Syston Town News » This month in the garden

This Month in the Garden,February 2012 with Derek Cox

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:01:28 +0000

I have had many people stop me in Syston to say their plants are flowering much earlier than normal. This is mainly due to the lack of heavy frosts during December and early January, which has allowed plants to open their flowers without becoming frosted. Here I would like to point out that we grow plants from all parts of the temperate world, some flower on short day lengths, gradually increasing day lengths, long day lengths, or gradually decreasing day lengths. This then gives us all of our spring, summer, autumn and winter flowering plants.

Amongst the winter flowering shrubs in my garden the most highly scented are Sarcoccoca hookeriana ‘Purple Stem’, which is a three feet (90cm) tall evergreen with purple young branches and masses of white flowers from January to March, I also grow Sarcoccoca ruscifolia ‘Dragon Gate’, which has small green leaves and a more open habit. Both are strongly scented and we find even one sprig too strong to have in the house, but in the garden, they are superb, either in sun or in half shade.

This year Jasminum nudiflorum has been magnificent, producing a lovely show of bright yellow flowers. Last year the flowers were so badly frosted the plants took on a very sorry looking spectacle. This lovely winter flowering Jasmine is not a climber, but a very lax shrub that looks at its best when trained out and up a trellis against a south facing wall, or fence.

During March, as soon as the flowers have faded, prune all of the branches back to within a few inches of the framework you have created on a trellis. Last year, just to see how they performed, I purchased three new Helleborus ‘Double Ellen’ hybrids. Although I planted them in well-prepared soil and watered them in dry periods, two died. The remaining one is now in full flower and has four layers of creamy petals, each petal having a pink edge, but having such a heavy head, it does hang, so you have to lift it to appreciate it. Incidentally, all Hellibors are resistant to rabbit, deer and mice and although the hybrids will grow almost anywhere, they are at their best in half shade. Now it remains to see if ‘Double Ellen’ will seed itself around the garden, as do all of my other Helleborus hybrids.

Cyclamen coum is a very hardy, dwarf tuberous alpine, which in my garden flowers from late December until early March. I have five different varieties of this superb alpine with flowers in colours of white, lavender-pink and red. Their small, rounded leaves also vary; some are deep green and others being green with Christmas tree-like silver patterns in them. I did have one with pure silver leaves, but this year it failed to appear. It was fifteen years ago when I first received Cyclamen coum and thinking alpine, I planted them at the front of a gravel scree, but gradually over the years they have seeded themselves towards the shade of rocks, or dwarf conifers.

At present, there are a number of different coloured polyanthuses in one of my borders. In the first place, all had been purchased as winter bedding to plant in the tubs, or pots on my terrace. They gave way to summer bedding and as they are perennials, I planted them in the border. Some are five years old and still, when the birds leave them alone, give me a colourful display.

Old polyanthus can, when they have produced more than one rosette of leaves, be carefully divided into single rosettes, but do make sure there is an ample root system with each rosette and then replant, or pot on to use as bedding the following autumn. In the past, I have contributed money to buy shares in seed collected by plant hunters throughout the world. Some seed has produced unusually and interesting plants, but a lot were often weedy looking plants that finished up on the compost heap. However, a few years ago I contributed to one expedition to the Sakhalin Island, which is between Japan’s north island and Russia. Some of the seed did not germinate, but amongst the seed that did germinate was a species of birch, which has light brown bark. I have given two of these, which are pot-grown plants to St Peter and St Paul School to plant in their new wild life garden.

This Month in The Garden, December with Derek Cox

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 04:10:08 +0000

I have 28 varieties of snowdrops (Galanthus) that flower during the late winter and early spring, but I also grow one species, Galanthus reginae-olgae, which produces its brilliant white flowers during November. This species, I think, is the one often seen in papers, shown as an example of global warming. It just goes to show you have to know your plants to write about them. Although I love to see plants in flower, I even love our native wild flowers, which in the right place can look gorgeous, but in the wrong place, we call weeds.
However, I also have a great affection for foliage plants, as many of these will look attractive even when they are not in flower. I grow many herbaceous perennials and amongst these are a number of evergreen Heuchera’s whose foliage varies from yellow to plum purple, many being streaked or spotted with silver. As we were going past Goscote Nurseries my wife Vi said, let us go in to the café for a cup of tea. My first interest in any nursery is not a cup of tea, but the plants, so I started to meander around the beds and came across a group of Heuchera’s, Vi said we already have ten different ones so we don’t want any more. One new variety, Heuchera ‘Electra’ was so outstanding, I knew I must find a place in the garden for it. It has bright yellow foliage with contrasting coppery-red veins. James Toone who is the MD of Goscote Nurseries gave me a plant of ‘Electra’ so I could grow it in my garden and see how it compared with other yellow leaf Heuchera’s. The holly is often associated with Christmas time; florists when making wreaths and crosses use its evergreen leaves and bright red berries. Here I must point out that most holly trees are either male or female. The males will never produce berries, but the females will not berry unless a male holly first pollinates them.
I grow three different Hollies, one common green male holly grows in the hedge at the rear of my garden and I only prune this once a year just as the flowers have faded. This allows bees and hover flies to carry the male pollen to the other two female hollies, one produces very few berries, but I grow this for its prostrate habit and lovely gold variegated foliage. The other female is Ilex aquifolium ‘Gold Flash’, which forms a bushy, upright plant with dark green gold splashed foliage and every year this carries a large crop of bright red berries. There is no doubt Vi will prune out a number of the red-berried branches to use for decorations. Nurserymen will sell open ground trees, including top fruit trees from November until the end of the following March. These are often much cheaper to buy than pot grown trees and I have found these will, if the weather is fit and the ground is well prepared in advance, transplant better than pot grown trees that have been purchased in leaf. For standard or half-standard trees prepare the soil by digging over an area of soil at least two and a half to three feet, 75/90cm in diameter by one and half feet, 45cm deep and work plenty of garden compost, or well-rotted manure into your soil. If you garden on heavy clay, do not make the mistake of digging a hole and then filling this with multipurpose compost, in so doing you will create a sump that will fill with water during prolonged periods of rain. Newly planted trees will need a stake and then the tree tied to this with a proper tree tie. In the past, I have seen binder twine used as tree ties and within a few years the twine has cut into the tree and strong winds will cause the top to break off. For almost ten years, I grew the evergreen Clematis cirrhosa ‘Freckles’ on a trellis and archway, which hid my compost bins. This attractive Clematis produces cream speckled with red flowers from late autumn well into the winter. Catalogues will say this Clematis is fragrant, but you need to be very close to the flowers to smell them. You will notice I am talking about my plant in the past tense as it died during last winter. Now I am going to replace this with Clematis cirrhosa ‘Landsdowne Gem’ a new introduction that has red flowers.

My very best wishes, to all our readers and I look forward to once more writing about gardening in the coming year.

This Month In The Garden (November 2011) with Derek Cox

admin — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:03:19 +0000

The grass seed that I sowed during September germinated very quickly creating a bright green sward of grass to my existing lawn. I had to mow the lawn a number of times before the end of October, but when mowing freshly germinated grass seed wait until it is 2 inches, 5cm tall. Then set the mower high enough to just take off about one third of the grass blades, this will encourage the young grass to tiller, a term used when grass forms extra shoots just above soil level. This in turn will help to produce a much thicker carpet of grass and a more spectacular lawn.

People will often ask me if it is wise to feed lawns during the autumn. I must admit I only ever feed my lawn during the spring and early summer as I have found that feeding during October encourages moss to grow more rapidly than the grass in my lawn. At this time of the year, a question that listeners often ask on Radio Leicester’s ‘Down to Earth’ programme is when should I stop mowing my grass? This always depends on our inclement weather, some years I finish mowing by early November, but I have known years when mowing has continued until the first week in December. I would point out however, that when you mow during the autumn or early winter, set the mower to leave the lawn with at least one inch, 25mm of grass showing above soil level, if you scalp the lawn, moss will soon take over.

I have already moved all my half-hardy plants into my cold greenhouse where I can control the amount of water each container receives, I can also cover individual plants with fleece during very cold weather. If, like myself, you have a number of hardy plants in containers, do make sure the containers stand on pot feet to allow excessive water to drain away. It is amazing how many hardy container grown plants die due to excessive rainwater filling a container when its base is standing directly onto paving.

I have been using my leaf Vac to gather up all the fallen leaves, my Vac shreds the leaves; this enables me to mix them with ease with any other material that goes into my compost bins. Once they have dropped their leaves many trees will look naked and unappealing, but I have two trees, which become even more appealing after leaf drop, these are Acer pensylvannicum ‘Erythrocladum’ and Acer ‘Phoenix’. The young branches of both trees, at leaf drop, start to turn bright red and this colour remains until the trees start to come into leaf the following year.

My garden contains many herbaceous perennials, many of these I have mentioned in the past, but this year I planted Ageratum corymbosum, which was in flower when I purchased it in June and as I sit writing is still a mass of fluffy blue pom poms. Many of you will have now received seed catalogues, most contain fabulous pictures of plants and these will often entice you to buy them. I am always wary of photographs showing large flowers, as in the past I have purchased seed of plants depicted as having large flowers, or vegetables that look show bench perfect, only to find when the plants grow the flowers and vegetables were very disappointing. Nowadays I am lucky in that I often go to trial grounds to see how plants perform, so I can then select the best.

picture courtesy of Ball Clegrave Ltd

My wife love tomatoes, but two years ago I found I was allergic to them, so stopped growing them. Since then my wife has complained about the tomatoes she buys from superstores, says they have tough skins and little taste. This year my old friends at Ball Collgrave Seeds, Wholesale only, carried out a trial on forty-seven varieties of tomato, which were judged by the public for their taste. The cherry tomato ‘Sweet Million’ came out top and the small-plum tomato ‘Rosado’ came in second. Third and fourth were also cherry tomatoes, so it came to ‘Sarta’ at fifth to be the first of the medium–sized round tomatoes named for taste. I shall order all three and plant them to enable Vi once more to enjoy the taste of a home grown tomato. Incidentally, the commercial tomato ‘Shirley’ came in at 21st and the old stand by ‘Moneymaker’ 40th.

This Month In The Garden (October 2011) with Derek Cox

admin — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 04:05:22 +0000

This year the dry summer and lack of rain has caused my lawn to look like a dried out prairie, I have only had to mow it every two, or three weeks and then, during late August, two 15 feet by two feet, 4.5m x 60cm strips of completely dead grass appeared in the lawn. I spiked and watered them, but to no avail, they remained dead. During early September, I asked Roger, who occasionally helps me with tasks that I no longer feel capable of doing, to see what he could do with the dead strips. Roger brought along a machine that ripped up the brown areas, the dead material was put into my brown, garden waste bin. Then, after watering the two areas, we mixed half-and-half spent multipurpose compost with sharp sand and spread this over the strips. Using a straight piece of timber, we levelled the compost with the existing lawn. During mid September, I purchased a standard lawn seed and sowed this over both areas at one and a half ounces per square yard. Grass seed sown during mid September will germinate very quickly and should then put on at least six weeks of growth before the onset of winter. I did spread a net over the area, not only to prevent the birds from eating the seed, but also to prevent cats from using the freshly composted area as a toilet. I have around 48 varieties of daffodils, most of these are planted in borders, but I also had ten varieties growing in pots. This year the pot-grown ones, which although I watered at regular intervals, struggled to put on new growth, so during September I decided to plant these in my borders. When tipping daffodils out of pots you will find not only large flowering size bulbs, but also many small bulbs, these I spread in a trench at the rear of my garden where they can, in two years time mature to flowering size. I always plant my daffodils four inches, 10cm below soil level, if planted two shallow they will suffer during dry seasons. During September my daughter, Louise and her partner James took us to Ashwood Nurseries at Kingswinford, Worcestershire. It must have been fifteen years ago when I last went to Ashwood Nurseries and this was to film a Central Television programme with the late Geof Amos. Ashwood have a number of national collections of plants and one of these is Cyclamen. Although I already have hundreds of hardy Cyclamen in my garden, many now in full flower, I could not resist buying four more, which were growing in pots in a cold greenhouse. I already grow Cyclamen purpurascens, but purchased two more, one had superior red flowers; the other for its silvery foliage, this species is at its best in shade. The two other species are Cyclamen mirabile ‘Tilebarn Nicholas’, which has superb deep green foliage with a silver splash in the centre and lilac coloured flowers and Cyclamen graeceum ‘Album’, which has silver edged foliage and white flowers.
The last two will not tolerate cold winters, this meant a visit to a garden centre to purchase a small fiberglass trough in which I could plant them. At present, this stands on my terrace, but during October, I shall lift it into my greenhouse. My runner beans ‘St George’, shown below, have now stopped flowering, so before long I shall take the plants out of the two 50 litre black tubs in which they have been growing and put them in one of my compost bins. Six plants have provided us with runner beans from mid June until the third week in September, but here I must point out they have been watered almost daily and fed once a week with high potash tomato fertilizer. Runner beans, peas and Wisterias form nitrogen nodules on their roots, so it is a waste of time feeding them nitrogen fertilizers. As I write this, I keep looking out of the window at my non-stop Begonias, which despite the dry summer have produced a non-stop display of red, pink and white flowers throughout this period. These will be my number one bedding plant for next year.

This Month in the Garden (September) with Derek Cox

admin — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:04:09 +0000

Recently my son Johnathan invited Vi and myself to stay with him and his family in a village close to Norwich. During our stay, Johnathan took us to a number of interesting venues, one being the Urban Jungle Garden, which is just outside the village of Taverham. This amazing nursery has a garden planted out with Palm trees, bananas and numerous tropical plants, which I was told had to be lifted, potted and taken into a warm greenhouse to over winter. In the nursery, I saw a number of excellent Chamaerops humilis (fan palms) for sale. In the past, I have had a pot-grown plant of this standing in my Japanese garden, but during last winter, it died. Therefore, I purchased another 2.5 feet, 75cm tall plant, which I shall over-winter in my greenhouse. I also came across a plant that brought back memories of my walks in the Swiss Alps, where in alpine villages, houses had pot grown half-standard Lycianthes rantonnettii standing outside. This superb deciduous shrub has blue flowers throughout the summer months, but knowing that it is not hardy, I saw a man in his garden and asked him if he spoke English. Of course, he said, as do most of the Swiss, also German and French. What is it you would like to know? I then asked him how he managed to over winter his Lycianthes. He smiled and said many people asked him the same question and the answer is, we put them in our cellars, which are frost free and not too warm to promote growth too early in the year. I also purchased a small, pot grown half standard from Urban Jungles, which now stands in my garden. This will have to stand in my conservatory during the winter and be tip pruned in the spring to keep it compact. The Itea ilicifolia, which I have trained out on my South facing fence is now 8 feet, 2.4m across and 7 feet, 2.1m tall, forming a lovely evergreen screen. This superb shrub has soft holly-like leaves and during August and early September, it produces small, greenish-white, fragrant flowers in catkin-like racemes, which cascade down the foliage, attracting bees, hoverflies and even dragonflies. Some years ago, I decided to plant Zauschneria californica ‘Dublin’, Californian Fuchsia in a raised bed. Being a native to California I thought last winter would have killed it, and by last April it looked as dead as a doornail so I cut it right back to ground level. During May, suddenly new growth appeared and now the whole of the raised bed is a mass of bright orange, tubular flowers. Incidentally, the name ‘Dublin’ was given to a superior form found in Glasnevin Botanic Gardens.
Derek Cox

This Month In theGarden (August) with Derek Cox

admin — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 04:04:15 +0000

A short time ago, I had a phone call from Ann Needham asking me if she could call round with a few photographs of a plant, which her late husband Chick had found in their garden. When looking at the photographs I had to admit that I had no idea what it was. It had asparagus-like foliage and flattened twisting stems that were 7 feet, 2.1m, tall. I looked in volume one of the RHS dictionary and found a description that fitted the plant, this was named as Asparagus filicinus. This is not a native plant, so I feel a bird must have dropped the seed from a bird feeder containing seed from a foreign birdseed mix. Talking of birdseed, last year I purchased 2 kilos of Nyjer seed to feed tits and finches. The birds dropped the Nyjer seed all over the garden, so thousands of unwanted seedlings appeared, giving me the needless task of weeding them out. Now I stick to sunflower seed hearts, which do not produce any seedlings.
As Goscote Nurseries was having a summer sale Vi and myself decided to drive over and see if they had any dwarf shrubs, which would fit into five pots that were empty due to last winter killing the plants that had stood in them. We were not disappointed and came across a number of interesting shrubs, including Helichrysum italicum serotina with brilliant silver foliage, which when rubbed smells of curry; it also has yellow flowers during the summer. Alongside this, we found Lavendula ‘Pinnata’ with leaves, which differ from other lavenders in that the grey-green leaves, have a fern-like appearance, but the flowers are a typical lavender-blue. Both of the above look as if they would over winter in my cold greenhouse. I also purchased Gazania ‘Apache, which is a superb African perennial with grey-green leaves and a number of single flower stems that are topped with huge, 4 inch, 10cm, diameter orange-yellow flowers. I grow this in a pot in full sun, if grown in shade the flowers will not open. Although listed as hardy to minus five Celsius, I shall over winter my plant in the greenhouse. I have a 10 feet, 3m, tall Cotinus coggygria ‘Golden Spirit’ growing in a border at the rear of my garden whose brilliant yellow foliage is outstanding from May until October, then the autumn the foliage turns a flaming orange prior to the leaves falling. As the bottom three feet, 90cm, of the Cotinus branches have no leaves, I decided to plant Clematis ‘Kiri Te Kanawa’ to grow up and into the branches where its reddish-pink flowers would contrast with the yellow foliage. My soil is a sandy loam, but beneath the Cotinus, it had dried to the consistency of concrete. So what I thought was going to be a few minutes job, turned out to be half an hour of fork, spade and water to enlarge a hole into which, prior to planting the Clematis, I could tip a couple of bucketfuls of compost.
My Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ starts to open its spires of bright red flowers during early July and presents me with a glorious display into August. This superb perennial loves a well-drained soil in sun, but I have seen it growing in thick clay in half shade and it still flowers; it is also resistant to slugs, snails and many other nasties. During mid July I thinned out a number of the older branches from my Cytisus battandieri, pictured above, which due to its cone shaped cluster of yellow flowers smelling of ripe pineapple, has the common name of pineapple broom. You will sometimes see this broom as being suitable for growing against a south wall, but as my tree is now 12 feet, 4m, tall and 15 feet, 5m, in diameter, you would need a very large wall on which to grow it. My two 50 litre tubs in which I grow runner bean ‘St George’ started to produce beans during June and due to my watering it daily and feeding with tomato fertilizer once a week, they are still giving us an ample daily supply.
Derek Cox

This Month in the Garden (July) with Derek Cox

admin — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 04:07:19 +0000

There is a large oak tub on my patio, which has every appearance of being one-half of a beer barrel and during the winter months this is planted with winter flowering Viola’s. I use the smaller flowering Viola’s as I feel these give a better display than the large flowered winter pansies. Whichever you choose you will find their winter display very disappointing, both being at their best between March and the end of May.
During early June I pulled out all of my faded Viola’s and put them in one of my compost bins and as the soil in the tub was full of ants I spread this over a part of the garden, the birds soon polishing off the ants and their eggs. I then filled the tub with half-and-half multipurpose compost and John Innes number 3 compost, into which I mixed a couple of desert spoonfuls of Osmocote slow release fertilizer. I then looked around for some summer flowering bedding plants to fill the tub and found these when my daughter took Vi and myself to Planters Garden Centre at Freasley, near to Tamworth. The fragrance attracted me to Nemesia ‘Berries and Cream’ with heads of purple and white flowers, also Nemesia ‘Purple Bicolour’ with reddish-purple and white flowers. Both are compact and flower throughout the summer. Both are perennials, but are only hardy to minus 5c, so non flowering shoots are best taken and rooted in a sandy compost and kept frost free to plant out at the end of the following May.
My south facing fence is usually fully clothed with plants, but last winter either killed, or caused a number of plants to die back, leaving gaps, which Vi said she would like to see a few new climbers planted to fill the gaps. In a garden centre, I came across a Passiflora, which was labeled x caeruleoracemosa; you will find this in the RHS Plant Finder as Passiflora x violacea. This passionflower has red flowers, but is only hardy to minus 5c, but this does not worry me, my ground is well drained and a three inch mulch of ornamental bark in the autumn, together with a wrap of garden fleece around its base, should help it through the winter. Passionflowers often lose their tops during hard weather, but as they flower on their new growth, you can remove all of the dead top growth during late March. My Lupin ‘Polar Princess’ look outstanding with their 2.5 feet (75cm) spires of pure white flowers and bright green foliage, which this year show no signs of black fly, this is due to the fact of my spraying them with Provado Ultimate Bug Killer four weeks before they came into flower. My runner bean ‘St George’ has set a good crop of beans, this is due to them being watered at regular intervals, I also spray over the flowers with a fine rose attached to my hosepipe, which not only helps the flowers to set, but also forcibly removes any aphis that are present.
Last year I thought the winter had killed my ten feet (3m) tall Sophora ‘Sun King’ so I sawed the top off level with my neighbour’s fence. Then after preparing the soil, I planted lilac-red Clematis ‘Comtesse de Bouchard’ to grow up the three upright Sophora branches. Now I can see five nine inch (22cm) tall shoots appearing out of the ground at the base of ‘Sun King’, so it shows you should never give up when you think a plant is dead.
Forty years ago, I saw an advert in a national garden newspaper, which was offering Tropaeolum polyphyllum for sale, se pictures above and below. At that time, this was a rare nasturtium, so I sent for one. When it arrived, I was amazed, as it had no soil and looked like a 3×2 inch (75x50mm) piece of root. As this was listed as being difficult, I planted it in a gravelly soil at the base of my house east-facing wall. It has now traveled 12 feet (3.6m) below the ground, along the base of the wall in a southerly direction and every year is massed over with brilliant gold flowers, which contrast well with its grey foliage. This nasturtium has never set seed. Could it be sterile, or does it need a partner to pollinate it?

This Month in the Garden (June) with Derek Cox

admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:05:44 +0000

In my garden, the two months of pleasant sunny weather during March and April saw many plants come into growth much earlier than in previous years. Many of my shrubs had put on a lovely show of fresh shoots and leaves then, as it often does in our indeterminate climate, two degrees of frost on the night of 3rd May caused the brilliant red new growth on my Pieris to turn brown. I removed all the brown growth to allow more light to get into the dormant buds beneath and now fresh young growth buds are appearing. During March, most of my shrubs, perennials and young trees are first watered, and then fed with a general fertilizer, I rake this into the soil, then mulch around the plants with garden compost, or composted bark. Often on Radio Leicester, we do get the question of why plants, especially fruit trees, are not growing, flowering, or fruiting as well as they were in years gone by. When asked if they have fed them the person will say no, but I thought as they were in the ground they did not need feeding. Once plants have used all the nutrition in the soil around them they will start to deteriorate, so will need feeding to bring some youth back into their system. I have just been around my garden removing the seed heads from my Rhododendrons, if they are left, the plants will put energy into producing seed instead of the new growth, which will form next years flowers. Some seed heads are easy just to twist off, others are very sticky and I snip these off with a pair of sharp secateurs. Many people will say they cannot grow Rhododendrons; I grow 45 different species/cultivars in a soil that varies, according to where in the past, builders had spread cement and lime, from PH6.5, slightly acid, to PH7.5, which is alkaline, limey. In the first place, I worked in copious amounts of peat and old manure. Now I mulch every third year with two inches, 7.5cm of composted bark. Often you will see written, especially by so-called experts, that you should only use rainwater when watering Rhododendrons and other ericaeceous plants. When it does not rain I water with mains water, as this is better than no water at all, but lay your hosepipe on the ground against each plant and let the water soak in for a few minutes. My Dianthus, pinks are now in full flower, I have around twenty varieties varying from three inches to twelve inches, 7.5cm to 30cm in height and in a variety of colours. Most survived the winter with little, or no damage and have a lovely fragrance. Pinks, unlike their taller cousins the Carnations, do not require stacking to prevent the stems from flopping when it rains.They are also easy to take from cuttings; the small, non-flowering shoots from around the base of the plant (pips) are gently pulled away, and then inserted in small pots containing a sandy compost. If kept moist and out of full sunlight they will root within a month and be ready to pot on into multipurpose compost. During mid April, in my cold greenhouse I used cell trays to sow the seed of runner bean ‘St George’. As the weather was so sunny, they germinated within two weeks so I potted them on into one litre pots. Within a week, I had to cane and then tie them up, and within three weeks, they were over three feet, 90cm tall, so I planted three ‘St George’ into a 25 litre black tree tub and pushed in six feet,1.8m long canes and tied them at the top to form a wigwam. Now the plants have grown to the top of the canes and are a mass of red and white flowers. I take the tub into my cold greenhouse every night until the end of May. During late April I gave my brother Ron three plants, which he planted in his garden, the frost in early May killed them, but I had two potted plants to spare so Ron is having another go.

This Month in the Garden (May 2011) with Derek Cox

admin — Sun, 01 May 2011 04:07:29 +0000

Let me first apologise to all of our readers for a mistake I made in my April article in which I wrote about my dead New Zealand Photinia with sword shaped leaves. I should have said Phormiums, not Photinia. Also, in the April edition Syston and St Peter mentioned the Edward Gamble memorial garden, saying Derek Cox had donated a shrub for the garden, but the shrub, Photinia ‘Red Robin’ was donated by Goscote Nurseries of Cossington. This is a lovely evergreen shrub whose main attraction is its red new shoots and leaves. If left unattended it will grow nine feet, 2.6m tall, but is so easy to prune, in fact I have seen it maintained as a six feet, 1.8m hedge.
The two Ceanothus planted against my south facing fence, and which looked dead in March, have now started to produce new growth, not only amongst the dead looking branches, but also all up the old trunk. I have been reluctant to prune the Ceanothus as a blackbird and a sparrow built nests in an evergreen Itea, which grows alongside them. However, now the young have started to leave the nests, I shall prune away all of the dead branches, then spread a couple of handfuls of Sulphate of Ammonia along the base of each plant and water this in to encourage new growth. This year the Magnolia’s have looked glorious, especially the Soulangiana hybrids, the flowers in most years being damaged by frost. There is a superb white form of Soulangiana in a garden on the right hand side of Melton Road as you drive around that awful boil of a traffic island going towards Leicester. Most of the Soulangiana Magnolias are too large for the small garden, but Magnolia Stellata is a dwarf compact shrub with white star-like flowers during March. I grow Magnolia ‘Suzan’ in my front garden; it is now nine feet, 2.6m tall and during April, it is massed with purple-pink flowers. I would point out that ‘Suzan’ is now 20 years old. As I write this, I can look out of my window and see numerous Rhododendrons in flower, a number of these are grown, not only for their colourful flowers, but also for their attractive foliage. One named ‘Viking Silver’ has pink flower buds, which open to white, but the new foliage is a lovely silvery-grey. I have a large stone horse trough in the garden, which in the past I planted with alpines and a so-called dwarf conifer. Over the years the conifer, although only 12 inches, 30cm tall had spread to almost four feet, 1.2m across killing all of the alpines. A friend removed the conifer to plant in his own garden, so I replaced the compost with a mixture of one part John Innes number three compost, one part multipurpose compost and one part alpine grit. I built a miniature rock garden on the surface of the compost, then after covering the surface with small pebbles, I planted the trough with 14 new alpines. Late April and May is the time to spray Solomans Seal with Provado Ultimate Bug Killer, this will kill the moths and caterpillars, which can quickly defoliate the plants. Thompson and Morgan forwarded to me an interesting parcel of new varieties of seed, most will appear in their 2012 catalogue. I have sown a number and given a number to Terry Bailey who not only has a fine allotment, but also being a member of the Syston in Bloom committee, helps to teach gardening to the school children at Merton School. The Syston in Bloom committee has three new members who will no doubt give added input to our achievements.

This Month in the Garden (April 2011) with Derek Cox

admin — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:02:11 +0000

In my February article, I talked about how the mild October and sudden hard frosts during November had caused many plants, especially evergreen shrubs, either to die, or die back. Many of the evergreen shrubs in my garden either dropped all of their leaves, or suffered badly with die back. My two evergreen Ceanothus, although looking dead, still have green branches, during April I shall prune these back and then feed them with Growmore in anticipation of new growth appearing. When pruning do look out for birds nests, if these are present, leave pruning until the young birds have flown. What a shame all of my pot grown New Zealand Photinia’s have died, their colourful sword-shaped leaves add a tropical appearance to the garden. Here I must admit to it being my fault for having not insulated the pots by wrapping, these in a piece of old carpet, or bubble wrap. Odd though it may seem, in my garden a clump of variegated Yucca filamentosa, which originates from Mexico, also has sword-shaped leaves and this shows no sign of winter damage. I have nine different hardy orchids in my garden; three of these are planted in my shallow bog garden, and all of these started to come into growth during the second week in March. The easiest of these to grow are the European Dactylorhiza species and hybrids. I have seen huge drifts of these growing in the Alps, some on bare mountainside and others in snow melt bogs. In my garden, they produce spires of lavender to red flowers that last between six and eight weeks. During early March, I took two of my 25 litre black polythene tubs into my cold greenhouse and filled these with nine inches, 22cm of compost, into which I worked a level desert spoonful of Osmocote slow release fertilizer. I then placed five first early potatoes of ‘Swift’ and ‘Lady Christl’ one variety in each of the two tubs. In tubs I only cover the potatoes with two inches, 5cm of compost and then earth them up with fresh compost as they grow, this allows the plants to form extra roots up each stem and as a consequence, more potatoes. During late March, I sow the seed of Lettuce ‘Little Gem’, Spring onions and ‘Early Nantes 2’ carrots. The seed is sown in my cold greenhouse in 25 litre black tubs filled to within two inches, 5cm of the top with multipurpose compost. The lettuces, as soon as one true leaf has been formed, are transplanted into growbags, but the spring onions and carrots are thinned out, and then used as soon as they are fit to eat. Despite the cold winter, the five Cyclamen coum varieties growing in my garden in a gravel scree have looked outstanding. I have flowers varying from white through to red and foliage that is plain green, or silver variegated. All start to flower during the first week in January and as I write this, look superb. The two beds of winter flowering heathers in the Barkby Road cemetery are a picture, I have just one in my garden, this being a yellow foliage seedling of Erica carnea, which at present is a mass of pink flowers.