This month in the garden – Derek Cox

During September, on a visit to the library in Upper Church Street, upon finding the car park almost full I did manage to park in a bay at the bottom left hand side. In the garden just behind the car park, boundary wall grew a plum tree, whose foliage showed signs of the tree being infected with silver leaf. This disease causes all the foliage to turn a silvery-grey and as there is no spray available to control this disease, I would advise the people to dig it out and to burn it. Occasionally, plum trees, which due to neglect and never having been fed, especially so in hot, dry soils, will sometimes show signs of False Silver Leaf, the leaves turning a grayish shade. During March, this can be rectified by plunging a fork nine inches, 22cm, deep into the soil at regular intervals, around the outer edge of the trees canopy of branches. Then pour a dessertspoonful of growmore down each fork hole and thoroughly water to allow the fertilizer to dissolve and then be taken up by the roots.

I have eleven Japanese Maples growing in my garden and these have superb orange and red autumn foliage. Seedlings of these often appear in the garden, but most do not compare with the existing plants. This year one seedling appeared whose spring foliage was a bright pinkish-red, the leaves turned green by midsummer, but suddenly during late September, the foliage turned bright red. I have decided to grow this seedling to see if it performs as well next year, if so it might be worth introducing to the nursery trade. What a pity European sycamores and Norway maples have such pathetic autumn foliage, they do not compare with the Asiatic, or American maples.

My hardy Cyclamen start to flower during September and in my garden are at their best between mid September and January. Cyclamen hederifloium, which flowers in September and October is by far the easiest to grow, it not only has flowers which vary from white through to deep mauve-red, but green leaves variegated with silver, or even pure silver leaves. Cyclamen hederifloium will grow in up to 70 per cent shade and as it is summer deciduous, the leaves dying down during May, it is ideal to grow beneath trees such as limes, which due to aphis infestation, will cover all summer foliage and flowers with their excretion, resulting in them being covered in black, sooty mould. The ‘Chilean Flame Vine’, Tropaeolum speciosum, is a superb climber to grow in slightly acid soils. I planted one in the middle of a group of Rhododendrons where for years it seemed to move from one plant to another, but it always flowered sparsely. This year it seems to have found a plant it likes and started to flower during early August, as I write this it still forms a curtain of flaming-red flowers. Some years ago, I saw this plant in Yorkshire when it was covered with metallic-blue berries, but in all the years I have grown it I have yet to see just one berry.

On the 9th September, together with town councilor Toby Griffiths and park keeper Dave Smith, I was privileged to travel to Cleethorpes for the presentation of The East Midlands in Bloom awards. Syston were once more given a silver guilt award, the points the judges awarded were up on the previous year. The Queen Victoria public house received a certificate of merit for its outstanding display of hanging baskets, tubs and window boxes. Cleethorpes were awarded a gold medal for being the most outstanding East Midlands coastal resort, and they thoroughly deserved it as their landscaping and floral displays were magnificent.

Derek Cox