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SAVE MONEY ON BEDDING Sow colourful petunias from seed March 14, 2015
CAROL KLEIN
“ Why primroses bring ba ck me mo rie s of my Mum”
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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
KATE HUMBLE
Why heritage vegetables are worth growing
Plant stunning
INDOOR BULBS Fill your home with colour!
ra Cut back shrubs fo great summer show Sow a new lawn f Start a tasty cropso easy broad bean
Grow your own cut
Mothe r's Da y Specia l!
fowers! fodils Make HOMEGROWN gifts with da EN Create a beautiful CUTTING GARD w now Choose the BEST VARIETIES to so
GET COLOUR IN SHADY SPOTS! Pulmonaria to brighten your plot
Plant of the week FACTFILE PULMONARIA Perennial Shade or semi-shade Hardy Moist but well-drained soil Height: up to 38cm (15in) Flowers: December to May
THRIVING IN INHOSPITABLE soils and brightening up shaded borders, there can’t be many plants as Pam Richardson hard working as pulmonaria. GARDEN WRITER Commonly known as lungwort, or ‘soldiers and sailors’ for their typical pink and blue flowers, these garden plants add foliage colour and sprays of spring flowers that lift the spirits for months on end. Flowering from late winter to summer, they provide early blooms for us and valuable nectar for the bees. The show’s not over once those spring flowers fade, though, because pulmonaria foliage also stays attractive for much of the year. Many pulmonaria self-seed obligingly, eventually forming large clumps that thrive in shade. They are sometimes seen as garden escapees, colonising roadside verges and under
Bright &
beautiful
Rediscover the charm of easy-going pulmonaria
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hedgerows. Pulmonaria are notoriously promiscuous plants, crossing readily to produce hybrid forms – something to remember if you have a prized variety you want to keep true! They make excellent plants for ground cover and edging, or to underplant formal rose beds because their summer foliage helps to hide the roses’ bare legs. However you plan to use them there are plenty of pulmonaria to choose from. Breeders in Europe and the USA continue to hybridise the species to produce pulmonaria with attractive foliage and larger, or better flowers or a combination of both. The species pulmonaria originate from Europe and western Asia. They
Fascinating flowers go from pink to blue as they age. This is ‘Silver Bouquet’
include Pulmonaria officinalis, thought to cure chest infections and coughs on the doubtful reasoning that the spotted foliage seemed to resemble diseased lungs! Heavily spotted foliage also characterises Pulmonaria saccharata: ‘Leopard’ is a good example. Although marked foliage is most common there is plenty of variety. Pulmonaria foliage can be green, mottled white or almost completely silver, such as silver-green ‘Cotton Cool’ and ‘Excalibur’, while ‘Majesté’ has pointed, long-lasting silver foliage that positively gleams. P. mollis has large, unspotted green leaves. Variegated variety P. rubra ‘David Ward’ has green foliage edged with cream and needs shelter to really thrive. Pulmonaria ‘Margery Fish’ has spectacular silver markings. Narrow leaves and blue flowers distinguish P. angustifolia. Sometimes known as the blue cowslip, it been given the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM) as an excellent garden plant.
P. longifolia ‘Ankum’ has dusky purple-blue flowers that are among the first to appear and long narrow leaves that are typical of the species. Blooms come in every shade from purple to bubble gum-pink or red, true blue, pale pink and white. Both ‘Trevi Fountain’ and ‘Lewis Palmer’ are beautiful shades of blue. P. rubra varieties sport brick-red to pink flowers, and tend to be less tolerant of sun.
Suppliers
● Cotswold Garden Flowers
tel: 01386 422829; www.cgf.net ● Crocus tel: 01344 578000; www.crocus.co.uk ● Stillingfleet Lodge
Gardens & Nurseries tel: 01904 728506; www.stillingfleetlodge nurseries.co.uk
Left: Beautiful veined blooms of the hard-working pulmonaria
Pulmonaria for flowers and foliage
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Garden World Images
‘Diana Clare’
‘Bubble Gum’
‘Blue Ensign’
Long-lasting foliage and large, dark mauve-blue flowers make this one of the best pulmonarias.
Unusual pink flowers on upright stems. Team with early salmonpink tulips for the wow factor.
Has the deepest azure flowers but it’s deciduous so grow it with other foliage plants.
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Garden World Images
Shu erstock
‘Sissinghurst White’
‘Co on Cool’
‘David Ward’
Masses of small white flowers among the first to emerge, atop a clump of spo ed foliage.
Aptly named for its pale, allover sheen. Teams well with green and spo ed pulmonarias.
Unusual variegated foliage makes this pulmonaria stand out. Needs shelter and shade.
“These spring-fowering plants are certainly due a resurgence” Vanessa Cook Pulmonaria enthusiast and ex-National Plant Collection Holder
I get over that by teaming it with Bowles’ golden grass, Milium effusum ‘Aureum’. White-flowered ‘Sissinghurst White’ is another good, easy-to-find variety. Pulmonaria are notorious self-seeders, but shearing over the plants when they’ve finished flowering stops them se ing seed if you don’t want them to. They are normally very healthy plants but if one gets mildew I cut the foliage back hard, to around 2.5cm (1in), and a new flush of healthy leaves will appear. There have been lots of new introductions but I would love to see the breeders come up with a white-flowered P. longifolia hybrid that thrives in sun. To see these plants at their best visit a pulmonaria garden in spring. Our Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens & Nurseries are open from April 3 to September 27, every Wednesday and Friday and
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Pulmonaria ‘Mary Mo ram ’
Vanessa Cook
“These spring-flowering plants are due a resurgence. Take the opportunity to see pulmonarias in bloom, and you’ll discover the full range of leaf and flower. There are so many marvellous pulmonaria to choose from and they’re such useful plants. We have over 150 and they are incredibly easy to grow. They thrive in shade and some will tolerate even sunny spots, although don’t try to grow them in a rockery! The wonderful thing about them is that their flowers arrive when blooms are scarce. Many growing here in the garden are in flower from Christmas well into April and beyond. Most have evergreen foliage
that makes excellent weedsuppressing ground cover. We have Pulmonaria mollis here that makes huge rose es of green leaves. P. rubra has rather soft, plain leaves. Give it a shaded spot because it tends to flag if it gets too much sun. Among my favourites are ‘Mary Mo ram’, named after a lady who ran a nursery in Devon. It has wonderful foliage, silver in the middle with dots around the edge. Variegated P. rubra ‘Rachel Vernie’ also has stunning foliage, grey and cream with dark edges. Easier to find, and excellent in the garden is ‘Diana Clare’. It’s such a ‘good doer’, easy to grow and with good-sized, dark mauve-blue flowers. Most gardeners know pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’, which is the one most often offered at garden centres. Although its deep blue flowers are undeniably captivating, its plain green leaves die away completely in winter.
the first and third Saturday and Sunday of the month, from 1pm-5pm.” ● You’ll find Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens & Nurseries at Stewart Lane, Stillingfleet, York YO19 6HP. ● The Hardy Plant Society Pulmonaria Group holds its AGM on April 18 at Escrick Village Hall, Escrick, North Yorkshire YO19 6LS. For details contact Barry Street on 01494 713476; barry. street@virgin.net. For more info on the Pulmonaria Group contact Anne Wood on 0191 236 3097; pulmonaria@hardy-plant.org.uk
March 14 2015 / Garden News 15
Weekly reminders and advice from the GN team Clare Foggett
Ian Hodgson
Victoria Williams
Horticulturist Clare’s 50m (165ft) garden is home to fruit, cut flowers and ornamental borders.
Kew-trained horticulturist and garden designer, who previously worked for the RHS.
A keen new gardener who is hoping to get her first allotment soon. Her first loves are cacti and succulents.
Photos: Neil Hepworth
If you do one job this week...
How to pot up dahlia tubers
1
When you get your tubers home you can pot them up in multi-purpose compost and start them into growth in the greenhouse. Choose pots that comfortably take each tuber without having to squash it in. Water them in, then only water when the compost feels dry – you don’t want the tubers si ing in soggy compost or they might rot.
2
Trim away damaged ‘fingers’ and old roots before po ing up
By the time the risk of frost has passed, the tubers will have grown into good-sized plants ready to go outside, but harden them off for a fortnight first. Alternatively, just keep the packets somewhere cool, dry and well-ventilated, before planting the tubers straight into the ground in mid to late April.
Buy and pot up dahlia tubers
E
VERY GARDENER SHOULD grow dahlias – they tick every box. Bright, vibrant colour? Check. Beautiful flowers? Check. Months of flowers for cutting, bee and butterfly attracting, easy to grow with few pest and disease problems? Check, check, check! Garden centre racks are lined with packets of dahlias right now, and you can also order rooted cuttings and
tubers online from specialist suppliers if you want the ultimate choice of shapes and flower colours. Pick packets that have solid-feeling tubers inside. Some varieties naturally have smaller tubers and thinner ‘fingers’ though, so don’t worry unduly if they look on the skimpy side. Avoid any that have rotten, squishy bits. You might prefer the pompon-like ball dahlias (dahlia expert Dave Gillam
named his favourites in last week’s issue), spiky cactus types or blowsy decoratives and waterlily kinds. They’re all gorgeous in their own way, and you can have a field day selecting colours.
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March 14 2015 / Garden News 21
ories this week The big gardeningEditst ge ed by IAN HODGSON Editor-at-lar before work started
Wynyard Hall
Coming up roses
The walled garden area
New rose garden to be Britain’s biggest!
A
planning the venture with landscape and garden designer Alastair Baldwin. Said Alastair: “This is the most significant project I’ve been involved in, particularly with the chromatic use of roses and plants which is something never seen before.” There are also plans to develop other types of garden, including an edible garden to support a new cookery school that will open at the Hall in 2016. A new children’s area is planned for 2017, alongside a wild garden as a contrast to the formality of the designed spaces. For more information, visit www.wynyardhall.co.uk
rplanted Colour-themed rose beds will be unde tural plants with a variety of ornamental and struc
Photos: Burnby Hall Gardens and Museum Trust Work is well underway at Wynyard Hall in the 2-acre walled garden, filled with 3,000 roses in 100 different varieties
34 Garden News / March 14 2015
Alistair Baldwin Associates
N AMBITIOUS NEW public rose garden aiming to become the finest in Britain is set to open in August. The development, set in and around the 0.8ha (2 acre) walled garden of Wynyard Hall, in the Tees Valley, near Middlesbrough, will eventually house up to 7,000 roses, old and new, from rose grower and breeder David Austin. Each grouping will be carefully matched according to their hue and intensity of colour. The vision is the brainchild of Sir John Hall, rose enthusiast and owner of Wynyard Hall, who has spent the last 10 years