If you look up garden ruins or follies in the dictionary, you will be told that they are ‘costly ornamental buildings with no practical purpose.’
23.08.2023 - 09:49 / houseandgarden.co.uk / Hazel Sillver
Helianthus annus ‘Sonja’
Solar-powered sun worshippers, sunflowers (Helianthus) bask in the warmest patch of the garden, soaring higher and higher towards the daystar on long legs. The flowers they produce are shaped like a child’s drawing of the sun and blaze in fire shades of yellow, amber, and red. And we relish this colour when they bloom late in the season, providing much-needed cheer when the autumn mists set in.
The annual sunflower, Helianthus annuus, is native to Mexico and the southwest states of the US, including California. It has been used as a food crop for centuries and still is today, primarily for cooking oil, livestock food, and bird feed. One of the biggest suppliers is Ukraine, which has meant a big drop in supply and a surge in costs, as anyone who feeds the birds will know; sunflower hearts are favoured by many feathered garden visitors, especially blue tits, siskins, and goldfinches. Another option is to provide for them by growing your own sunflowers – by late autumn and early winter, the enormous spent dinner-plate flowerheads are a bounty for the birds, who pluck out the seeds. As long as the sunflower is not a pollen-free floristry variety, it will also provide food for bees when in bloom.
Unlike us, bees and birds are capable of reaching the tallest sunflowers, which can tower to incredible heights, over 4-metres. But, of course, not everyone would want to reach them: sunflowers tend to incite a love or loathe reaction. While some people can’t bear them, others – of all ages – can’t get enough of them, especially the giants, and sunflower competitions are still held up and down the country locally and nationally, including one this year by Age UK. The world record for height is 9.17 metres (30.1
If you look up garden ruins or follies in the dictionary, you will be told that they are ‘costly ornamental buildings with no practical purpose.’
When not in flower, it’s fair to say dahlia plants rarely command a second glance. In fact, to the uninitiated, they could be easily mistaken for potatoes, not that surprising when you consider that these two fast-growing, frost-tender tuberous species share a surprising amount of common ground regarding their geographical range in the wild and their fondness for a certain set of growing conditions that includes a rich, moist but free-draining soil in full sun or light shade. But the comparison ends there. Unlike potatoes, which are valued solely as a tasty food crop, dahlias are generally prized for the otherworldly beauty of their often large and vividly colourful flowers.
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My name is Monica Babwah. I live in New Port Richey, Florida, with my husband and four children. I’ve been busy with landscape design for about four years, and I just love the benefits it adds to your life and the people around you. I started planting when my dad would visit from Long Island, New York. It gave him something to look at, and he said it made him feel good. He would sit in the shade and admire the trees and flowers while sipping from a cup of herb tea. I saw how good it made him feel, which made me want to continue my journey of a captivating landscape. My father passed away on May 30, 2023. In remembrance of my beloved father, I keep planting!
Monstera Acacoyaguensis stands out form the other indoor plants, thanks to its unique leaves with natural holes in them. Let’s have a look at how to maintain it easily!
Herein in lies part of its charm. Tiny coastal villages, lazy rivers, reed beds and their narrow, watery channels, sandy beaches and the wide horizons for which the region is renowned make this a place of glorious escape. The region is studded with gardens to visit, too, be they aristocratic estates or smaller country houses.
Potato blight, also known as late blight, attacks the foliage and tubers of potatoes, eventually causing the crop to rot. Caused by the same fungus responsible for tomato blight, it is a particular problem in wet summers. Potato blight was responsible for the Irish potato famine in the 19th century, devastating crops in the ground, and those in storage too.
Hailing from South Africa, agapanthus can be evergreen or deciduous; the deciduous varieties are the most hardy in this country. The evergreen varieties grow in the southern Cape in milder areas, so will need frost protection in the UK – or they can be grown in pots and brought inside.
The British have a bit of an obsession with the Mediterranean. It's tantalisingly close, yet sufficiently different that the moment the EasyJet tyres hit the tarmac, we feel transformed and instantly a bit more glamorous.
As far removed from an English cottage garden as you can travel, the passion flower (Passiflora) is one of the most theatrical and exotic of plants. The weird and wonderful blooms are embellished with many showy parts that together remind you of peering into a kaleidoscope as a child: in the centre, the anthers, stigmas, and ovary protrude over the filament rays, which are marked with circles of incredible colour.
For my Masters dissertation last year I did some research into gardeners who choose to grow unusual edible crops. I settled on two species to investigate, achocha and oca. In the past I’ve written about how to grow achocha – it’s a nice, easy plant and in a temperate climate you should have no problems getting a significant yield. You may have more of a problem dealing with the glut….
Lauren Alex O’ Hagan, Cardiff University