Garden News September 13

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September 13, 2014

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FACTFILE

‘Amaryllis’ means fresh or sparkling and ‘belladonna’ means beautiful lady

AMARYLLIS BELLADONNA Bulb Full sun Well-drained soil Hardy down to -5C (23F) Flowers September-October Height 60cm (2ft)

Grow a blast of late

hot pink True amaryllis will give you a colour boost now THOUSANDS OF CHRISTMAS amaryllis are sold in the UK every year, but how many gardeners Greg Loades try growing the true amaryllis?

GARDENING EDITOR The word ‘amaryllis’ has become the

4 Garden News / September 13 2014

common name for varieties of indoor-flowering hippeastrum, but true Amaryllis belladonna is a different thing.

If your eye has been caught by a blast of hot pink flowers in a bare patch of soil in the last week or so as you drive past a sunny garden, then there’s a good chance you’ve seen Amaryllis belladonna. It’s a

bulb that flowers much earlier than Christmas and is perfectly at home in a sunny sheltered garden planted direct into the soil rather than in a glass container packed into a gift box for the festive season.

Its scented flowers emerge from the ground before the leaves, with

Each flowerhead can produce up to 12 blooms

six or more lily-like trumpets on each stem. The sparkling blooms are more reminiscent of the vibrancy of spring than the muted tones of autumn, wonderful for

Left: Flower stems will be self-supporting in sheltered spots, but may need staking in exposed gardens

“We normally have very dry summers here. This suits their need for a dry rest”

Amaryllis belladonna grows especially well in our part of the world in Epping Green, Essex, because we normally have very dry summers. This suits their need for a dry rest in summer to initiate flowering for next year.

Soil must be well drained.

Clay soil will need lots of improvement with well-ro ed compost and grit to improve drainage if the bulbs are to grow well because they are Garden World Images

These plants make good scented cut flowers

giving the garden a late boost.

The strappy leaves eventually catch up and appear just after the flowers. And unfortunately it’s this foliage that is at risk from frost later on. Leaves stay on the plant until they die back in spring so they are at the mercy of being spoilt by a hard frost for the whole of winter.

This is perhaps why the plant isn’t more widely grown in the UK. Although the plant can take a few degrees of frost (-5C/23F), it will need protection in colder parts of the country or exposed gardens.

Positioned by a warm, south-facing wall in the south it should sail through winter, especially if mulched well. In colder regions it can be grown in containers so it can be moved under cover for winter.

Once you understand how this bulb grows, you can get the best out of it. Amaryllis belladonna is from the western Cape of South Africa. It grows in groups on rocky hillsides and stream banks and is dormant in summer when conditions are dry. And because

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Start watering po ed plants in early autumn when the plant starts to emerge again.

The bulbs of Nerine bowdenii are smaller and they produce flowers at the same

time, so they make a good alternative if you haven’t got any large pots. ● Rose Co age Plants, tel: 01992 573775, www.roseco ageplants. co.uk GAP Photos: Jerry Harpur

Anne Barnard Rose Cottage Plants, hardy bulb specialists

vulnerable to rot.

Foliage can be spoilt by frost, but I find that cold weather isn’t usually fatal.

The damage is likely to just be cosmetic. You can mulch the plants though if very cold weather is expected. Don’t use a wet compost mulch, instead throw fleece over the plant to protect it.

If you are in a cold area of the country you can try growing them in pots. They are not ideal for container growing because the plants are quite large, but you can do it if you have some big pots.

Dormant bulbs are available in early spring for planting.

Work a lot of grit into the mixture and plant them in a terraco a pot because it won’t hold onto as much moisture as a plastic pot over winter. And it will look nicer! Top-dress the pot with grit to improve drainage further.

These plants will also need a dry rest over summer like bulbs grown in the ground.

Try growing amaryllis with other drought-lovers such as succulent aeoniums it is in growth during our autumn and winter it needs the sunniest site you can give it so it gets maximum warmth and light. It will happily occupy ground that gets baked and dries out in summer.

These bulbs aren’t the easiest plants to incorporate into a border and will be more at home in an area where there is no competition from other plants.

The tops of the bulbs need full sun for flowering to be successful because the flower buds will emerge from the neck of the bulb. Planting this way can be tricky because borders tend to be full of a dense covering of stems, leaves and flowers from May onwards until we cut everything back at the end of summer. But parched areas that seem unworkable or unplantable in summer are the ideal spot.

Instead of fighting with keeping thirsty plants alive

in hot temperatures, these plants will work with the conditions, rather than against them. All you will need to do is keep their space weed-free while they are asleep for the summer.

Then once summer slackens, flower stems will start to appear in August.

Leave space for the bulbs to multiply so they can create a block of spectacular colour as they would do if they were in their African home!

Suppliers ● Cotswold Garden Flowers, tel: 01386 422829; www.cgf.net ● Perryhill Nurseries, tel: 01892 770377; www. perryhillnurseries.co.uk ● R V Roger, tel: 01751 472226; www.rvroger. co.uk

September 13 2014 / Garden News 5

Weekly reminders and advice from the GN team 2

5 quick jobs to do right now 1

Re-pot lily bulbs Lily bulbs growing in pots multiply themselves naturally but the new bulbs are often too small to produce a flower, leaving you with just leaves. It’s a good idea to tip them out every few years and separate the larger bulbs from the smaller ones. Re-pot the large bulbs and they’ll continue to flower.

Grow the smaller ones on in a separate pot until they’re large enough to flower themselves.

Pick figs

Figs are ripening fast at the moment but keep an eye on them. One minute they’re green and unyielding, the next they’re purple and ready. And if you don’t harvest them as soon as they reach that point, they can drop off to be enjoyed by garden wildlife who probably can’t believe their luck to discover them on the ground below the bush! Ants can also be a problem, eating the sweet flesh before you can.

3

Check for mealy bug

After a warm, humid summer, greenhouse and conservatory pests have thrived.

Now temperatures are dropping and are less in their favour so you’ve got more of a chance of getting on top of problems such as scale insect or mealy bug. Treat with a systemic insecticide such as Bugclear or you can try to remove them by hand. A mealy bug squashing session with a cotton bud can be strangely satisfying.

4

Harvest aubergines

Aubergines should be cropping now. Depending on what variety you’ve grown you should have good-sized fruits to enjoy. Just don’t expect fruits the same size as those in the supermarket and you won’t be disappointed! Watch out for their thorns as you harvest – the calyces at the top of the fruit are extremely prickly.

5 Tie in climbing roses

Clare Foggett

Greg Loades

Ian Hodgson

Nick Turrell

Horticulturist Clare’s 50m (165ft) garden is home to fruit, cut flowers and ornamental borders.

Rose specialist and horticulturist with a large allotment that includes lots of roses as well as fruit and veg.

Kew-trained horticulturist and garden designer, who previously worked for the RHS.

Garden designer with 20 years experience.

Nick’s garden is full of herbaceous perennials, grasses and herbs

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Climbing and rambling roses will have put on strong new growth this year, which needs to be tied in to fences or supports before the blustery autumn and winter weather. If you’ve got too many stems, thin out the oldest before training what’s left. Aim for a fan shape of stems that run along their supports horizontally and next year you’ll get more flowers. Use garden string or soft ties to tie the stems in several places.

September 13 2014 / Garden News 17

Former head gardener at Audley End’s organic kitchen garden

Mike Thurlow The gourmet

GARDENER Corn salad and miner’s lettuce keep Mike in fresh leaves through winter URING THE SCHOOL summer holidays our little gang would spend hours exploring the hills and brooks that surrounded our Welsh village. I have a couple of memories that linger of drinking the cold, sparkling mountain water and munching on the watercress growing in the clear, slow-moving pools along the banks. One of us had been told it was good for you so we used to have competitions to see who could pack away the most!

Many years later when I worked at Aberglasney Gardens, which date from the 15th century, I was told there was a watercress bed in one corner of the walled kitchen garden. My curiosity aroused, I eventually found the small man-made pool that was fed by a bubbling, underground spring and sure enough there was watercress growing in it. Those early gardeners must have known what we are rediscovering today – that watercress is a very healthy food.

We aren’t all fortunate enough to have a watercress pool in our garden but the Victorian gardeners still had a few tricks up their sleeves that we can put to good use. They grew a couple of hardy, green leafy plants to provide a steady supply of healthy fresh green succulent leaves throughout the cold, winter months, right up until spring time.

Top of the list is Valerianella locusta, a plant masquerading

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Shu erstock

Cover corn salad to protect it from extreme cold

Thin corn salad when plants reach the three leaf stage

Corn salad is packed with vitamins and keeps cropping until spring under the names corn salad or lamb’s lettuce. It gets the name corn salad because it is a weed that grows in corn fields after the harvest has been cleared. It is described as lamb’s lettuce because it reaches its peak growing period around lambing time in spring, when the shepherds would gather it to supplement their winter diet.

It grows in cool, damp, shady conditions and is resistant to cold, but will need cloche protection against really harsh weather.

Sow the seed 2.5cm (1in) deep

up until the end of this month, and start to thin the seedlings out at three leaf stage to 15cm (6in) apart, with 20cm (8in) between rows. It will need protecting against birds and slugs. Start to harvest leaves when the plants are about 15cm (6in) tall. Pick regularly because if the plants are allowed to flower it will make the leaves bitter tasting. You can blanch a few plants at a time by covering them with flower pots a couple of days before picking. Corn salad is rich in vitamins A, B and C, plus

minerals, iron, phosphorus, calcium, saccharides and proteins. It goes well with beetroot and potatoes and can be used in omelettes.

Next in line is Claytonia perfoliata, another plant confusingly with two aliases – winter purslane or miner’s lettuce. The name miner’s is believed to hark back to the days of the American Gold Rush in the 1850s when miners ate it to protect themselves from scurvy.

Miner’s prefers damp, shady growing conditions and it can be grown all the year round, but will need protection to survive the winter. Sow the seed 2.5cm (1in) deep in situ and thin the plants to 15cm (6in) apart in rows or blocks. Don’t allow it to dry out at any time. The soft fleshy stems have a mild acidic flavour and can be eaten raw, cooked or steamed.

Shu erstock

Try this rapid winter leaf American, winter or land cress is grown as an alternative to watercress.

It looks very much like it and has a similar peppery flavour. Use it fresh but avoid any with dark, green leaves because their flavour will be too strong. It will keep for a couple of days in the fridge or better still, submerged in a dish of cold water. It is fast growing so sow batches successionally 2.5cm (1in) deep in the spring for summer and autumn use and during autumn for winter use.

The crop will need some protection against the worst of the winter weather.

Land cress has a peppery taste

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September 13 2014 / Garden News 31