My Garden This Week

Posted on June 28, 2015 by davidsgardendiary

Centranthus ruber (Red Valerian) in all three common colours

Now that I have got back in the stirrups again (also see later racing metaphors) I thought I would do a quick tour of new stuff which I like and you may find of interest.

Centranthus ruber has the confusingly common name of Red Valerian and although in the same family, Caprifoliaceae, has nothing whatsoever to do with real Valeriana officinalis from which the root extract has been made into a sleeping potion for centuries. It literally grows like a weed here in the limestone walls of the Cotswolds and most gardens ‘suffer’ it. I have managed to collect the three main colours of dark pink, lilac pink and white which are all reliably perennial and do not hybridise so I guess they must be specific varieties.

Sweet Pea ‘Sir Henry Cecil’

Picking up the reins with Sweet Peas again this year, I was pleased to acquire ‘Sir Henry Cecil’ which I have trained up my trellis (okay, that’s the end of the racing jokes) and I think it is destined for greatness just like the man himself. In Sweet Pea circles this frilly Spencer variety is known as a ‘flake’ due to its splashed colour veining and it has outstanding scent. Definitely one to go for in my opinion.

Thalictrum flavum subsp. glaucum (Meadow Rue)

The Thalictrums are looking wonderful this year and none more so than the frothy flowers of the glaucous leaved flavum. They are 2m tall and kept upright at the back of the border by their more sturdy companions in front and below and the white Rose Bay Willowherb, Epilobium angustifloium ‘Album’ alongside. The other Thalictrums in my little collection are also performing particularly well interplanted with Hostas. Incidentally, I can strongly recommend the tip of putting slug pellets out on Valentines Day to kill off our overwintered slimey friends which then halts the second wave later on. My hostas are virtually untouched.

Salvia ‘Hot Lips’

It’s going to be a good year for Salvias. Already the small leaved microphylla reds are out with ‘Hot Lips’ and ‘Royal Bumble’ covered in flowers and bees.

Salvia ‘Trelissick’

My favourite pale creamy yellow ‘Trelissick’ loves the position I have found for it in my rich but well drained south facing border.

Salvia patens ‘Blue Angel’

My favourite patens variety grows to 30″ and extends its spikes of beautiful gentian blue flowers all summer and into early autumn. I also have Cambridge Blue, Pink Ice and Chilcombe but I prefer the strong colour of Blue Angel. This one stays in the ground over winter and comes back better every year, so not as tender as the books would have you believe. It sits next to a Canna indica which also overwinters here.

Briza maxima

Another first for me this year is Briza maxima or Greater Quaking Grass which is a hardy annual grown for its attractive seed heads which apparently look like rain drops in the sun and are used in flower arrangements. Early days for mine but watch this space!

In the fruit garden the little Japanese Wineberry bought at Barnsley House last year is covered in tight clusters of flowers which I am hoping will all turn into fruit. The bees are certainly all over it so that is a good sign. By nature it seems to prefer to scramble about like a bramble with long arching stems which root as soon as they touch the ground, good for making new plants but not for picking fruit.

Japanese Wineberry

So I popped it inside an obelisk and made it grow vertically which seems to have had the desired effect. All the fruit should be visible and pickable and it is contained in a manageable space. In the winter I will haul the obelisk off over the top, cut out the fruited canes and reposition the obelisk over the new canes. Definitely a job requiring leather gauntlets!

I have moved my autumn raspberries to make room for more veg and this year it is peas, climbing French beans, celeriac and one courgette. The peas are ‘Twinkle’ and ‘Hurst Green Shaft’ and we picked our first pods this weekend.

The beans are ‘Monte Cristo’, ‘Cherokee Trail of Tears’ and ‘Ryder’s Coco’ which are favourites along with Cobra and Blue Lake. I have followed a tip from an allotment holder and planted some nasturtiums with the beans. The nasturtiums attract the blackfly and the beans are untouched. It works!

The celeriac is another vegetable we discovered last winter for the first time. It always reminded me of turnip or swede to look at, both of which I hate, but actually it is delicious. It makes great mash, on its own or mixed with potato and roasted celeriac chips are just wonderful. It tastes mildly of celery and is an ugly swollen root but is easily peeled and sliced. I am growing the variety ‘Brilliant’ which has pure white flesh. It needs a long growing season, at least eight months, so the tiny seed was sown in early February in heat, transplanted into modules in early April and planted out in mid May. The seed is really small, like dust, and I had a damping off problem and lost 8 plants in March. However, 16 plants are growing away well now in the old raised bed where the raspberries were.

Just one courgette plant this year. We always have too many! And this year it is a yellow one so we can see them!

That’s all for now. More updates and news coming soon. I am enjoying my blog again!

My Squash, they are escaping!

Posted on June 28, 2015 by davidsgardendiary

We came late to squash. My wife and I just never fancied it until one day we were offered some roasted Butternut squash and that was it, now we love it. That’s not to say we like all of them, I still can’t bring myself to eat pumpkin. Last winter one of my lovely gardening friends, Bridget, gave us a huge ‘Crown Prince’ from her allotment. It must have weighed 3 kilos and was absolutely beautiful to look at and to eat. Firm orange flesh which roasts well and makes wonderful soup. So I kept some seeds and grew a few plants this year. I also kept a few seeds of a ‘Sweet Dumpling’ variety bought from Morrisons and grew them. I gave most of the plants away to friends with allotments and just kept two of each which I decided to plant in my Access frame through black plastic to keep the ground moist and to keep the fruit clean. What I hadn’t figured on was just how enormous they can get!

There are just four plants in there, one in each corner of the 10′ x 4′ frame but they grew so quick I had to remove the glass on the top and most of the glass on the sides before they pushed it out! Not sure what I am going to do now. They have made a bid for freedom and are beginning to explore their new surroundings. These triffids grow a foot a day and could be next door by August.

There are plenty of flowers so as long as the bees are finding them we should get plenty of fruit although where they will be nobody knows!

There will be regular updates on this topic! All and any comments, suggestions or experience welcome please!

Glorious or not?

Posted on June 28, 2015 by davidsgardendiary

There are dozens of varieties of Ipomea, that rather bindweed-like twining climber of the genus Convolvulaceae more commonly known as Morning Glory. I grow a few each year, usually the common ‘Grandpa Ott’ or ‘Heavenly Blue’. So this year, when the Which? Gardening trials were announced and volunteers sought, I was attracted by the offer of free seeds of Ipomea ‘Decapo Light Blue’ with the taxing request to “make a note of when the first flowers appear”. Incidentally, that was 19 June because I started them off in April and planted them out far too early!

But never mind when it starts to flower, I think the question they should have asked is “do you like the colour” and my answer would be “Sensational!” It literally glows and is beautiful when backlit by the morning sun. Try it, you’ll love it!

Question

Posted on June 27, 2015 by davidsgardendiary

Does anyone know what this is please?????? It looks like an onion/allium but this seems to be the flower! A sort of knobbly hairy thing with no petals, stamens or any other ‘nice’ bits. It wouldn’t win a beauty contest and seems rather confused.

I’m Back!

Posted on June 26, 2015 by davidsgardendiary

I was just wandering around my garden at 9.30pm with a glass of wine thinking “I wonder if I should post something on my blog? Has it been too long? Will the world forgive me for finding golf and fly fishing again? Does my garden still merit a mention or two? And then this Turkish sage, Phlomis russeliana, grown from seed three years ago and only just performing well and glowing in the twilight reminded me why I love my garden so much and why I like sharing it with others. So, here I am again! Old camera, new laptop, significant changes to show and tell, ready for a season of goodies.

Raise the Spanish Flag

Posted on October 4, 2014 by davidsgardendiary

A kind friend gave me just one tiny seedling of Mina lobata or Spanish Flag back in May and I didn’t really know what to expect. I thought it might climb a cane so I put it at the end of a row of Sweet Peas. It spent the summer growing a huge number of stems and leaves but stubbornly refused to flower. Then, on 14 September I went on holiday for three weeks and when I came back, this is what I found!

The tiny little plant had morphed into an enormous thug with literally thousands of pretty red, white and orange flowers on hundreds of stems. What a performance! It did get some water and comfrey back in June and July when the sweet peas were there but apart from that it had no special attention. In fact, I neglected it completely believing it was probably a dud. How wrong I was. It is a stunner and definitely one to grow for late summer colour in future. It looks like the flowers will yield plenty of seed heads so I can repay the favour to all my unsuspecting friends next year too!

One good turn deserves another!

Kirstenbosch

Posted on October 4, 2014 by davidsgardendiary

Just back from a very special holiday to South Africa and managed to spend a couple of hours at the world famous Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town.

The gardens lie on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain and cover a thousand acres, much of it natural low scrub or ‘Fynbos’ but a good part of it landscaped and developed into themed display gardens.

Sadly, although there was much to see, spring was late this year and the temperatures were only just beginning to rise when I was there so the Proteas which I had longed to see were only just beginning.

However, there was enough to get my horticultural ‘fix’ as these few photographs will show. The main species in flower were the early flowering Leucospermum cordifolium (above) in creamy yellow and peachy apricot and Leucadendron xanthoconus or Sickle Leaf Conebush which is actually an Australian native but is now well established in South Africa.

I was slightly too early to see the King Protea, Protea cynaroides, in full flower but the tightly packed buds were in abundance just waiting for the temperature to rise before opening their huge and very beautiful flowers.

The other highlight for me were the Strelitzias in shades of yellow and orange and, in particular, the sunbirds which feasted on their nectar.

Their beautiful colours flashed in the sunlight and they were a joy to watch as they flitted from flower to flower in search of food. They were remarkably tolerant of visitors and posed for the camera!

The Strelitzia regina, so exotic and difficult to cultivate in our climate, grew everywhere like weeds! They were used in places where we might grow Phormium or Cordylines as their tall stiff spear-like leaves are evergreen and clump forming.

Of course, there were vast areas covered with Osteospermums and Dimorphotheca, Gazanias and Mesembryanthemums which brought the beds and borders alive with their bright colours and sheer exuberance.

I was impressed with the little I saw and would like to go back at a different time of year to see the Agapanthus and myriad flowering shrubs and plants which I missed. In the meantime I have some very happy memories and about 300 photographs to remind me!

Taste Test

Posted on August 10, 2014 by davidsgardendiary

This is a serious taste test comparing a traditional everbearing Strawberry (variety unknown) and a Framberry, a cross between a strawberry and a raspberry which I was sent in December 2012 by Spalding Plants and Bulbs to grow and review. It has been a good year for soft fruit and each variety has produced heavy crops of berries. This morning I picked four of each for the taste test and with my notebook to hand the test was carried out in the time honoured fashion. And the result…?

Delicious!

Curly Cristo

Posted on August 2, 2014 by davidsgardendiary

I am currently trialling climbing French bean ‘Monte Cristo’ for Which? Gardening and have joined their community online forum to discuss any interesting aspects which come to light during the growing phase and subsequent taste trial. Like all French beans, they were easy and quick to germinate pushed into some peat free compost in toilet roll inners, so nothing to report on that score. They romped away when I planted them out in late May and quickly got to the top of their 8′ canes despite some slug and snail damage to the lower leaves. The foliage and flowers quickly followed and by mid-July the beans started to form. That’s when I noticed something odd. A lot of the beans were curly!

Not all of them of course, most of them were just fine but I thought I had better report the curliness as it was a trial and all comments are appreciated, no matter how daft. Suddenly the forum was full of ‘mine too’ comments so not so daft after all!

Some knowledgeable friends with allotments suggest the problem is possibly erratic watering, a bit like the problem you get when tomatoes split. It could also be due to the beans touching or leaning on other stems, beans or foliage rather than hanging down which could send growth in the wrong direction. However, they also make the point that virtually all climbing bean varieties produce some curly beans but people are conditioned to expect straight ones because that’s what they buy in the supermarkets which reject the curly ones!

They all taste wonderful, curly or straight! That lovely squeaky, nutty but strangely sweet taste that is so much nicer than runner beans (in my humble opinion) and the best bit of all is they are totally stringless, even when they are a bit old. A quick top and tail and into a pan of boiling water for a few minutes and Bob’s your uncle, delicious with a knob of butter. All observations, comments and suggestions gratefully received from any visiting readers which I will pass on to Which? for their information.

Echinacea Heaven

Posted on August 1, 2014 by davidsgardendiary

Last week I invited myself to Meadow Farm in Feckenham, nr Droitwich in Worcestershire, to see Rob and Diane Cole’s trial beds of Echinaceas. What a pleasure and a privilege! Rob was formerly a Landscape Architect and his attention to detail is evident in everything he does. Their nursery beds and display gardens are immaculate and I am always impressed when I visit. I just wish I had taken my DSLR camera, I only had my phone camera with me so apologies for the grainy low res images.

If you have never seen Echinaceas en masse, they are an uplifting sight. Rob Cole specialises in selecting open pollinated varieties which could produce the next “Pom Pom Wow Berry” or “Tomato Soup”. The bees do all the breeding work for him and with his well trained eye and years of experience he selects possibles from the thousands produced every year. These are then grown on for a second year and re-assessed to see if they have the right characteristics to make them a distinct variety good enough for the trade. Rob confided that despite assessing literally thousands of plants over several years, he has produced very few that look really outstanding. Rob is a perfectionist and if and when his progeny reach the trade, you can be sure they will be superb.

The gardens at Meadow Farm are a wonderful way of seeing plants in context and learning how and where to plant certain species to great effect. Diane’s talent for combining colour and form have made this a garden as good as any you will see. Having also seen the garden in early spring when it was full of bulbs and spring flowers, I was struck by the dramatic difference just a few months can make using herbaceous perennials and sheer exuberance of the planting. Rob and Diane have used the contours and slopes of the land to great effect and have produced interesting ‘rooms’ and beds of all kinds which would appeal to gardeners of all persuasions.

Considering they have created everything themselves with little or no outside help,carry out all the maintenance themselves, run a highly successful nursery, sow millions of seeds and divide thousands of plants every year, organise group visits several times a year, conduct talks and demonstrations to gardening clubs almost every week of the year, contribute time and expertise to the Hardy Plant Society at national and local level and still have time to see me..I think they are very special people.

I have learned a lot from my chats with Rob. He is very knowledgeable and a highly accomplished and respected speaker on the gardening club circuit. He has that wonderful ability to make a subject interesting, funny and memorable. I look forward to my next visit with eager anticipation.