Hortoris

Edgeworthia is a genus of shrubs that flower in small clusters of scented 4 petaled flowers tightly packed to form a ball shape. The genus is related to the Daphne family and can be grown in the UK with similar treatment and success.

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You can see photographs of my former compost bins in an  old 2014 post

Alpine or border Campanulas come in many species and varieties.

After salad crop failures in Spain and shortages of courgettes, broccoli and other ‘long distance’ vegetables gardeners could to worse than focus on traditional and non-traditional root crops.

The new year gets gardeners all enthused but it is also a time to show patience. The gnomes wont rush to help you anytime soon Hi-ho.

Kiwi fruit known as the Chinese goodeberry grow on the woody vine Actinidia deliciosa and its hybrids. The vines should be grown on sturdy support structures as it crops more than the rather weak vines can support.This plant has a cold greenhouse for protection but they can be grown outdoors in a sheltered spot.

There are potentially as many soils as there are gardens but they can be classified into five types. Heavy Clay Soil Minute particles of clay stick together in a gluey mess when wet and go rock hard when dry. Often clay soil is very fertile. Clay soils can be improved with drainage, coarse grit, or the addition of coarse organic matter as humus.

This is one of the many books in my collection but the only one to focus on growing big, bigger and biggest vegetables. If you want to grow giant vegetable for exhibition or to get large crops then there are many pointers in ‘How to Grow Giant Vegetables’ by Bernard Lavery and below.

It is the end of this years Hostas but I was lucky to keep most slugs off most Hostas until the autumn ravages start. It is no longer worth protecting the leaves which are due to die back into the Hostas roots to await next spring.

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Compact, early flowering shrubs with jam making potential from fruit in autumn make these plants well worth cultivating. As I think you can now imagine Chaenomeles make good and often under utilised shrubs and small trees in the garden  landscape. Varieties vary from 3 feet to 12 feet in height. I grew my plants from seed supplied by the Royal Horticultural Society in the annual seed distribution.

Do you want to grow something different or are you indifferent about your growing capabilities?

If you want to help your  Rhubarb water it even when it is raining!

More plants drown than die of thirst but Azalea houseplants do need damp soil.

‘The older an olive tree is, the broader and more gnarled its trunk appears. Many olive trees in the groves around the Mediterranean are said to be hundreds of years old, while an age of 2,000 years is claimed for a number of individual trees’

These notes are designed as advice to a daughter who has just moved into a 1920’s house with a long, narrow back garden and a postage stamp sized front grass patch.

In an oval roundabout in Menston a dozen Poplar trees were planted in the 1970s. As you can see only about half survive and these have been mistreated by polling them to restrict height.

Great April weather has produced a harvest of blossom on my apple trees. With no danger of frost and plenty of insects there should be no problem with pollination. Even the later flowering apples trees have open blossom and this means the essential cross pollination by more than one species will be taking place.

Climbers can look really great if you do some preparation. Select an appropriate wall to train your Climbers against or use a free standing structure like this metal frame for the blue Clematis.

Common Ash trees row widely in the UK and other Ashes grow in Asia and America. Our Ash has dark almost black buds and some species have interesting flowers but it is as a tree the provided wood to make bows that the Ash is best known in Britain.

Mildew is a white powdery fungus that looks unsightly on these leaves. Mildew is a sign of stress in a plant and usually arises from damp air with poor circulation. It is prevalent in my garden now Autumn is here in force. It is of less concern in winter as the cold will take care of the current problem until next year at least.

Divide and rule is the motto for those who wish to be king of the herbaceous garden. More plants for some little effort.

This spring has been a good one for my Auriculas. I have been please with a powder blue flower that I hope to propagate by division in July. First I will water well and add some dilute feed.

The larger Acer is not Japonica but Davidii. Under it’s branches is a more tender Acer palmatum Japonica var. dissectum ‘Inaba-shidare’ or the purple leaved Japanese maple.

Some flowers look best in groups or large swathes. These fields of cultivated Lavender demonstrate the point clearly. Imagine the scent from all these individual stems of flowers a heady experience. For commercial purposes growing in rows makes Lavender easier to mechanically crop and maintain.

For gardening purposes Brassicas are a group of vegetables in the mustard family that includes Cabbages, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Calabrese Sprouts and Kale.

From the Ribes currant family I prefer the Red currant for making pies. However I also grow Black currants R nigrum for the intense flavour.

I just purchased a new containerised Rhododendron named ‘Sappho’. The picture on the label is of white flowers with spotted purple centres. There are lots of buds, about 20, and they are looking lilac.  I thought of taking it back as that was not the colour I wanted.

From the National Christmas Tree Federation ‘For Christmas trees, overall color of Norway spruce is fair to excellent, but needle retention is considered poor unless the trees are cut fresh and kept properly watered. Growth during the first 10 years after field planting is relatively slow and 8 to 11 years are required to grow a 6-7 foot tree.’Above in the public domain because its copyright has expired

How do you plan a colour scheme when gardening with a wide palette of colour. The answer is to use complimentary colours that are directly opposite on the colour wheel. This give a lie to the old phrase about red and green which is about dress sense rather than gardening nous.

Witch Hazel or Hamamelis is a scented winter-flowering shrub. The spicy fragrance and spidery flowers in yellow, orange or red  make it a must for the winter garden.

Art can be found in many situations and you don’t need to look too far in the alpine house.

The Quinine tree or large shrub has provided medical cures for malaria and fever for 400 years. The ground up bark is the key substance for this and as the additive in tonic water.

Allium christophii, common name Star of Persia or Persian onion. Perhaps they have dropped the religious ‘h’  to become Allium cristophii as a nod to the Iranian roots.

Cool hothouse sculpture!