Colour guide to
ROSES!
Choose a variety to match your garden
TOP TREES FOR SMALL GARDENS
6Â
Plus how to fit them in!
November 15, 2014
It's time to...
FRONDS FOREVER!
Evergreen ferns for winter foliage
Revive your
OLD SHRUBS
SMALL GARDENS
Big ideas from a 6x7m plot
Beat weeds the easy way Best perennials for ground cover
Keep your fruit trees
HEALTHY! Care for
DAHLIAS
over winter
My guide to making free
plants! Carol Klein shows you how to get division right
Plant of the week FACTFILE
EVERGREEN FERNS Perennials
Pinna
Part or full shade Fully hardy Well-drained soil Height: Between 30cm (12in) and 60cm (2ft)
Unfurl evergreen
FERNS! LUSH GREEN LEAVES all year round, masses of texture, a forgiving nature and hardly Clare any maintenance Foggett required, ferns are truly wonderful EDITOR garden plants. Yet because of their ability to grow in inhospitable spots, we tend to view them as a last resort – the plants that will grow where nothing else can – rather than the stars of the show. It’s such a shame because ferns have so much going for them. It’s true that they demand closer attention to really appreciate their merits than a blowsy in-your-face flower, but once you start to notice
4 Garden News / November 15 2014
their subtle differences, you’ll see that there’s more to ferns than just their fronds. Evergreen ferns are all the more valuable at this time of year. While deciduous ferns’ fronds are dying and turning brown, evergreens stay verdant all winter. Most like shade – dappled or full – rather than glaring sunlight, so try growing them below trees or shrubs to cover bare ground. Their delicate, divided fronds look beautiful in frosty weather – and they won’t blink an eye when temperatures fall – then come spring, they’ll provide the perfect counterpart to emerging bulbs such as snowdrops. They also make a fantastic
textural partner for early spring perennials such as pulmonaria, brunnera or hellebores. Just the foliage combination alone of fern frond and silver-patterned brunnera ‘Jack Frost’ is enough to make your mouth water, and that’s without the brunnera’s sprays of blue flowers. The same goes for silvery pulmonaria ‘Majesté’. Team them with hostas and alchemilla for interesting foliage effects in the summer. As well as thriving in shade, some evergreen ferns such as polypodium don’t mind when that shade’s dry too, so they solve one of the most common planting problems. There are lots of opportunities to get creative.
GAP Photos
They’ll help keep your borders looking full of life in the bleakest months
Cut old fronds back to the base with secateurs
You could even build yourself a stumpery for that ‘woodland floor’ look. You can also grow ferns in containers,but you’ll need to watch watering carefully – unlike garden-grown ferns which can more or less be left to their own devices. Pot-grown ferns should never stand in water but equally don’t like to dry out, so you need to get the balance right. Use a general-purpose compost, but mix in some leaf mould to recreate the humus-rich soil they like. Although they’re evergreen, individual fronds do die and are replaced with new ones, which usually grow during the summer. Just remove dead fronds by cutting them off near the knobbly crown with secateurs. Ferns don’t need fertiliser and are rarely troubled by pests or diseases. In terms of time spent looking after them and what they deliver in return, we gardeners are definitely in the ferns’ debt!
Six great evergreen ferns
Pinnule
Garden World Images
Garden World Images
Frond (one leaf)
Blechnum spicant
Dryopteris erythrosora
Sturdy-looking fronds made up of ladder-like pinnae – li le ‘leaves’ that make up the frond. They start life limey-green, darkening as they mature. Height: 30cm (12in).
The most exciting evergreen fern because its new fronds are a delicious pink-bronze when they emerge during summer. Likes dappled shade. Height: 60cm (24in).
“They’re well adapted to growing here” Cyrtomium fortunei
Polystichum setiferum
The pinnae of this fern have a lovely pointy shape, giving the fronds as a whole a beautiful textured appearance. Happy in full shade. Height: 45cm (18in).
Varieties of this classic fern, include ‘Divisilobum’ (above) where the pinnae are finely divided, giving a soft appearance.
Shu erstock
GAP Photos
Dryopteris lepidopoda has colourful young fronds
Garden World Images
“On the whole, ferns are incredibly tolerant. A lot of the evergreen varieties we grow such as polystichum and hart’s tongue ferns are native to the British Isles so they’re well adapted to our climate. For their roots to grow, all ferns need soil temperatures to be around 15C (59F), so now’s a good time to plant
them as it should be above that, and then from mid-spring onwards. Just avoid mid-winter and mid-summer. Water them in when you plant and give them plenty of space to get the best out of them. Most of the evergreen varieties need a soil that retains moisture too. Tidy the plants up when they look like they need it – there’s no set time of year. If we have a cold spell and they get hammered by bad weather, they tend to want to turn deciduous, so you may need to cut all the fronds away. But if it stays mild, with no harsh, cold weather, they sail through winter without needing a lot of work. My favourite of the evergreens is Dryopteris lepidopoda, the sunset fern from the Himalayas. It has bright orangeyred new fronds, a bit like D. erythrosora but more upright and its glossy foliage is really good.“ ● Long Acre Plants, tel: 01963 32802; www. plantsforshade.co.uk
Garden World Images
Nigel Rowland Shade plant specialist at Long Acre Plants, Somerset
Asplenium scolopendrium
Polypodium vulgare
Glossy, solid fronds with a central rib. Some varieties have a wavy, crimped edge, such as ‘Angustifolia’. Likes dry or damp shade. Height: 45cm (18in).
An excellent choice for difficult, dry shade where it will slowly clump up. The fronds are bright green and slightly leathery. Height: 45cm (18in)
November 15 2014 / Garden News 5
ON YOUR FRUIT & VEG
PLOT
Keep your fruit trees healthy Make sure next year’s crop delivers, says Ian
T
HERE ARE LOTS of pests and diseases that can overwinter in and around your trees, but they have simple cures. It’s tempting not to bother picking diseased fruit, but leaving it on the tree can carry infection over to next year and cause the stem to die back. If bad fruit touches the bark of the
tree it can also cause infection, as can leaving diseased fruits at the base of the tree. Clear them up and keep grass cut short around the base, so nothing nasty can hide through winter. Also clear up fallen leaves from below the tree because these can overwinter diseases such as scab.
Cut out damaged branches
32 Garden News / November 15 2014
Treat outbreaks of woolly aphid with a wash
Apply a winter wash Applying a winter wash to your fruit trees once they have shed all their leaves will help prevent pests such as scale insect and aphids. The wash will help remove dust and debris and prevent pests from laying eggs on the bark of your tree. It can also dissolve the eggs of aphids. Organic washes are the only ones available now that traditional tar oil washes are no longer around. Try the Garlic Wonder Fruit Tree Spray from www.greengardener. co.uk, tel: 01493 750061.
Photos: Neil Hepworth
As the leaves fall from your tree it’s easier to spot problems and inspect branches to see if any are damaged. Split branches or stems showing cracks in the wood are a breeding ground for disease and need cutting back to clean wood, making a smooth cut that allows no entry point for disease. Completely prune out any affected stems or branches while the tree is dormant in winter. You’ll also be able to spot the resinous gum that oozes from the bark of fruit trees with canker. These need pruning out completely, back to clean wood, too.
‘Mysterious’ Floribunda. Speckled semidouble flowers in clusters of up to nine blooms. Light fragrance. Small leaves. New foliage red, turning glossy green. H: 75cm (30in)
ories this week The big gardeningEditst ge ed by IAN HODGSON Editor-at-lar ‘Simply Gorgeous’ Hybrid Tea with 15cm (6in) spiraled blooms. Unusual tone. Strong, sweet scent. Upright habit. Excellent disease resistance. H: 90cm (3ft)
‘Flash Gordon’ Floribunda. Single, pink flowers of eyecatching hue. Produces up to 25 flowers per stem. Medium fragrance. Bright green, healthy foliage. H: 75cm (30in)
Photos: Style Roses
Kiwi roses are tops! Quirky range of expert-bred blooms arrive in UK rain-resistant varieties are strong and vigorous. They come in a range of unusual shades, some in brown tones, for which Nola became internationally renowned. Nola started breeding roses in the 1970s, continuing her late husband’s work. She created
breakthrough Floribunda ‘Hot Chocolate’ in 1979, which garnered awards from around the world. Later came ‘Chocolate Prince’, the first brown Hybrid Tea in New Zealand. Nola’s love of science and maths underpinned her analytical approach to plant breeding. She also taught
‘Chuckles’
‘Hummingbird’
‘Foxy Lady’
Floribunda. Single, two-toned blossoms. Early flowering, with up to 25 flowers per stem. Light/ medium fragrance. H: 60cm (2ft)
Floribunda. Ruffled blossoms with pink notch. Produces up to 40 blooms per stem. Good disease resistance. H: 90cm (3ft)
Hybrid Tea. Deep salmon buds, open to baby-pink flowers. Bushy habit, good disease resistance. Light fragrance. H: 90cm (3ft)
36 Garden News / November 15 2014
computer science – one of the first women in New Zealand to do so. “She was a competitive person, who liked to be the best,” said John. Nola died in June 2011 aged 81, having won the Queen’s service medal for her rose work in 1995 and the Royal National Rose Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. John now continues the legacy, with exciting varieties of his own. “‘Simply Gorgeous’, bred by John, is one of the best roses we’ve ever seen,” said nursery owner Chris Styles. ● All plants are £13.95 potted, £11.95 bare-root (Nov-Mar). ‘Simply Gorgeous’ £15.95 and £13.95. Tel: 01406 424089; visit: www.styleroses.co.uk
Photo: John Ford
A
DISTINCTIVE RANGE of roses has been exclusively introduced from New Zealand by Style Roses, Lincolnshire. Bred by the late Mrs Nola Simpson and her nephew John Ford – both luminaries of the New Zealand Rose Society – the collection of 22 weather and
Nola Simpson, doyenne of New Zealand rose breeders