Syston Town News » This month in the garden

This Month in the Garden (July) with Derek Cox.

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:04:53 +0000

A question, which seems to crop up at regular intervals on Radio Leicester’s ‘Down to Earth’ gardening program, is how to control weeds without the use of chemicals. The only non-chemical way of controlling weeds is by using a hoe in flower borders and a weed widger in the lawn. I feed my lawn during late April and this year I had to wait until we had rain during early June before I applied Verdone lawn weed killer. A lawn weed killer is only formulated to use on a lawn, if used in a border it will probably kill perennials and soft stemmed shrubs. I must admit that I rarely use a hoe, as I much prefer to go through the border on my hands and knees to pull, or dig out weeds with a trowel. Many of you will consider this to be tedious and a waste of time, but weeding by hand, I can see if any unusual tree, shrub, or perennial seedlings have appeared amongst the numerous plants I grow in my garden. So far this year I have come across the seedlings of nine Japanese Maples, five Walnut trees (no doubt from walnuts that squirrels have buried) and three Dactylorhiza hybrids (hardy orchids). My most interesting find so far this year has been a native violet whose leaves had a broad cream edge. There are no variegated forms of our native violet in the RHS Plant Finder, so I shall have to see if it is prone to reversion, if not, I shall introduce it to the trade. I have a group of Lupin ‘Polar Princess’ in a sunlit border and this year it has produce 23 outstanding spires of pure white flowers. Last year ‘Polar Princess’ became infested with black fly, to remedy this, during late April I sprayed the plants with Provado Ultimate Bug Killer and so far there is no sign of black fly, or slug damage. During a visit to Helen Osborn at Churchview Nursery in Barkby I spotted a super nonstop Begonia, which had bright orange flowers, I purchased a dozen to plant in my snowdrop bed to contrast with the yellow and cream foliage of the shrubs behind them. I had better point out that I plant snowdrops 6 inches (15cm) below ground level, so after pulling off their dead foliage, I spread fresh compost over the bed and it is then ready for planting. During late April, as soon as the weather turned warmer, all the nine varieties of Pieris I grow in my garden produced a wonderful display of red new growth. The most outstanding of these being the cream variegated forms ‘Flaming Silver’, ‘Carnival’ and ‘Havilla’. Then disaster stuck, we had a late frost, which turned all the new growth brown, I pruned the plants to remove the frosted growth and as soon as it rained during the second week in June, the Pieris produced a second spurt of new growth and once more look magnificent. In my garden, there are four plants of Clematis Montana, which flower during May and June. Two of these are outstanding and worth mentioning. The first is ‘Freda’ a bicolor pink, which grows up and into a 20 feet (6m) tall American thorn; this is left to do its own thing. The other and my favorite is ‘Mayleen’, which I grow on a 4-foot (1.2m) chain link fence where it forms a 20 feet (6m) long curtain of large, pale pink flowers. Montana Clematis should, if they get out of hand, be pruned as soon as they have finished flowering during late June, or early July.

This Month in the Garden (June) with Derek Cox

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:01:59 +0000

Many gardeners, especially those with gardens exposed to the north and east, have had plants die to the prolonged period of frost and snow during last winter. As my garden is very free draining I have had very few plants die in the open ground, but a number of my pot-grown plants have died. Two superb Phormiums, although seeming fine throughout the winter, suddenly collapsed during the first week in May the whole crown turning to mush, which I feel was due to a build up of frozen snow in the centre of the plants. I had a professional gardener in to spike my lawn during early May and having seen the Miracle Grow ‘Patch Magic’ on the television, I asked him to get some and spread it over the thin spots in the lawn. ‘Patch Magic’ is a mixture of grass seed, coir and feed, which when applied by a gardener on the tele’ seems to turn the whole of the lawn bright green. My lawn now has a number of bright green patches, but the rest of the lawn, despite having been fed, looks jaded in comparison. My ‘Lady Christl’ potatoes, which I planted in 25 litre containers during mid March, are now ready for lifting, yet ‘Rocket’ planted at the same time and which should only take 10 weeks to mature is much too small to lift. During mid May, much to my wife’s delight, we were enjoying the lettuce, spring onions and radish, which I sowed in my cold greenhouse during mid March. The spring onions and radish were sown in 15 litre pots and then grown on until ready to use, but the lettuce were first sown in cell trays and when they had two true leaves, were transplanted into tomato
grow bags. During early May, I was walking around Goscote Nurseries and came across a number of two feet tall (60cm) Viburnum carlesii massed with beautifully scented flowers. I mention this as I have an eight feet tall (2.4m) Viburnum carlesii in my garden, which has very few flowers, the reason for this is the tits, bullfinches and sparrows that perch in the bush and pick off the flower buds as soon as they appear.
You will need to prune Viburnums as soon as the flowers have faded. I pruned my eight feet (2.4m) tall Viburnum tinus in mid May, first making sure there were no bird’s nests in the bush. Pruning will keep a plant neat and compact, and if pruned in mid May and then fed with a couple of handfuls of Growmore, strong new growth will have time to form flower buds by September. Many of my Rhododendrons have now finished flowering, as where I can reach, I twist off the dead flower heads, this will prevent the plants from setting seed, if you leave the seed on you will find the shrub will not produce so many new shoots?and it is these which will form the following years flowers. I have two Ceanothus, which grow on a south facing fence and these gave me a superb display of blue flowers during May. During early June as soon as the flowers faded, I pruned the Ceanothus back by almost three quarters of their previous year’s growth. When you prune do ensure you only go back to where there are still a few green shoots, as they will often not produce new growth from old wood.
Gordon Hallam, who reads my column, rang me up to query my April 2010 article on the use of Sulphate of Iron to kill moss in a lawn. I did write two ounce to a gallon of water. Gordon has kept all of my articles and told me that previously I said one ounce to a gallon. I use two ounce in my two gallon watering can, so thank you Gordon for pointing out my mistake.

This Month in The Garden (May 2010) with Derek Cox

admin — Sat, 01 May 2010 04:01:44 +0000

April and May are my favourite two months of the year as during this time plants are not only springing into life with new growth, but also presenting us with a beautiful show of flowers in all colours of the rainbow. Even the so-called winter flowering pansies are at their best during April and May; often flowering well into June, consequently people are reluctant to take them out to replace them with summer bedding plants. I do get cross when I see garden centres and superstores offering tender summer bedding plants during the first week in April, these are far too tender to plant outdoors and consequently they must be kept in a light, but frost-free greenhouse, or frame until it is safe to plant them outdoors after the third week in May.
During the second week in April, I planted runner bean ‘St George’. The beans were set in 5cm cell trays, one bean to each cell. The cell tray was placed in a heated propagator set at 35

°F, just enough to prevent frost damage. The beans geminated in eight days and as soon as one leaf is formed, they are potted up individually into 6 inch (15cm) pots, then grown on in my cold greenhouse. If frost is forecast the plants are covered with horticultural fleece. At the end of May, I shall then plant them out into the garden. ‘St George’ is an outstanding runner bean with bicolour, red and white flowers; in the RHS trials, it came top as the most prolific cropping runner bean.
This year the prolonged cold winter as caused the tips of the branches of many evergreen shrubs to turn brown. This is due to late growth, which is still too soft to stand prolonged hard frost. You can carefully prune back and remove the damaged growth and the shrubs will quickly put on a new flush of growth. My evergreen ferns also became very brown during February, even our native hart’s tongue fern looked very jaded. To rectify this I cut off all the leaves during the third week in April, but if you also have to do this, take care not to damage the new fronds, which are just emerging. For the last eight years I grow Chamaerops humilis ‘The dwarf fan palm’ in a pot, which stands in my Japanese garden. I should point out the palm is repotted into a slightly larger pot every second year. This superb, hardy palm will eventually form a trunk just over 3 feet (90cm) tall, its only fault being that as new leaves are formed the older leaves start to die, but are easy to remove by cutting the leaf stem back to the trunk with secateurs.
Let me finish by saying, despite the hard winter, what a superb show of flowers my Rhododendrons have given me. I have forty five different species or
hybrids, which vary in height from 6 inches (15cm) to 8 feet (2.4m) and in all colours but pure blue.

THIS MONTH IN THE GARDEN (APRIL 10) by Derek Cox

admin — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:07:11 +0000

Last year during my journeys around the county I noticed quite a number of conifers suffering with either die back, or leaf loss, this being most prevalent in Leylandii hedges where often large patches of brown were to be seen. Leylandii hedges can become infested with conifer aphis, adelgis, and these will suck the sap out of leaves causing dead patches. The Blue Spruce, Picea pungens ‘Glauca’, can also look very shabby as the spruce aphis attacks the previous years leaves causing them to turn brown and then fall away leaving just the current years growth on the end of bare branches. It is possible to prevent aphis damage on conifers by spraying them with Provado Ultimate Bug Killer during April and then again during July and September. In hedges, dead patches will not re-grow so all the dead branches will need to be removed, but if the patches are only small, you can tie out one or two of the live branches on both sides and these will quickly grow to fill up the gap. If the patches are large, you may need to take out the plants with dead foliage and after replacing the soil, replant with new conifers.
One of the questions recently asked on Radio Leicester’s ‘Down to Earth’ program was about Goji berries, the person had purchased a plant the previous year and although it had a few flowers, it did not form any berries. Goji berries originate from China and the catalogue he had purchased the plant from said the orange-red berries were outstanding for good health. What catalogues rarely tell you is how big a plant will grow and what wood it flowers on, Goji berries are shrubs, which if left unpruned will form a gaunt, eight feet, 2.4m tall shrub, it also flowers on its previous years wood, so if pruned in the spring you would get no berries. Other shrubs now on offer as beneficial to health are the Honeyberry’s, which in reality are shrubby Siberian honeysuckles. These also flower on their previous year’s wood during April/May and have purple-blue berries, but they are often offered as two different species to cross-pollinate each other, if you only have one you may never have berries. These can get bushy and need to be tip pruned during late April to keep then neat. I must point out that the berries of most honeysuckles, both climbing and shrubby are not edible. This year has been the year of the moss; there are patches of it growing in my lawn, on the rockery stones and even on the top of cushion forming saxifrages. I have to pick off by hand the moss on rockery plants, but the moss in my lawn and on the rockery stones. I kill by adding 2oz of sulphate of iron to a gallon of water in a watering can and then watering the liquid through a fine rose onto the moss. The moss will turn black within twenty-four hours, and then it can be raked up or better still, scarified not only to remove the moss, but also the thatch of dead grass. During early March, I noticed a number of my snowdrop flower heads had been removed and were laying on the ground. This puzzled me as the ground froze for many weeks so slugs, snails and mice were not present. Then I came across an article in a book about snowdrops and this laid the problem down to either pheasants or hens, I do not keep hens, but most days a cock pheasant flies in to mop up the bird food the untidy sparrows throw out of my five feeders. The cock pheasant is such a beautiful bird so we will have to put up with him. His partner, a small hen pheasant also pops by, but she manages to sit on the anti squirrel guard and eat the food from out the feeders. I will finish by telling you that on the 25th February it was our diamond wedding anniversary. Violet, my beloved wife and girlfriend since I was sixteen, did not want any fuss, but our children made sure we had a card from the Queen plus numerous cards and bouquets.

THIS MONTH IN THE GARDEN (March) by Derek Cox

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:01:52 +0000

On Tuesday 30th March at 7.00pm you will find me in the Syston Library in Upper Church Street, where I shall be giving a talk about growing vegetables in containers. The talk is to demonstrate how even a beginner, or person with a small garden or even just a paved area can produce a crop of delicious, homegrown vegetables.
Seed potatoes are now available from a number of garden centres or super stores. I have received six each of seven early, or mid season varieties and all will be grown in 25 litre black plastic pots. When I received the seed potatoes, I set them up in either egg trays or plastic cell trays, the crown of eyes being uppermost. Seed potatoes should be chitted in a cool, but frost-free place; I use the bench in my garage and cover them with horticultural fleece at night. Potatoes will chit faster in a warm environment, but then the emerging shoots will be very soft and more prone to fungus and slug problems. During late March, I find children will love to germinate mustard and cress and this is an ideal way to introduce them to gardening. If you have a cold greenhouse during late March, you can also sow the seed of a number of salad type vegetables and even short horn carrots. Lettuce ‘Little Gem’ and ‘Tom Thumb’, radish and spring onions are ideal to grow in grow bags, or thinly in 10/15 litre pots. I sow carrot ‘Adelaide’ in 25 litre black tubs containing John Innes number two compost. I sow thinly over one-half of the tubs, the other half being sown a month later. This will ensure you have young carrots over a three-month period. Seed should be sown over the surface of level compost, then lightly covered with Vermiculite. Freshly sown seed and young seedlings should be kept moist, but not wet. Over watering is the main cause of seed or young plants rotting. Although my snowdrops started to poke their heads through the ground during late January, the cold frosty weather brought them to an abrupt holt. A few mild days during February brought them back into life and by late February they were at their best. I have 29 different varieties of Snowdrops, this might sound a lot, but one of the large gardens at Wellington in Shropshire has 500 different types, but some are so alike I would find it hard to tell the difference. As soon as they have finished flowering and in full leaf, is the time to divide, or purchase snowdrops. Small dry bulbs purchased in the autumn, although cheap, will give you very disappointing results. Odd though it may seem, many plants will only germinate when the seed has come through a period of cold temperature. A good example of this is the Helleborus hybrids, in my garden hundreds of tiny seedling appeared beneath existing plants during early January and the long period of frost does not seem to have affected them.

THIS MONTH IN THE GARDEN (Feb 2010) by Derek Cox

admin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:03:36 +0000

The frost and snow during late December and January of this year reminded me of when; during the first week of February 1942, I first started work at Queniborough Old Hall as a gardener’s boy. During January of that year, we had very heavy snowfall, in many places the snow was 3 feet (90cm) deep. Then people who did not work locally depended on a bus to take them to work. At that time the bus, and most Lorries and cars, had snow chains fitted around their wheels and these enabled the vehicles to drive on snow and ice. The end of January 1942 saw the snow starting to thaw, but each night we had a frost, which resulted in the roads being covered in frozen, chain roughened ruts, so my first ride to work on my old ASP (all spare parts) bike was very precarious and bruising. Last Xmas we were lucky to have a fine, but cold spell of weather, consequently my wife Vi and myself had five glorious days in London staying with our son Mitchell and his wife Chris. During that time, we spent a day each at Kew gardens, Hampton Court and the RHS Wisley Gardens. You could spend a week at Kew and still not see many of the thousands of plants in the gardens, but as the wind was so cold, we spent most of the time in Kew’s magnificent glasshouses, in which there was a multitude of exotic tropical plants growing. Wisley Gardens has a new large tropical/temperate glasshouse and at the side of this is a large reservoir, which collects and recycles the water from the glasshouse roof. In the garden centre at Wisley Gardens, I spotted and bought the newly introduced Helleborus ‘Walbertons Rosemary’. This superb hybrid produces stems of pink, outward facing flowers, usually from late January until the end of March. The plant, which I purchased, was in full flower during December, no doubt, this was due to the pot-grown plant being in a cool, but frost-free greenhouse to bring it into flower for the Xmas sales. I shall plant this in my front garden in an attempt to isolate it from other Helleborus in the hope it will form seed, which will give me a selection of pink, outward facing hybrids. We had a great deal of fun at Hampton Court, mainly due to a pageant with Henry the 8th, his wife (which one?) the court jester and musicians. I somehow became involved with what was going on, it finished up with the jester and myself doing some entertaining. King Henry asking me if he had served with me in France and did they give me a decent pension, when I told him the pension was poor he said he would look into it and mention it to the chancellor. As we walked out of Hampton Court, I saw a group of people looking at a large deciduous tree and shaking their heads. When it comes to plants I am always nosey, so I went over to see what it was that intrigued them. The people were chattering away in French and as my French is almost non-existent, I asked if they spoke English. One young man said, yes I do, and could you tell us why the tree has clumps of evergreen hanging in it? I told him the clumps were mistletoe, a semi-parasitic plant that grew on a number of trees. As they had never seen mistletoe growing on a tree, most had their cameras out to take photographs. In my garden, I have three bird feeders and four netted fat balls hanging in trees, at present the birds are eating 3 kilos of sunflower hearts and half a kilo of nija seed each week, but I love my birds especially the tiny tits and finches who must struggle to stay alive in prolonged cold weather. Every day I go out to the birdbath, place a small saucepan in the centre, and fill this with boiling water, which quickly thaws the ice. This is also a good way to create a hole in your garden pond to let obnoxious gasses out. If you use a solid object to break pond ice, the shock waves created will often kill the fish.

THIS MONTH IN THE GARDEN (Dec 09/Jan 10)

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:01:09 +0000

Last October I mentioned a silver leaf infected plum tree in a garden at the rear of Syston Library car park. The owners of the garden, Dave and Theresa Morgan, wrote to me at Syston Town News to say they had read my article and had now cut down and burnt the plum tree. They then asked if they should remove the roots. All trees and shrubs infected with bacteria, root fungus disorders and most forms of virus should have not only the top removed, but also as much of the root system as you are able to dig out. You will notice I say most forms of virus, as there are a number of plants with variegated leaves and the variegation is often due to a virus, but this type of virus is not harmful to other plants. Dave did go on to say that his plum tree looked terminal after he had pruned it during the winter. You should never prune stone fruits such as plums, damsons, cherries etc when they are dormant, but only thin them out during July when in full leaf. The sap will then quickly heal over the wounds and prevent silver leaf and other pathogens from entering the wounds you have created. Dave also wanted to know where he could obtain a Syston White plum tree. A few months ago, I saw this on offer at Goscote Nurseries in Cossington, but he might also have a word with some of the allotment holders in Upper Church Street as a number are grown on the allotments. It has been a marvelous year for berries, the hollies, Cotoneasters, Pyracanthas and other plants in my garden are laden with berries, consequently the blackbirds and thrushs are having a marvelous time eating them. Take no notice of the old saying that a good crop of berries means we are in for a hard winter. A good crop of fruit, berries and seeds is due to a mild, frost-free spring, when the pollen is not frozen and plenty of pollinating bees, hover-flies and insects are present. I have now removed all the dead foliage from my perennials and this, mixed together with weeds and tree leaves has gone into my compost heap. In making compost I always throw a couple of shovelfuls of garden soil into every six-inch layer, the bacteria in the soil helps the material to break down. Hardwood cuttings are a simple way of raising new young deciduous shrubs and soft fruit bushes. Always take hardwood cuttings from the current years (December) growth, select strong disease free wood between 9 and 12 inches (22/30cm) long. Make a straight cut just above a leaf eye at the top of the cutting and a slanting cut just below the bottom eye. Use a spade to make a slit 12 inches (30cm) deep in a sheltered, but well lit spot in your garden. If you garden on heavy soil, it is always advisable to half fill the slit with sharp sand. Hardwood cuttings of Roses and Gooseberries should have the bottom two thirds of their thorns removed, if you leave the thorns on, as you push the cuttings into the slit, you will create air pockets into which roots will rarely form. Push the cuttings into the slit leaving three growth buds above soil level then, using the heel of your boots, firm the soil back around the cuttings. People who want advice on their gardens often stop me and recently a person wanted advice on colourful ground cover, but they did not want any perennials as these die away in the winter. I gave a list of plants, which I grow and look attractive throughout the year, and as they looked at the list, I told them that amongst these were seven evergreen perennial Heuchera’s with yellow, amber, chocolate, purple veined silver and cream leaves. When grown in fertile soil Heuchera’s will soon form bold clumps whose foliage looks attractive twelve months of the year.

There will be more about gardening during 2010, until then have a merry Christmas and lets look forward to a happy and prosperous new year.

Derek Cox

This Month in the Garden (November 09) – Derek Cox

admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:01:01 +0000

Shopping is one of my pet hates, so I often sit in my car waiting for my wife to do the shopping. Having parked my car, I often get out and look at the various landscape themes, mainly to see what has been planted in the borders. Much of the landscaping that I have come across in Syston seems to lack forethought. Who, but a landscape architect would think of planting trees such as Sycamore, Ash, or Limes in narrow borders? All three will grow over 70 feet (22m) tall and almost the same in width. If landscape architects are to use indigenous or native trees on housing estates or supermarket borders, why then do they not choose neat upright forms of native species such as Sorbus aucuparia ‘Fastigiata’? This tree has white flowers during May, red berries in late August and coppery orange or red autumn foliage. There are good specimens of this tree growing in the grass verges on the corner of East and Central Avenue in Syston. Top marks to the forward thinking architect who had the forethought to plant these. On my visit to Syston Health Centre to get my yearly flu jab, I was asked to name the trees with such brilliant red autumn foliage that were planted in the borders in the car park. These are Acer rubrum, ‘The Canadian Maple’, probably the variety ‘October Glory’. These will, eventually grow tall, but not as large as our native Sycamore and to its advantage, it does not germinate so easily as Sycamore. I have never considered the Ash (Fraxinus excelsa) to be a suitable tree even for a large garden. An 80 feet (26m) tall specimen in the garden of my neighbor produces thousands of seed, which not only produce young plants all over my garden, but also in the field at the rear of my house. However, when Josie Hutchinson and myself were driving on the Leicester ring road, on our way to do an outside ‘Down to Earth’ program at Wigston, we saw two marvelous 15 feet (4.5m) tall, rounded specimens of ‘The Golden Ash’ (Fraxinus excelsa ‘Jaspidea’) whose yellow branches and foliage were outstanding. Many of our autumn and winter flowering shrubs are now in flower, Eleagnus x ebbingei is now in full flower its tiny silvery flowers have a lovely fragrance. I grow Eleagnus x ebbingei ‘Gilt Edge’ whose leaves are richly enhanced with a gold edge. Viburnum tinus is also in bloom, its heads of small white flowers will remain in bloom until next March.
In September I wrote about Nemasys ‘No Ants’ whose living nematodes control ants by making areas uninhabitable to both black and red ants. I found this does work in my rockeries, but in my lawn, I found it moves them just from one area to another.
Now is the time to think about moving tender or half-hardy plants into a greenhouse, or conservatory. Correa ‘Dusky Maid’ is a tender shrub whose dusky-pink bell-shaped flowers appear during October and even in a cold greenhouse will continue to flower until the following June. Coprosma ‘Evening Glow’ with its shining gold variegated evergreen leaves and Coprosma ‘Pacific Night’ with shiny, almost black leaves are native to New Zealand and Tasmania and although standing on my terrace from June to late October, they over winter in a cold greenhouse. My hanging basket of Viola ‘Allspice Mixed’ look very attractive, many having multicoloured flowers, they do have a fragrance, but outdoors you do have to be close by to smell them.
Thompson and Morgan have given me a number of packets of vegetable seed to enable Terry Bailey, a Syston allotment holder, to use when teaching the children of Merton School how to grow vegetables in their allotment. How wonderful to know children are once more learning how to grow vegetables?

This month in the garden – Derek Cox

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:01:31 +0000

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

This Month in the Garden – Derek Cox

admin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:01:59 +0000

During July, at my wife’s suggestion, we purchased a birdbath on a three feet (90cm) pedestal, which we both thought would deter cats from pouncing on unsuspecting birds. To watch the birds drink and bathe, I have sited the birdbath15 feet (4.5m) from our kitchen window. Blackbirds are always the first to use the birdbath and they will fight any other birds who attempt to get into the bath whilst they are there. Small birds keep out of the blackbird’s way, but recently three young song thrushes have appeared in my garden and these take it in turn to distract the blackbird while the others drink or bathe.
During late July, I received a sample of Nemasys ‘No Ants’, the pack contains minute living organisms (nematodes) for the control of black and red ants. The pack was sufficient to treat 16 ant nests and as my lawn and rockery are infested with red ants, I applied the ‘No Ants’ using a watering can with a coarse rose. As it is not a chemical, organic gardeners will no doubt welcome ‘No Ants’, but as it does not kill ants, but simply makes the area uninhabitable, I am now waiting to see if this results in the ants being moved elsewhere in my garden.
I have just received a press release from Thompson and Morgan, which shows a number of new and outstanding vegetable and flowers. ‘St George’ is a new runner bean which out produced 44 other varieties in the RHS trials; it has bicolour flowers and masses of light green string less beans. During September I shall be planting up a hanging basket and a container with Viola ‘Allspice Mixed’, this is a new Thompson and Morgan introduction of winter flowering Viola’s whose flowers produce a rich fragrance. This will make them ideal to place close to a house doorway to enable you to appreciate the scent during the winter months. This year my Golden leaf Indian bean tree (Catalpa bignonioides ‘Aurea’) has put on almost three feet (90cm) of growth, it has lovely yellow leaves almost nine inches across and these are even larger if the tree is pruned back during March. Last year the tree produced quite a number of Foxglove-like, white stained yellow and purple flowers. This year I have yet to see one flower and if someone was to query this on Radio Leicester’s ‘Down to Earth program we would immediately say the soil is lacking potash. I gave my Catalpa three handfuls of Sulphate of Potash last March. Potash slows growth down and helps to produce flowers and fruit. My tree was not listening when I told it what potash would do. During September, many perennials will have come to the end of their flowering season, but it is then, in my garden that Schizostyis coccinea ‘Major’ comes into its own, it has narrow sword-like leaves and now shows off its brilliant sprays of red flowers. This is a hardy, easy to grow perennial flowering for two months and as a result has received the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM).