven for
pollinators with
purple echinops and
yellow verbascum
and heleniums
Shutterstock
Wall coverings
I
grow perennials because they’re
long-lived, have beautiful leaves, and The most obvious plants to hide a bare wall
produce lots of colourful flowers. Colour or fence are ones that climb. Although there
is what most of us want in our gardens, are no climbing perennials, a few do
especially at this time of year when we can scramble, creating a mass of long, leafy stems
enjoy our outdoor space.
However, as we relax on the patio or lawn,
we may suddenly realise how boring the
fence or side of a shed is, or how ugly the
outside bin or oil-tank looks.
Of course, we can paint the fence, erect a
screen around the bin, or even plant a hedge.
The much-maligned leylandii is the fastest
growing hedge, but even that takes some
years to reach a reasonable height.
But for a natural alternative to hiding
unwanted sights, have you considered
perennial plants? They might not seem an
obvious choice, but they grow quickly, and
the tallest will reach 1.8m (6ft) in a year.
Because perennials die back in autumn,
they only provide a temporary fix, but
in areas that you don’t tend to see during Magnificent
the cooler months of the year, they could Eupatorium
be a natural, colourful solution.
maculatum
‘Riesenschirm’
 Scrambling
perennial sweet
peas can be trained
as a wall covering
Draw the eye with
vibrant helenium
‘Waltraut’

Dainty flowered
thalictrum will
grow in part shade

topped with flowers.

These include the pretty
Shutterstock

perennial sweet pea,

Lathyrus latifolius, with
flowers like those of annual
sweet peas, in white or pink
shades, but unscented. Don’t
let that put you off, though, as
this is a reliable and very hardy
perennial, rewarding you with
masses of flowers year after year.

Tallest of them all

Perennials can grow very tall, but don’t
reach full height until they’re ready to flower.
Once there, they’ll remain at this height until
the late frosts. Just as handsome, but preferring dry soils,
Some of the tallest are those that like moist are echinops or globe thistles. Although the
soils including eupatorium (Joe Pye weed). spiky, ball-shaped flowers don’t create a solid
Photos: Claire Austin, unless

These self-supporting monsters can grow
to more than 1.8m (6ft), with thick stems
densely covered with dark green leaves and
topped with broad, shallowly domed heads
screen, they’re stunning enough to divert the
eye from whatever you’re trying to hide and
are a magnet for beas and butterflies.
None of these plants needs staking. Sturdy globes of
yellow thistle
stated

of dusky pink flowers that are a magnet for

bees and butterflies in late summer. The best
is Eupatorium maculatum ‘Riesenschirm’.
Thalictrums, like eupatorium, will grow in
part shade. The tallest of these immensely
handsome plants is ‘Elin’ with big fluffy
heads of tiny, soft lilac flowers and purple-
tinged leaves on stems up to 2.4m (8ft).
Attention diverters
There are loads of other eye-catching
perennials that will divert attention away
from shorter unsightly things around the
garden. To name but a few, you could try the
fiery-coloured daisy flowers of late-summer-
flowering heleniums (sneezeweed), the
Centaurea
macrocephala
feathery purple and white spires of elegant
veronicastrums, or the hefty, mid-summer
blooming, yellow globe thistles of Centaurea
macrocephala. All are solid, self-supporting
and very upright growers.

Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn July 25 2015 / Garden News 49

 GEL COLBORN
The Problem
With 60 years of gardening experience, Nigel has the answers
How do I control
weeds i orchard?
Q The boom third of our
(90m) 300ft garden
contains some lovely fruit
trees, but is infested with
brambles and neles. What is
the best way to take control
and maintain this area?
Kelly Groves, Cambridgeshire
A There are no shortcuts to
clearing and maintaining
ground under and around trees
– be they fruit or ornamental –
Whic small s
Q I’d like to replace my
small front lawn with a
gravelled area containing an
aractive, but not too large,
specimen tree. What would
you recommend for a west-
facing site with sandy soil?
Martina Rugg, Sandy
A If the tree is the only plant
in the area, it will have
to work hard to justify its
existence. Year-round interest
is essential, I suggest, and since
it is west-facing, you need a
species robust enough to shrug
off the prevailing wind.
Magnolias are great but all
too brief in their glory, so not a
Smaller-growing trees with year-round interest
Variegated holly
Plant in well-drained soil and
remove any plain green shoots
that might appear.
50 Garden News / July 25 2015
LVER
but weeds’ biggest enemy is
the mower. If you hack away all
Shutterstock
brambles and nettles to clear the
top-growth, and you then cut the
area every week with a tough
mower, the ground will gradually
convert to rough grass.
Brambles and nettles will grow
back, of course. But over time
and with weekly cutting, they
would weaken and die. However,
if you want to dispatch them
more quickly, treat the ground
cimen tr ?
Underplant a
feature tree for
added interest
Shutterstock
top choice. Evergreens such as
hollies are lovely, but choose a
female with good foliage. Ilex
aquifolium ‘Argentea Marginata’
has cream leaf margins,
Sorbus ‘Joseph Rock’ Amelanchier
Choose a sunny spot in fertile
soil. It has blossom and berries
and tolerates pollution or wind.
Rough meadow
beneath trees looks
beautifully rustic
with a herbicide such as SBK close-mow pathways between
Brushwood Killer. Do that after the areas of tall grasses and
cutting back and clearing, but introduce cowslips, primroses
also when the new growth has and summer meadow flora along
begun again.
Rough grass between trees
can be beautiful for meadow
with snake’s head fritillaries,
narcissus and snowdrops for
winter and spring.
plants and spring bulbs. You can
Dianthus
‘Doris’
‘Madame Briot’ carries bolder,
buttercup-yellow variegations.
Both bear berries. For brighter
variegations plus berries, try
I. altaclerensis ‘Golden King’.
But my top choice would be
a tree that changes through the
year. Sorbus ‘Joseph Rock’ – or
its upright seedling ‘Autumn
Q Can you recommend
some reliable pinks that
are suitable for cut flowers
Spire’ – would thrive in sandy
soil. They have wonderful
autumn colour, amber berries
and will suit our alkaline soil?
Alan Thatcher, Oxfordshire
from late summer and creamy
spring blossom.
Amelanchiers are pretty
A Whetmans launched
‘Tequila Sunrise’ at Chelsea
this year. Its superb single-
all-rounders too, especially flowers have long stems, deeply
A. lamarckii. Remember to dissected petals with round
underplant with little bulbs darker centres and gentle
and other trouble-free plants. fragrance. Another fragrant
Whetman beauty, ‘Memories’,
has the charm of old-fashioned
white pinks – such as ‘Mrs
Sinkins’ – but repeat-flowers.
See www.whetmanpinks.com
Among older varieties, ‘Doris’
has pink and carmine flowers
over a long period and ‘Gran’s
Photos: Shutterstock
Favourite’ is laced and clove-
scented. ‘Devon Cream’ has
subtle pink streaking and single
‘Cherry Daiquiri’ is white with a
deep maroon eye.
Best autumn colour is produced Alkaline soil is perfect for
in full sun and this tree grows pinks. For maximum flower
beer in lime-free soil. power, grow them in full light
and take soft cuttings in July.

Q The larch tree I planted
12 years ago has grown
too tall and lost its lower
branches. Can I cut it back
to make it sprout again?
Mr Neale, Worcestershire
A European larch, Larix
decidua will grow 30m
(100ft) tall in favourable
conditions, so it’s not ideal for
small gardens. However, the
young plants have lovely soft
needles, pink female flowers and
gorgeous fresh green colouring.
If you cut your tree below the
lowest branches, you may kill it
because regeneration is unlikely
from bare wood. But if you
remove the top third or even half
Q Our gooseberries have
been ruined by mildew
for years and I’m going to
dig them out. Can you
recommend resistant
varieties?
Kevin James, Ashford, Kent
A Gooseberry mildew is
caused by the fungus
Podosphaera mors-uvae.
As well as forming a grey-
Mildew-resistant
gooseberry
‘Invicta’
Q Where can I buy a good
range of tulip bulbs for a
community gardening project?
Mr D Ferry, Northampton
A Tulip prices can vary
enormously but purchasing
small packs from a garden centre
is one of the most expensive
ways of planting a spring display.
Shutterstock
Approach wholesalers
for a bargain on bulbs
Pink flowers
of young larch
the green area, the tree is
likely to respond by producing
new shoots near the top, and
eventually one of these could
become the main lead.
However, tall conifers can look
ugly after such treatment so a
better option might be to remove
the larch and plant something
else. We should never become
too attached to trees. They’re
almost always replaceable!
white cover on young leaves,
it can turn fruits an unsightly
brown and crack skins.
You can reduce mildew by
spacing bushes so that plenty
of air can pass between them
and pick an open, breezy part
of your garden. Don’t
over-feed, particularly with
nitrogen-rich fertiliser since
that can make growth lush,
soft and disease-prone.
However, it’s perfectly safe
to eat mildew-affected
gooseberries because the
disease is only skin deep.
Resistant varieties include
red-skinned ‘Rokula’, ‘Pax’
and ‘Hinnonmäki Röd’; and
green-skinned ‘Invicta’,
‘Greenfinch’, ‘Hinnonmäki
Grön’ and ‘Hinnonmäki Gul’
has partial resistance.
If your community project is
likely to become a large regular
buyer, it might be worth
approaching a wholesale
supplier such as Parkers –
www.dutchbulbs.co.uk
Retail prices tend to be high,
but it’s worth shopping around
for bargains. You could also
contact suppliers by phone to
see whether they will do special
deals on larger numbers.
When you buy bargain bulbs,
be careful to select only good
quality products. A lot of ‘job lot’
bulbs are marketed towards
the end of the season in
autumn and it’s possible
that quality could be
compromised.
That’s why it’s a good idea
to shop for your bulbs now in
July, rather than waiting for
end-of-season discounts.
We grow purple
toadflax, but are
there any others
you’d recommend?
Mr R Duke, by email
A friend of mine gave
me several species
this spring. Linaria
triornithophora is a beauty
with pink snapdragonish
flowers that carry long
spurs. The easiest to grow
are yellow L. vulgaris
(pictured) and L. dalmatica,
whose showy flowers are
held on 45cm (18in) stems.
Alpine toadflax, L. alpina, is
a much smaller rock garden
plant with showy purple
and yellow blooms.
Should I gather honesty
seeds in spring or just
let it self-sow?
Mr H Stewart, by email
There’s no need unless you
want to move it from one
part of the garden to
another. Honesty self-seeds
freely and will develop
long-lasting colonies. It’s
ideal for semi-shade under
trees. If you gather seed,
sow it in late summer or
autumn rather than spring.
Is it true that if I feed
my tomatoes once
a week they’ll get
‘greenback’?
Alan Prentice,
Cambridgeshire
The answer depends on
the product. Fertiliser
products vary in their
concentrations,
so feed exactly
according to the
instructions printed
on the product label.
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If the tomatoes still don’t
grow well, never increase
the feed rate. Look to your
management and see what
else could be going wrong.
Greenback is usually
caused by over-heating
or irregular watering.
How long should
autumn raspberries
go on cropping? And
which varieties are
best for later fruits?
Mr G Brewer,
Noinghamshire
If well grown, autumn
raspberries begin to ripen
during August, but could
still be producing delicious
fruits well into October. One
of the best is ‘Autumn Bliss’,
which has the RHS Award
of Garden Merit, and crops
long into October, as does
yellow-fruited ‘All Gold’.
Among newer autumn
varieties try ‘Joan J’
for flavour and yield.
My husband found
a huge green
caterpillar
on our privet
hedge with
white and mauve
stripes along its
flanks and a li le
horn at one end. Any
idea what it might be?
Mrs E Newton, Ipswich
Your husband found a privet
hawk moth (Sphinx ligustri)
caterpillar. The adult moth
is even more impressive,
with a wingspan of nearly
12cm (4¾in), pink and
black striped body, and
wings in buff-brown
and pink.
Tweet your question
at twi er.com/
GardenNewsMag
July 25 2015 / Garden News 51
 Over the Veggies
to spare
Derek
Brooks
Prize-winning
Richard
Torr
Trent Valley
Even the cacti veg from the
allotment and
a smaller garden
in greater Manchester with

are scorching!
garden with impressive summer bedding.
a cottage-
style feel

I
and extensive greenhouse ’ve finished planting the
collection of cacti & succulents. annuals I grow for cutting

Photos: R chard Torr

and showing in the allotment,

O
ur favourite long border but it took me longer than usual
by our new greenhouse because of the amount of
is planted with shrub weeding I had to do in the beds.
roses ‘Ballerina’, ‘Marjorie Fair’, The cold weather in the early

ks
Photos: Derek Broo
Geranium palmatum, Allium part of the year meant that
cristophii and sweet williams, everything was a little slow to
and this year we’ve included get going, but now most things
Verbena bonariensis in the are catching up, and heavy
middle to give some height. showers are ensuring good
Even when the alliums started to growing weather.
fade, the roses, geraniums and I’ve harvested a very good
sweet williams came into full crop of winter onions, which
bloom to create fantastic colour. had been a usable size for some
Elsewhere in the garden weeks, but I decided to let them
hostas and alstroemerias are grow a bit bigger. I’m harvesting
flowering, and many Asiatic lettuce and radish regularly, and
hybrid lilies are starting to always seem to have spare to
bloom. Although most are
planted directly in the ground, Asiatic lilies
we have a dozen pots of large, are starting
white-flowered ‘Casablanca’ in to bloom
full bud, ready to fill blank spots.
Greenhouse temperatures
exceeded 40C (104F) during the
recent heatwave and
many plants got stressed.
Even with a large fan
circulating air to My glorious
minimise hotspots and revamped
shading on the roof, ‘she-shed’
some plants got Acanthocalycium
scorched by the heat, cactus flowers
including an old
Echinocereus cacti Copiapoa krainziana, which will certainly take some time
flowers exceed to recover.
13cm (5in) across Fortunately, most are still
flowering and yellow-flowered
Acanthocalycium thionanthum
and a small Echinocereus
stramineus, with a magnificent
purple flower over 13cm (5in)
across, are among my favourites.
The gymnocalyciums, or chin
cacti, which grow in semi-shade,
are also starting to flower and
should provide a beautiful
display over the next few
Photos: G ll Lockhart

Sweet williams months. I’m also busy picking

spill out of a off all the dried flower remains
favourite border to help make sure that pests
have nowhere to hide!

52 Garden News / July 25 2015

 A bumper crop
of big onions

Hybrid tea rose

‘Brooks Red’

Baskets are
beautiful –
but thirsty!

Lychnis
coronaria is
looking its best
give to my neighbours.
Courgettes are nearly ready
and soon I’ll hopefully be
harvesting shallots and small
onions for the ‘not over 8oz’
class at the shows.
Most other veg is growing well,
particularly the cordon peas,
which seem to need more ties
putting on every few days. The
same applies to the sweet peas.
The one exception is the leeks,
which have been very slow this
year. I’ve only just put on the first
blanching collars whereas
in other years they would have
been done two months ago.
Where there were gaps in the
rows, I’ve planted more broad
and French beans as well as the
second batch of brassicas.
At home, the baskets and tubs
are very colourful, but I have to
water the baskets three times a
day in this hot weather, and
keep them fed regularly. The
roses are also doing well and my
rose hedge on the allotment is
incredibly colourful at present.
Other flowers at their best
include Alchemilla mollis,
Lychnis chalcedonica ‘Maltese
Cross’ and Lychnis coronaria.
I’ve stayed in greenhouses on
rainy days, tidying up the plants
and finishing off any potting
that needed doing. Many
late-struck cuttings of basket
plants have now been potted
up and I’ll use these as stock
plants for next year’s cuttings.
This year I’m planning to
help the National Vegetable
Society put up the stand at
the RHS Show at Tatton Park.
I’ve grown some potatoes to
add to their display and will
hopefully be able to take some
courgettes as well.

‘She-shed’ has been transformed!

Gill I painted two doors to reflect the
Lockhart colours in the middle border where
salvias, campanulas and stachys
Gill’s tiny ‘Lambs Ears’ grow. The greys and
courtyard in
Oundle is always blues look stunning together with
immaculately a pot of agapanthas ‘Blue Storm’. Succulents at
presented and she has an My little garden is now crammed home in seashells
allotment and greenhouse too. with leafy shapes, some jungly such
as fatsia and ferns, and some with infested with flea beetles. As for

F
inally, the makeover has
finished and my garage has
been transformed into the
‘she-shed’! Once I’d stripped the ivy
from it, it needed cladding in wood
but a set of free French doors meant
I could afford a Japanese acer.
Dreary garage
before the
makeover
Lutyens bench
with roses
delicate leaves much like the acers.
There’s no shortage of seating – four
places in fact – each area catching
the sun at some point during the
day. My Lutyens bench hosts a
canopy of peach and purple roses
that have created a lot of shade and
an opportunity to decorate the
inside ‘ceiling’ with solar fairy lights.
On my potting bench, the little
succulents I squeezed into shells
have produced offspring – it’s
amazing where succulents grow.
Cornflowers are supplying some
cut flowers on the allotment but the
cosmos seem to get battered and are
the lupins, they seem to be stuck
at 8cm (3in) tall. Also, the
sunflowers that were meant to
grow to 2.1m (7ft) have barely
made 90cm (3ft)!
My tomatoes are causing me
much grief. The allotment ones
only need watering every other
day, but those in the greenhouse
are constantly wilting in the heat
and need watering twice a day.
I can’t put them in bigger pots,
so I might take them to the
allotment and see if they survive.
O More information and photos
at www.gillssecretgarden.com

Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn July 25 2015 / Garden News 53

 CLARE FOGGETT
Pick of the Veggie plot
overhaul
I used to grow veggies in this little
patch, but I’ve changed it for my
new ‘Dingly Dell’.
Linda Beeley, by email
With the editor of Garden News

Missing
ladybirds
Where have all the ladybirds
gone? I was plagued with
harlequin ones for the past two
years and now it seems our native
ladybirds have all disappeared.
I haven’t seen a single one in my
garden this year and I’ve been
overwhelmed with aphids.
Everything from fruit trees
to shrubs to vegetable patches
and bedding are absolutely
smothered in pesky blackfly.
Have other readers got the
same problem?
Sarah Bright, Cambridge
Clare says: Yes, do let us know
because I’ve noticed a lack of
ladybirds in my garden too.
Poppy
surprise
This beautiful poppy opened up
this morning. I didn’t plant it so
perhaps one of my many garden
bird visitors dropped some seeds.
It’s so beautiful I’ll try saving seed
and hopefully spread it around!
Mari Rennie Dreghorn,
Ayrshire Scotland
Clare says: Isn’t it great when
the garden delivers such a
lovely surprise?
Christmas
comes
early!
Just returned from my summer
holiday to find my Christmas
Magnificent
cactus in bloom. Have I missed
Christmas?
delphiniums
Irene Gornall, by email
Clare says: Plants are doing some Our delphiniums have shot up
curious things this year – perhaps and are now over seven feet tall!
it’s the warm weather we’re Arthur Braybrooke, Derbyshire
enjoying.

50 and
not out
Fantastic news! My epiphyllum We’ve cut a man into our
has produced more than 50 lawn and we’re thinking of
blooms on four plants! using ornamental grasses
Trevor Leadbier, for his hair!
Northumberland Steven Tuffy, Facebook
Clare says: Aren’t they super?
A great achievement, Trevor. After our
Horticultural
Show we
STAR dismantle the
PRIZE Going wild! children’s show
gardens, then po
them up around
our town – Heanor in Bloom!

I
couldn’t resist sharing with GN readers my first
attempt at creating a wild flower patch on our local Nicola Moncrieff, Facebook
council green. Some seeds were free with Garden
News and, as you can see, it’s flowering its socks off and
buzzing with bees and butterflies. Write to Clare
Marcia Cutler, by email Fogge, Garden News,
Clare says: What a beautiful, colourful, nectar-rich Media House, Lynch Wood,
display – no wonder the bees and butterflies love it! Peterborough PE2 6EA
SEED CATALOGUE
2015 Email gn.leers@
Marcia wins a £25 voucher from Mr Fothergill’s bauermedia.co.uk
for use in its mail-order catalogue. The
ON ALL
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OVER ERS
£40

catalogue is packed Facebook

with a huge choice facebook.com/
of quality seeds and GardenNewsOfficial
exciting flower, fruit ma e: un ow r Va i
a ce S e Pa e 62 or
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and veg plants. FLOWER SEED

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uk

54 Garden News / July 25 2015

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 PRIZE
No.
29
CROSSWORD Address Garden News, Bauer Media,
Media House, Lynch Wood,
Peterborough, PE2 6EA
Tel 01733 468000

W
hen all the answers are
in place, the letters in
the odd-numbered
squares, taken in order, will spell
out the common name of a wild
flower, followed by its genus.
ACROSS
1 Daucus carota common name (6)
5 Oval edible nut-like seed (6)
9 ‘Mount ___’, tallest variety of
Allium stipitatum? (7)
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‘cultivated’ (6)
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18 Sweet on a stick (8)
22 ‘___ 4 down, Your tongue shall
be slit’ (nursery rhyme) (4,4)
23 ‘___plant’, alternative name
for the aubergine (3)
24 Noah’s vessel (3)
26 Direct and uninhibited,
or suggestive of soil (6)
29 Hard-shelled fruit (3)
31 ‘___ summer’, period of good
weather in late autumn (6)
32 Cut stalks after harvesting (7)famous moor (6)
34 Species name meaning
‘creeping’ (6)
35 See 29 down
DOWN
2 Geum urbanum, the wood ___ (5) aacks crops (4)
3 Wheat-like cereal plant (3)
4 Small songbird (3)
5 Crime of fire-raising (5)
6 Nocturnal flying insect (4)
7 Tummy buon, or orange type (5) link between governments,
8 Convert waste into reusable
material (7)
10 Winter sport (3)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Email gn.letters@bauermedia.co.uk
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Editor at large Ian Hodgson
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 Home
Make your own
magical sunprints
Create beautiful Special Sunprint paper
captures their shadows
pictures using plants
from the garden,
shells and feathers
– and some sun!

M
aking pictures using only the
power of the sun seems like a
magical process. The finished
result is beautiful, as the prints turn from
blue to white to deep blue as each process
is completed. It’s a fun way to teach
children about science and just as much
fun for adults.
Use objects such as feathers, shells or
plants from the garden – in fact, anything
that has a good outline and will leave a
distinct and pleasing pattern.
The special Sunprint paper is sensitive to
ultraviolet light, so anything you put on top
to block the light from reaching the paper
will leave an image. Direct sunlight works
fast (in around five minutes), but even low
light will cause a reaction, just much more
Photos: Neil Hep

slowly; exposure may take up to 30 minutes

on a cloudy day.
wort

You will need: Foliage and flowers,

h, unless stated

Sunprint paper and a dish of water.

1 2 3
Choose a sturdy surface, such as a Expose the paper to the light: Leave out Soak the print in water for around
chopping board. Lay leaves and flowers in full sun for up to five minutes or on one to five minutes to reveal the finished
on the paper, and arrange into a paern. cloudy days leave for up to 30 minutes. image. Allow to dry.

58 Garden News / July 25 2015


Mimosa has
ferny fronds and
Delicate pink
fluffy blooms tamarisk flowers
Try these interesting
leaves and objects
OFeathers
Light permeates
under the feathers for a
soft shimmering effect.
O Shells Choose flat shells
such as cockle and scallop shells.
O Seed heads Crocosmia seed
heads and umbellifers make great shapes.
O Foliage Choose a variety of leaves with
different shapes and textures.
O Mimosa Ferny fronds and fluffy flowers
provide interest.
O Gingko A prehistoric tree with two-lobed
fan-shaped foliage.
Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn
Garden-inspired
home-made
cards
Home-made cards are always
appreciated. It’s an ideal way to
remember a special day, especially
when they are personalised with
flowers and foliage from the garden.
Pick the plants you want to use on a dry
day and allow any dew to evaporate
on the flowers and foliage to prevent
them from becoming mouldy.
For a 3D effect on bulky foliage
Personalise
such as thyme, or flowers such as
cards with
pressed statice or strawflowers, hang the
flowers branches up to dry. Choose a cool and
airy shed or garage – not too bright,
to keep the flowers from fading.
For flatter flower heads such as
violas and pansies, stems of clary
Alamy
sage, or tissue-thin poppies, pressing
the stems of individual flowers is
the best method of preserving them.
You can press flowers with a
purpose-made flower press, or make your own
by laying the flowers and foliage between sheets
of paper in a heavy book or old telephone
directory and weighing it down.
Leave for a week or so and allow the flowers
to dry completely before using them. Some
flowers will lose their colour over time, but
pansies, fuchsias, foliage and small rosebuds
all stay colourful.
Assemble your cards when everything is well
dried. Arrange them into an attractive design,
perhaps using the flowers to border the card.
Glue a photo inside the border, or write your
greeting in the space. To mimic a bouquet, add
a small bow or draw a vase shape and ‘arrange’
the flowers in it.
Shutterstock
A heavy book
makes a super
flower press
Shutterstoc
k
O Conifer Choose conifers – from abies and
leylandii to spruce, all are interesting.
O Ferns Maidenhairs form pretty outlines.
O Tamarisk Thin and wiry stems, include
some flowers too.
O Grasses As well as grass blades, seed
heads range from broad, quaking grass
and ‘plaits’ of carex, to feathery
calamagrostis and miscanthus.
rific s
O Sunprint paper is available from r e
Grasshopper Toys, 112 West Princes
: Te ato
Street, Helensburgh, G84 8XD,
tel: 01436 670 806, eek tom
www.grasshoppertoys.co.uk
xt w ith
Ne s w
wa
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3-PLAIO
OUR L E C T N
CO L

‘Madame
‘Beauty of Moscow’ Lemoine’

O ‘Beauty of Moscow’ Beautiful white blooms unfurl from delicate

L
ilacs are a popular addition to any English garden, much sought
after for their spring colour and fragrance, but single-flowered pink buds
varieties can sometimes lack impact. These double-flowered O ‘Madame Lemoine’ Creamy buds unfurl to reveal compact
varieties, with panicles of jewel-like florets, have far more of that panicles of double white flowers
gorgeous colour and fragrance! We’ve put together this double- O ‘Katherine Havemeyer’ Elegant panicles of double lavender-
flowered collection to bring a range of lilac flower colour to blue flowers
your garden. All varieties have received an Award of Garden Merit. Buy one 9cm potted plant of any variety for £11.99,
All varieties, height: 1.2m (4ft) and spread: 1.5m (5ft). or buy all three for just £19.98, saving you £15.99

HOW TO ORDER
Online www.thompson-morgan.com/gn247. Subscribers go to
CODE ITEM PRICE SUB PRICE QTY TOTAL
www.thompson-morgan.com/gn248 to claim your 10% discount
Phone 0844 573 1686 quoting GN247 (quote GN248 if a subscriber). Lilac ‘Beauty of Moscow’
TCA59937A £11.99 £10.79
Minimum £10 order. (one 9cm potted plant)
Lilac ‘Madame Lemoine’
Bypost Complete the order form, fill in your details and send it TCB62646A
(one 9cm potted plant)
£11.99 £10.79
with payment to Garden News, Lilac Offer, Dept GN247/GN248,
Lilac ‘Katherine Havemeyer’
PO Box 162, Ipswich IP8 3BX. If paying by cheque, please make payable TCC62645
(one 9cm potted plant)
£11.99 £10.79
to Thompson & Morgan and write your name and address on the back.
Lilac doubles collection (three
Or you may complete your credit/debit card details. TCC62647
9cm potted plants) SAVE £15.99
£19.98 £17.98
Lilac dispatched from September 2015. All other items will be P&P £4.95 £4.95 1 £0.00
acknowledged by letter or email to advise of despatch date. Offer closes
August 31 2015. If this offer is oversubscribed, we reserve the right to GN subscriber number (if applicable)
send suitable substitute varieties. Please note that your contract for
GN247/GN248 TOTAL £
supply of goods is with Thompson & Morgan, Poplar Lane, Ipswich
IP8 3BU. All offers are subject to availability.

I enclose a cheque/postal order for £ Title Initial Surname

made payable to Thompson & Morgan (with name and address on

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the back) OR charge my Visa/ Mastercard / Maestro card with:

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. .
 OFFERS Woolmans

Save on these
all-star alliums!
A
lliums are one of the most popular bulbs and have become a
popular feature in the late spring garden, bringing their colour
and reliability to waking borders. The emerging spring foliage is a
feature in its own right and is followed by the striking flowers.
Alliums come in a wonderful range of colours and styles. They’re really
easy to grow, needing a place in full sun and average, free-draining soil.
Alliums are fully hardy and perennial.

Allium caeruleum AGM

Stunning balls of azure-blue
flowers made up of masses of
small star-shaped flowers. Blooms
from June through to July and
flowers are 5-7cm (2-3in) in
diameter. Height: 60cm (2ft).
Buy 20 bulbs for £5.95
Allium Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ AGM
rosenbachianum Ever-popular with striking globes of vibrant purple flowers. Mixes
Always features strong in the well in the border with a host of other plants. Blooms from mid May
Chelsea Flower Show gardens, and flowers are 10cm (4in) in diameter. Height: 90cm (3ft).
this early allium blooms from Buy 10 bulbs for £5.95
May. Flowers are 10cm (4in) in
diameter. Height: 90cm (3ft).
Buy 5 bulbs for £11.95
Allium unifolium AGM
This elegant allium shows delightful
clusters of pretty pink flowers, which
are very long-lasting. Blooms from May
Allium through to July and flowers are 3-5cm
sphaerocephalon (2-3in) in diameter. Height: 30cm (1ft).
Drumstick alliums are great border Buy 50 bulbs for £5.95
fillers and appealing in their own
right. They bloom from July to
August and flowers are 3-5cm (2-3in)
in diameter. Height: 90cm (3ft). SAVE £15 when you buy all 5 varieties
Buy 50 bulbs for £5.95
– 135 bulbs for £20.75

HOW TO ORDER
By phone Call the credit card and debit card order hotline on 0845 658 9137
(open 8am to 8pm, 7 days a week) and quote code GN210715 CODE ITEM PRICE QTY TOTAL
Order online www.woolmans.com/GN210715 48803 Allium rosenbachianum (5 bulbs) £11.95
By post Or send a cheque made payable to Woolmans to Garden News 46531 Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ (10 bulbs) £5.95
Allium Offer, Woolmans, Rookery Farm, Holbeach St Johns,
46525 Allium sphaerocephalon (50 bulbs) £5.95
Spalding PE12 8SG.
47717 Allium unifolium (50 bulbs) £5.95
Bulbs supplied from late September 2015. Please note bulb size varies, 46528 Allium caeruleum (20 bulbs) £5.95
depending on variety. Ordered items may be sent out separately. Delivery 48802 BUY ALL 135 BULBS AND SAVE £15! £20.75
to UK addresses only. Offer subject to availability and closes September 30.
Postage & packing NORMALLY £4.95 – SAVE £3! £1.95 1 £1.95
Woolmans reserve the right to substitute any varieties for others of equal or
greater value. TOTAL

I enclose a cheque/postal order for £ Title Initial Surname

made payable to Woolmans(with name and address on the back) OR

Address
charge my Visa/ Mastercard / Maestro card with:

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Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn July 25 2015 / Garden News 63

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64 Garden News / July 25 2015

 OFFERS To order, tel: 01733 840111

Free dwarf iris bulbs Impatiens collection I. niamniamensis

for every reader Impatiens, busy lizzies, are

renowned for their long-lasting
colour and masses of flowers.
Dwarf iris flower from early January They are ideal for baskets,
into April. Ideal for pots on the patio, containers, borders and even
in a border or rockery, in a sunny, for summer ground cover. I. morsei
‘Velvetea’ I. niamniamensis
well-drained position, they grow Protect them over winter. Our (variegated)
to only about 15cm (6in) tall. The 6 plant collection from Dibleys
variety iris ‘Blue Note’ has deep consists of 1 plant each of
blue-purple flowers with white OI. niamniamensis AGM
markings. To receive 20 bulbs send large scarlet red and yellow
just £3.95 to cover postage costs or get 20 flowers OI. niamniamensis I. auricoma
them free when you order our choice bicaudata
FREE (variegated) white and green
dwarf iris collection comprising 10 BULBS!
*JUST PAY £3.95
variegated form OI. morsei I. repens
bulbs each of POSTAGE ‘Velvetea’ large white flowers,
O iris ‘Palm Spring’ deep purple-blue orange-yellow spots
O iris ‘George’ AGM,rich petunia violet O‘I. auricoma bicaudata’
O I. histrioides ‘Lady Beatrix Stanley’ clear blue, white feathering pale orange flowers OI. repens AGM large yellow
O new variety iris ‘Pixie’ AGM, purple-blue. flowers OI. sodenii AGM large pale pink flowers.
Our offer price is £12.95, saving more than £7. Our offer price is £11.95, saving £6.
Delivery from late August. Delivery from late August. I. sodenii

6 free allium bulbs

MONEY OFF
for Garden News subscribers!
Alliums provide an instant talking point and many taller varieties
make marvellous cut flowers, either fresh or dried. Flowering time is
generally late May to early July. The variety ‘Purple Rain’ has large, 5 litre garden sprayer
showy, violet-purple flowers. It grows to 75-90cm (2ft 6in-3ft) tall This 8-pattern turret sprinkler
and flowers in May and June. Send for 6 bulbs for just £3.99 – to cover is manufactured from impact-
postage costs – or get them free when resistant material with a dial head
you order our super allium collection for selecting eight different watering
comprising 6 bulbs of O‘Miami’ lilac- patterns. Overall size: 198mm diameter.
purple O3 bulbs each of ‘Spider’ violet- Garden News subscribers can save a further £1 on this item
rose O‘Early Emperor’ large purple- by simply entering your subscriber number on the order coupon.
violet, tipped white O1 bulb of ‘Red Our offer price is £7.99 for subscribers
JUST PAY Mohican’ red with a white crest. and £8.99 for non subscribers.
£3.99
POSTAGE
Our offer price is £21.95, saving more Please allow 14 days for delivery.
than £4. Delivery from late August.

HOW TO ORDER
Fill in the form and send to
ITEM PRICE QTY TOTAL
GN Offers (25/07),
PO Box 136, FREE dwarf iris (20 bulbs) £3.95
postage
Coates,
Dwarf iris collection (40 bulbs, plus 20 free) SAVE £7 £12.95
Peterborough
PE7 2FE, FREE allium ‘Purple Rain’ (6 bulbs) £3.99
postage
or call 01733 840111. Allium collection (13 bulbs, plus 6 free) SAVE £4 £21.95
All offers are subject to availability. Plant offers open to UK
Impatiens (6 plants) SAVE £6 £11.95
readers only. Overseas readers, please phone for details
of availability. Garden News does not accept responsibility 8-pattern turret sprinkler Subscriber no______________________________ £7.99
for coupons that are lost, delayed or filled in incorrectly. 8-pattern turret sprinkler Non subscriber £8.99
Please allow 28 days for delivery unless stated otherwise. Postage (regardless of size of order). Don’t add if you’ve just ordered free items £1.95 £1.95
Guaranteed to arrive in good condition or your money back.
Offers close August 22, subject to availability. TOTAL £

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made payable to Garden News (with name and address on the back)
Address
OR charge my Visa/ Mastercard / Maestro card with:

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Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn July 25 2015 / Garden News 65

Gardening
GENIUS
Nuggets of pure wisdom

W
e all love great-value plants that
just keep giving in colour, scent,
fruit or flower. We asked readers
and GN experts for their ‘go-to goodies’ –
plants that are a joy to grow and thrive
beautifully where they’re put. We can all
take away some tips for our own gardens!

1 Every year foxgloves are a delight in

my dry, shady border, overshadowed
by a neighbouring leylandii hedge.
The mixture of pure white and dark
pink-spotted blooms reliably spring
up and self-seed. The vibrant spires

Shuerstock
are perfectly complemented by soft,
ferny, fresh green fronds of a collection Osteospermum’s
Super skimmia happy faces are
of shuttlecock ferns. As the flowers go will be no trouble great in a hot border
over, I leave seedheads to form, then to you at all
shake the dry stems around before

Fantastically
cutting them back.
Marina Jordan-Rugg, associate editor

2 It’s very soggy here and wind

battered. The ‘indestructibles’
that always give a good show
are hebes, forest flame, forget-me-not,
lavatera, astilbe, sage, cowslips, daffodils,
failsafe plants!
teasels, sedums, and saponia. Evening
primrose has romped away, so it looks
like it’s been self-sowing.
Ellie Bromilow, Facebook 5 My many hosta varieties are
dependable. They’re planted in
shade, in acid soil underneath my
forsythia and rhododendrons.
8 Salvia ‘Hotlips’ is
growing great here in our clay soil
in Essex. I just gave it a trim in
spring – it has a lovely scent too. I have

3 Osteospermum is fabulous in my
boiling hot, dry border. It flowers
constantly from March to
November, suppresses weeds and
Peter Jones, Twier

6 Hardy fuchsias make a lovely

show all summer. I have them
two plantings, one in full sun and one in
partial shade – the one in sun is happier.
Roddy Campbell, Facebook

needs no deadheading.
Jennifer Deegan, Facebook
intermittently in my beds and at
various places all over the garden – once
established they need little maintenance, 9 Gooseberries are unappreciated.
They are tolerant of drought and
shade and always fruit. Choose a

4 My roses have been amazing

here in Cambridgeshire. Prune
in April and deadhead spent
flowers for a constant show – ‘Iceberg’
often keeps flowering until December!
My bronze fennel grows into a fluffy
mound at the beginning of summer and
gets tall around now. I chop it to use in
a vase before it seeds itself around. I do
the same with Alchemilla mollis for lots
of lime-yellow flowers that team really
well with other cut flowers.
Pam Richardson, garden writer
just a trim up and a feed in spring and
away they go for another year.
John Bocking, Facebook
variety that is mildew resistant and has
sweet fruit, such as ‘Lady Sun’ or ‘Lady
Late’. Chives can be used to edge beds.
Drought and disease tolerant, the leaves
7 My evergreen skimmias are quite
simply fantastic – it’s a pretty shrub
that needs zero maintenance. Mine
are in pots in half shade, have lovely red
Christmassy berries in winter followed by
can be used in stir-fries or omelettes,
flowers can be used in salads and drinks
and the bulbs are a substitute for spring
onions. Winter box or sarcococca thrives
beneath trees. Sweetly scented flowers
little white flowers in spring. New foliage are welcome in winter and a sprig can be
growth is lovely too, adding lime-green brought into the house to perfume the air.
into the colour mix. Ian Hodgson, editor-at-large
Karen Murphy, features editor

E S E E D S !
VERONICA WORT

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ers all summer

eron ica ‘Blue Flame’

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and rotate the head of the Spray – so you can buy with complete 1. Visit: YouGarden.com/GN316
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Morphy Richards Stretch Hose Card Security
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Join The YouGarden Club and
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DD8-11, GY, HS, IM, IV, JE, KA27-28, KW, PA20-80, TOTAL ORDER VALUE
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 MAIL ORDER E XCLUSIVE
Heavenly scented, bush forming
clematis will fill borders, year after year
Spectacularly vivid
clusters of royal
blue blooms
Free flowering and
deeply fragrant
Hardy perennial
with unusual sturdy
upright stems
Flowers throughout
summer for years
to come
Clematis ‘New Love’
WAS £14.99
NOW

£9 .99
HURRY OFFER MUST
ONLY

END AUGUST 4th

Clematis ‘New Love’

Nothing compares to the weightless, deep blue blooms of the stunning Clematis ‘New Love’. Bulking
out borders year after year, this erect herbaceous perennial produces lush green foliage interspersed
with deep, royal blue tubular flowers later exploding into unique ornamental stars with a powerful
sweet scent. Supplied in 9cm pots throughout July and August, the perfect time to plant your patio
pots or in border alongside lupins, delphiniums and other garden border favourites.

Incredibloom® Enjoy up to 400% more flowers

with our new and exclusive Incredibloom® plant fertiliser offering a
simple, controlled release for the most incredible blooms.

To place your priority order visit: www.thompson-morgan.com/TSOP512

Receive a FREE £5 VOUCHER when you order online!
When ordering online please use order code TSOP512 to access our special offers
The best quality plants and performance
Tel: 0844 573 7414 9am 6pm 7 days a week
Maximum call charge for BT customers is 7p per minute. Calls from other networks may vary.
you’ll ever receive or your money back.
100% Quality Satisfaction Guarantee
Please send to: Thompson & Morgan, Dept TSOP512, Poplar Lane, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP8 3BU.
ORDER C E Product Code Item Description Price Qty Total
Email TSOP512 TJ55647 Clematis ‘New Love’, 1 x 9cm potted plant WAS £14.99 £9.99
TJ55648 Clematis ‘New Love’, 2 x 9cm potted plant SAVE £14.99 £14.99
I enclose a cheque/postal order made payable to ‘Thompson & Morgan’ for £
T47963P Incredibloom® - 100g Starter Pack + £5 Voucher £4.99

Name T47552 Incredibloom® - 750g Pack £12.99

TJ56850P Patio Pot (39cm) £9.99
Address T59095P Patio Pot (39cm), 2 pack – SAVE £4.99 £14.99
FREE 2015
Plant, Seed Please debit my: Visa Mastercard Maestro P&P £4.95
Postcode Telephone and Bulb
Catalogue
Grand
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com. Liability. Thompson & Morgan is committed to supplying high quality products to recreational gardeners and households for personal use. In accordance with the
established custom of the trade. Thompson & Morgan will in no case be liable for more than the actual amount paid for a particular product on sale in advertisements (tick box)
or catalogues. Products and delivery dates subject to availability. © 2015 Thompson & Morgan. or request online. Cardholder’s name Expiry Date /