Friday November 22nd 2013

A chilly bright day and  there are still more bulbs to plant. Before venturing out into the garden we had some discussion about roses. Bridge has started cataloguing all the roses in the garden and will plan a slide show about the roses in the garden for the new year. The plan is to label all the roses.Check out the current edition of Gardens Illustrated for an article on late flowering roses. One such rose in the garden now is a polyantha rose, Rosa 'The Fairy' which has lovely small pink flowers and a very long flowering season. It is low growing and can be grown in a pot.

Rosa 'The Fairy'

Rose hips can also provide colour and interest in the garden in winter. Rosa omeiensis pteracantha has spectacular thorns which are translucent on young plants and glow bright red with the light through them. Now is a good time to plant bare rooted roses -roses don't grow so well on chalk so you need to ensure you mix in plenty of organic matter into the soil when planting. It is good to put manure around your roses now and give them a feed in spring and again when they flower. We looked at some other plants that are looking good in the garden now:

Clerodendrum Trichotomum

• Clerodendrum Trichotomum - is also known as the peanut butter tree because of the particular fragrance of the leaves. It is an upright deciduous tree or shrub from China or Japan and in autumn it has very striking maroon sepals surrounding blue berries.
• Myrtus communis subsp. tarentina -a small evergreen shrub of dense growth, with small, narrowly ovate leaves, and pink buds opening to white flowers.They can get to 1m tall. Myrtles are evergreen shrubs with aromatic leathery leaves and white flowers followed by fleshy berries.
• Sarcococca confusa (Sweet box)-is a lovely bushy evergreen shrub that can grow to 2m, it has glossy, deep green, leaves and in winter very sweetly scented, small, creamy-white flowers, followed by glossy black berries. This shrub will tolerate shade.
• Himalayan bamboo - we also talked about bamboos. They can be thuggish but can also be kept in check if grown in containers and certain small bamboos can be used in flower arranging. Check out Big plant nursery  website for more information about different types of bamboos.

We also thought about gardens to visit in winter - Bridge will be planning Garden House trip to Anglesey Abbey in Cambridge which is a wonderful winter garden. Also possibility of Friday group outing to Chelsea Physic Garden - perhaps to look at the snowdrop displays early next year.

Activities in the garden this week:

• Further work on border on far side of hawthorn hedge. The plants that have been taken out need to be reviewed and decisions made about what will be put back and what can be divided. Groups of tulip bulbs have now been planted and narcissi bulbs planted under the hedge. The plan is to plant dianthus along the front of the border
• Continue rose pruning along the arches and feed the roses with manure
• Plant up rest of tulips and wallflowers in the cut flower beds - Tulips being planted are Queen of the Night which are deep purple.
• Planting allium bulbs in end bed
• Landscaping area in front of the compost area
• Reviewing state of the wormeries
• Take out and divide the large Libertia goldfinger plants from two containers. The divided  clumps of plant need to be potted on and when the new plants have developed healthy root systems they will be planted into urns on the pillars around the garden. This plant has very attractive variegated green and golden orange striped upright leaves and produces white flowers in spring/summer.

Dividing Libertia goldfinger

New Libertia plants

Sue and Vicky contemplating their task

Friday 15th November 2013

Clematis cirrhosa 'Freckles' growing over willow arch

A lovely bright cold day at the Garden House - just right for planting bulbs. The grasses are still looking beautiful so we focused our discussion this week on grasses.Bridge has written a piece on Garden House website on pampas grass so check that out for more information.

Pennisetum

Miscanthus

• Cortaderia selloana ‘Pumila’is a more compact variety of pampas grass.
• Pennisetum can be annuals or perennials but are easy to grow and the annuals self seed easily
• Hakonechloa macro 'Aureola' is a deciduous perennial grass which forms dense low growing clumps
• Stipa gigantea- (golden oat grass) is a lovely autumn grass which can be almost transparent in the border.It is a robust grass that can grow to 2m

Deciduous grasses don't need to be cut back until Mar/April and provide structural quality in winter. Be careful not to damage any new growth when cutting back in the spring. You can just comb through evergreen grasses to remove old dead thatch.

Book recommendation: Grasses by Roger Grounds

Highdown Nursery in Henfield has a very good selection of grasses.

Activities in the garden this week:

• Planting  the cut flower beds with red wallflowers and tulip bulbs 
• Clearing out alpine sinks/ refreshing compost ready for planting
• Edging of large border and more tulip/narcissi bulb planting
• Clearing a veg bed and planting onion sets and garlic cloves
• Trimming back willow arch
• Weeding and preparing beds by willow arch for planting
• Pruning climbing and rambling roses
• Sowing salad seeds in greenhouse- giant red mustard/mizuna
• Sorting out/weeding yellow bed by the shed





Planting tulip bulbs and wallflower

Make sure all those tulips are red!

Nanette on bottle planting duties

Susan quality checking

Ann planting even more bulbs in border

Unwelcome occupants of the alpine sink

Clearing out alpine sink

Weevil grubs were found in the alpine sinks - so grubs need to be destroyed and sinks cleaned out carefully as they will munch through anything that is planted. There are nematodes that can be used for this or just scour out with boiling water.

Friday 8th November

Ginkgo

We started with a discussion about autumn colour, looking at some leaves from trees in Sheffield Park and talking about trees that look particularly amazing at this time of year. These are just three:-

• Liquidambar is a deciduous tree with maple like leaves that turn to crimson, orange and purple in autumn
• Ginkgo biloba, or maidenhair tree, has been described as a ‘living fossil’ because it is the sole survivor of an ancient group of trees older than the dinosaurs.It has fan shaped leaves that turn yellow in autumn
• Sorbus Joseph Rock - this Rowan has copper leaves in autumn with creamy yellow berries

Sorbus Joseph Rock

Liquidambar

                                                                     
Check out Barcham Trees website for information on a comprehensive range of trees

Now is the time to put tender plants in the greenhouse or cold frame and it is not too late to sow some more sweet peas. Sweat peas will need some protection from winter winds and you need to pinch out the growing tip after you have 3 sets of leaves.Tender succulents like Aeoniums need to overwinter indoors.
It is also time to prune rambling and climbing roses.The RHS website has useful detailed information on pruning rambling roses and  climbing roses. Hybrid teas and shrub roses should not be pruned until Feb/March time. Ramblers usually  flower only once in June whereas climbers repeat flower. Climbers are more contained and can be suitable for growing over arches etc. Rose pruning ensures that plants grow vigorously and flower well each year.

     Activities in the garden this week:

• preparing a bed for planting allium bulbs
• digging up dahlias and storing the tubers for overwintering - the tubers need to be turned upside down to dry out for a few days before being stored in a box with old compost/straw in a shed or greenhouse during winter months
• planting up last of the pots with spring bulbs
• pruning climbing and rambling roses

Forthcoming events at Garden House
 see Garden House diary

16th Nov  - Botany talk from Irene Fletcher
22nd Nov - Flowers for the Christmas table with Bea Andrews
27th Nov - Wine Tasting with Henry Butler
plus just a few places left on the Christmas wreath making workshops

Ammi majus looking good for next year

Dahlias drying out

Storing tender plants

Sweat peas have been pinched out