Friday 6th December 2013

Cotoneaster Rothschildianus

Our last opportunity to get out and do some gardening this year as next week we will be celebrating a busy first term of the Friday group with our Christmas lunch and probably a seasonal horticultural quiz.We had some discussion about the planting of herbaceous perennials. Perennials are plants that have a life cycle of more than 2 years -the term herbaceous perennial  narrows the group to plants with soft, green stems that die back to the ground in colder climates. Trees, shrubs and other woody stemmed plants are excluded. Perennial vegetables are jerusalem artichokes, globe artichokes, cardoons and asparagus.

Activities in the garden this week:

• Bubble wrapping the inside of the greenhouse and putting more of the plants that are not frosty hardy into the protection of the greenhouse
• Digging up and sorting out the chrysanthemums so they can be protected over the winter months and cuttings taken in the spring. Chrysanthemums are good grown for cut flowers - they were slightly overshadowed in the garden this year by the cosmos that grew so abundantly. See RHS page for advice on care of chrysanthemums.
• Further work on hard landscaping the area outside the compost bins
• Planting up the Grand Soleil D'or narcissus bulbs
• Pruning the rose that grows over the arch in front garden
• Leaf raking
• Tidying up the yellow bed near the shed

Mahonia media 'Charity'

Plant ident:

• Thuja plicata 'Irish Gold', Western Red Cedar. Thuja are fast growing evergreen trees and can be grown as a hedge.
• Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata', Irish Yew - a large bushy upright evergreen shrub. Conifers can provide important winter structure in the garden.
• Mahonia media 'Charity' - Mahonia are evergreen shrubs with yellow flowers that are pollinated by moths. 'Charity' is an upright shrub that can grow to 4m with clusters of flowers in late autumn/winter
• Cotonesater 'Rothschildianus' - a large deciduous or semi evergreen shrub that grows to 5m with small white flowers in large clusters, followed by pale creamy-yellow berries.

The guerilla pruning team!