Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts

Saturday 5 August 2017

How to grow cosmos flowers .

How to grow cosmos flowers - Saga:
Cosmos varieties

Pink and white cosmos
Widely available varieties of Cosmos bipinnatus
‘Purity’ (100cm/39 in)
An old single white, but still effective in September light when it looks gloriously fresh.

‘Sensation Mixed’ (120cm/4ft)
A mixture of single colours in shades of pink-red through to white. It’s tall and stately so not as useful in smaller gardens.

‘Sonata Series Mixed’ ( 60cm/2ft)
A shorter cosmos, but with equally large flowers, so this is good at the front of the border, or in a container, or grow for cutting. Sarah Raven has an all-pink version ‘Sonata Pink’.

‘Sweet Sixteen’ (90cm/3ft)
This picotee-edged cosmos has pale petals edged in deep-pink and each flower has some extra petals at the heart, giving each flower a frilly look. ‘Sweet Kisses’ seems very similar.

‘Seashells’ (120cm/4ft)
This taller cosmos comes in a mixture of pinks and whites, but the petals are almost cylindrical or fluted.

‘Cupcakes’ (up to 90cm/3ft)
This is very special, with dished flowers consisting of fused petals that look like cupcake cases. The whites turn blush-pink and many of the flowers have extra petals. Bred by Thompson & Morgan.

‘Hummingbird’ (45cm/18in)
A very new Dutch-bred series with fluted petals on larger flowers. There’s a pink and a white and this is far better than ‘Seashells’.

‘Daydream’ (90cm/3ft)
A white cosmos with powder-pink centres - adored by flower arrangers.

‘Double Click’ (100cm/39in)
This Dutch-bred series was the first to contain semi-doubles and doubles and they look very aster-like. However they do get very heavy-headed in summer rain, and can flop. In good summers they add much to the vase and garden and the flowers last for a long time because thy can’t be pollinated.

‘Xanthos’ (60cm/2ft)
Soft-yellow blooms on compact plants, so perfect for the front of a border or a container. Very new and very well-thought of, this May-flowering cosmos bred in Holland has been given a Fleuroselect Gold Medal this year. You can buy seeds or plugs.

'Apollo' (60cm/2ft)
A brand new British-bred variety, these cosmos flowers come in shades of pink, white and purple.
'via Blog this'

Sunday 16 July 2017

My new Plants.


Erigeron Karvinskianus AGM:
- Hayloft Plants:
"A long-flowering, ever-changing carpet of colour.
Such a long flowering period, from May to October it is surely a must-have for every garden.
Happy in borders and containers, as an edging plant for tumbling over a wall.
Great ground cover and loved by bees.
Prefers well-drained soil in sun or part-shade.
Height 25cm (10”). Spread 30cm (12”).
Fully hardy perennial.
Cut back to ground level in the autumn to retain neat growth.
Dead-head to encourage further flowering.
Divide every 2-3 years to maintain vigour.
Propagate by division in spring.
Gently Self-sows into all the nooks and crannies."


Monarda Balmy™ Rose:
Prefer damp soil in sun or part shade. Height & spread 45cm (18”).
Fully hardy perennials.
Excellent early-flowering, compact monarda.
Dwarf variety is deer and rabbit resistant, as well as mildew resistant.
Vibrant, shaggy rose-colored blooms in abundance top this compact plant with very dark green, fragrant minty-basil-scented foliage.


Trifolium repans 'Purpurascens Quadrifolium':
Common Name: Clover, Shamrock 'Purpurascens Quadrifolium'
This is an ornamental variety of the common wild flower, White clover.
The leaves are divided into four leaflets rather than the usual three so if you are superstitious and value four leaf clovers this is the plant for you.
Each leaf is dark maroon purple and nicely edged and speckled with green.
It is a low growing hardy perennial that eventually spreads over a wide area with its stems rooting as they go.
The flowers are the usual clover heads of tiny flowers clustered into a rounded head.
They detract considerably from the effect of the plant and should be removed.
It may pay to let a certain number of flowers to stay for a week or two to satisfy the plants need to flower then cut them off.
Removing them as they appear tends to encourage the plant to produce more.


Geranium, Grandeur Odorata Orange:
Kept frost free, one plant can come back year after year, looking bigger and better each time.
Tender Perennial - can be brought back outside after Ice-Saints in mid-May.
'via Blog this'

Sunday 17 July 2016

Lysimachia ciliata 'Firecracker'/


Lysimachia ciliata 'Firecracker' bears tall stems of pointed, dark purple leaves, which contrast beautifully with pale lemon flowers in July and August.It'sfect for growing in a mixed herbaceous border, and will also thrive at the pond edge or bog garden.

Grow Lysimachia ciliata 'Firecracker' in moist soil in full sun to partial shade. Mulch annually with well-rotted manure or compost and divide congested clumps in spring. The RHS has given it its prestigious Award of Garden Merit (AGM).

Maintenance
Propagation methods: Division in Spring or Autumn
Cut back after flowering.
Specific pests: Slugs , Snails
Diseases: Generally disease-free

Sunday 10 July 2016

How to grow: French honeysuckle. By Carol Klein.

How to grow: French honeysuckle - Telegraph
'Once seen, never forgotten', writes Carol Klein
Imagine a whopping clover with flowers of brightest red borne on strong stems that form an open bush 3ft high. For good measure add glaucous pinnate leaves, silver rimmed and silver on their reverse. Hedysarum coronarium is a once seen, never-forgotten sort of a plant. It is instantly attractive and has huge presence in any planting scheme.
Pinks abound, crimson is common but a good clear red is a rarity in the garden, which is part of its draw. Another is the heightened magnetism of this colour when surrounded by foliage. The eye is unused to seeing red and green of the same tone next to one another: the discord makes us see stars.
The Linnean herbarium lists more than 30 hedysarum but most are vetch-like plants of lowly demeanour and none can compare with H. coronarium. This is a legume, closely related to peas and beans.

Monday 20 June 2016

Sunday 19 June 2016

Michaelmas daisies .

Michaelmas daisies – Fennel and Fern

Top tips for growing asters from Paul Picton at Old Court Nurseries:

1. Choose a sunny position.
Since michaelmas daisies are so late flowering they need a good proportion of the days sunlight hours in order to form there flowers properly.
2. Plant in fertile soil.
They are tough plants and will grow almost anywhere you put them, but to get the best from them you need fertile soil.
Additional feed can also help with the display.
3. Remember to stake the tall willowy varieties before the autumn storms as there is nothing more disappointing then finding your best flowers flat on the floor.
4. Most put on a better show as comparatively young plants so divide them regularly.
Novi belgii’s can be divided every year, while novae-agliae’s and amellus cultivars are best left at least 3 years before division.
5. Mildew prevention for those that are prone.



Wednesday 11 May 2016

Trollius. Globe flower.

From Holme Nurseries. Holme for Gardens!




- BBC - Gardening: Plant Finder - Globe flower

- How to grow: T. chinensis 'Golden Queen' - Telegraph

Suppliers
- Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants Priory Lane Nursery, Freefolk Priors, Whitchurch, Hants RG28 7NJ (01256 896533; www.hardys-plants.co.uk).
- The Beth Chatto Gardens Elmstead Market, Colchester, Essex CO7 7DB (01206 822007; www.bethchatto.co.uk, mail order from September).

- Yes, rabbits will eat trollius
- I use chicken wire cages around things they traditionally go for.
Seems to work and the wire eventually disappears into the foliage backgrounds (so I don't buy the argument that it ruins the look of the garden).
Trollius is pretty hardy once established and the foliage will bounce back from a chewing down - have had years when blooms have suffered a little though.
It would be a wonderful gardening world if the biggest competition wasn't from the ravages of the local wildlife.
Faced with the choice of losing plants or using chicken wire - I'll go for the chicken wire every time, and it's in place as plants break ground in the spring.

- Купальницы европейские

Кроме европейской известно много видов купальниц: азиатская - обитает в Западной и Восточной Сибири, джунгарская - в горах Алатау, Памира и Тянь-Шаня, юньнаньская - в Китае, Ледебура - на Дальнем Востоке и др. Но только купальницы Ледебура и азиатская имеют цветки ярко-оранжевой окраски.
Когда смотришь на полянку, изумрудная зелень которой испещрена яркими цветками купальницы азиатской, то создается впечатление, что она вся светится множеством огоньков.
Сибиряки так и зовут их любовно “огоньки” в Западной Сибири, или “жарки” - в Восточной Сибири.
Цветут они в Сибири рано, сразу за первоцветами с середины мая до середины июня.
На одном кусте бывает до 50 цветоносов.
Они прямые, без разветвлений, высокие (до 60 см).
Благодаря этому они хорошо смотрятся в букетах. Только надо иметь в виду, что после срезки стебли необходимо сразу погрузить в воду, иначе цветы быстро увянут.
Но лучше купальницы смотрятся в саду.
Кстати, кусты “огоньков”, после того как они ”отполыхают”, остаются декоративными до осени благодаря красивой орнаментальной листве.

Sunday 3 April 2016

Brunnera macrophylla /Siberian bugloss.

Brunnera macrophylla | Siberian bugloss/RHS Gardening
Siberian Bugloss, False Forget Me Not, Heartleaf Brunnera
Striking panicles of tiny blue-violet flowers often appear before the large heart shaped leaves develop in early spring.
Many people confuse this hardy worker with Virginia Bluebells or Forget-Me-Nots.
Brunnera is happiest in humus rich constantly moist, part shade or shady areas and will self sow in the right conditions.
Cultivated forms include white flowers and variegated foliage.

Showy plants are all very well, but a garden needs robust, dependable and modest plants that don't require constant attention.
Brunnera macrophylla, with its 20in-tall (50cm) airy sprays of blue forget-me-not flowers and dense mounds of neat foliage, is a mainstay of many shady gardens, but rarely receives plaudits.
'Jack Frost' and became a star of the shady garden.
The bright blue flowers last longer than those of the species, starting in February and continuing to June, and make a spectacular partnership with the silver foliage.
Breeders are producing more cultivars.
'Looking Glass' has leaves that are even more silvery, without the green margin that adds to 'Jack Frost's' beauty.
Another silver-leaved form, 'Mr Morse', has white flowers.
This gives none of the striking effect of blue flowers against silver leaves and is rather insipid.
'Betty Bowring' is floriferous and long-flowering.
The bright white flowers make a dramatic contrast with the dark green foliage.
'Betty Bowring' and 'Jack Frost' are beautiful plants that have lifted the profile of brunnera.
Brunnera needs to be grown away from direct sunlight.
The dappled shade under deciduous trees and shrubs is ideal.

Good companions Brunnera makes good groundcover and mass plantings in flower are a spectacular sight.
Dicentra spectabilis 'Alba' enjoys the same conditions as brunnera and the arching stems of its white flowers mingling with the froth of blue flowers and reflecting the silver foliage of 'Jack Frost' is a beautiful partnership.
The dark foliage and deep blue flowers of Geranium pratense 'Hocus Pocus' are enhanced by the silver foliage of 'Jack Frost' long after the brunnera has stopped flowering.

- Brunnera: How to grow - Telegraph
- Guide to woodland plants or plants for shade : Plants for shade blog

Sanguinaria.

Sanguinaria canadensis f.multiplex - Perennial & Biennial Plants - Thompson & Morgan

You can also propagate bloodroot flowers from root division at any time. Plant sections of the root ½ to 1 inch deep in an acidic, organic- rich soil in a location with only dappled sun.
The display that a clump of Sanguinaria can make, in a humus rich spot such as a peat garden, in early spring, is not to be missed.
Available for ordering from both our Autumn and Spring lists, though the species range will vary between lists.

Sanguinaria Canadensis
The important alkaloid Sanguinarin is contained in this seasonal herb.
He doesn’t destroy the healthy cells and has great capacity to destroy cancerous cells.
It is used orally and externally against skin cancer and also helps in fightint against other forms of cancer.

- Guide to woodland plants or plants for shade : Plants for shade blog

Saturday 16 May 2015

Flowers. Dahlia. Peony.

I bought and ready to plant!
The dahlia is named after the 18th century Swedish botanist Anders Dahl, a student of Carl Linnaeus. Around the same time, in Germany, it was also named ‘Georgia’ after the Russian botanist Johann Gottlieb Georgi, and some still know it by this name.
This cultivar was so-named in 1924 to honour Joshua Pritchard Hughes who was the Bishop of Llandaff (a Diocese in South Wales) from 1905 to 1931.

How to grow dahlias:
- Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff' (P)
Genus Dahlia are tuberous rooted perennials with pinnately divided leaves and showy flower-heads, double in many cultivars, in summer and autumn. Tender Perennial Tuber.
Family Asteraceae / Asteraceae
Details 'Bishop of Llandaff' is an herbaceous perennial to 1m in height, with deep blackish-red foliage and semi-double brilliant red flowers 6cm in width.
Plant 30cm (12in) deep, 75cm (30in) apart.
Propagation Propagate by softwood cuttings taken in spring from shoots from stored tubers, or divide the tubers ensuring each division has a viable bud.
Cuttings should root within twenty days.
Pruning Deadhead to prolong flowering. Cut back to near ground level in the autumn, before lifting and storing for the winter.
Feed with a potash-rich plant food, either home-made comfrey tea or liquid tomato feed, once buds appear.

Monty Don: Call it a dahlia | Life and style | The Guardian:
Love them or loathe them - even the most fervent anti-dahlia gardener can't resist the Bishop of Llandaff.
The parent plants can be put outside in mid-May, when the risk of frost is past. If you are not going to take cuttings, plant the overwintered tubers out about 15 cm deep in early April, in rich soil in full sunlight. The new shoots appear above ground about a month later.
In most well-drained urban gardens I think it perfectly safe to leave them in the ground over the winter as long as they are cut back to the ground and mulched thickly. But if you are likely to get ground frosts of -5ºC or below, or if you have heavy soil – both of which we have here – I would strongly recommend lifting them after the first frost.
Slugs will graze a scar along the length of the stems as well as eating the foliage, while earwigs are very fond of eating the petals.
The best way to stop earwig damage is to place an empty flowerpot on a cane – ideally the one supporting the dahlia – and stuff it with some torn-up paper or straw; the earwigs will crawl inside during the day, when they can be found and taken away.
In the spring mulch them with some rich organic matter (eg well rotted compost or farmyard manure) and feed them with a general purpose fertiliser when growth begins.(Here!)
Growing Dahlias at the Villas - for the very first time! - Sow and So: How to PLANT dahlias (with pic!).

Companion Plants: Foeniculum vulgare 'purpureum' Fennel (bronze fennel-) or verbena bonariensis and Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff'.
The bronze or purple form of garden fennel (not to be confused with sweet or Florence fennel, an annual vegetable grown for its swollen bulbs) is a handsome and popular perennial, often planted on its own for impact or combined with bergamot in flower borders.

- Paeonia officinalis 'Rubra Plena' (d)

Other common names - peony 'Rubra Plena'
Genus- Paeonia may be herbaceous perennials or deciduous sub-shrubs with large, divided leaves and showy large bowl-shaped flowers, usually in early summer.
Family- Paeoniaceae / Paeoniaceae.
Details- 'Rubra Plena' is a robust herbaceous perennial to 75cm in height, with dark green, divided leaves and fully double rich crimson flowers 15-20cm across.
Planting depth - 3 cm.
Time to maturity: 5-10 years.

Thursday 2 October 2014

Сut flowers.

Enjoy cut flowers from the garden all year round - Telegraph:
Louise Curley's cutting and displaying tips
Pick flowers early morning or evening to avoid transpiration.
Cut a long stem but leave enough for the plant to regenerate.
Use secateurs or snips for a clean cut.
Plunge stems immediately into a bucket of cold water.
Leave them to rest in a cool garage or shed. But keep away from fruit and veg.
When arranging, snip the stem with a diagonal cut for maximum absorption area.
Put daffs in a separate bucket and keep refreshing the water until sap stops leaking.
Wrap tulip stems in newspaper secured with a rubber band and leave in a bucket of water for a few hours.
Sear the stems of poppies, roses, euphorbias and dahlias to stop early petal fall, by dipping the base of the stem in boiling water, while protecting the flower from steam.

Keep vases in a cool shady spot, and refresh water daily.
'via Blog this'