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2015 FORECAST CAROL KLEIN

Revealed! What this year's "Simple ways to improve your garden this week!" weather has in store January 10, 2015

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resh Give shrubs a fning 2015 The latest MUST-HAVE plants for start with pru otatoes iss! p d e e s w e n r e BR AND NEW ROSES you can't m Ord iant NNIA LS Try growing aygear!

Bright bedding & EXCITING PERE cabbage this

Recommends Plants to coppice Shu erstock

EN IN THE FLOWER GARD

Paulownia Prune hard then feed with granular fertiliser in spring for huge leaves

Eucalyptus An annual chop will give you lots of material for flower arrangements

Coppice And help them to give great displays, says Ian

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18 Garden News / January 10 2015

better stem colour if pruned and other plants will get the opportunity to show off attractive juvenile leaves each year.

Coppice a eucalyptus (Eucalyptus gunnii) each year and you will be rewarded with new whippy shoots, covered in the young, rounded leaves that cost a fortune in the florist but are only displayed on young growth. They add an unusual splash of grey to the border too.

Once you get in the habit of annually coppicing, you’ll also never be short of free plant supports, because you’ll have sturdy, but not too thick, stems to use as pea sticks, or useful bendy props for herbaceous perennials.

Coppicing also produces some wonderful fresh new foliage that wouldn’t be shown on plants left to get old, tall and woody. And big-leaved favourites such as paulownia (foxglove tree) and Indian bean trees (catalpa) will produce much bigger leaves if they’re coppiced annually.

Cotinus Coppicing creates a spectacular show of brightly coloured foliage

Defrost bird baths Keep an eye on bird baths during winter in case they freeze over. Birds need a supply of fresh water throughout winter as well as any feed you give them, so take a ke le of hot water out into the garden to melt any ice in your bird bath. You could also float a small ball in the water to help stop the surface completely freezing over.

Shu erstock

OW’S THE TIME to get really tough with some of your trees and shrubs. Give them a drastic prune to help them produce their best display.

Coppicing is simply cutting each stem of your plant back to just above ground level. Use bypass secateurs or loppers (ones with blades that cut with a scissor action rather than crushing wood) to make clean cuts. Cut back each stem to up to 10cm (4in) from ground level.

Any diseased or damaged stems can be cut out completely and if you have too many stems, you could remove a third to improve airflow around the plants and create a more balanced shape.

This type of pruning stops some plants such as black elder, cotinus, willow, cornus and eucalyptus, from getting unmanageable. It encourages vibrant new growth, which sprouts from the plant in the spring after cutting, so you won’t have to stare at a stump of a plant for too long!

Willow and cornus will produce much

Photos: Neil Hepworth

your shrubs

Former head gardener, TV and radio broadcaster and RHS judge

Cut back old stems

Martin Fish

The undercover

GARDENER

Keep on top of diseases so next season’s growth is safe

Photos: Martin Fish

As winter progresses, some of the perennial flower stems and seedheads that you left intact start to look scruff y. It often depends on the weather – if it’s cold and crisp, skeletal stems last well, sparkling with frost and keeping borders looking structural and interesting. On the other hand, if it’s wet, your borders soon turn to dank mush. Work through selectively, taking out perennials that aren’t contributing anything except hiding places for slugs and snails, until only the smart skeletons are left to carry on the winter show.

Martin’s clearing & ventilating S THE NEW growing year starts, my first job undercover is to have a really good sort out in the greenhouse, which is getting increasingly full of plants that are being overwintered.

The first thing to do is clean through the plants and remove dead and yellow leaves. This has been a problem in my greenhouse this winter and lots of the plants, especially my pelargoniums, are showing signs of fungal disease on the plants.

This started before Christmas when the weather was damp and cold outside. Despite the fact that the greenhouse fan runs continuously to keep the air

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Plant out hyacinth bulbs If the hyacinths you forced for Christmas have finished flowering, don’t throw away the bulbs, plant them out in the garden instead.

Try to plant them so the bulbs are twice their depth, and leave them to die back naturally. They won’t flower next Christmas, but will re-emerge in spring, their usual flowering time. You’ll find their flowers aren’t as impressively stout and bushy when they bloom again, often with sparser individual florets spaced out on the stem, but they’re just as pre y and beautifully scented.

Jobs to do now Start off shallots Old gardeners used to say plant shallots on the shortest day and harvest on the longest, so I’m going to try it. My shallots are being started off in cell trays in the greenhouse now.

Move plants away from cold sills When the temperature drops outside, windowsills in the house can become much more chilly, especially if you close the curtains, sealing them off from the warmth in the rest of the room.

Make sure you move any houseplants of a delicate nature off potentially cold windowsills – poinse ias or guzmania (pictured) for example – pu ing them somewhere safe from chills and draughts.

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circulating, fungal growth has developed. To deal with it I’m removing most of the leaves from the pelargoniums and I’m trimming their growth back. Then, I’ll spray them with a general fungicide to try and halt the problem.

Ventilating the greenhouse a little more will also help, although on very cold days it’s not always a good idea to start opening windows. What I will do is wait until we get a fine day, preferably with a little sunshine to warm up the greenhouse, and then I can open the vents for a few hours.

I want to knock the fungal growth on the head before I start sowing any more seeds that will be prone to attack from disease.

Watch out for pests Even at this time of year pests can be a problem and I’ve just noticed some leaf damage on a salvia. I’ve also found caterpillar droppings, so I know the culprit – all I have to do now is find him!

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January 10 2015 / Garden News 19

ories this week The big gardeningEditst ge ed by IAN HODGSON Editor-at-lar

£175m garden bridge on go!

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ONDON’S CONTROVERSIAL COPPER-CLAD £175million garden bridge will now go ahead after Mayor Boris Johnson recently gave it his approval.

The bridge has already gained planning permission from both Westminster and Lambeth councils, but the decision in each case was not

unanimous. Further objections have included loss of existing greenspace, blocking of views to St Paul’s cathedral and issues over access by cyclists.

Although public money has been forthcoming from Transport for London and the Treasury, it leaves £65million still to raise, with a public

Access from the city will be by a lift and steps

Bridge will be a ‘stunning oasis of tranquility’

26 Garden News / January 10 2015

Photos: Arup And Heatherwick Studio

Mayor waives through proposal, but more money is needed

Pale e of trees will provide visual variety

fund-raising campaign envisaged this year.

Planting on the 370m (1,214ft) structure is by landscape and garden designer Dan Pearson.

Plans include 270 trees, most concentrated on the two piers where soil will be deepest. Many will be multi-stemmed and include birches such as Betula nigra, field maple Acer campestre and cut-leaved alders Alnus glutinosa ‘Laciniata’, running over the bridge and which can all tolerate windy conditions.

There will be five different zones including a clifftop planting in the middle using phillyrea, cistus and other British natives. Woodland planting at the north end will include woodland copses and glades, one

Bridge will cost £2.5 million to maintain wild and one cultivated with native and ornamental hawthorns and clerodendron. The south side will have coppiced and shrubby willows to reflect the wetland origins of the landscape surrounding the fledgling city as well as cut-leaved beech Fagus sylvatica ‘Laciniata’.

“It will create a stunning oasis of tranquility in the heart of our city and boost our plans for walking in the city,” said Boris. The bridge is set to open in summer 2018.

Renowned broadcaster and author with more than 50 books to his name

Stefan Buczacki GREAT BRITISH

Gardens to visit Visit Stefan’s favourite theatrical garden at Coleton Fishacre

Photos: National Trust Images/Carole Drake

OT THE LEAST appealing aspect of Coleton Fishacre near Kingswear in South Devon is its delightful name – the Fishacres being an ancient family who lived locally.

It is a charming place to visit for any reason, but I have chosen it as my garden with a theatrical connection because of the Arts and Crafts house that was built in the 1920s for the D’Oyly Carte family, resonating with the aura of Gilbert and Sullivan and the carefree age of Art Deco.

The architect was Oswald Milne, a one-time assistant to Lutyens.

The property passed to the National Trust in 1982 as part of its Project Neptune to buy and protect as much as possible of the coastline, but it was not opened to the public until 1999.

The garden extends to around 24 acres and reminds me of Trebah in Cornwall in that it runs from the house down a steep narrow valley to the sea. And because it is so sheltered and situated in an already mild, almost frostfree area, there are some tender gems among the plants and as you might expect on the rich, acidic Devonian loam, a luxuriance of azaleas, camellias

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The garden boasts an impressive sea view

A stream runs down the valley in front of the house and rhododendrons.

But it is the southern hemisphere species it is worth travelling miles to see and as you walk down the streamside path, delight upon delight greets you around every corner. There is also an almost unrivalled richness among the bulb plantings.

It is one of those gardens I adore to visit and show to friends but invariably do so with some

trepidation for, as always, my companions will expect me to instantly name every plant I see, although there are a few places where I fail miserably!

And as a post-script, if anyone thinks why didn’t he choose Glyndbourne? I agree it is truly magnificent, but unfortunately only accessible to those who have paid to see a performance at the opera house.

Find it at...

Brownstone Road, Kingswear, Devon TQ6 0EQ, tel: 01803 842382; www. nationaltrust.org.uk Open every day from Saturday February 14, 2015.

Other fne gardens to visit in Devon

National Trust Images/Andrew Butler

National Trust Images/Andrew Butler

National Trust Images/Rupert Truman

Saltram

Overbeck’s

Castle Drogo

Peaceful grounds including lawns, romantic follies and a working orangery surround the magnificent Georgian mansion and offer beautiful views of its Palladian exterior.

Plympton, Plymouth, Devon PL7 1UH. Tel: 01752 333500; www.nationaltrust.org.uk

The seaside home of inventor and scientist O o Overbeck with gardens perched high on the cliffs above Salcombe, full of palm trees, bananas, citrus and olives. Sharpitor, Salcombe, Devon TQ8 8LW. Tel: 01548 842893; www.nationaltrust.org.uk

Currently undergoing restoration, but still open to see behind the scenes and discover the beautiful Lutyens-designed terraced garden with dramatic views of Dartmoor.

Drewsteignton, near Exeter, Devon EX6 6PB. Tel: 01647 433306; www.nationaltrust.org.uk

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January 10 2015 / Garden News 37