Wednesday 27 May 2015
Sunday 24 May 2015
Saturday 23 May 2015
Favourite roses for scent, for cutting.
Top 10 roses for scent | How to, Ornamental, Summer, Top tips | Amateur Gardening Amateur Gardening:
- ‘Louise Odier’
- ‘Madame Isaac Pereire’
- ‘De Resht’
- ‘Professeur Emile Perrot’ (syn. ‘Kazanlik’)
- ‘Jude the Obscure’
- ‘Quatre Saisons’
- ‘Great Maiden’s Blush’
- ‘Sir Frederick Ashton’
- ‘Gertrude Jekyll’
- ‘Madame Alfred Carrière’
Gardening: Top 10 roses for cutting - Sarah Raven:
- Princess Alexandra
- White Gold
- William Shakespeare 2000
- Golden Celebration
- Graham Thomas
- Susan
- Winchester Cathedral
- Gertrude Jekyll
- Buttercup
- ‘Louise Odier'
Some of the favourite roses mentioned on Gardener's World:
- Presenter's Monty Don favourite Roses - Chapeau de Napoleon
- Rachel de Thame - Roses in her garden included Graham Thomas, Evelyn, Golden Celebration and Penny Lane.
- Carol Kline - New Dawn
- Alan Titchmarsh - Jacques Cartier
- Sarah Raven - Charles de Mills
- Nick Biddle (Regents Park Head Gardener) - Stanwell Perpetual Sweet Dreams is the most successful British rose ever with sales of 4 1/2 million since 1998.
Gardener's World Favourite Rose Survey:
1. Gertrude Jekyll
2. Peace
3. Albertine (the Queen Mother's favourite rose)
4. Iceberg
5. Blue Moon
- Monty Don: Pergolas, arches, trees, even the side of the house will be enriched if you let roses ramble | Mail Online:
As a general rule, use climbers on walls, fences, pillars and pergolas and ramblers will grow into hedges, trees over large arches and may also be used on pillars and pergolas.
- Coming up roses: Bring that boring pergola to life by training masses of climbing roses over it - then letting them run riot | Mail Online:
- How to grow: best compact climbing roses - Telegraph:
- Organic gardening: Growing roses - Telegraph: "Top 10 disease-resistant roses"
- Top 10 climbers - By Rachel de Thame.:
1. Rosa 'Penny Lane'
I COULD dedicate the whole article to climbing roses, but I've chosen this one simply because it's such a good doer. It was awarded Rose of the Year in 1998. I grow it in my garden on a lowish, north-east-facing wall. It produces nicely shaped flowers, beautiful in bud and almost blowsy when fully open. The colour is particularly subtle, buff with a hint of pink when young, becoming Champagne with age. It has good disease resistance, is compact enough for the smallest garden and it repeats well. Since it went in, I have always been able to pick a posy for the house at Christmas.
- Which scented roses to plant in the garden - Saga:
'via Blog this'
- ‘Louise Odier’
- ‘Madame Isaac Pereire’
- ‘De Resht’
- ‘Professeur Emile Perrot’ (syn. ‘Kazanlik’)
- ‘Jude the Obscure’
- ‘Quatre Saisons’
- ‘Great Maiden’s Blush’
- ‘Sir Frederick Ashton’
- ‘Gertrude Jekyll’
- ‘Madame Alfred Carrière’
Gardening: Top 10 roses for cutting - Sarah Raven:
- Princess Alexandra
- White Gold
- William Shakespeare 2000
- Golden Celebration
- Graham Thomas
- Susan
- Winchester Cathedral
- Gertrude Jekyll
- Buttercup
- ‘Louise Odier'
Some of the favourite roses mentioned on Gardener's World:
- Presenter's Monty Don favourite Roses - Chapeau de Napoleon
- Rachel de Thame - Roses in her garden included Graham Thomas, Evelyn, Golden Celebration and Penny Lane.
- Carol Kline - New Dawn
- Alan Titchmarsh - Jacques Cartier
- Sarah Raven - Charles de Mills
- Nick Biddle (Regents Park Head Gardener) - Stanwell Perpetual Sweet Dreams is the most successful British rose ever with sales of 4 1/2 million since 1998.
Gardener's World Favourite Rose Survey:
1. Gertrude Jekyll
2. Peace
3. Albertine (the Queen Mother's favourite rose)
4. Iceberg
5. Blue Moon
- Monty Don: Pergolas, arches, trees, even the side of the house will be enriched if you let roses ramble | Mail Online:
As a general rule, use climbers on walls, fences, pillars and pergolas and ramblers will grow into hedges, trees over large arches and may also be used on pillars and pergolas.
- Coming up roses: Bring that boring pergola to life by training masses of climbing roses over it - then letting them run riot | Mail Online:
- How to grow: best compact climbing roses - Telegraph:
- Organic gardening: Growing roses - Telegraph: "Top 10 disease-resistant roses"
- Top 10 climbers - By Rachel de Thame.:
1. Rosa 'Penny Lane'
I COULD dedicate the whole article to climbing roses, but I've chosen this one simply because it's such a good doer. It was awarded Rose of the Year in 1998. I grow it in my garden on a lowish, north-east-facing wall. It produces nicely shaped flowers, beautiful in bud and almost blowsy when fully open. The colour is particularly subtle, buff with a hint of pink when young, becoming Champagne with age. It has good disease resistance, is compact enough for the smallest garden and it repeats well. Since it went in, I have always been able to pick a posy for the house at Christmas.
- Which scented roses to plant in the garden - Saga:
'via Blog this'
Making a Willow Wigwam.
- How to use willow in the garden - Telegraph:
Roses trained by weaving through pliable hazel domes.
Arne Maynard’s rose-covered domes at Chelsea.
- The English Gardener: Making a Willow Wigwam is Easier Than it Looks (Promise) Gardenista:
'via Blog this'
Roses trained by weaving through pliable hazel domes.
Arne Maynard’s rose-covered domes at Chelsea.
- The English Gardener: Making a Willow Wigwam is Easier Than it Looks (Promise) Gardenista:
'via Blog this'
Rose "Pink Peace".
Medium pink Hybrid Tea.
Registration name: MEIbil
Exhibition name: Pink Peace
Bred by Francis Meilland (France, 1958).
Introduced in France by URS (Universal Rose Selection)-Meilland as 'Pink Peace'.
Hybrid Tea.
Pink. Strong fragrance. 58 petals. Large bloom form. Blooms in flushes throughout the season.
Height of 3' to 5' (90 to 150 cm). Width of 28" to 4' (70 to 120 cm).
Registration name: MEIbil
Exhibition name: Pink Peace
Bred by Francis Meilland (France, 1958).
Introduced in France by URS (Universal Rose Selection)-Meilland as 'Pink Peace'.
Hybrid Tea.
Pink. Strong fragrance. 58 petals. Large bloom form. Blooms in flushes throughout the season.
Height of 3' to 5' (90 to 150 cm). Width of 28" to 4' (70 to 120 cm).
Stanwell Perpetual rose.
How to grow: Stanwell Perpetual rose - Telegraph:
"Growing tips
'Stanwell Perpetual' adapts to any soil, even thriving on chalk. It tolerates some shade and is so hardy that it grows well in Scandinavia. It can be grown as a specimen, a hedge, in a container or up a pillar.
Thorny 'Stanwell Perpetual' is best grown away from paths and steps. Dig a large enough hole to allow you to spread the roots out, shortening any really long ones, and mix in a handful of bone meal. Place the rose in the hole and cover with soil making sure the union - the bumpy part at the bottom of the stem - is an inch below the surface. Press down firmly, water if necessary, then cut the rose down hard, reducing each stem to 3in to 5in long at an outward-facing bud. This will prevent wind rock and make the plant stronger and less leggy.
If you grow it as single specimen try to preserve the arching shape. Remove any dying, diseased and damaged wood and shorten the thorny stems by up to a third during winter. You can cut it back hard in spring if you want a shorter rose, as it flowers on the new wood.
When planting a hedge, leave a 3ft gap between each rose and trim to the desired size in winter.
Feed sparingly; sprinkling an organic fertiliser round the roots at the beginning of the growing season will be plenty.
If you do get an attack of black spot gather the fallen leaves and destroy them - don't add them to the compost heap. This robust rose should shrug off the disease the following year. If it does return, gather the leaves again and water the plant and surrounding ground thoroughly with a strong tar-wash solution in winter.
Good companions
Its shell-pink flowers mix well with other old-fashioned varieties or shrub roses. These can be interspersed with violas or campanulas and edged with the silvery leaves of Stachys byzantina. 'Stanwell Perpetual' also suits a woodland planting."
'via Blog this'
"Growing tips
'Stanwell Perpetual' adapts to any soil, even thriving on chalk. It tolerates some shade and is so hardy that it grows well in Scandinavia. It can be grown as a specimen, a hedge, in a container or up a pillar.
Thorny 'Stanwell Perpetual' is best grown away from paths and steps. Dig a large enough hole to allow you to spread the roots out, shortening any really long ones, and mix in a handful of bone meal. Place the rose in the hole and cover with soil making sure the union - the bumpy part at the bottom of the stem - is an inch below the surface. Press down firmly, water if necessary, then cut the rose down hard, reducing each stem to 3in to 5in long at an outward-facing bud. This will prevent wind rock and make the plant stronger and less leggy.
If you grow it as single specimen try to preserve the arching shape. Remove any dying, diseased and damaged wood and shorten the thorny stems by up to a third during winter. You can cut it back hard in spring if you want a shorter rose, as it flowers on the new wood.
When planting a hedge, leave a 3ft gap between each rose and trim to the desired size in winter.
Feed sparingly; sprinkling an organic fertiliser round the roots at the beginning of the growing season will be plenty.
If you do get an attack of black spot gather the fallen leaves and destroy them - don't add them to the compost heap. This robust rose should shrug off the disease the following year. If it does return, gather the leaves again and water the plant and surrounding ground thoroughly with a strong tar-wash solution in winter.
Good companions
Its shell-pink flowers mix well with other old-fashioned varieties or shrub roses. These can be interspersed with violas or campanulas and edged with the silvery leaves of Stachys byzantina. 'Stanwell Perpetual' also suits a woodland planting."
'via Blog this'
Wednesday 20 May 2015
How to make a bug box.
How to make a bug box - Projects: Wildlife gardening - gardenersworld.com:
Thanks to Pinterest, I have discovered an amazing little “insect hotels”.
'via Blog this'
Thanks to Pinterest, I have discovered an amazing little “insect hotels”.
'via Blog this'
Monday 18 May 2015
RHS Grow for Flavour (Hardback): 9781845339364
RHS Grow for Flavour (Hardback): 9781845339364:
"By following his groundbreaking scientific tips and techniques, your fruit and veg yield will benefit from measurable improvements in flavour and supercharged quality and health value of all your home-grown harvests. Plus, you'll find 36 simple recipes for making the most of your new flavour-packed produce.
Published in association with the Royal Horticultural Society, James Wong's new book, Grow for Flavour, gives you the techniques to maximize flavour while minimizing the effort involved."
...no potatoes, cabbages, onions or cauliflowers but still plenty left to try your hand.
'via Blog this'
"By following his groundbreaking scientific tips and techniques, your fruit and veg yield will benefit from measurable improvements in flavour and supercharged quality and health value of all your home-grown harvests. Plus, you'll find 36 simple recipes for making the most of your new flavour-packed produce.
Published in association with the Royal Horticultural Society, James Wong's new book, Grow for Flavour, gives you the techniques to maximize flavour while minimizing the effort involved."
...no potatoes, cabbages, onions or cauliflowers but still plenty left to try your hand.
'via Blog this'
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.
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.
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