home & Garden

Look locally over the garden gate with Lucie Giselle Ponsford

Biennials: I hope you are all enjoying your gardens, wiping your brow from the spring rush and now starting to reap rewards from your labours.

If you have got the bug and are feeling inspired to dig deep with your gardening to do list? A group of plants that are often overlooked but will really improve your borders, albeit next year are: biennials. A biennial has, like an annual, one flowering season before it dies, but that comes in it’s second year of growth. The latin origin of the word: Bi Meaning “two” + annus “year” speaks for itself. Digitalis purpurea (foxglove), Dianthus barbatos (sweet William), Alcea rosa (single hollyhock) & the beautifully scented spring flowering Erysimum cheiri (Wall Flowers) are some of the old favourites in this group and here are some others which you can try: Oenothera glazioriana (evening primrose), Angelica gigas, Campanula medium (Canterbury bells), Lunaria (honesty) & Myosotis (forget-me-nots). If you have any of the above growing already in your garden, remove the desiccated plant when they have set seed and shake the seed heads around where you would like them to be before you compost the plant. They will get on and do their own thing. Just be careful when weeding. You will soon get used to the seedling leaves and selectively weed around them. But if you want to introduce some of the above, now is the time to sow them into trays and repeat some of that spring, seed sowing, joyful anticipation.

With love, Lucie

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