Garden News, August 30

FREE SEEDS GROW RASPBERRIES... the easy way!

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August 30, 2014

Carol Klein "Why home-grown

tomatoes

have the edge"

FREE SEEDS £1.85! worth

Bright alpines to give

ROCKERIES a new lease of life!

9

ways to make

ea s Echinofac your border the star

toes Start a crop of pota tmas to harvest at Chris lliums Plant spectacular a Prepare soil to sow a new lawn

Add drama with

dahlias!

Planting ideas for wow-factor displays Best varieties for your colour scheme Expert tips on over-wintering Get a quick fower fx with

coreopsıs!

Inspiration

Be daring with

dahlias!

Dahlias are at their brilliant best right now – here’s how to get the most out of them in your garden EVERYONE LOVES A dahlia, especially at this time of year when they’re at their Clare vibrant flowering Foggett peak. But once you start growing them EDITOR you soon realise just how many colours, shapes and sizes are available when it comes to choosing flowers. The trick to making them look good in the garden is how you use that massive range to your

advantage. With such striking blooms, dahlias can be tricky to integrate into a border, but if you pick the right colour to go with your existing plants, and a flower shape that works with the textures and shapes around it, you’re onto a winner.

It’s fine if you’re an exhibitor – then you can just grow them in rows with paths between to help you pay your plants the attention they need for showing. But if you simply want to grow dahlias for the colour and vibrancy they bring to the garden, you need to plan how you plant them a bit more creatively.

Simple singles

Alamy

Mix ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ with large canna leaves to create a jungly feel

GAP Photos

Multi-coloured ‘Twyning’s Smartie’

The easiest of the dahlia shapes to incorporate in borders are the single-flowered ones. Their simple blooms can be used exactly as you would other

Cram borders with colourful dahlias like this one that uses ‘Ambition’ and ‘Bishop of Llandaff’

single daisy-shaped flowers such as rudbeckias or echinaceas, but with tonnes more exciting colour options, dahlias open the door to lots of different schemes. Some of the best known dahlias have simple, open flowers such as ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ with its postbox-red blooms and all the other ‘Bishops’ such as yellow ‘Bishop of York’ and magenta ‘Bishop of Canterbury’. Then there’s ‘Moonfire’, a yellow singleflowered variety with a striking red halo around the centre of the petals. The thing that the Bishop dahlias and ‘Moonfire’ have in common is colourful foliage in

deep, dark purple giving you an added element to play with.

Red ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ looks good with purple flowers, which complement not only the dahlia’s flowers but its dark foliage too. Try mauve asters, Verbena bonariensis, royal purple Phlox paniculata such as ‘Le Mahdi’ or purple-leaved Ricinus communis ‘Carmencita’. Almost without trying you’ll have created a planting scheme that feels a bit jungly – make it deliberate by mixing in a few cannas for their tropical leaves or amaranthus (love-lies-bleeding).

‘Bishop of Llandaff’ cries out to

3 different ways to use dahlias

1 Create colourful herbaceous borders Pack dahlias in among other perennials such as day lilies, alstroemeria and phlox for borders with style.

Garden World Images

2 Make a contemporary prairie scheme Mix them up with bronze and golden grasses for a contemporary take on the traditional border.

3 Mix them with riotous bedding on the same flower! Now that might be hard to integrate into a border, but try it with perovskia, the small grey-leaved shrub with elegant spires of silvery-blue or simple white Japanese anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’.

Team dahlias with your summer bedding in pots and borders for displays that need sunglasses!

Double the fun Dahlias that have flower types described as waterlily and decorative have fully double blooms, which means they deliver much more impact in the border. If you want to pack a really colourful punch, these are the ones to go for,

Continu es ove r the pag e

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Dahlia ‘Twyning’s After Eight’ with pink amberboa and salvia

GAP Photos

be made the star of a hot and fiery colour scheme, but can be cooled down by teaming it with the gold or silver plumes of grasses that are in flower at this time of year.

You can also find singleflowered dahlias that suit cooler colour schemes. ‘Twyning’s After Eight’ is a lovely combination of dark chocolate foliage and white flowers. Try it with fluffy pink amberboa and upright pink salvia spires. Even the most ardent ‘white garden’ fans may struggle to resist its relative, ‘Twyning’s Revel’, which is the most gorgeous pinky-coral or ‘Twyning’s Smartie’ with both pink and white petals

August 30 2014 / Garden News 9

Sow your free nigella ‘Miss Jekyll’ seeds

EN IN THE FLOWER GARD

Still ti m e to...

Prune wisteria

2014 sEEd collEctioN

RR

£1.8P5

Love-in-a-mist (nigella) is a super hardy annual to use as a cut flower and it also pulls its weight at the front of a border among showy perennials. Once sown it will seed itself. The seedpods add Nigella a feathery-leaved elegance to ‘Miss Jekyll’ your garden every late summer.

Sow in a sunny spot with well-drained soil and the seedlings will overwinter, with Easy-to-grow delicate lovein-a-mist the potential to flower early Ōowers in preŏy sky blue next summer. If you want them in a border, clear some spaces and mix the seeds with sand so you can see where you’ve sown them. Try sowing in circles, squares or curves.

A wisteria can quickly take over if it’s not pruned regularly, but it’s easily tackled in two stages. At this time of year all you need to do is shorten the long, whippy growths that the plant produced this summer, cu ing them back to leaves.

In January or February you shorten these growths even further, back to two or three buds. The aim is to build up stumpy ‘spurs’ that will bear flowers on a permanent framework of branches and control too much lush growth, so when you do get flowers you’ll be able to see them.

Young or newly planted wisterias shouldn’t need pruning. Just tie its new stems in to a framework to create next year’s display.

Sow nigella seeds in the soil

Get ready to sow a new lawn Autumn is the best time of year to start a new lawn from seed. Start preparing the soil where the lawn is to go now. First, you’ll need to dig it over and remove every scrap of perennial weed you find, including their roots. After digging, the soil will need two or three weeks to se le, or you risk ending up with a lumpy, bumpy lawn where areas of soil have sunk.

Once it has se led, prepare the surface for sowing. Do a ‘penguin’ shuffle with your weight on your heels across the surface to firm and consolidate the soil and provide an even surface for sowing. Repeat at right angles to the direction of your first shuffle.

Next rake over the surface to break the soil into a fine tilth. Again, do this in both directions to make extra sure that your lawn is level.

When it comes to sowing, try to choose a day when you know showery weather is forecast, to save you having to water too much.

Use string or canes to split the area up into squares a metre across . Evenly sca er the seed, following the rate advised per square metre on the packet, across each square. Rake to make sure the seed is in contact with the soil, water and wait for germination. You may want to cover the area with fleece to protect the seed from birds.

1

Remove weeds from the soil and rake it over to remove stones and hard clods of soil

2

Use the tip of a hoe blade to make shallow rows for sowing in, because seed is small

3

Sprinkle seed evenly along the row – this reduces the need to thin out clusters of seedlings later

UK digital readers tel: 01733 395076 or email gn.le ers@bauermedia.co.uk to claim your free seeds

24 Garden News / August 30 2014

Former head gardener, TV and radio broadcaster and RHS judge

Martin Fish The undercover

GARDENER Martin evaluates his undercover tomato-growing techniques ACK IN SPRING I started to grow some tomato plants on a straw bale in my polytunnel. It’s a method that was used by commercial growers in the 1960s, before growbags came along. I haven’t tried it for years, and thought I’d resurrect it this season. The bale was thoroughly watered and fertilised with high nitrogen fertiliser, which made the straw heat up and start decomposing. Two weeks later, when the temperature inside the straw bale had dropped, I planted three tomatoes on the top in a ridge of compost and two trailing tomatoes to cascade down the sides.

Overall, the upright plants in the bale have grown well and are carrying a reasonable crop of fruit, which is now ripening. The two trailing plants haven’t done as well. They made masses of long growth, but haven’t developed much fruit.

The trailing variety is called ‘Firecracker’, which I’m also growing in hanging baskets, where they are producing a good crop of striped fruits. As my basket plants are fine, I can only put the long, leggy growth down to the fact that the upright tomatoes are casting too much shade for the trailing plants to grow well.

I’m trimming back some of the excessive growth to expose the small fruits and flower trusses and I’ll up the high-potash feed in the

B

Jobs to do now

Trim back leafy growth to help fruits ripen

ck rsto u e

Sh hope that it will help the fruits develop.

Back to the upright plants. I wouldn’t say they have done any better than those growing in the tunnel border or the ones that are in pots in the greenhouse, but they are fine and have been easy to look after.

The benefit I’ve noticed in growing this way is when it comes to watering. Once the bale is wet it retains moisture for a few days, so it is possible to leave the plants and go away for a weekend without worrying about the plants drying out, whereas those growing in large pots need daily watering. Likewise, the plants in the soil border can also be left for a few days without watering.

Secure and prune grapevines As my grapevine continues to grow, I’ve tied the main lead shoot to a wire running the full length of my greenhouse and cut the sideshoots back by two-thirds.

Tidy streptocarpus I’ve given my streptocarpus plants a good tidy up, trimming off damaged foliage and old flowering stalks, and followed up with a feed to encourage a late flush of flowers.

Feed cucumbers

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Photos: Martin Fish, unlesss stated

Tomatoes grown in the straw bale have needed less watering than pot-grown plants

To encourage more growth and more flowers and fruit on cucumbers, I’ve given my plants a couple of high nitrogen feeds to provide them with an extra boost for the end of the season.

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s w e n e In th is week th s e ri to s g in n e rd a g ig The b N Editor-at-large Edited by IAN HODGSO

Shu erstock

Film star tree: sycamore next to Hadrian’s wall made famous in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves

Britain’s got tree talent!

N

32 Garden News / August 30 2014

Huge trees in the ground England’s oldest, most of Christ Church, Oxford s fabulous trees and now is the time to show Europe tree is on just how amazing they are,” said someone else’s land tree hunter and WT volunteer Rob it’s important to get McBride. “We have a great chance of permission from the winning the competition!” landowner first.

England has many revered trees, Experts from WT will such as the Major oak in Sherwood create a shortlist from all Forest, estimated between 800-1,000 The Bowthorpe oak in Stamford is at least a thousand years old entries and the public years old, and the Bowthorpe oak, will be given the chance near Stamford in Lincs, considered to vote for which tree is well over 1,000 years in age. put forward as England’s Trees don’t have to be ancient to be Top trees from Wales and Scotland are ‘Tree of the Year’. entered – they can be of any age, size already under consideration but you or species, as long as it’s in England, can vote for shortlisted specimens.

• Upload pictures by September 19 perhaps with a strong story or To see previous winners from Europe via www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/ association. All are eligible, but if the visit: www.treeoftheyear.org england-tree-of-the-year

WTPL - Ted Green

OMINATIONS ARE BEING sought for a tree in England to wow judges in a Europe-wide search for the ultimate specimen.

Charity Woodland Trust (WT) is asking the public to propose England’s ‘Tree of the Year’ to represent the country in the European competition next spring. However, in a situation reminiscent of the Eurovision Song Contest, neither England, nor Britain, has made the shortlist since the competition started in 2011. Romania won in 2011 and 2012 via two lime trees, while a plane tree from Hungary scooped top prize in 2013. Will it be ‘nul points’ again for the UK in 2014?

“I have personally seen many of

Shu erstock

Search is on to find an English specimen to beat European contenders

It’s hoped the Oriental gardens will be completely restored

Concern at Prince’s centre closure

Langtree

Festival site in funding hope GARDENS IN A 1980s festival site could be restored via a financial windfall. The boost came from a £1 billion government scheme to develop or accelerate the provision of more than 200,000 new homes in the country.

The 40ha (100 acre) riverside site of the Liverpool Garden festival was chosen from a shortlist of 36 key housing schemes around the country. Developer Langtree proposes turning the 1984 festival site into a thriving housing and

leisure community with 1,300 new homes. Proposals include a new public park and restoration of the 11ha (27 acre) Oriental gardens to their former glory.

The first of four International Garden Festivals was held in Liverpool between May and October 1984, attracting 3.8 million visitors. Although some of the site was used to create new housing, much remained derelict until 2011, when a £3.7 million facelift took place that included the Oriental garden.

Black pine was much loved

IMMINENT CLOSURE OF a garden centre run

by The Prince’s Trust (TPT) has caused Centre will still outrage in close this week the local community.

The 386sq.m (4,157sq.ft) Fulham Palace Garden Centre is to close on August 31 and was potentially going to become a Pets at Home store, but the retailer decided against the move.

Pressure was sparked by a 2,000 signature e-petition, condemnation from both rival and local businesses and reported accusations of a potential ‘conflict of interest’ in any deal with the retailer likely to secure lease of the site. The Prince’s Trust is selling the lease ‘to raise funds to invest in support for more young people’.

Started in 1985 by young persons charity Fairbridge, the centre has grown and developed to compete with local businesses, including a major refurbishment in 2010. In 2011, the Prince’s Trust took over from Fairbridge and last year succeeded in purchasing twothirds of the site lease for £500,000. The Prince’s Trust Chief Financial Officer Amy Sterling is also an independent non-executive director of Pets at Home.

The Prince’s Trust said the matter was being handled properly, ‘through an independent surveying company, in line with charity law’ and ‘would work with any future tenants to reflect the character of the local surroundings’.

Tree remains will become a tribute

damaged tree on safety grounds, Tolkien supporters were outraged.

“Most now understand why it had to go and in consultation with the Tolkien Society we’re considering a number options,” said Acting Director Dr Alison Foster. “The remaining 1.5m (5ft) stump will be carved in tribute to Tolkien, we’ll make timber benches and possibly hold a raffle so people can buy a bit of the tree. It’s also being propagated by seed and grafting.”

• To see what happened, visit www.youtube.com and type in ‘Collapse of the Tolkien tree’.

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Shu erstock

A 200-YEAR-OLD tree associated with Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien is to live on after collapsing.

Enormous branches of the muchloved black pine Pinus nigra in Oxford Botanic Gardens started to crack in late July while a musical picnic took place beneath. Fleeing visitors looked on in horror as the limbs crashed onto a wall and the ground minutes later.

As Tolkien often worked in the shade of the tree it was keenly associated with his memory. When garden staff decided to fell the

Oxford Botanical Gardens

New life for Tolkien tree

Tidy parks plan could result in tax rebates

Volunteer cleanersÕ rebate Volunteers who help clean and maintain green spaces should be given a council tax rebate, a thinktank has suggested. Policy Exchange, a group close to government, made the suggestion in a raft of proposals to encourage people to make more use of parks facilities, against a backdrop of warnings that Britain’s parks are close to crisis because of spending cuts.

They estimate rebates could be as much as £1,500 a year – the average amount of council tax paid by homeowners. Councils would set and manage the amount of time people would volunteer to get the rebate. The body also suggest a vote on whether to levy a charge for homes closest to green space, to help fund its maintenance. The charge would be on top of council tax, with those unable to pay exempt. The system is already being trialed in parts of London.

• Visit: www.policyexchange.org.uk

August 30 2014 / Garden News 33