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Thriving damp Top plants for wet areas

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Extra pages!

B PRACEST TICAL ADVIC SINCEE 1884 29 MAY 2021

Top technique: how to restore ailing orchids Create your own ‘forest style’ fruit and veg plot Pond care: how to keep it healthy for wildlife

Battery mowers tested

Easier

Containers!

Best plants for gorgeous single-variety displays

Best English lavender to grow

137 years of practical advice 1884 The World’s Oldest Gardening Magazine 2021

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03 amate30 333 1113 subs.curgardenin g o.u – see p k/may21 age 5 8

Jobs for this week * 4

Useful bank holiday jobs 6 New products for 2021 9 Your pond in summer 12 How to grow your free aquilegia seeds/butterfly watch: orange tip

Great garden ideas 26 Single variety containers: it’s easier than trying to mix colour & plant type 30 Bags of lavender: easy to grow, with special properties and great history 34 Thriving damp: here are plants that are happy to grow in damp ground

Gardening wisdom

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“Got a damp area and don’t know what to plant there? Read this,” says Camilla

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Peter Seabrook Bob Flowerdew Val Bourne Wildlife Lucy Chamberlain’s Fruit and Veg Ask John Negus A Gardener’s Miscellany All Our Yesterdays Tried and tested: battery mowers Anne Swithinbank’s Masterclass Letters to Wendy: from AG readers Toby Buckland

Reader offers 24 Save £10 on a fabulous cotton palm

Future

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“Here’s how to make the most out of your bank holiday,” says Ruth

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“Lavender has a unique place in our history,” says Anne

“I quite enjoy dead-heading. There is a real sense of satisfaction in gently pulling off the now decaying flower heads, knowing that their removal will lead to a new lease of life and renewed colour in our beds, baskets and containers. In our modest gardens this is not an onerous task, but spare a thought for AG’s Peter Seabrook and his team – they have an estimated 40,000 heads to remove every seven days amongst 277 rows of pansies.

I can’t say I envy them the task, but it gives insight into all the hard work that goes into creating the Floral Fantasia displays at RHS Hyde Hall in Essex. Peter deserves credit for his dedication in creating truly colourful displays that the public enjoys.

They buck the trend of the more esoteric styles that are favoured by fashionable garden designers.”

All Alamy, unless otherwise credited

Garry Coward-Williams, Editor

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“Take the stress out of mixing style and colour by planting one-variety containers,” says Graham

Contact us: Subscriptions: 0330 333 1113 Editorial: 0330 3903732 Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com Advertising: 0330 3906566

Cover: Osteospermum Sideshow Purple Bicolour (pic: Alamy) 29 MAY 2021 AMATEUR GARDENING

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Your

Gardening Week with AG’s gardening expert Ruth Hayes

Your bank holiday jobs bonanza!

Planting, pest control and pruning; get ready for a busy long weekend says Ruth

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It is warm enough to give your evergreens a trim, either using shears to shape small-leaved varieties such as box, or secateurs, for larger-leaved plants, which are cut back to a healthy pair of buds.

Remove any signs of all-green reversion, see inset picture, from variegated types.

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Create instant colour by planting up baskets or patio containers with cheerful summer bedding. Ideally use peat-free compost enriched with granular fertiliser.

Water-retaining granules are another useful addition to help reduce the amount of watering needed.

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Look after garden wildlife, providing them with fresh water and food every day especially during prolonged dry spells. I use Wildlife World bird and hedgehog food ( wildlifeworld.co.uk, 01666 505333) as it is natural, contains no sugar and is packed with nutrients and protein.

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Earlier in spring I used Mo Bacter Moss Remover, an organic product that is safe to use around children, pets and wildlife, on my garden moss. It vanquished the moss and I am now feeding the lawn with Mo Bacter Recovery to encourage the grass to grow back.

We are still in No Mow May, so leave your lawn (or a patch of it) to grow wild flowers to help pollinators and wildlife.

All Future

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Keep your greenhouse healthy by opening doors and windows and damping the floor on very hot days. Keep plants watered and fed and make sure tender seedlings are free from pests and disease.

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All for free! In next week’s pages I show you how to take cuttings to make new plants for free, and how to tell when last autumn’s cuttings are ready to plant out

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Tie in climbing and rambling roses so new shoots grow in the direction you want. Check for pests and disease, using your fingers to squish small clusters of aphids, or organic sprays such as Bug Clear Gun if you prefer. Never use chemicals on flowering plants as you will kill pollinators too.

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Keep on top of those everyday jobs such as weeding and watering. Weeds will flourish and out-compete cultivated plants even during dry spells, so make sure you get them out. Never add them to the compost if they show signs of disease or have ripe seedheads.

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Take softwood cuttings from a wide range of perennials and shrubs. Cut 3-4in (7-10cm) of healthy new growth, dip the ends in rooting compound and insert up to an inch into pots of damp seed and cuttings compost mixed with perlite. Seal in a plastic bag, place somewhere warm and the cuttings will soon root. I am delighted that the Bergenia cuttings I took recently (inset) have taken well.

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Consistent feeding and watering and good airflow around your plants will keep them strong against attacks from pests and disease. Tackle problems as soon as you spot them, and remove, bin or burn diseased plant material, never adding it to the compost.

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Protect and preserve garden woodwork with paint or varnish, first of all making sure you have buffed away any old loose and flaking product, and carried out any necessary repairs. I like V33 decking oil, which is longlasting, non-slip, protects from UV and comes in a range of shades ( v33.co.uk, 01797 367 555).

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Gardening Week with AG’s gardening expert Ruth Hayes

New gardening products 2021 Every year sees a raft of new products released onto the gardening market.

Here is my pick of equipment and plants for 2021 Melcourt have been producing topquality peat-free products for the past 20 years. This year their organic and vegan Sylvagrow Farmyard soil improver was named ‘best product’ at the Garden Press Event.

It feeds the soil, boosts water retention and suppresses weeds. (£5.99 for 60L sack.)

The cold April caught many gardeners off guard.

Protect your plants with Town and Country’s single and double-burner greenhouse heaters. Compact and easy to use and store, they have 5L paraffin tanks. The single burns for 80 hours, the double for 40. (£39.99 single, £49.99 double.)

Battery-powered kit is the latest green development.

Husqvarna’s LC 137i battery lawnmower is made for small and medium lawns, is quiet and easy to move and store. Its battery fits other Husqvarna tools. £259 for mower, £339 for mower, battery and charger, £449 for mower, full kit plus Husqvarna 115iL trimmer.

New additions to Suttons 2021 catalogue include a two-tier Echinacea ‘Doubledecker’, Osteospermum ‘BlueEye’ and veggies including ‘Candy Crush Rainbow’ kale and sweet ‘Honeycomb’ tomatoes. Our eye was caught by the sweet ruffles of Geum ‘Pretticoats Peach’.

(From £10.99 for a single plant.)

New David Austin roses will help health charities

Press restricted

Renowned rose experts David Austin Roses have released three new plants this year, with £2.50 from the sale of each one going towards a variety of national healthcare charities.

‘Nye Bevan’ is a shrub rose with pale yellow flowers fading to cream, and unusually uplifted petals. Proceeds from each sale will go towards NHS Charities Together and other healthbased charities. (£30.50 potted.)

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Shrub rose ‘Princess Alexandra of Kent’ has pink flowers and a strong scent.

Proceeds to the Alexandra Rose Charity, which tackles food poverty in London. (£19.50 bare root, £27 potted.

Pre-order now for November delivery.)

‘The Generous Gardener’ is a pale pink climbing rose with a scent of musk and myrrh. Proceeds from sales will go to The National Garden Scheme. (£19.50 bare root, £27 potted, available to preorder now, delivery in November.)

A glovely fit: Gardena have brought out two new gloves. The Garden and Maintenance pair (£7.99) are made from breathable fabric with non-slip palms and the Planting and Soil gloves (£9.99) also have water-repelling palms. Both come in small, medium and large sizes.

If you don’t like using weedkillers and find it hard to bend down to dig out weeds, Town and Country’s Weed Wand is for you. It uses heat to destroy weeds’ cell structure and remove them for good. (£19.99, plus £4.99 for the gas canister, which is available from garden centres nationally – see website for details).

Growing your own veg may seem daunting, but Wild Wales Seeds have made it easier with their new garden seed kits. Each one contains three biodegradable plant pots and peat-free compost discs, three seed varieties and three eco-friendly plant markers, as well as easy-to-follow instructions. Great for beginners and all the family. (£9.99.)

Getting your patio, decking and garden furniture clean in readiness for the easing of lockdown must be top of a lot of lists, and the new range of pressure washers from Nilfisk makes an easy job of it. Easy to use, compact to store and suited to a wide range of tasks, the Nilfisk range is available from Amazon, Argos, Cleanstore, Costco, Machine Mart, Toolstation and Robert Dyas.

(Prices range from £129.99-£219.99.)

Bulldog Tools have been helping gardeners for 235 years and their newest additions are hand and digging tools with stainless steel heads and Forest Stewardship Council-certified ash handles. There is also a new range of cutting tools. (From £13.49 for the cutting tools, £14.99 for hand tools and £44.99 for border tools.)

New feeds

GroGreen makes bio-active products using essential oils to feed and protect plants. Their Feed and Shine Roses and Feed and Shine Buxus are organic and won’t harm the environment. The ‘Ready-to-Use’ containers are £9.99 and the 0.5L concentrate are £24.99 each. They are currently available from Grazers.

Based on a Norfolk farm, Plantgrow produces natural, peat-free products from a renewable energy source. The range includes solid and liquid general fertiliser, rose food, and liquid lawn and tomato food. There is also a slug deterrent. Products from garden centres, and online at Garden Organic, Thompson and Morgan and Waitrose. Prices start at £7.

Where to buy* David Austin Roses 0800 111 4699 davidaustinroses.co.uk Gardena 0344 844 4558 gardena.com GroGreen/Grazers 01768 800555 grazers.co.uk Husqvarna 0344 225 1540 husqvarna.com/uk Melcourt Sylvagrow 01666 502711 melcourt.co.uk Nilfisk nilfisk.com/en-gb (No phone number.)

Plantgrow 01953 525001 plantgrow.co.uk Suttons/Bulldog 0844 736 4208 suttons.co.uk Town and Country townandco.com (No phone number.)

Vitax 01530 510060 vitax.co.uk Wild Wales Seeds 02920 214 695 wildwales-seeds.co.uk

Vitax have launched two new liquid feeds that are organic and vegan.

The all-purpose plant food can be used all around the garden. The tomato food is rich in potassium, magnesium and trace elements, to give you top toms. Both are available at garden centres and online. (Tom food £5.99, all-purpose £7.99.)

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Gardening Week with AG’s gardening expert Ruth Hayes

Top Tip Leave removed pondweed on the side for 48 hours so any creatures living in it can return to the water.

Then compost it.

Weed around marginal pond plants (without falling in!) so they have room to grow healthily

A blackbird collecting pond nesting material

Your pond in summer Keeping aquatic plants healthy is so important, says Ruth

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F you have a garden pond it is no doubt a hub of activity right now, with fish, frogs, newts and all sorts of aquatic insects going about their business.

With April being so dry, ours became an essential oasis for the garden’s birds and wildlife. They used it for drinking and bathing and also as a source of nesting materials.

Every day we would watch song thrushes, blackbirds, sparrows, starlings and goldfinches flying out of it, their beaks crammed with mud and grass.

So while a pond might be a sweet distraction for us, it is a vital lifeline for all sorts of wildlife.

Always make sure your pond has a ‘shallow end’ or a ramp so that wildlife that drops by for a drink and a wash is

able to get out again.

If summer continues warm and dry, ponds will need regular topping up. If possible use harvested rainwater from your butts but if you can only use tap water, fill a watering can and leave it to stand for 24 hours so the chlorine evaporates before adding it to the pond.

Do a pond plant health check and remove any that have died. If they are left in place to decay they will release nitrogen, which turns the water green, and accumulate on the bottom, making the pond smell.

Also care for marginal plants, deadheading and weeding between them as you would other garden plants.

If any are getting over-vigorous and have self-seeded prolifically, remove some to make room for other varieties.

Future unless credited

Helping pond plants and animals

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Oxygenating weeds are essential to Add some garden or children’s keep pond water healthy and clear, play sand to your pond so but can grow rampantly and require invertebrates can lay eggs and thinning out every now and then. pupate in safety.

How to garden watery areas The appeal of a boggy location IF you garden on heavy clay or have an area of your garden that holds onto water, you can still create a varied, attractive planting scheme.

The main problem with waterlogging arises when moisture in the soil drives out the oxygen needed for healthy root and plant growth, causing fungus-like root rot. Remove and dispose of Marsh marigolds are affected plants and a bright delight replace the contaminated soil with fresh.

Heavy clay and wet soil can be improved by digging in plenty of well-rotted compost or manure, as well as grit. This will boost its drainage capabilities, add vital nutrients and give plants more of a fighting chance.

Additionally, when you are planting use a garden fork to rough up the sides and bottom of the hole, so the plant’s roots aren’t contained in a watertight ‘bucket’.

There are many plants that don’t mind getting their feet wet and that will grow well in damp soil.

Perennials such as Astilbe, irises, Gunnera and marsh marigolds will add colour and interest, and you can add structure and height with trees such as willows, Amelanchier lamarckii, weigela and elders.

Be extra alert for moisture-loving pests such as slugs and snails, and add more well-rotted organic matter to the soil each spring and autumn.

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Alamy

Alamy

Add a ramp so wildlife can climb out

A bog garden offers lots of planting options including impressive Gunnera

Your

Gardening Week with AG’s gardening expert Ruth Hayes Add a lid and place on a windowsill

Press restricted

Future unless credited

Tamp compost so seeds have a secure bed

Aquilegia ‘Lime Sorbet’ will bring cool class to your gardens Scatter seeds as thinly as possible

Cool shades for summer Ruth loves these pale and shaggy aquilegias

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OR failsafe variety and beauty on a budget you can’t go wrong with a packet of aquilegia seeds. They literally are the gift that keeps on giving, because they selfseed so prolifically that one packet (or one or two plants) will keep your garden

in aquilegias for years!

Not only that, but the varieties are prone to cross-pollination so you are likely to get lots of slight variants from one or two plants, and all of them will be a stunning range of shades and shapes.

Today’s Mr Fothergill’s free seeds are

for Aquilegia ‘Lime Sorbet’, an exceptionally pretty and pale variety of this hardy perennial.

‘Lime Sorbet’ creates clumps of blooms and blue-green foliage that are 30in (60cm) high. The flowers don’t have the rear spurs associated with some varieties of aquilegia and the flowers are shaggy caps in cool, classy shades ranging from pale green to white.

Sown now, the plants will grow through summer and can be planted out in autumn, or overwintered undercover until next spring. They will flower early next summer.

For the best results, sow into trays of dampened seed compost that has been tamped flat to give the seeds a secure, flat bed for germination. Scatter the seeds thinly so the young plantlets have plenty of room to grow healthily, and cover the seeds with a fine layer of compost or vermiculite.

Label the tray, add a lid and set it on a light windowsill. The seeds should take 3-6 weeks to germinate. When they are large enough to handle, pot them on into individual pots or modules of John Innes No 1 or 2 compost and grow on.

Butterfly Watch: The orange tip

(Anthocharis cardamines)

Both Alamy

A sure sign of spring that skips through hedgerows A COUPLE of weeks back I was sitting black bodies and white forewings tipped with bright orange. having a lunchtime beer after a busy The females are completely white, so morning’s gardening (it was a are easily mistaken for green-veined Saturday, I hasten to add!) when or small white butterflies. something orange and white They are common fluttered past and caught throughout most of the UK the corner of my eye. apart from the northern It was an orange tip reaches and Scotland, butterfly skipping its way where communities of along the garden hedge, orange tips are local rather and a welcome sign that than widespread. spring had actually arrived.

The males have orange-tipped Usually spotted in damp These pretty creatures are wings meadows, woodland rides and one of the first butterflies to hedgerows, as well as wildlife-friendly emerge that haven’t overwintered as adults. They are medium-sized and the gardens, the adults lay eggs on a variety of garden and hedgerow plants males are easy to identify with their 12 AMATEUR GARDENING 29 MAY 2021

including ladies smock (also known as cuckoo plant), garlic mustard, hedge mustard and bitter cress.

The caterpillars Caterpillars eat emerge and eat the their own eggs remains of their egg, along with any other unhatched eggs if they are quick enough. They go through five stages of well camouflaged growth until they pupate on upright stems, where they remain through winter until coaxed out by the warmer days of spring.

Ruth Hayes

Your

Listen to Peter’s free podcast every Thursday. Search for ‘This Week In The Garden with Peter Seabrook’ on iTunes

Gardening Week with Peter Seabrook, AG’s classic gardening expert

Peter’s top tips

Unwins

Just a section of the 277 rows of pansies at the Hyde Hall trial

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Arthur Edwards / The Sun

Pansy Panola Series plants are the half-way house between the large flowered pansy and smaller flowered viola; they give excellent garden performance, both autumn and spring planted.

Dead-heading extremes Pansy plant trial at Hyde Hall is a challenge, says Peter

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Pansy ‘Cool Wave’ gives twice the spread of most pansies; they are the series to choose for hanging baskets and the front of window boxes, and for groundcover.

Body image: Alamy. All other images Future, unless credited

“40,000 deadheads to remove every 7 days!”

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HE days may be getting longer old flowers is but a part of the job, as and daylight brighter, but there the questions flowing from visitors come seems to be less time to keep thick, fast and continuously. There are up to date with the many some tasks where it is possible to answer gardening jobs at this time of year. queries at the same time as getting The 4,000 pansy plant trial in on with the work – for example, Floral Fantasia at the RHS standing side shooting and Hyde Hall Garden, for tying in cordon sweet example, soaks up the peas. time. If each plant However, bent opens 10 flowers a double with backside in week (some are now the air dead-heading yielding more than this), pansies is not the same, it means there are and isn’t very polite!

40,000 dead heads to Early last month, Senetti will flower remove every seven days. we took delivery of from April to July You need to get your eye all 18 different colours of in, because the opening flowers Senetti in their full colourful can easily be mistaken for those which flowering at Hyde Hall. Boy, did they have set seed and are fading; once prompt comments and questions! petals have fallen, the green seed We have had this cutting-raised pods are easily lost amongst the leaves. relative of seed-raised Senetti (Cineraria) Hoeing for weed control and removing for some years now, in a rich colour range which gives that bright summer flower feeling in spring.

Some judicious dead-heading and cutting back will mean flowers from April to July, if kept well-watered and regularly fed. Rest them a bit through the heat of summer; I have had them come back again with masses of flowers as the days shorten and temperatures fall.

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Sweet peas sown outside in early October withstood all the weather could throw at them; later greenhouse-raised seedlings were bleached by April frosts – but be patient, they should break again from the base.

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Senetti (Cineraria) fill the gap between spring and summer seasonal flowers; be sure to deadhead to keep the flowers coming.

Your

Gardening Week with Bob Flowerdew, AG’s organic gardening expert There’s no need to wait until after the June drop, as you can thin congested, damaged and diseased fruitlets now to give those that remain the best chance

Bob’s top tips for the week Apple sawfly caterpillars (Hoplocampa testudinea) have left their marks on the surface of this ripe ‘Discovery’ fruit

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When flowers appear on potato plants, remove them, as setting seed pods reduce crops. Then water to swell new tubers.

Main image: Future

Codling moth caterpillar attacks are also a risk; holes with coloured rings denote the signs of infested fruits

Body image: Future. All other images Alamy unless credited

“Make weekly inspections as fruits swell”

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S more of us plant smaller removing suspect fruitlets earlier is growing and trained fruit trees, even more beneficial. it becomes easier to look after Now, some of our most annoying them. Instead of staring up at pests are sawfly caterpillars eating holes immense canopies, we now have highly inside apples. Surprisingly, infested productive trees where every part fruitlets may be spotted from soon after is reachable. Admittedly, you need the blossoms have dropped, when a stepladder for some, but with Trees naturally shed still less than pea-sized. Look unviable fruitlets during now for brownish scarring the truly dwarf varieties you the June drop stand over them. This or small holes in the sides. means that you can do a Burn, bin or bury deeply proper job and there’s no all infested fruitlets, along excuse for not thinning. with any that drop.

This is usually done Keep making weekly once in early July after inspections as the apples the June drop, when trees swell, for these grubby shed unviable fruitlets. You pests may leave their first select and retain only the best fruit and move to damage fruit, removing congested, another (places where a leaf damaged and any with signs of disease touches a fruit are often chosen). Don’t or pests. Those remaining are clean and, stop your regular inspections because, receiving all resources, will swell bigger as sawfly attacks reduce, codling moth than otherwise. However, you don’t attacks may develop. These caterpillars need to wait until July to thin, as make a larger hole, sometimes with a coloured ring around it, in the sides of small fruits. Infested fruits also ripen early and are redder, so may be spotted nearer harvest if not before.

Do this now, and you’ll only have to pick perfect apples later. Likewise, you can continuously thin most other types of fruit, for it always pays to thin early and thin often.

Nip off flowers and flower buds from most tender bedding as you put plants out. This helps them to establish quicker.

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Plant tomatoes really deep; you can even put the rootball in on its side to get shorter, sturdier, squatter plants.

Future

Want the best tree fruits? Thinning fruitlets helps to fight pests and means crops are bigger and better, says Bob

Future

Thinning streak

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Progressively raise the height of cut of your mower, and your grass will stay greener for longer through the coming months.

Your

Gardening Week with Val Bourne, AG’s organic wildlife expert these birds nested, so they experienced reduced breeding success as they didn’t find enough food to collect.

Our bird boxes weren’t used by blue tits or great tits in spring 2020, which is a rarity. This year, they’re already sizing them up. The ground became rock hard Numbers of by the end of April, because we didn’t redwings were down have any rain, so blackbirds and in gardens during the winter of 2019-20 thrushes were unable to penetrate the earth to collect food. This dearth of food made 2020 a poor breeding season for many of our core garden birds.

One bird is doing very well in gardens, and that is the sparrowhawk. When lockdown eased last year, we had family visitors and one of them nearly got their hair parted when a low-flying female came in for the kill. Sightings were up by 15%. In my opinion, bird feeders make it very easy to pick off small birds. We always know when one is about, by the absence of birds and birdsong; they go The results of the BTO’s 2020 Garden Birdwatch deathly quiet. We have a dead ash tree, showed that there were higher numbers of long-tailed and it’s a favourite post-meal perch for tits (Aegithalos caudatus) in gardens last year our female sparrowhawk.

According to the survey, sparrowhawk sightings Not all increases in bird sightings are were up by 15% on the good news. There was an increase in the previous year number of ringed-necked parakeets in southern England. This species was recorded in 7% of participating gardens.

Val reflects on the results of the BTO Garden Birdwatch The BTO tells us: “Although adding a E’VE all had more time and that helped smaller birds to survive, splash of exotic colour and noise, this on our hands due to the so there were higher numbers of wrens, non-native species may bring with it pandemic, and many of long-tailed tits and goldcrests in gardens some conservation challenges. It has us have found nature a last year. Wren and goldcrest numbers been shown to outcompete other birds reassuring presence. As a result, 20,000 were up by 11%, and there were 3% more at nesting cavities, and displace other people (twice as many as usual) took part long-tailed tits recorded in gardens. I saw species from garden feeding stations.” in the British Trust for Ornithology’s (BTO) over 20 long-tailed tits round our bird The BTO survey shows how dynamic Garden Birdwatch during 2020. These feeders that year, more than ever before. and resilient nature is; numbers fluctuate surveys first took place in 1995, and This year, we’ve had a maximum of eight. yearly and then hopefully recover. Many you can take part this year by visiting The mild weather saw fewer migrant families take part, and children go on bto.org. The BTO is the leading birds arriving from colder parts of Europe to develop a lifelong love of nature. In research bird charity; 60,000 volunteer and Scandinavia. They didn’t travel here, hard times, the sight of wild birds in our birdwatchers contribute to the site, and and overwintered further north and east gardens makes us feel so much better. they employ 100 people. Their website is of the UK. This meant that brambling, very informative. redwing and fieldfare numbers were If you cast your mind back 15 months, down in gardens during the winter of Groundcover epimedium beneath you may remember that the winter of 2019-20. There were also fewer finches deciduous trees and shrubs 2019-2020 was mild but wet. I’m in the and thrushes in gardens, because many western half of Britain and have never of them stayed in the fields. known so much rainfall. It was the year The wet winter was followed by the farmers couldn’t get onto their precocious warm weather in April and waterlogged land. On the plus side, the May, and this caused species to emerge temperatures were warmer than usual, earlier. BTO records show that the first brood of holly blue butterflies peaked in the week beginning 19 April 2020, roughly four weeks earlier than the longterm average. We had lots flitting through Leafy cover, using joinedthe garden at Spring Cottage, along with up planting, helps wildlife more orange-tip butterflies than I’ve ever of all types because the ground seen before. Their caterpillars, which are doesn’t dry out as quickly. usually a major food source for blue tits and great tits, had disappeared before

Bird spotting

All photographs Alamy unless otherwise credited

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“Temperatures helped smaller birds survive”

TIP

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Gardening Week with Lucy Chamberlain, AG’s fruit and veg expert Did you know?

Temperate sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) does just as well inland

Many edible fungi thrive on decaying wood. Installing mushroom ‘logs’ in a damp, shady area of a forest garden would quickly allow you to grow shiitake and oyster species.

Smaller trees, such as the damson Prunus domestica subsp. insititia ‘Farleigh’, offer an excellent canopy layer for forest gardening projects

‘Hinnonmaki Red’ is a hardy addition, producing heavy crops of gooseberries

Focus on... on... Forest gardening

Want the most sustainable harvests, regardless of garden size? Lucy Chamberlain shows you how easy it can be to create a canopy of crops with forest-based growing

All photographs Alamy unless otherwise credited

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RUIT and veg gardens don’t need to consist of regimental rows of crops with bare earth in between. Imagine walking in a small woodland glade plucking nuts, berries and herbs – that’s the essence of forest gardening, and it sounds heavenly to me. This kind of gardening is a lowmaintenance agroforestry system based on woodland ecosystems; key planting elements are fruit and nut trees, shrubs, herbs, vines and perennial vegetables.

And the great news is that we can all enjoy the benefits of glade growing.

The concept of this growing method evolved in millennia past alongside the ecosystem, but the idea of using it as a way to cultivate crops was pioneered

by Robert Hart in the 1970s, and Martin

“This is a lowimpact, organic growing method”

Crawford since the 1990s. It’s an organic, low-impact method that looks towards the dynamics of a forest in order to utilise numerous growing ‘zones’.

These zones include tall upper tree canopies, understorey groundcover, and a collection of areas in between (see my checklist on page 22). Once established, the effort needed to maintain a forest garden is minimal – very little irrigation, fertilisers or human intervention is required. And no, you don’t need much space for a forest garden, either.

Wild florals like ramson or bear’s garlic (Allium ursinum) are easy to grow

Plants are carefully planted to coexist in harmony. Nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs (alder and elaeagnus), plus deep-rooted crops such as comfrey and horseradish, help to draw nutrients into the leaf litter layer; these are broken down and utilised by crops such as currants, raspberries and blackberries.

Fans of forging for wild food will love forest gardening, too, as crops such as ramsons, sorrel, nettle and elder are encouraged. Temperate exotics like goji, hops, sea buckthorn, Japanese wineberry, hardy kiwi and honeyberry are also ideal forest garden crops; you’ll soon cultivate a veritable feast fit for Michelin-starred menus!

Embrace diverse harvesting To begin your forest garden, focus on establishing the larger plants: your trees and shrubs (choose these to suit your soil type and climate). Once these have established, the smaller layers can be added (you might want to consult a specialist book or website). Then just sit back and enjoy watching the layers – and your harvests – develop.

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Gardening Week with Lucy Chamberlain, AG’s fruit and veg expert

Lucy’s corner Get to know your forest garden layers ■ Canopy: On larger plots, grow nut trees and fruits like apple, cherry and plum on more vigorous rootstocks.

■ Small tree layer: Dwarf fruit trees dominate this layer, as do shrubby trees such as sloe, hawthorn and elder.

■ Shrub layer: Ideal for shade-loving currants and gooseberries, alongside aronia, berberis and mahonia.

Grow sloe (Prunus spinosa) as a dedicated small tree layer

Try these key forest garden crops…

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Damsons: Hardy and robust, these smaller trees offer an excellent canopy layer for smaller plots. The early flowers are excellent for pollinators, and late ripening extends the fresh fruit season.

s b o j k c 5 qui

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Build your herbaceous layer with plants like sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata)

Greenhouse tomatoes will be growing apace in warm weather.

If growing cordon (single-stemmed) types, you should regularly remove all sideshoots that appear.

Beetroot, turnip and kohl rabi are all best enjoyed while they are young.

Pick over the rows regularly to ensure they don’t become woody.

Trying to thwart plum moth? Check those pheromone traps regularly for signs of adults, then spray with a pyrethrum-based insecticide.

Fancy livening up an otherwise green salad? Spring flowers such as pot marigold (campanula), viola, chives and borage are all edible.

Irrigate regularly, either by hand or via a hosepipe. Crops that are flowering are especially responsive to some thorough drenchings.

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Good king Henry: With shoots eaten like asparagus, leaves sautéed like spinach, flowering shoots akin to sprouting broccoli and edible grain, too, what’s not to love about this herbaceous perennial vegetable?

Top tip

First-early ‘Sharpe’s Express’ matures around 10 weeks after planting

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Alpine strawberry: This plant is more tolerant of a woodland floor than conventional strawberries. Who can resist this groundcover cropper when it’s dripping with flavour-intense fruits all summer?

ARE you getting desperate for those first liftings of new potatoes? My sack-grown potatoes were started off mid-February in a greenhouse, and I cannot wait to tip them out!

Those of you with spuds grown under cover will no doubt be eyeing up your bags, too – and gardeners in mild parts of the country who planted outside in early March could also be looking at a harvest.

We’ve hopefully all planted ‘firstearly potatoes like ‘Lady Christl’ or ‘Sharpe’s Express’ because these mature most rapidly (at around 10-12 weeks after planting). Flowering can be a sign of maturity but it’s not a given, so rummage with a hand fork to sample the odd tuber, or check for tell-tale bag bulges.

When harvesting, either tip out the bag or lift up entire soil-grown plants. You can gently replant the haulms and roots after harvest for a smaller second crop – but I’m usually too excited!

Lucy’s picks

■ Herbaceous layer: Here, larger plants that die back down in winter are considered (such as sweet cicely, lovage and lemon balm).

■ Rhizosphere layer: Includes groundcover plants like sorrel and ransoms, alongside root crops such as pignut and horseradish.

■ Vertical layer: Encompasses crops such as grapevines, hardy kiwis, honeyberries and hops (any climber that bears edible or medicinal parts).

Next week: Focus on calabrese, pruning figs, making a nest for mining bees, planting out squash, boosting pepper crops, try Barbados cherry.

Put up bird netting to protect fruit

“This is how you avoid red beaks”

How to thin raspberry canes

Having a walk-in fruit cage, like this one, is a real treat; I’ll have to content myself with canes and netting!

Why not try..?

Congested canes give rise to weak yields and disease. Summer and autumn types have produced a thicket of shoots; it’s time to thin them:

All step images: Future

Step by step

to accidentally killing our feathered friends. Essentially, do not just throw nets over your plants. Instead, push canes into the ground, then tie the netting securely to it so that it remains taut. In this way, birds won’t become entangled in your protection.

Future

WITH sunlight levels strengthening and summer marching on, it’s just a matter of days before fruits such as redcurrants and cherries begin to ripen. With birds especially attracted to red-coloured fruits, if your crops aren’t netted there’s only one outcome – red beaks! Act now so you can avoid it.

Walk-in fruit cages are the ultimate luxury, but they’re far more expensive than a bundle of bamboo canes and netting. If, like me, your budget dictates the latter, make sure you construct it correctly, because not doing so can lead

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Regardless of whether your varieties are summer or autumn, fork out any canes that have meandered too far from the row to keep things tidy.

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The fruiting canes of summer types (such as ‘Glen Ample’) should already be tied into their supports. Simply remove any damaged new canes at this point.

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Autumn raspberry canes are freestanding (they are not tied into wires). Pull up any weak or damaged canes to leave strong, vigorous shoots.

Sweet edible flowers of Malva sylvestris

Tree mallow

ARE you busy sowing radishes, turnips or swedes? Or perhaps you’re thinking that the time is approaching to plant out your winter cabbages, cauliflowers, kale and Brussels sprouts? All these – plus sprouting broccoli, pak choi, mizuna, and more – are members of the brassica family. As seedlings, they are attractive to one troublesome pest: the flea beetle.

This pest has the ability to jump many centimetres into the air when disturbed.

The adults pepper the whole surface of brassica seedling leaves with tiny holes – dozens of them. While older plants are tolerant of damage and readily grow out of symptoms, seedlings are not and can become overwhelmed. The simple solution? As soon as you see signs of damage, smear grease over some short rectangles of cardboard and run them over your seedling rows. As the flea beetles are disturbed, they jump – and meet with their sticky end. Job done!

As soon as you see signs of flea beetle damage (as with the Chinese cabbage, inset), take action to control them

Main image: Future

Thwart flea beetle fast!

WHILE many garden mallows are edible, this short-lived perennial species freely seeds itself on waste ground and roadside verges. Now I personally can’t bring myself to eat garden mallow (the beautiful flowers are full-on eye candy) but the more diminutive blooms of Malva sylvestris (also called tree mallow) are perfect forager’s fodder. The leaves are also edible, although it’s fair to say that their slimy texture is not to everyone’s taste.

The hot-pink blooms have a butter-like texture and mild, sweet flavour. The easy option is to scatter them in salads, but why not try an Italian delicacy, Frittelle di malva?

Collect a bowlful of flowers, then smother them in a tempura-style batter. Shallow-fried and served with a creamy dip (and perhaps a glass of prosecco), they are utterly delicious.

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Growing one variety per pot can make an eye-catching display in your garden

Single-variety

Containers

Why go through the fuss and bother of matching different plants in containers when you can make the perfect display from just one variety, says Graham Rice

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NE of the great challenges of summer containers is choosing plants that look good together, and grow well together, for your tubs and baskets. It can be tricky trying to choose the right varieties so that the petunias don’t overwhelm the lobelia, for example.

The more effective approach is to turn the whole thing on its head and grow just one variety, a variety chosen for its impact as a specimen, in each container.

The effect can be dramatic, whether you choose pastels or hot colours or even foliage plants.

Creating a series of specimen containers has a number of advantages.

Planting just one variety in each container allows you to tailor your watering, feeding and other care to its specific needs, instead of trying to look after three or four different varieties that may all have slightly different needs, in the one container.

There’s also less need to choose varieties whose colours go well together, as you can position different varieties in different parts of the garden to avoid 26 AMATEUR GARDENING 29 MAY 2021

clashes: this makes it easy to grow the varieties you really like – even if their colours clash. And each variety can be sited in exactly the situation it likes, it can receive exactly the treatment it needs and, if it has a quiet phase when it’s not at its best, it can be moved out of the front line into a less prominent area.

Looking classy And I have to say that a series of beautifully grown containers, each focused on just one variety, really does look classy. This is especially the case if you choose varieties that feature good foliage as well as good flowers.

Your planting need not be restricted

to the usual summer annuals.

Thoughtfully chosen shrubs and perennials, plus herbs and other edibles, are ideal as specimens, and a bush tomato in a large container not only provides months of tasty toms but looks wonderful, too.

Two other things really help. An outside tap makes watering containers easy – no one likes trailing a hosepipe out through the kitchen window! And the containers themselves have to be stylish and clean. Don’t ruin your display with dirty knockabout pots, and make sure the plants match the colour of your containers. Then you can sit back and bask in the admiration.

Where to buy* Crocus crocus.co.uk 01344 578 000 D T Brown dtbrownseeds.co.uk 0333 003 0869 Marshalls marshallsgarden.com 01480 774555 Suttons suttons.co.uk 0844 736 4208 Thompson & Morgan thompson-morgan.com 0333 400 0033 *Many nurseries are currently unable to send out plants – or despatch may be delayed.

9 best single varieties

Thompson-morgan.com

Thompson-morgan.com

ets 3 for bask

All photographs Alamy unless otherwise credited

Begonia Basket begonias flower for months, often set against bronzed foliage, and are extraordinarily prolific. Look for the scented Sweet Spice Series, the prolific Million Kisses (‘Elegance’ is pictured), best-selling ‘Illumination Apricot’ and ‘Truffle Cream’ in pretty peachy shades.

Fuchsia These are classic basket plants, with blowsy single or double flowers. Many, such as ‘Golden Swingtime’, ‘Jean Taylor’ (pictured) and ‘Golden Marinka’, also have colourful foliage to go with their months of flowers. Upright varieties for tubs are also available.

Petunia The outstanding basket petunia is the double-flowered Tumbelina Series, sometimes listed as Fragrant Falls or Frills & Spills (pictured is ‘Ocean Mix’), in a wide range of colours and bicolours. Singleflowered Surfinia Series has much longer, trailing growth that may need trimming.

Osteospermum Vivid daisy flowers, single and anemone-centred, on neat bushy plants and in some vibrant colours and bicolours. Flowers on the anemonecentred 3D Series (pictured is 3D Purple) show the best colour, even on dull days when the singles may close.

Pelargonium (ivy-leaved) The best specimen trailers, cascades of foliage and long-lasting single or semidouble flowers open until well into the autumn. Look for ‘Evka’ (pictured) with its silver variegation and carmine flowers.

Tolerates chills. As seen on classic Swiss balconies.

ballcolegrave.co.uk

3 for xes window bo

Impatiens Ideal for compact growth on shady windowsills, the six-colour Beacon Series is by far the best, with genuine disease resistance and continuous colour all summer. It looks particularly good in single colours, especially the white (pictured).

3 for tubs

Argyranthemum Modern hybrids between marguerites and annual chrysanthemums have brought us the prolific long-flowering and easy-to-grow Aramis (‘Aramis Fire’ pictured) and Grandaisy Series in new colours. ‘Grandaisy Pink Halo’ is outstanding. Loves regular feeding.

Rudbeckia New as dramatic patio specimens, I saw the Sunbeckias last year and was amazed – vigorous plants carry supersized daisy flowers in vivid yellows, golds and bicolours but all with a gentle softness. Like dwarf sunflowers on steroids. Pictured is Sunbeckia Alicia.

Begonia We used to think of fibrous-rooted begonias as neat and bushy – not any more. ‘Whopper’ and ‘Dragon Wing’ (pictured is ‘Dragon Wing Red’) make large and dramatic plants, many with bronzed foliage, that develop into outstanding specimens. Big and bushy.

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3 great perennials

Hakonechloa A fountain of slender, elegant, waterfall growth makes a superb specimen in a terracotta, or perhaps azure blue, container in partial shade. Move steadily into larger and larger pots. Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’ forms into a beautiful cascade.

Alstroemeria A new generation of neat and prolific alstroemerias with colourful foliage have turned these plants into summer-long container superstars. ‘Indian Summer’ (pictured) has bronze foliage and orange-and-yellow flowers, while ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ has red flowers with brightly variegated leaves.

4 shrubs for containers

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Buxus Clipped box trees, trimmed into simple spheres or pillars or into more ambitious topiary, always look good when done well, but regular clipping (and tidying up the clippings) is necessary.

Remember to water regularly. Likes sun or shade.

Nerium Oleanders are superb long-flowering, evergreen patio shrubs for summer bringing a Mediterranean feeling with their pink or white flowers for months.

Move them into the conservatory or a cold greenhouse for winter.

Tolerates missed waterings.

Pieris If your soil is limey, but you’d like to grow limehating shrubs, plant a pieris in a container filled with ericaceous compost. With their white lily-of-the-valley flowers and bright-red spring shoots, they enjoy container living.

Citrus Container-grown lemons and kumquat oranges are the most reliable. Bring them out onto a sunny patio in summer and move them to a more sheltered place in winter. Feed with specific citrus food.

Hosta Supreme container specimens, and easy to protect from slugs in a large pot, hostas make imperious container specimens for shade. Enjoy the softly variegated foliage and the highly fragrant flowers of award-winning ‘Fragrant Bouquet’ for months.

Cherry tomato ‘Losetto’

Planting and care Plant one, three or five plants of each variety in each container.

Clean the container first, both inside and out.

Use fresh container compost for summer seasonal displays, John Innes No3 for perennials and shrubs.

Turn containers through 90° every week to ensure that all sides receive equal light. This will create evenly balanced plants.

If a container starts to flower less

Plant your container with one, three or five of each variety

prolifically, move it to a less prominent position and rotate in another.

Edible specimens HERBS are ideal in pots on a sunny patio: rosemary and sage, in particular, make fine flavoursome specimens. But of course the more you snip for the kitchen, the less verdant they’ll look on the patio.

Bushy cherry tomatoes such as grafted ‘Lizzano’ or ‘Losetto’ look wonderful and are easy to pick from your sun lounger. Strawberries, especially the super-tasty ‘Just Add Cream’, with its pink flowers, are good in baskets. You can even grow runner beans in a large pot.

Watering and feeding Q Stand containers on pot feet to ensure free drainage and to prevent waterlogging.

Q Water until the surplus drains out through the base of containers.

Q Keep the compost consistently moist, and never ever let it dry out.

Q If you have a large number of containers, set up a drip watering system you can control with one turn of the tap.

Q Feed regularly with a specific feed for containers or I use tomato food for them all – it works fine.

Make sure compost in containers is consistently moist

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Shimmering purple fields of Cotswold Lavender in Worcestershire

Lavender prefers a sunny position in well-drained alkaline soil

Bags of

Lavender

Prized by Egyptians and the Romans, lavender has a special history in Britain as well. Anne Swithinbank offers her choice of the best varieties for you to grow

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ESIDENTS of Lavender Hill, near Clapham Junction in London, must find it hard to believe that their homes are built on land once farmed to meet London’s demand for lavender flowers and oil. The watercolour Battersea Fields from 1848, by Robert Westall, shows a view over farmland with the brand-new Battersea pumping station (built in 1840) in the distance.

Lavender and its oil had been an important commercial product of Hitchin, Mitcham and Carshalton since the 1500s. Small lavender ‘farms’ still exist up and down the country, and are well worth a summer visit to admire seas of aromatic, shimmering purple. Plants are easy to grow at home, are resistant to slugs, snails, rabbits and deer – and now is a good time to add more.

A herb of antiquity, lavender was prized by the ancient Egyptians and Phoenicians, while the ancient Greeks appreciated its medicinal properties and passed them on to the Romans, who travelled with lavender for wound dressings and bathing. The name 30 AMATEUR GARDENING 29 MAY 2021

derives from Latin lavare (to wash). Long after the Romans decamped from Britain, lavender was a staple of monastery gardens and for centuries folk depended on it for freshening clothes and warding off fleas and bed bugs.

English lavender There are many cultivars of hardy Mediterranean Lavandula angustifolia, known as common or English lavender.

Compact, violet-flowered L.a. ‘Hidcote’ is perhaps the best known and great for lavender hedges, but for commercial oil production, richly scented L.a. ‘Maillette’ is the most widely grown angustifolia type. Taller, later-flowering and with long spikes, lavandin (L. x intermedia) is a

sterile cross between L. angustifolia and spike lavender (L. latifolia). Strongly fragrant L. x intermedia ‘Grosso’ is used for oil production and sweet ‘Seal’ is favoured for filling lavender bags.

Bunny-eared French lavender (L.stoechas), though handsome and longer-flowering, is less hardy and apt to turn up its toes after a cold, wet winter.

The scent is also rather sharp.

I adore common lavender and like to touch it, smell it, eat it (in shortbread) and drink it (in herbal teas). I scent my pillow with it and wash my hands with lavender-scented soap. This is a good plant for wildlife, too, providing winter cover, nectar for bees and seeds for goldfinches.

Where to buy* Downderry Nursery 01732 810081 downderry-nursery.co.uk The Lavender Garden 01453 860356 thelavenderg.co.uk Norfolk Lavender 01485 570384 norfolk-lavender.co.uk Yorkshire Lavender 01653 648008 yorkshirelavender.com *Many nurseries are currently unable to send out plants – or despatch may be delayed.

9 English lavenders t lavenders 3 compac for pots perfect

All photographs Alamy

Lavandula angustifolia ‘Lavenite Petite’ This distinctive and fragrant lavender is New Zealand-bred, and makes a mass of violet pom-pom-shaped flower spikes over grey-green foliage opening in June, with a second flush after deadheading.

HxS: 14x18in (30x45cm).

L.angustifolia Little Lottie (‘Clarmo’) AGM A dwarf lavender whose short spikes of pale mauve-pink flowers open in June and July against fragrant green-grey foliage. Clip back after flowering to keep plants dense. HxS: 12x14in (30x36cm).

Lavandula angustifolia ‘Nana Alba’ AGM Short spikes packed with white flowers open over grey-green foliage in July and August. Plant in the well-drained compost of a window box, rock garden or raised bed. HxS: 12x14in (30x36cm).

Lavandula angustifolia ‘Miss Katherine’ AGM This pink-flowered lavender grows well on the improved clay of my garden. We look forward to the moderately scented fresh young growth and flowers for teas and biscuits. HxS: 24inx3ft (60cmx1m).

Lavandula angustifolia ‘Peter Pan’ A handsome upright and compact lavender whose spikes of deep-purple flowers open over grey-green foliage.

Good for making a series of dense, fragrant hummocks flowering in June and July. HxS: 20x30in (50x75cm).

Lavandula x intermedia ‘Lullingstone Castle’ This giant makes an impressive and elegant fragrant specimen. Long spikes of mid-blue flowers shimmer over greygreen foliage. HxS: 3x4ft (1x1.2m).

Lavandula x intermedia ‘Sussex’ AGM A strongly scented lavender whose purple flowers are held in long tapering spikes open over a long period from mid to late summer. Plants form grey-green mounds. HxS: 30inx3ft (75cmx1m).

3 ers ed lavend iz medium-s , hedges and for edges rders bo

Lavandula angustifolia ‘Ashdown Forest’ Expect a shimmer of pale-purple blooms against grey-green foliage from this dense, bushy and fragrant cultivar that flowers from June. A good choice for a low hedge. HxS: 20x30in (50x75cm). ders with 3 tall lavener spikes long flow

Lavandula x intermedia ‘Fragrant Memories’ Where a pale purple haze over silverygrey foliage is required, this bushy, neat lavender fits the bill. Flowers from July and plants are fragrant. H&S: 3ft (1m).

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3 French lavenders Lavandula pedunculata subsp. pedunculata The classic papillon or butterfly lavender from Spain and Portugal bears dense violet-hued spikes from May-September, decorated by long purple bracts. A welldrained soil is important to avoid winter wet.

H&S: 2ft (60cm).

Lavandula stoechas subsp. stoechas f. rosea ‘Kew Red’ Compact, shrubby plants produce striking flower heads of rich, deep purple-red topped by bracts of a contrasting pale pink. Grow in containers in cold, wet areas and bring under cover for winter. HxS: 20in (50cm).

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Lavandula ‘Ballerina’ AGM This vigorous French lavender presents some gorgeous colour contrasts.

We have aromatic silvery foliage offsetting tall stems of dark-purple flowers topped by green-veined white bracts flushing pink as they age.

H&S: 2ft (60cm).

4 tender lavender species Lavandula x christiana A vigorous hybrid between L. canariensis and L. pinnata with branched spikes of large blue flowers over divided, grey-green foliage. ‘Sky’ bears azure flowers. Provide a minimum of 50°F (10°C).

HxS: 3ftx30in (1mx75cm).

Lavandula dentata var. dentata f. rosea The narrow sage-green leaves have a plaited appearance and make an excellent foil to chunky spikes of pink flowers topped by pale-pink bracts.

Hardy to 32°F (0°C).

H&S: 24in (60cm).

Lavandula lanata AGM Spanish woolly lavender is best pot-grown and overwintered frost-free under cover. Soft white stems and leaves are decorated by long, aromatic spikes of darkpurple flowers in late summer. HxS: 30inx3ft (75cmx1m).

Lavandula viridis From Portugal, Spain and Madeira, this handsome lavender tolerates a minimum of 23°F (-5°C) and suits sheltered gardens and unheated greenhouses. Paleyellow spikes and bracts decorate lemonscented foliage. HxS: 2ftx30in (60x75cm).

How to grow lavender

Insert semi-ripe cuttings in pots of gritty compost

Propagation FOR lots of lavender cheaply, seed strains usually of ‘Hidcote’ and French lavender are widely available but the results might vary slightly.

Named cultivars are raised from semi-ripe cuttings taken in summer or whenever new side stems are easily peeled away from a main stem with a ‘heel’ of older wood attached.

Trim and insert five in a 3.5in (9cm) pot of gritty compost. Cover with ventilated polythene out of full sun until rooted.

The sunny, well-drained, alkaline soil of a Mediterranean hillside, with perhaps a goat or two for pruning, is the des res for most lavenders.

On acidic soils, opt for French lavender and cultivars of L. x intermedia.

Lavender can thrive on improved clay soils Spring is the best time in wetter climates, but will have a shorter life. to plant lavender French lavender struggles in damp climates.

A spring planting is beneficial. Soak the planting hole, let it drain and position so the old compost surface remains at soil level.

Water in well and then check for moisture before watering again.

How to prune ENGLISH lavender (L. angustifolia), L. x intermedia and French are best trimmed after flowering. I bunch old flower stems and cut with secateurs, taking some young stem but not going into old wood. You can also use shears. Goldfinches love the seeds, so leave a few plants in winter. Avoid trimming past the end of August, leaving late flowerers until spring.

Deadhead tender lavenders, pruning harder from May to July if necessary.

Trim lavender with secateurs or shears after flowering

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A bed of damp-loving plants, including pink astilbe, yellow ligularia and purple lythrum in summer

Thriving damp!

Not every garden can enjoy full sun and some get less light and suffer from damp, but don’t despair! Camilla Phelps reveals the plants that are happy in damp conditions

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N these climate-changing times, we’re having to cope with extremes of wetter winters, heavier rainfall and storms, as well as warmer, drier temperatures. Mediterranean plants definitely don’t appreciate their roots sitting in soggy soil, so if your garden tends towards the damp and maybe boggy, too, it’s wise to choose plants that will be happy in these conditions.

Damp growing spaces can come in a few different varieties. There are outand-out boggy, riverside or pondside areas that might also be prone to flooding during wetter weather. Or you might have heavy clay soil that gets sticky and boggy in wet winters but can dry out in the summer. Perhaps you have a tricky spot that tends to stay damp and shady, where the soil holds onto moisture and remains cool, similar to the edge of a woodland.

As always, nature provides the solution to all these problems in plants that are perfectly adapted to these conditions. There are shrubs and perennials that span a wide range of interest to give you seasonal colour, 34 AMATEUR GARDENING 29 MAY 2021

texture and structure right through the year and many of them are magnets for pollinators, too.

From the first appearance of primulas and marsh marigolds in spring and irises in early summer, the damp garden is full of colour. You can carry this right through into autumn with successional planting.

There are so many damp-friendly perennials to choose from, right across the colour spectrum. Astilbes come

There’s a huge range of damp-loving plants that provide colour and texture throughout the year

in hundreds of shades from white through pink to deep red, while persicarias will bring more ruby and white tones, rudbeckias and ligularias will add some sunny golden zing with their daisy-like flowers.

Adding foliage plants Foliage plants also come into their own in damp areas, with giant Gunnera manicata making the biggest statement of all. But if you don’t have room for this monster, the diminutive G. magellanica makes great ground cover. Japanese petasites, which is also edible, puts on a wonderful, lush foliage display, but needs room to spread. For smaller spaces, hostas and ferns will transform shady areas into cool green havens.

Some of the best shrubs to combine with perennials in moisture-retentive soil in a layered planting scheme are salixes and cornus. These look great both in waterside locations, and in mixed borders, where the coloured stems are great for winter effects and the summer foliage makes a good companion for the more brilliant flowering perennials.

All photographs Alamy unless otherwise credited

6 plants to grow in very damp soil

Astilbe ‘Fanal’ (x arendsii) AGM The long-flowering red feathery plumes of Astilbe ‘Fanal’ make a real statement and the foliage contrasts with bolder leaves.

They will tolerate a shadier damp spot, but for the best results full sun is preferable. HxS: 24x16in (60x40cm).

Lythrum salicaria ‘Robert’ With its upright spikes of bright-pink flowers, loosestrife will naturalise on the edges of ponds and waterways. Great for pollinators, the autumn colouring of the foliage is an added bonus. HxS: 35x20in (90x50cm).

Rodgersia pinnata superba AGM With giant horse-chestnut-shaped leaves this is a great plant for its foliage, but the flowers and seeds are also attractive.

Best for a shady, slightly boggy spot. HxS: 36x30in (90x75cm).

Ligularia ‘The Rocket’ AGM The tall spires of golden-yellow starry flowers on dark stems in summer rise out of a cluster of attractive leaves with serrated edges. HxS: 5ftx3ft 3in (150x100cm).

Zantedeschia aethiopica ‘Green Goddess’ AGM This elegant arum lily looks wonderful in the garden and is great for cutting. It thrives in damp, semi-shade where it will form a generous clump. HxS: 39x24in (100x60cm).

Lobelia cardinalis A dazzling plant, with its dark-red foliage contrasting with brilliant red flowers, this needs moist soil and will look fantastic teamed with ligularia and rodgersia . HxS: 3x1ft (90x30cm).

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TI Media Archive

6 partner plants

Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Atrosanguinea’ A good choice for late-summer colour with ruby-red blooms continuing into the autumn. Great for a hot border, combined with rudbeckias, ligularias and astilbes. HxS: 4x2ft (120x60cm).

Hosta ‘Guacamole’ AGM Hostas love damp shade and this is a new hybrid with large, ribbed, two-tone leaves. The flowers are also a great bonus, long-lasting and very fragrant. Combines well with loosestrife.

HxS: 31x27in (80x70cm).

Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’ AGM A sun-lover native to the damp prairies of North America, the golden-yellow blooms of this mid-height variety add colour in late summer and combines well with persicaria. HxS: 2x2ft (60x60cm).

Luzula sylvatica ‘Aurea’ This golden woodrush looks great for contrast at the front of a border next to the bolder foliage of hostas and flowering plants, and it will provide evergreen interest through winter, too. HxS: 20x17in (50x45cm).

Astrantia ‘Hadspen’s Blood’ Good for part-shade, this woodlandedge plant is at its best in cool and damp conditions. With a long flowering season and spent flowers looking good, it’s great for a mixed border with grasses, ferns and astilbes. HxS: 24x27in (60x45cm).

Matteuccia struthiopteris AGM The shuttlecock fern is in full swing by midsummer, with its spectacular fronds fully opened. A must for damp or watery shade, this will add texture and depth when paired with flowering companions.

HxS: 4ftx3ft 3in (120x100cm).

Care tips

Where to buy*

VERY wet soils can cause roots to rot as there isn’t enough oxygen for healthy growth. The best way to improve soggy soils and heavy clay is to dig in plenty of organic matter. This will improve the soil structure and drainage, reducing compaction and allowing nutrients to reach the roots.

It will also help to hold onto moisture through dry summers. Adding a thick mulch in spring around plants will help to stop clay soil drying out, too.

Beth Chatto bethchatto.co.uk 01206 822007

36 AMATEUR GARDENING 29 MAY 2021

Burncoose burncoose.co.uk 01209 860316 Crûg Farm Plants crug-farm.co.uk 01248 670232 Dig in organic matter to improve structure and drainage

*Many nurseries are currently unable to send out plants – or despatch may be delayed.

Hostas, zantedeschias, rudbeckias and gunneras are happy in damp conditions

Ask John Negus

John has been answering reader queries for 50 years

John will reply personally to all your gardening questions every week Clematis armandii ‘Apple Blossom’ has attractive leaves and stunning pink flowers

Amelanchier leaves discolour as they age before dropping

Tree worries Alamy

Q What clematis would suit my west wall?

Q

Could you please advise what, if any, clematis would grow on a west-facing wall that gets full sun from around midday until sunset? The soil is at present quite dry and sandy. I know that you have to keep clematis roots in the shade. If not clematis, what else could I train up a trellis in the above conditions?

Mrs E Hammond (via email)

A

I suggest that you plant evergreen Clematis armandii to cover your west-facing wall. Prized for its leatherytextured, broad pointed leaves and almond-scented snow-white blooms in March, it is amazingly vigorous and will serve you well.

Two varieties I urge you to consider are ‘Apple Blossom’, prized for its deep pink flower buds that open pinkish

white, and ‘Snowdrift’ whose clusters of starry-white flowers are sweetly perfumed. All grow to around 15-20ft/4.5-6m and are best fan-trained against trellis or clematis netting.

No pruning is necessary, apart from a light trim after flowering and shortening unruly stems to keep plants neat. Feed afterwards with a granular fertiliser or proprietary clematis food.

How can I help my resurrected coronilla?

All photographs Future unless otherwise credited

A

I am wondering why your coronilla shoots have died, but delighted that new growth has emerged from the roots.

For the moment, water freely in dry spells and boost growth by feeding with Vitax Q4 or a seaweed fertiliser.

With luck, if its root system is healthy, which it seems to be, more stems will appear which should flower later this year.

A

Your amelanchier is behaving normally. Its speckled dying leaves are no longer functional and are falling naturally. It’s how deciduous trees and shrubs behave. Older leaves desiccate, then drop and new ones replace them.

You have no worries here.

The wrong ranunculus grew from the ‘claw’ bulbs

Q

I have a four-year-old Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca ‘Citrina’. It overwintered poorly, so I cut it back this spring. When I cut through the stems it just appeared to be dead wood with no sign of green. However, it has now sprouted lush green foliage from its root system. What should I do now?

Denise Wicks (via email)

Both my Amelanchier lamarckii trees had lots of blossom and now have set little fruits. Most of the trees look well, but now have some red leaves with black bits on them.

What is the cause of this?

Sue Sutton (via email)

Wrong plants Prune coronilla in spring after flowering

This plant has great appeal and blooms for months, often throughout winter. The best time to give it a light prune to maintain its shape is in April or May, and because they are relatively short-lived you can take cuttings in June or July.

Overwinter the cuttings somewhere sheltered, and then harden them off and plant them out the following spring.

Q

I planted Ranunculus ‘Pauline Violet’ in March, but the flowers look nothing like the photo – or a ranunculus. for that matter. What happened?

Tom Fenton, Stourbridge, West Midlands

A

Bad luck. You are right. The ranunculus ‘claws’ that you bought, labelled ‘Pauline Violet’, have produced blooms that resemble ’Pauline Carmine’. It’s a beautiful variety, but not what you want.

I suggest that you contact the supplier and request that they replace it with the correct variety.

29 MAY 2021 AMATEUR GARDENING

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While John sometimes advocates using chemicals against pests and diseases as the most effective means of control, organic options are sometimes available and we advise readers to go with their preferences

Contact John Negus by email address below Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com

Quick questions & answers Alamy

Purple berberis and creamy cytisus (inset) will help make an attractive garden shield

Q

What is the name of this flower in my neighbour’s garden?

Jean Bates, Buckinghamshire

A

Shrubs for a replacement hedge

Q

When we were having work done on our house, the workman took out some of the trees and shrubs from woodland at the back of the garden. We want to recreate the barrier they formed, so what could we plant?

Jolene Menses (via email) Q Cotoneaster ‘Cornubia’: White flowers in late spring followed by scarlet berries in autumn.

Q Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’: Brilliant crimson bark – striking in winter (deciduous).

Q Berberis thunbergii f. atropurpurea: Vivid-red autumn-tinted leaves (deciduous).

Q Elaeagnus x ebbingei: Fragrant white flowers in autumn.

A

The following fast-growing shrubs, evergreen and deciduous, should, within a few years, clothe the dug area to restore your denuded woodland.

Q Photinia ‘Red Robin’: Heads of white blossom in spring; red new leaves.

Q Cytisus ‘Warminster’: Creamy-yellow flowers in May that last well (deciduous).

Q Elaeagnus ‘Maculata’: Large yellowcentred leaves.

How can I revive my droopy camassias?

Q

I planted camassias near a fence on a west-facing slope and overshadowed by a coniferous tree.

They haven’t done well, looking pale, ragged and leaning into the light. When can I lift them and move them elsewhere and where should I move them to?

Judith O’Neill, Surrey

Alamy

Q

How can I get rid of black medic in the lawn?

Thomas Rogers, Yeovil, Somerset

A

The best way to control black medic in a grass sward is to treat it with Roundup Ready to Use on Lawns. Causing the weed to outgrow its strength, it quickly dies.

You may need to repeat the application if it reappears.

Q

My agapanthus flowered in their first year, but haven’t done so since. What should I do?

Chris Hulse, York

A

Alamy

A

I am sorry that your camassias, shaded by a conifer, are not thriving. In nature, they colonise warm, sunny, open situations.

If you have such a site, lift your plants in September or October when the foliage has withered and transplant them at the same depth at which they are growing now.

The plants will thank you if you keep the foliage watered while it dies back, and also feed it fortnightly with liquid tomato food. This is because as the leaves wither they feed the bulbs underneath, and is why you should

Your neighbour’s very striking plant is a lady’s slipper orchid, botanically cypripedium.

It appears to be C. Gisela a hardy, robust and captivating terrestrial variety that colonises well and withstands most winters.

Camassias do best in an open, sunny spot

never cut or knot the leaves as this can stop the process leading to poorer flowering the following year.

Additionally, work moistureconserving composted manure into the soil before planting to help them recover quickly so they can reward you with a colourful display next spring.

I am sorry that your agapanthus has since ceased to perform.

However, this is not unusual.

The best way to encourage it to bloom again is to feed it with sulphate of potash. Sprinkle it over the root area, monthly, from now until September and water it in. Start in April next year.

29 MAY 2021 AMATEUR GARDENING

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Ask John Negus

John has been answering reader queries for 50 years

John will reply personally to all your gardening questions every week

Help needed with our young trees

Busy Lizzie plug plants need food and water

Q

What are these strange growths on the eight trees in our new garden and what should we do about it? The trees are quite young and small, so would it be OK to move them?

Mildred Hughes (via email)

A

Busy schedule

Q

How should I look after my busy Lizzie plug plants?

Jan Schut (via email)

A

Alamy

The tree is an oak, and the ball-like growths are not fruits but the result of an attack by widespread oak-apple gall wasp (Biorhiza pallida).

At first green, they change to a palebrown hue. Each ‘apple’ contains many small chambers in which larvae feed.

Adults emerge in July and females crawl down the trunk and lay eggs on roots. Root galls develop and contain larvae that overwinter underground.

In spring, adults emerge and move up to young buds, where they lay eggs and complete the cycle.

Pleasingly, neither adults nor larvae unduly harms the tree.

As you are keen to preserve the eight or so small trees which, I assume, you wish to replant elsewhere, I suggest that the digger operator lifts the trees with large root balls.

Although not large, your busy Lizzies appear to be healthy and full of promise. Provided you position them outdoors in very light shade, they will prosper and flower for months. If the compost seems dry, water sufficiently to moisten it but not make it soggy.

I also urge you to liquid-feed your charges twice weekly with a high-potash tomato fertiliser. It will speed robust growth and your plants will reward you with a wealth of blossom.

Oak-apple galls are caused by wasps and don’t harm the trees they are attached to

He should then reset trees in generous holes to ensure that they are at the same depth as they were previously growing. They will also need staking. Water copiously to help them recover.

Should I leave my rose alone?

Q

A

You have done nothing wrong.

The variety is growing normally, but will need retraining.

Do nothing this year, – simply enjoy your plant’s profusion of blossom.

Then, next spring, when you prune it, shorten the flowered shoots to two buds, and espalier-train the resultant growth below the window.

Start by securing heavy-duty plastic-coated wires 18in (45cm) apart across the wall.

Then, when new stems are long enough, tie them horizontally to the wires. The stems will respond by

Alamy

We moved to our cottage a couple of years ago and growing up the sunny wall at the front is a lovely old climbing pink perfumed rose. I thought I’d done a reasonable job pruning out overgrown branches hard and the ones that were crossing, but as you can see from the photo it seems to have run amok. What should I do now?

David Currill (via email)

Herbaceous peonies such as ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ will grow in containers

Container peonies Prune climbing roses in spring to encourage flowering

producing flowering shoots along their length.

You may have to remove some growth to avoid crowding them.

Feed your rose in early spring so it will grow healthily through the year, watering and then mulching afterwards with well-rotted manure.

If you repeat this regime after flowering you may get a second, later flush of blooms.

Q A

Can I grow peonies in a container?

Mary Bennett (via email)

Peonies can be grown in containers, but they are much happier in a bed or border.

Most varieties develop large root systems, so unless you set them in very large pots, they quickly become pot bound.

However, herbaceous varieties (double pink ‘Sarah Bernhardt’, scarlet P. peregrina and anemone-centred deep pink and white ‘Magic Orb’ among them) are eligible for growing in containers.

29 MAY 2021 AMATEUR GARDENING

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While John sometimes advocates using chemicals against pests and diseases as the most effective means of control, organic options are sometimes available and we advise readers to go with their preferences

Contact John Negus by email address below Email: amateurgardening@futurenet.com

Crinum can live outside in a warm, sheltered spot

Eucalyptus often change leaves and droop as they reach maturity

Why is my eucalyptus changing shape?

Q

Until the turn of the year our eucalyptus stood upright and around 3ft (1m) tall.

It is now bending over, so is it a weeping variety?

Catriona M Kerr, Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire

A

I think most eucalyptus droop as the branches become laden with mature leaves. It looks like your tree has started to reach its adult years as it has both its juvenile and mature leaves – the former are the more rounded shape, the latter are more elongated. The mature leaves appear once the tree has reached a certain age. Some species never develop their mature leaves even when they have reached adulthood.

However, there are species that are described as weeping or semi-weeping and I wonder if yours is one of these.

The most likely is the snow gum or weeping gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora).

This has large, stiff, blue/white glaucous leaves and attractively mottled bark.

Smaller twigs have a red/orange tint.

As the tree develops, the branches start to weep under the weight of the large leaves.

Q

I rescued the above plants (and I’ve included one of the corm) that were left neglected at work. What are they?

Nicole Cor Caroli (via email)

A

Your plants could be young specimens of Crinum x powellii, a native of warm climes. It can, in the south and west, be grown outdoors in a warm, south-facing border.

The plants are healthy, but appear to be crowded. When the leaves die back and the bulbs become dormant, divide and separate bulbs and set them singly into 6in (15cm) pots of loam-based ericaceous compost. When they have filled pots with roots, either set them into larger containers or in the garden.

What is this unusual fruit from France?

Q

Can you identify this fruit from a tree in France? They lay everywhere in October and are the size of a tennis ball, with hard, rough skin, but dry and pithy inside.

Beryl Stringfellow, Nottingham

Cutting the tips of dahlias will create bushier growth

A

The fruit is that of Maclura pomifera. It is commonly known as osage orange, but has a number of other names including hedge apple, horse apple, bois d’arc, bodark, bowwood, yellow-wood and mock orange.

It is a small deciduous tree or large shrub, growing 8-15m (30-50ft) tall.

The branches are thorny, though they become less so as the tree ages. It is reasonably hardy, surviving spells at -20°C (-4°F), and prefers chalky soils.

The fruit is roughly spherical, bumpy, 8-15cm (3-6 in) in diameter, and turns a bright yellow-green in autumn. They secrete a sticky white

Alamy

Alamy

What are these?

Osage orange are not citruses, but do produce unusual-looking fruits

latex when they are cut or damaged.

Despite the name osage orange it is only very distantly related to the orange and is instead a member of the mulberry family (Moraceae). Male and female flowers are carried on separate plants so you need one of each in order to get fruit.

But they don’t need particularly Mediterranean or exotic conditions for this to happen.

Shall I pinch dahlias?

Q

Should I pinch out the growing tips of my dahlias, and will I lose flowers if I do this?

Mary Pike (via email)

A

I suggest that you use a sharp knife rather than secateurs, which may crush the dahlias tubular stems, to remove growing points when your charges are about 12in/30cm high. They will respond by producing side shoots, which will make plants bushy and trigger a wealth of blooms.

29 MAY 2021 AMATEUR GARDENING

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A Gardener’s Miscellany Gardening’s king of trivia and brain-teasers, Graham Clarke This week it’s:

Blueberries and cranberries All the juicy details about this fruity twosome

BLUEBERRIES and their close relations, the cranberries, are native to North America. The blueberries that we buy from supermarkets are Vaccinium corymbosum, and are known as ‘highbush blueberries.’ This is because, in nature and in commerce, the fruits come from tall (high) bushes, growing up to 13ft (4m)! Commercial growers prefer these tall ones for reasons of yield but, for home gardens, much smaller

varieties have been bred. Amateur gardeners can have lots of success with blueberries, but the same can’t really be said of the cranberry (V. oxycoccos); this is a completely different prospect, and below I explain how they grow.

Now is a good time for planting container-grown plants of both fruits, while established plants will soon be coming in to flower. So let’s look at some of the stories surrounding them.

Tiny fruits that pack a real punch: blueberries and cranberries

The best way to grow cranberries ALTHOUGH you can buy cranberry plants in the UK, don’t expect them to give you high yielding crops. These plants need boggy conditions, in limefree soil, and should really be watered with lime-free water! The best places to grow them are at the edges of a river or pond, where you have been able to create pockets of peaty, humus-rich soil: not exactly conditions that most of us can provide!

Commercial growing of cranberries, mainly in the United States, is fascinating (and very specific): Cranberries are grown in large fields, or ‘bogs’.

‘LUCKY Berry’ is a recently introduced blueberry, and it is quite unusual. First, its fruits are oval or egg-shaped, rather than spherical. Second, and more importantly, it produces its berries continuously over a long period, from July to October; it is called the ‘four-month blueberry’. It develops into a compact bush, so is very suited to growing in large pots (meaning you can have it in even the smallest of gardens). You will, however, need to grow it in an ericaceous compost.

Most blueberries also provide pretty autumn leaf colour. One of the best for this (and it also has really good fruits) is ‘Little Blue Wonder’.

This is also one of the smallest, at just 20in (50cm) high Oval-shaped berries and wide.

5

Ripening cranberries in a lagoon in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, Canada

the water surface. These berries are then scooped up and transported for processing. None of this is easy to do in the garden!

garden plants with ‘blueberry’ in the name that clearly aren’t!

Penstemon ‘Pensham Blueberry Ice’

Floribunda rose ‘Blueberry Hill’

Delphinium ‘Blueberry Pie’

Planteria.eu

All photographs Alamy, unless otherwise credited

Very lucky berries

These are dry for most of the year, but twice a year they are flooded (by diverting nearby rivers). The main flooding takes place in December, when the crops are dormant. Covering them with water insulates the plants from frost.

In early spring, the bogs are drained and the plants flower. Bees are imported to pollinate the flowers.

Soon the green fruits appear, which turn white and then red.

Then, in October, the second flooding takes place. Harvesting machines travel the rows and shake the berries off the plants. Each cranberry fruit has four air chambers in it, causing it to float to

Dahlia ‘Blueberry Hill’

Dianthus ‘Corona Blueberry Magic’

of ‘Lucky Berry’

29 MAY 2021 AMATEUR GARDENING

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A Gardener’s Miscellany Gardening’s king of trivia and brain-teasers, Graham Clarke

AG’s Garden Wall

BLUE ROSEMOOR

Hyde Hall

Cran

Mary

Pachysandra

Harlow Car

Wisley

Calluna

Lithodora

Holly

It’s time for our just-for-fun puzzle: AG’s Garden Wall. This wall comprises a total of 12 bricks in three courses. Each brick has a different word, or phrase on it. The first brick in each course (with words in BLOCK capitals) has been cemented in place and cannot be moved. Just rearrange all the other bricks, so that all four words in each course of bricks are linked. There are three different connections

to look for, one for each course. You may find that some words have more than one connection to other courses, but there is just the one correct answer. You’ll either find this puzzle fiendishly difficult, or incredibly easy!

Answers below.

Hint: In one of the courses, the words can all be followed by ‘Berry’!

CANNA BLUE ROSEMOOR Answers: CANNA (Anna) = Pachysandra (Sandra), Calluna (Una), Lithodora (Dora) = plant genera containing ladies’ names.

BLUEberry = Cranberry, Mary Berry, Holly berry = words are followed by ‘Berry’. ROSEMOOR = Hyde Hall, Harlow Carr, Wisley = all RHS Gardens.

WIN £30

Word search

This word search comprises words associated with blueberries and cranberries.

They are listed below; in the grid they may be read across, backwards, up, down or diagonally. Letters may be shared between words.

Erroneous or duplicate words may appear in the grid, but there is only one correct solution. After the listed words are found, there are five letters remaining; arrange these to make this week’s KEY WORD. BLUEBERRY CRANBERRY HIGH BUSH ACID AMERICA BILBERRY BLAEBERRY BOG JAM JELLY MUFFIN RED SAUCE SUPERFOOD SYRUP VACCINIUM

B M U I N I C C A V

L C N I F F U M B D

U R E D H S E L B O

E A F S A R A I H O

B N U U I E L I J F

E B C C B B G E T R

No: 571

R E A E E H L B D E

R R R R M L U O I P

Y R R A Y R I G C U

Y Y J P U R Y S A S

HOW TO ENTER: Enter this week’s keyword on the entry form, and send it to AG Word Search No 571, Amateur Gardening, Unit 2, Eelmore Road, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 7QN, to arrive by Wednesday 9 June 2021. The first correct entry chosen at random will win our £30 cash prize.

This week’s keyword is ..........................................................................................

Name ........................................................................................................................

Address .................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................

Postcode ..................................................................................................................

Email .........................................................................................................................

Tel no ........................................................................................................................

Future plc, publisher of Amateur Gardening, will collect your personal information solely to process your competition entry.

48 AMATEUR GARDENING 29 MAY 2021

CHART-TOPPING singer and entertainer Cilla Black was born on this day. I met her in 1989, in the week of her 46th birthday, when she was photographed at the Chelsea Flower Show for an AG front cover.

She was there to launch a new rose named after her (although Cilla Black with it has since disappeared from Graham, 1989 the catalogues). Cilla was not a particularly knowledgeable gardener, but she did love plants and flowers, and she took a pride in her 17-acre garden in Denham, Buckinghamshire. As well as ornamental beds, it boasted sweeping lawns, a putting green, tennis court, covered swimming pool and a woodland area.

In 2006, this woodland area hit the headlines, but for all the wrong reasons. Mature trees, including ash and sycamore, gave her privacy from prying eyes, but some of her neighbours weren’t happy about them, claiming they blocked sunlight from their gardens. The neighbours repeatedly asked Cilla to cut her trees back, but she insisted she could do nothing, as they were protected by a Tree Preservation Order (TPO). One day, persons unknown broke into the grounds and chain-sawed several of the trees back to 20ft (6m) stumps.

The police were called, and the local council investigated, but no-one was prosecuted.

As we know, in August 2015, Cilla passed away after suffering a stroke and falling at her villa in Spain.

TPOs are used to protect trees that are particularly attractive and contribute to the appearance of an area. It is illegal to cut down, prune, or otherwise damage a tree protected by a TPO, without the local authority’s consent. The unauthorised lopping or felling of a protected tree is a criminal offence, and can result in a fine of up to £20,000!

TI Archive

CANNA

Historical gardening event of the week: 27 May 1943

No: 013

JUST FOR FUN

Crossword

...just for fun!

COVILLE also looked at blueberry pollination. He realised that these bushes couldn’t self-pollinate, meaning that the gardener has to A bumble bee grow several plants that flower at the heading for some blueberry blossom same time and make sure there are plenty of bees around. Even with modern breeding, it is still recommended that pairs of different varieties are planted together to ensure best cropping.

Luckily, as the blueberry flowering season is fairly short, nearly any pairing will match up satisfactorily and give good results.

Blueberry ‘Sunshine Blue’ in bloom

Wow! I didn’t know that...

The blueberry is native to the eastern third of the US and into Canada.

‘Sunshine Blue’ is the only blueberry cultivar that some experts regard as self-fertile.

The American-based Ocean Spray grower co-operative, famous for its cranberry juice products, grows more than 60% of the world’s cranberries.

Commercially sweetened and dried cranberries are known as Craisins. Much like Hoover (a protected name), the Craisin name can only legitimately be applied to cranberries processed by the Ocean Spray co-operative.

4

6

5

7 8 10

9 11 12

13 14

15

16

17 ACROSS 1 Nicotiana is the flowering

_______ plant (7) 6 Twig or small branch on a tree that carries fruits – as in spurge! (4) 7 Black____ is a dreaded disease of roses (4) 8 Insect in the family Formicidae, typically living in large colony (3) 9 AG’s organics expert, Mr Flowerdew! (3) 10 Exclamation, perhaps given when you see someone’s massive marrow, as in the rose variety ‘Oh ___’, or Dahlia ‘The Big ___’! (3) 11 Sovereign ruler of an empire, as in ‘Purple _______’ (the cultivar of a late-summer flowering former sedum, now known Hylotelephium telephium) (7) 12 The seed-bearing spike of a cereal plant, such as corn (3) 13 Hedera is common, while parthenocissus is Boston and plectranthus is

Swedish! (3) 14 Time period anagram of 12 across is found in a gerbera! (3) 15 Type of soil favoured by the subjects of this week’s Miscellany! (4) 16 Small round object with a hole to allow it to be threaded on a cord, whilst Nertera granadensis is the ____ plant! (4) 17 Process of water passing through a semipermeable membrane (as in moisture taken up by plant roots) (7) DOWN 2 One of the subjects of this

week’s Miscellany! (11) 3 Another of the subjects of this week’s Miscellany! (11) 4 Tree tips! Wry advice written on old-fashioned desktop writing machines!

(11) (anag) 5 What? Pay for a garden walk? (7) (anag) 9 Common name given variously to Melissa officinalis and Monarda didyma (3,4)

ANSWERS TO ABOVE CROSSWORD

Pollination issues

3

2

ACROSS 1 Tobacco 6 Spur 7 Spot 8 Ant 9 Bob 10 Won 11 Emperor 12 Ear 13 Ivy 14 Era 15 Acid 16 Bead 17 Osmosis

MOST garden fruits and vegetable crops have been cultivated for many hundreds or even thousands of years, and we don’t know any of the individuals responsible for first developing or Blueberries growing refining them. Not so for blueberries, in a woodland because these fruits were first grown setting in acid soil ‘on purpose’ just over a century ago.

Around 1910, US botanist Fred Coville (1867-1937) started looking at blueberries and cranberries and, after many dead ends, figured out that they both need exceedingly acidic soil. The vast majority of our garden plants prefer soil around the neutral pH7 point; however, blueberries in particular do best at pH4.5 – very acidic. Over 10 years or so, Fred converted what were essentially interesting woodland plants into a valuable commercial crop.

1

DOWN 2 Blueberries 3 Cranberries 4 Typewriters 5 Pathway 9 Bee balm

The Coville touch

KEYWORD TO WORD SEARCH 566 (24 April): VICTORIAN AND THE WINNER IS: KRISTOFER KULL, BEACONSFIELD, BUCKS.

29 MAY 2021 AMATEUR GARDENING

49

All our esyesterdays

from the AG archiv

Part 4 : Trees & climbe rs

Percy Thrower

Trees TREES are very important, even in small gardens, since they provide the third dimension – height – that can otherwise be largely missing. They are also useful for shade, and to screen ugly objects and give increased privacy, though it must be borne in mind that deciduous trees, which drop all their leaves in autumn and do not produce any more until the spring, make little contribution for half the year.

Evergreens are a totally different proposition, but many of them are conifers that take up so much room and cast such dense shade that they are only suitable for large gardens and parks.

However, there are exceptions, particularly among the erect-growing cypresses, which can be of great value even in small gardens.

11. Malus This is the botanical name for the apples.

There are at least half a dozen fine ornamental kinds for gardens, including the early flowering Japanese crab apple (Malus x floribunda) with its carmine-red buds opening to blush-white flowers, and Malus x moerlandsii ‘Profusion’, which has much deeper coloured purplish-red flowers. Yet magnificent though these are in spring, they make little contribution to the garden at other times. So as the ‘best buy’ I pick Malus x robusta with blush-white flowers followed by heavy crops of cherry-sized red or yellow fruits. Most nurseries and garden centres will offer it as ‘Red Siberian’ or ‘Yellow Siberian’, according to which fruit colour you prefer.

12. Prunus This is where the cherries, almonds and peaches belong, as well as some other very good ornamentals. I pick Prunus x persicoides ‘Pollardii’ as the best almond; Prunus persica ‘Iceberg’ as a beautiful, unhackneyed white-flowered peach; and Cheal’s weeping cherry (Prunus ‘Kiku-shidare-zakura’) and ‘Amanogawa’ as two Japanese cherries of small size and sharply contrasting habit. Cheal’s weeping cherry grows to 12-15ft (3.6-4.5m) high, sweeps its branches down to the ground and smothers them each April with large, double, pink flowers. ‘Amanogawa’ 50 AMATEUR GARDENING 29 MAY 2021

11. Malus x robusta ‘Red Siberian’

12. Prunus ‘Kiku-shidare-zakura’

13. Rhus typhina ‘Dissecta’

14. Sorbus aria ‘Lutescens’

pushes its branches straight up like a little Lombardy poplar and has pale-pink flowers. If you still want a big tree-like Japanese cherry, plant the single white ‘Tai-haku’ or the double pink ‘Fugenzo’.

13. Rhus typhina This is the stag’s horn sumach, so-called because of its curious antler-like flower spikes that seem to become clothed in crimson velvet as the fruits ripen. It is a small tree and a highly decorative one, with big compound leaves that colour vividly in the autumn.

Even better than the common form is a garden variety named ‘Dissecta’, in which each leaflet is further cut into a number of narrow lobes, giving the long leaves a fern-like appearance.

14. Sorbus Another of the big families, containing such trees as rowans and whitebeams.

Gardeners living on thin chalk or limestone soils might well consider planting a whitebeam for its silvery-white foliage. If they do, the variety to go for is

S. aria ‘Lutescens’ because of its extragood leaf colour. As for the rowans, the common S. aucuparia takes a lot of beating and S.a. var. xanthocarpa is a fine yellow-fruited variety.

Climbers CLIMBERS are not used sufficiently by gardeners today. Perhaps some fear they will damage walls, block up gutters or make house painting difficult, but all these dangers can be avoided by choosing the right kinds of climbers and managing them properly.

Climbers are useful for many purposes other than clothing walls. They can be trained over summerhouses, over arches and pergolas, grown up pillars or tripods, and be allowed to scramble up into trees that would otherwise be of little decorative value.

15. Clematis The best kinds of clematis for small and medium-sized gardens are the

All photographs Alamy unless otherwise credited

Percy Thrower chooses the best trees and climbers for the garden

TI Media Archive

Five-star plant selection

This is the fourth of a 10-part series by Percy Thrower, who reveals his ‘best buys’ originally published in Amateur Gardening in 1973. In this part Percy continues his look at trees and includes climbers. The following articles in the series will focus on bulbs, herbaceous plants and alpines.

large-flowered hybrids, of which there is a bewildering number, mostly good.

Here are five chosen for their beauty, satisfactory behaviour and colour range.

First, C. ‘Jackmanii Superba’, with deep violet-purple flowers from midsummer until autumn. It can be cut almost to ground level each February if you do not want it to occupy much space.

By contrast, ‘Lasurstern’, with huge lavender-blue flowers in May and June, is best pruned after flowering, when the growths that have just flowered can be shortened to keep within available space. Pure-white C. ‘Henryi’ is pruned like ‘Lasurstern’, pink ‘Comtesse de Bouchard’ and carmine ‘Ville de Lyon’ like C. ‘Jackmanii Superba’.

16. Hedera This is ivy, but the common kind should be kept out of gardens. There are two less-vigorous and more beautiful varieties and also quite different species from other countries that deserve a place. All have the twin merits of being evergreen and self-clinging on any surface, however smooth.

They can all be clipped with sharp shears each spring and cut back just as much as is necessary to keep them where they are wanted.

I pick H. helix ‘Goldheart’ [H. helix ‘Oro di Bogliasco’] for its neat dark-green leaves, each with a large splash of gold in the centre; H.h. ‘Glacier’ for its cool combination of silvery-grey and white; and H. colchica ‘Dentata Variegata’ for its huge undivided leaves combining bright and pale-green with a lot of creamy-yellow. You can use these ivies to carpet the ground beneath trees as well as to grow upwards, and they do not mind how shady it is.

17. Lonicera Most people expect honeysuckles to be both showy and fragrant, so I pick as the ‘best buy’ among them two that combine these qualities in the highest degree.

They are the early Dutch [Lonicera periclymenum ‘Belgica’] and the late Dutch [Lonicera periclymenum ‘Serotina’]. There is very little to choose between them, with late Dutch perhaps a little redder and, as its popular name implies, a little later flowering. Both succeed best in slightly shady places, though, like clematis, they will grow well in full sun if the roots are in the shade.

137 years of practical advice 1884 The World’s Oldest Gardening Magazine 2021

15. Clematis ‘Comtesse de Bouchard’

16. Hedera helix ‘Goldheart’

17. Lonicera periclymenum ‘Belgica’

18. Parthenocissus tricuspidata ‘Veitchii’

18. Parthenocissus Two rather different climbers get called Virginia creeper in Britain, but the better of the pair for growing on walls is not, according to the pundits, the rightful owner of the name. We should, in fact, learn to call it Boston ivy, and if the nurseryman does not recognise that name it will be well to use the botanical one, which is Parthenocissus tricuspidata. It is fully self-clinging, variable in leaf size, but all forms colour brilliantly before they fall in the autumn.

Small-leaved and most desirable is a variety sold as ‘Veitchii’ (or sometimes, just to add to the confusion, as Ampelopsis tricuspidata ‘Veitchii’ or Vitis inconstans ‘Purpurea’).

19. Wisteria The Chinese wisteria, Wisteria sinensis, is magnificent where there is room for a climber to cover a very large area (its twining stems can easily reach 40ft (12m) in length), but for smaller gardens the much less rampant Japanese wisteria (W. floribunda) is to be preferred.

The wild form of this has flower trails

19. Wisteria floribunda f. multijuga

of about the same length, 9-12ft (2.73.5m), as the Chinese wisteria, but there is a garden variety named ‘Macrobotrys’ (sometimes listed as Wisteria floribunda f. multijuga) with racemes up to 3ft (90cm) long, and this is the one to plant.

If you want variety, you can buy the Japanese wisteria in white (‘Alba’) and pink (‘Rosea’) as well.

Q See AG 12 June for Percy Thrower’s five-star plant selection of bulbs.

The views, information and opinions expressed during this series of extracts from past issues of AG are solely those of the individuals involved, at the time they were written, and are not necessarily relevant or even legal today. Please treat these pages as a look back at how things were done in the past and not necessarily how they are done today. AG accepts no responsibility if readers follow advice given in these articles from past issues.

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Tried & tested Steve & Val Bradley test six products this week to determine the best for you Cordless mowers Cordless mowers are a great eco alternative to petrol. Steve and Val test five models AWNS play an essential part in many gardens and an area of plain green grass is a calm foil to bright colours in the borders.

The practical value of grass is that it offers somewhere to sit or play.

A good lawn needs regular attention to keep it in top condition, and one of the most important aspects of this is mowing to keep the grass plants healthy and encourage them to ‘tiller’ (or branch from the base) to thicken the lawn and help

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it withstand wear and tear. Other operations include feeding to boost the growth, spiking to improve drainage and scarifying to remove any build-up of dead material that might harm the roots.

As mowing takes up more time than any other lawn-care job, a reliable, easy-to-operate mower is important, and if it is compact and easy to store then so much the better. The mower needs to be comfortable to use, light enough to handle, easily adjustable

Mountfield Electress 38 Li Kit £239.00

Stihl RMA 235 Cordless Flymo EasiStore 300R £189.00 (mower only) Li Cordless £263.99

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All photographs by Chris Bradley, copyright, Future owned

and tough enough for your lawn.

The size of lawn dictates what size mower you need and access to a power point will decide whether you use a corded model or one with independent power. Lithium-ion batteries charge quickly and give reasonable run-time, although for a large lawn you may find you need two batteries so one is charging while you use the other. Check when you buy whether the battery can be recycled – some suppliers take the

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Features

Features

Features

This mower is made of tough, rust-proof lightweight, red polypropylene with grey plastic fittings. It has a 38cm cutting width and is powered by 2x 4Ah 20V Lithium-ion batteries. It starts by a lever and push button combination on the right of the handle.

The cutting action is a single rotary blade with the clippings blown into the rear grass box. The grass box is part porous fabric to allow better air flow. Two batteries and a charger are included.

Two-year warranty.

This mower has a 33cm cutting width and is powered by 1x 36V Lithium-ion battery with charge-level indicator. The body is orange and grey plastic. The handles are tubular steel with screw fittings for folding. It starts by a squeeze grip on the top of the handle and push button on the side. A side lever changes the cutting height. The cutting action is by a single rotary blade with clippings blown into the rear grass box. Five-year warranty and free 30-day return. Battery is compatible with other Stihl products.

This mower has a 30cm cutting width and is powered by 2x 4Ah 20V Lithiumion batteries. The rust-proof lightweight orange polypropylene body has grey plastic fittings. The handles are tubular steel (no hand grips) with levers for height adjustment. Starting is by a lever and push button on the handle. The cutting action is a single rotary blade with clippings blown into the rear grass box.

The roller between the back wheels gives the lawn a striped effect, which adjusts the cutting height. Two batteries and charger included. Two-year warranty.

Specifications

Specifications

Measurements: 1.44m (l) x 43cm (w) x 91cm (h). Weight 12.3kg. Adjustable handle height: yes. Adjustable cut height: yes (6 settings, 25-75mm). Fold for storage: yes. Grass box: 40 litres.

Measurements: 1.27m (l) x 37cm (w) x 1.08m (h). Weight 14kg. Adjustable handle height: no. Adjustable cut height: yes (5 settings, 25-65mm). Fold for storage: yes. Grass box: 30 litres.

Specifications

Performance

Performance

Performance

Designed for lawns of up to 350m².

Running time (depends on conditions/ grass length) 25mins (using both batteries). Charge time: 140mins.

Well-made and easy to use. Bigger than the other machines, so more difficult in tight corners, but feels tough.

Designed for lawns up to 300m².

Running time (depends on conditions/ grass length) 40mins. Charge time: 90mins. Suited to small gardens as it has a narrow cutting width and folds well.

Grass cutting height is fiddly to adjust.

Best for small gardens

Designed for lawns of up to 250m².

Running time (depends on conditions/ grass length) 35mins. Charge time: 180mins. Compact when folded. Felt flimsy and light. Over-priced for such a small machine. We were unable to run a working test as the battery was faulty.

52 AMATEUR GARDENING 29 MAY 2021

Measurements: 1.12m (l) x 38cm (w) x 90cm (h). Weight 10kg. Adjustable handle height: yes. Adjustable cut height: yes.

Fold for storage: yes. Grass box: 30 litres.

You can listen to Steve on alternate Sundays 10am-2pm on BBC Radio Kent’s Sunday Gardening (BBC Local)

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Cobra MX41 40V Cordless £324.99

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Bosch 18V 4.0Ah Li-ion Cordless 32cm £239.99

L-r: The Flymo, Mountfield, Cobra, Stihl and Bosch mowers, with Steve using the Cobra best buy

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battery back when you buy a new one.

The two basic cutting actions for mowers are: Rotary – one or more blades rotate horizontally at high speed to cut the grass and throw the clippings into a grass box behind the mower or Cylinder – spirally arranged blades rotate on a horizontal axis and brush closely against a horizontal bar or ‘sole plate’ to give a scissor-like cutting action and throw the clippings into a grass box in front of the mower.

Rotary mowers are the most common for small to medium-sized gardens, so we’ve tried five popular hand-propelled models to see how they perform.

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Specifications Measurements: 1.3m (l) x 38cm (w) x 1m (h). Weight: 9.9kg. Adjustable handle height: no. Adjustable cut height: yes (3 settings, 30-60mm). Fold for storage: yes. Grass box: 31 litres.

Performance This mower is designed for small to medium-sized lawns of under 300m² .

Running time (depends on conditions/ grass length) 40mins. Charge time: 95mins. A small machine that felt light and flimsy.

Features This mower has a solid metal body, 41cm cutting width and is powered by 1x 40V Lithium-ion battery. The handles are tubular steel with a moulded hand grip that has a built-in battery-level indicator, screw fittings for adjusting the height for comfort and levers for folding during storage.

Starting is by a squeeze grip in the handle and push button combination on the right of the handle.

There is a centralised lever on the right side of the body for changing the cutting height. The cutting action is a single rotary blade with clippings blown into the rear grass box, which is part porous fabric to allow better air flow and set below the handles at the back of the machine. The grass box is

removed by raising a black plastic flap, and lifting the box free. A battery and a charger are included. Two-year domestic warranty.

Specifications Measurements 1.5m (l) x 55cm (w) x 1.1m (h). Weight: 21kg. Adjustable handle height: yes. Adjustable cut height: yes (7 settings, 25-75mm). Fold for storage: yes. Grass box: 50 litres.

Performance This mower is designed for small to medium sized lawns. Running time (depends on conditions/grass length) 40mins. Charge time: 90mins. A sturdy, well-made machine with extremely comfortable-to-use hand grips. Cutting height lever is stiff.

29 MAY 2021 AMATEUR GARDENING

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All prices correct at time of going to press and may vary at garden centres

This mower has a 32cm cutting width and is powered by 1x 4Ah18V Lithium-ion batteries. The body is made of metal and lightweight green plastic. The handles are tubular steel with two upturned plastic hand grips, with screw toggles for folding during storage. Starting is by a lever and push button combination in the centre of the handle. A lever on the left changes the cutting height. The cutting action is a single rotary blade with clippings blown into the rear grass box. The battery and a charger are included. Two-year guarantee.

54 AMATEUR GARDENING 29 MAY 2021

Ask Anne!

Anne Swithinbank’s masterclass on: orchid rescue Step by step

The original plant already looks happier divided into three and potted up. I shall observe these carefully to see how they respond

Restoring orchids

Alamy

Check moisture levels by feeling compost but also testing weight of pot. When it lifts easily, the compost and roots are ready to take more water

Butterfly orchids like the Odontioda hybrid can flower several times before requiring attention

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This Miltonia ‘Sunset’ has made new growths and white aerial roots along a horizontal rhizome.

Spotty leaves are a sign of stress, so it’s time to rescue the plant.

Can I save my orchids?

Q

I have a couple of orchids that gave up flowering several years ago and yet cling to life on a cool, lightly shaded windowsill. Can I bring them back to their original glory, or shall I bin them?

Eleanor Kendall, Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire

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There is too much sideways growth to pot the lot on, so I pulled away the oldest back bulb (a pseudobulb with no leaves) and cut the rhizome to create three plants.

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All of the old, broken-down compost must be crumbled away. Take time to prune out any dead-looking roots and shorten others, so the original root system is reduced ready to make new growth.

Important orchid aftercare WATER carefully about once or twice a week in summer and fortnightly in winter. My plants grow on a bright but north-facing windowsill. Provide a winter minimum of 50°F (10°C) rising to 60°F (15°C) and a summer maximum of 75°FC (25°C). Apply a soluble orchid fertiliser every Watering a Cambria orchid fortnight during active growth, flushing with water (Odontoglossum) by plunging between to avoid a build up of residues. in a bucket of water

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All images John Swithinbank/Future, unless otherwise credited

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Ah, the familiar tale of the moribund orchid; I must confess to having a few of those myself. For such gorgeously exotic plants they are incredibly durable, remaining alive for years despite neglect. In the wild, many grow epiphytically, clinging to the branches and bark of trees, and they can sustain themselves through harsh times from nourishment stored in pseudobulbs.

Bringing plants back to life is fun, so I would give them a go. Imagine the triumph when they make new flowers.

Orchids are usually bought in bloom and, given thoughtful positioning and reasonable care, they go on to flower a couple more times before needing attention. They ought to be repotted every couple of years, because their bark-based compost begins to decay,

becoming waterlogged, and roots may rot. Feeding is important, too, for healthy growth and flowers.

A variety of orchids find their way onto our windowsills. Moth orchids (Phalaenopsis) are common and they are easily identifiable by an absence of pseudobulbs, so their leathery leaves sit on top of the pot accompanied by thick, fleshy aerial roots. Yet these like medium light and warm rooms.

As you’ve described a ‘cool, lightly shaded windowsill’, I think your orchid is from the Odontoglossum group, a multi-generic mix of hybrids often called ‘butterfly orchids’; their origins lie in the cool, moist, high-altitude forests of Central and South America. These include Brassia, Miltonia, Vuylstekeara and Odontioda, and compared to moth orchids, they have thinner, more upright leaves growing from pseudobulbs.

My demonstration plant is Miltonia ‘Sunset’ that has flowered well but is still in the same pot after three or four years.

Sometimes deciding how to proceed is tricky, but take one step at a time and learn by how the plant reacts.

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Using the original (washed) pot and a potting medium of bark with a little perlite and chopped moss (I used some from my lawn), the old section is potted, followed by the two new ones.

Letters to Wendy Write to us: Letters, Amateur Gardening magazine, Future Publishing Limited, Unit 2, Eelmore Road, Farnborough Hants GU14 7QN (please include your address). Email us: amateurgardening@futurenet.co.uk

Pets to potting WHEN the hamster’s old cage fell apart I used the lovely deep bottom tray for potting up seedlings.

Mrs Lucy Travell Gloucester

Fun labelling Diana with her winning display of Verbena ‘Seabrook’s Lavender’ receives her award from Peter Seabrook and former AG editor Tim Rumball in 2008

Verbenas to treasure

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ANY years ago in 2008, I entered a pot of Verbena ‘Seabrook’s Lavender’ into a flower show competition.

I noticed on QVC recently, they were selling Peter Seabrook’s verbena varieties ‘Margaret’s Memory’ and ‘Seabrook’s Lavender’. I’ve purchased some plants and waiting for delivery.

It’s brought back so many memories.

I won the class! I was over the moon as I’d never ever entered a flower show competition before.

I shall cherish these plants when I get them. I’ve already got a place for them in the garden, awaiting their arrival.

I still have the pictures that were taken by my daughter. Thought you’d like to see them, I was so proud. I had just got over septicaemia and spent a year in hospital and ended up in a wheelchair so to win this competition was special for me. I am now 73 and still gardening and still disabled. But our gardens keep us active and fit.

Diana Eastwood, Handcross, West Sussex Wendy says Lovely to hear from you Diana. Peter discussed how to succeed with these verbenas in his column last week – but I think you already know!

Letters from the archives 137 years of practical advice 1884 The World’s Oldest Gardening Magazine 2021 Q We delve into the archives of Amateur Gardening to share some interesting readers’ letters, this week from the edition dated 17 June 1978

A sense of taste BEING an ‘old-time gardener’, I most wholeheartedly deplore the apparent deterioration in the flavour of our fruit and vegetables. There are, however, two practical points which we must not lose sight of.

First, we are all prepared to admit that as we advance in age our senses deteriorate to a greater or lesser degree – eyesight, hearing and smell.

But nobody ever seems to mention

our taste. Isn’t it reasonable to assume that our taste buds likewise lose some of their sensitivity?

Unfortunately, while our sight, hearing and to some extent our smell, can be tested against certain standards, there is no standard against which taste may be judged.

HERE’S a picture of my seed labels just a bit of fun to add to the seed trays. I shall be doing more.

Rose Shaw Oadby, Leicester

Pallet planters I AM always looking for cheap and easy ways to plant flowers and herbs in rustic, nonplastic planters.

My son made these out of simple run-ofthe-mill wood pallets that I got free... Low cost and made in no time, they look really good.

Mrs J Fisher, Thirsk, North Yorkshire

The second point concerns the modern presentation of foods. Everincreasingly we have pre-packaged and processed ‘convenience’ foods put before us. In the processing it is acknowledged that much of the natural flavour and colour is destroyed and, in consequence, many of these packages are labelled ‘with added permitted artificial colour and flavour’.

How often, I wonder, are these colours and flavours being added to a somewhat ‘larger than life’ standard and, consequently, to a false standard with the result that our senses are being further diluted.

While I regret that we ‘old timers’ are perhaps losing our sense of taste and smell, I feel very sorry for the younger generation whose palates are being educated on these artificial flavours and colours. They have, in 29 MAY 2021 AMATEUR GARDENING

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Reader material unless credited

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62 AMATEUR GARDENING 29 MAY 2021

SHARE YOUR STORIES TIPS AND PHOTOS and you will receive a fantastic pair of Town & Country’s Master Gardener gloves — the UK’s best-selling gardening glove and a perfect companion to help you in the garden. State small, medium or large with your letter.

Photo of the week

“I love tulips for their boldness of colour” I LOVE tulips for the sheer boldness of their colour. Here is a selection of them from my garden, but I hate picking them. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. My son enjoyed photographing them all.

I also love tagetes. We recently went to our local garden centre for lunch, intending to buy a packet of for my tubs. The wealth of plants was amazing, the quantity was marvellous to browse around, so obviously the seed was forgotten!

My husband used to say – you are born beautiful or lucky, and you are lucky. This morning was proven as usual, a packet dropped on my doorstep. Thank you AG. Pat Coomer, Hornchurch, Essex

Encouraging wildlife close to home WE have decided to create a wildlife area in our suburban garden by encouraging plants that produce nectar for butterflies and bees, like this snakeshead fritillary, one of our native wild flowers.

Pretty white We have allowed honeysuckle to grow through Fritillaria meleagris a hedge and are leaving nettles as we have seen butterflies alighting on them. We realise we have a long way to go and our next project will hopefully be a bird box.

Pauline Burgess, Manchester

The importance of labels WHY do I keep planting things in pots and not labelling them? It’s not like I haven’t got enough labels – I have hundreds of them.

So why do I do it?

The problem is, I often think I’ll remember what’s in a tray or pot when I sow seeds or transplant seedlings, and rather than stop what I’m doing and write a label, I think I’ll do it later.

Recently, though, this has come back to bite me. I had obviously put some lilies in a pot in the greenhouse (without a label), but I thought I’d put soil in the pot to warm up before I sowed some leek seeds. So I took the soil-filled pot and scattered my leek seeds. Now I have leeks growing with lilies!

Thank you for all your amazing poems. This week, Paul explains how he grows sweet peas and what these flowers mean to him

WIN £20

Sweet peas with love Collecting toilet rolls for months before, Now all bagged by the kitchen door.

April in the greenhouse now, Singing, as sweet peas I sow.

All varieties, a multi-coloured mix, On virgin ground pea sticks I fix.

With string and rubber safety tips, I build my wigwams, love songs on my lips.

June now and the shoots are green, Ready to plant in their floral scene.

All tied in now, I await the colour, Each year, richer, sweeter, fuller.

And then July the first flowers form, The fragrance carries on the morn.

I pick my love her first bouquet, I hand them to her, no words to say.

No words were needed, what could compete, With a fragrant offering so complete.

An offering that will continue for days, And express my love in so many ways.

But not just love for a beautiful wife, For the growing season is full of life.

Enough to share with friends, as gifts, It gladdens my heart to see spirits lift.

The pot of seedling leeks with a lily surprise to come

So don’t follow my example – make sure you label everything you sow or pot up!

Sally Ahern, Loughborough, Leics

With their pastel mix of purples and pinks, Variegated and delicate, it makes me think.

Is there a colour or smell that’s sweeter, Than sweet peas planted with love at Easter.

Paul Perry, Halesowen, West Midlands

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64 AMATEUR GARDENING 29 MAY 2021

SHARE YOUR STORIES TIPS AND PHOTOS and you will receive a fantastic pair of Town & Country’s Master Gardener gloves — the UK’s best-selling gardening glove and a perfect companion to help you in the garden. State small, medium or large with your letter.

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Pockets of plants grow well in the gaps between paving, as Rhoda plans to experiment with her AG seeds

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Fill the gap!

THERE are gaps between the paving stones in my garden that provide excellent growing conditions. The stones warm up when the sun shines and the soil under the stones is usually moist.

There are always some self-sown wallflowers and last year what looked like weeds turned out to be, when they flowered, self-sown chives from the pot

Advertising Production Manager: Joanne Crosby Digital Editions Controller: Jason Hudson

of herbs I had put out in the garden when it was too big for the kitchen windowsill.

Now I have cleared away recognisable weeds and, dare I say it, sprinkled some of the free seeds you so kindly send each week. I await the result of my experiment when I prick out the seedlings in the near future.

Dr Rhoda Pippen, Cardiff

Reader’s Tip

Sally’s upcycled bird box

I MAKE use of my mini greenhouse as does AG’s Ruth, but I soon got fed up with rolling up the front panel and tying with ribbon. These large pegs do the job quickly and perfectly.

Eileen Foulkes, Manchester

The box is made of recycled materials

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THIS is a bird box I made on a course just before lockdown started.

All the wood is upcycled and the hinge is a piece of leather from an old shoe!

Sally Smith, Nottingham 29 MAY 2021 AMATEUR GARDENING

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Toby Buckland Plantsman and BBC gardening presenter Spectacular Surfinia is a fine example of a trailing petunia which, with the right training, has the potential to grow sky-high!

MNP Flowers/Suntory

Surf’s up…

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Surfinias were bred in Japan for ground cover, and their vigour (as with this ‘Giant Purple’) makes them a favourite with gardeners seeking clusters of colour that spread readily

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Take care with watering. While petunias establish, let the surface of the compost dry out between watering, as the roots hate sitting in the wet.

Training petunias is like training tomatoes; tying the main stem to a cane and pinching out side shoots to keep them going up

Toby’s petunias may have a reputation for trailing, but he’s determined to make them more upwardly mobile

All photographs Alamy unless otherwise credited

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HE plant lab at Buckland Castle, aka the patio, is a nerve centre for radical research that could revolutionise the way I grow petunias. The usual method for these colourful container bedders is to plant them on the edge of pots or baskets, where their long stems can cascade.

This summer, though, as part of a gravitydefying experiment, I’m planting them – cue dramatic music – to climb.

Just as Newton discovered gravity in an apple-related accident, I came up with this idea because I accidentally put the wrong petunia pack into my gardencentre trolley. What I wanted to buy was a shrubby variety to billow 12in (30cm) high and wide, but what I bought (after the fates had intervened) was a clutch of Surfinias – plants that trail with such vigorous abandon, passing revellers might mistake our house and its hanging baskets for a Wetherspoon’s.

Not wishing to offer false hope to the thirsty, I’ve put these rampant flowers

“They have the oomph to climb quite high”

Toby’s trivia

around the base of my potted palm, but instead of directing their energetic stems down over the rim, I’ve trained them up the hairy trunk of the tree.

Training plants that usually sprawl isn’t something new. We do it to tomatoes, close relatives of petunias, lashing the main stem to a cane and (as the summer warms) pinching out the side shoots to keep them going up.

Like cordon toms, Surfinia plants have the oomph to climb quite high.

They were originally bred in Japan in 1987 for ground cover, and then brought to Europe by the Dutch, where they have sold by the tens of millions.

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Deadheading isn’t necessary as the flowers naturally fall off, but do pluck off any petunia petals that fall off the foliage – after rain, they stick to the leaves like glue.

Part of the reason for their popularity, as well as their vigour, is the way their growth is affected by temperature. At the start of the season, when temperatures can dip below 10°C (50°F), the side shoots near the roots grow fastest, making for tempting and easy-to-takehome bushy pot plants. Once planted, and as temperatures soar, the main stem romps away, cascading from baskets or, dibbers-crossed, climbing, and festooning my palm with flowers.

I’ll keep you posted on their progress…

Petunia propagation while grandifloras are big, floppy THE original petunias introduced and hate rain. Breeders from South America were crossed the two to produce grown as conservatory dozens of named ‘series’ plants, and propagated with the best traits from every year from cuttings. both – some being Gardeners soon bushy and others realised they could be trailing. Unlike the planted outside, and varieties of the recent started to grow the two past, these modern main strains – P. multiflora Distinctive large and floppy blooms of strains (including Surfina) and P. grandiflora – from P. grandiflora are raised like original seed. Multifloras bear lots of petunias from cuttings. smaller, weather-resistant flowers, 29 MAY 2021 AMATEUR GARDENING

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