Garden News May 16

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May 16, 2015

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4

easy steps to pack your garden with primroses

2.99

Carol Klein "Mix fowers and veg to get the cottage garden look"

S D E E S E FRE 2.99!

Worth

£

Have a go at growing

QUINOA TIME TO START THE

SALAD SEASON

Get leaves sown this week!

FILL YOUR GARDEN

WITH COLOUR!

Take easy cape daisy cuttings

All about

the buzz!

Double your garden's bee attracting power

Must-have

plants for 2015!

Spring’s perfect peonies Chelsea’s new launches

AboutNOW New disease blights poppies

Oriental poppy ‘Kleine Tanzerin’

Oriental poppy population at risk Words Ian Hodgson

O

Alamy

Shu erstock

riental poppies in Britain are being affected by a devastating disease, says a national expert. Plant Heritage National Plant Collection holder Sandy Worth has already had many of her 150 varieties of Papaver orientale succumb to a suspected downy mildew disease, while worried gardeners around the UK have also contacted her for help.

Others such as The Beth Chatto Gardens have also experienced problems and currently have very few Oriental poppies for sale.

There are reports of nurseries in Europe also being hit.

Little is known about the disease, thought to be a ‘pseudo mildew’, and with no known treatment available, the disease could become a serious problem.

RHS chief horticultural advisor Guy Barter says all downy mildew diseases constantly mutate, with spores remaining active in soil for around five years. Wet and humid conditions

also favour the disease. Last year Sandy didn’t sell any plants to contain infection, and this year only has five unaffected varieties for sale.

“The problem started five years ago with a batch of plants from Holland, which turned yellow when leaves appeared, rotting at the neck,” said Sandy.

“The disease progressively affected others and Varieties closer I started to to the wild species seem to receive show resistance reports of infection from elsewhere.

People say they’ve lost ‘Patty’s Plum’.

I don’t think there are many plants of ‘Karine’ ‘Karine left, and ‘Kleine Tanzerin’ may have been wiped out.”

Sandy considers inbreeding has possibly triggered the susceptibility, finding some

older varieties and species unaffected, but adds, “we just don’t know what the big picture is.” Keen to discover the spread

of the disease, Sandy wants gardeners to contact her about the varieties they grow. “It’s critical we get to stock that may be resistant, to start a new breeding programme,” she says.

Tel: 01962 771895 or email sandyworth@hotmail.com

Flower ft ft for a ‘princess’

L

Mario de Cooker

ast year’s Chelsea show coverage has resulted in a new fuchsia being named amed after presenter Carol Klein. ein. Fuchsia ‘Pavilion Princess’ rincess’ is the name that inspired nspired Dutch breeder Mario de Cooker after hearing earing a TV presenter announcing Carol as ‘our Pavilion Princess’. The semi-trailing, floriferous, self-branching ‘Pavilion Princess’ variety – name inspired by produces blush Chelsea coverage pink and

4 Garden News / May 16 2015

blue-pink blossoms throughout summer. “From mid-August the plant is covered in flower”, said Mario. “Carol puts enormous flamboyancy and enthusiasm into her presentation, so what better name for my new fuchsia!”

Said Carol, “I’m enormously flattered to be associated with this delightful plant. It’s so pretty and has a grace and elegance I wouldn’t normally associate with myself. I’ll have to try and live up to the image – especially at Chelsea!”

Carol Klein – “enormously fla ered”

‘Pavilion Princess’ is available to order from Other Fellow Fuchsias. Price £2.25. Tel: 01594 844452 or visit www.otherfellow.co.uk

Plant

OF THE WEEK

Peonies

Fa ct

H

erbaceous peonies are among the most perfectly-formed flowering plants, whether single bowl shapes, full-petalled and ruffled, or anemone flowered.

They flower in summer, and die down in winter and are long-lived plants. Well established clumps of the species Paeonia officinalis are often found in old neglected gardens, still sending up their

huge red blooms every summer, ‘Rubra Plena’ is typical.

Old varieties such as Paeonia lactiflora ‘Duchesse de Nemours, ‘Sarah Bernhardt’, and similarly pale ‘Florence Nicholls’ have stood the test of time and are still excellent garden plants, as is the P. mlokosewitschii, often known as Molly the witch. It’s a dwarf, yellow peony with blue-green leaves.

Plant all herbaceous peonies

shallowly, with their buds no more than an inch or two (5cm) below the surface. Planting too deeply is the main reason for herbaceous peonies not flowering.

Contrary to common belief peonies can be successfully moved. The secret, again, is to re-plant shallowly. For the best flowers, give herbaceous peonies a sunny site, in rich, free-draining, preferably neutral

Shu erstock

These exquisite fowers are right back in fashion

In 1948, Japanese breeder Toichi Itoh crossed shrubby herbaceous peonies with woody tree peonies to create the first intersectional ones, which now bear his name. or alkaline soil. Peonies may take a while to get fully established, so be patient!

In spring, their foliage unfurls slowly as the weather warms up. It’s often a deep plum colour, that turns green as the peony buds swell.

5 of the best herbaceous peonies

An early-fowering old variety. White ‘swans’ down’ petals have a cream tint at the base, and a delicious strong scent.

Pam Richardson

Garden World Images

‘Duchesse de Nemours’ AGM

P. Mlokosewitschii

‘Rubra Plena’

This species, which has lemonyellow fowers held above bluish-green leaves. A compact grower, forming a bushy mound.

Huge crimson blooms epitomise cottage garden charm. Sturdy and good for cutting.

‘Coral Charm’

‘Bowl of Beauty’ AGM

The blooms of this herbaceous hybrid, open pink, changing to coral and then apricot as they age.

Late-fowering peony with a distinctive central mass of ribbon-like flaments, known as staminodes.

Subscribe now for £1 an issue! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn

May 16 2015 / Garden News 5

What to do this week

IN YOUR FLOWER GARDEN

Pale yellow native Primula vulgaris

Divide your primroses now so you can pack your garden with these cheerful plants, says Clare

P

rimroses make a stunning display through the spring and come in a wide range of different colours. Although theyÕre available to buy in flower from late autumn through to spring, these plants, which are often known as floristÕs primulas, are not all totally hardy and are generally treated as annuals, grown for one season. They are great for use in hanging baskets and containers, but do not establish so well in borders.

If you want primulas that will grow back and get better each year, look for the polyanthus, Wanda and gold-laced types as these are fully hardy and will come back each year regardless of the weather. Garden centres and nurseries now sell a good selection of the old-fashioned types of primula as well as native Primula vulgaris, and when planted and allowed to

34 Garden News / May 16 2015

naturalise, they quickly form large clumps that produce pretty flowers from March to May, perfect with bulbs.

They work really well in a border when mixed with early spring bulbs and early flowering perennials to create a natural spring display. In some situations the primulas will self-seed, but they can also be easily propagated by dividing the plants at this time of the year. This way the plants are all true to type, and dividing also prevents the clumps from becoming over crowded.

In just three or four years of lifting and dividing, your initial few plants will have increased to dozens so the results are much faster than growing plants from seed.

After dividing, the new plants establish quickly and make lots of new growth through the summer, followed by flowers next spring.

St e p by st e p

Photos: Neil Hepworth unless stated

Fill your garden with spring colour Divide primroses

As soon as the plants have finished flowering, remove the dead flower heads and dig up the clump from the garden.

1

Gently tease the clump apart into individual plants.

You may need to use a knife to cut through the roots.

3

To help divisions establish, water thoroughly. Check them for the next few weeks and water in dry weather.

Trim large leaves by half to reduce water loss, then plants can be replanted around 20cm (8in) apart.

2

4

MARTIN FISH

Te undercover

GARDENER Former head gardener, TV and radio broadcaster and RHS judge

Time to put tender perennials outside

Jo b s to do now

They make a great display on the patio

Cut back jasmine

The Jasminum polyanthum in my greenhouse has finished flowering. Now it needs a trim to remove the dead flower heads and stop it growing too large.

T

o decorate the patio area in summer, I grow several different tender and borderline hardy perennials and shrubs such as agapanthus, shrubby salvia and eucalyptus in large containers. They make a lovely display.

Depending on how frost sensitive the plants are, they are either over-wintered in my polytunnel – which has no heat, but it keeps the wind and rain off the plants – or in the greenhouse, which I keep frost-free.

Some of the plants have already been taken outside for the summer, and over the next week or two, the rest will be positioned on the patio and around the garden. I also do any re-potting at this time of the year as the plants start to make new growth.

One plant that has been in the greenhouse through the winter is Sparrmannia africana and it’s now desperate for some attention.

The plant, also known as African hemp, was

given to me last autumn and during the winter it produced a cluster of flowers at the tip of the stem.

My plant is in a small pot, has a single stem and is almost 1.8m (6ft) tall, so needs both potting up and pruning. It can grow to be fairly large, but the pot will help to restrict its growth. For now I’m potting it into a 35cm (14in) terracotta pot using half and half multi-purpose compost and John Innes, which should keep it growing for a year or two.

To encourage a multi-branched plant, I’m pruning the main stem down to around 90cm (3ft). It looks a bit drastic, but hopefully it will produce new sideshoots to create a bushy, more attractive plant.

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Tel: 01531 633659 www.haygrove.co.uk

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Photos: Martin Fish

Po ing on and cu ing back the sparrmannia

Plant up hanging baskets To allow basket plants a few weeks to se le in, I’m planting mine up now with flowering and trailing foliage plants. Once planted the baskets are kept frost-free.

nd a g Runner beans will soon in vine germinate in cell trays in n u the gentle warmth of pr rape : the polytunnel. ek a g e w g xt inin e MonthNXX 2015 tra / Garden News 39 Sow runner bean seeds