Friday 18th July 2014

Last Friday group of the year - we focused on making sure the garden was looking amazing for the charity event on Sunday. We also shared a lovely lunch and said some goodbyes to Friday group friends that will not be coming back to the group next year.
The Friday group class of 2013/14 - we have shared a lot of fun and learnt quite a bit more about gardening along the way and just enjoyed spending time together every week in Bridge's beautiful garden.

Friday 11th July

Pelargonium 'Ardens'

A number of group members had been to Hampton Court Flower Show this week and this beautiful species pelargonium is just one of the new purchases. We did some more final planning for the Friday group charity event on 20th July and had a brief look at some fuchsias. Fuchsias are a genus of approximately 100 species of deciduous or evergreen trees or shrubs and a few perennials. They come originally from Central and South America and New Zealand and have very distinctive pendulous flowers throughout summer and autumn. They can be used in containers or as summer bedding and some are hardy enough to be grown as hedges.

• Fuchsia 'Lottie Hobbie' is an unusual small bushy upright vigorous plant with dark green leaves and small single flowers. It prefers some shade.

Fuchsia 'Lottie Hobbie'

• Fuchsia 'Lady Bacon' is a medium sized shrub with slim white, pink and purple flowers. It can survive outside although likes a sunny position and some protection from winds.

Fuchsia 'Lady Bacon'

• Fuchsia 'Delta's Sarah' is a small deciduous bushy shrub it bears single flowers with white sepals and purple petals

  

  Fuchsia 'Delta's Sarah'

Activities in the garden this week (before the rain came down):

• Planting out newly bought fuchsias
• Pruning the willow arch
• Cloud pruning the myrtle
• Planting out broad beans
• Cutting back the ivy
• Sorting out the large border and deadheading roses

Friday group award winners:

Vicky and Sue received special awards of path building merit at the group this week. Many congratulations to you both!

Friday 4th July 2014

Sue and Vicky -our very talented path builders at work

Bridge was away and with Julia at the helm we had some discussion about gardens we had visited or other gardening recommendations. The Garden Gadabout had gone very well for group members that opened their gardens with lots of visitors and lots of very positive feedback.
Sue T had been on a good planting course at Great Dixter which was very inspirational, Katy had visited Parham House in Storrington and said the gardens are really worth a visit. Julia visited Hurstmonceux castle and gardens and again really recommended a visit. A bit further afield Hilary had visited Wallington Hall, a lovely NT property and gardens in Northumberland and closer to home the meadows and beds in Preston Park are looking rather spectacular at the moment.

Plant Identification:

• Geranium maderense, a giant herb robert that comes from Madeira. It is a robust perennial or biennial which grows to 1.5m with attractive leaves and large purplish pink flowers and can grow in either sun or shade.

Geranium maderense

• Geranium pyrenaicum 'Bill Wallis' is a sprawling perennial that grows to 30cm tall with open sprays of small delicate vivid purple flowers. It flowers from late spring to late autumn in full sun or partial shade.It self seeds and can provide effective ground cover or can also be used in pots.

Geranium pyrenaicum 'Bill Wallis'

• Sanguisorba officinalis or great burnet has maroon flowers in dense spikes in summer and early autumn -best in full sun or partial shade in well drained soil. A lovely plant for borders or prairie planting.

  

  Sanguisorba officinalis

  Activities in the garden this week:
• Feeding and watering the pots
• Clipping box hedges and taking box cuttings
• Weeding and feeding the border under apple tree
• Pulling out opium poppies and saving seed heads
• Pruning Rosa Banksiae
• Cutting back the willow in willow arch
• Planting out rest of tomatoes in greenhouse and harvesting lettuces

Friday 27th June 2014

We began with an hour’s visit to The Moulsecoomb Forest Garden where Warren talked about the project and showed us around.

Then back to the Garden House for coffee and further planning of the fundraising event on 20^th July which will be in aid of Moulsecoomb Forest Garden. Afterwards we worked in the garden for an hour.

Tasks included:

•  further clearance of cold frames
•  potting on cuttings inc gooseberries and blackcurrants
• more work on the path

Forest Garden pics:

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Friday 20th June 2014

Rosa 'Chevy Chase'

It is a great year for roses and there are 64 types of roses in the Garden House including R. 'Chevy Chase' a small compact climber with a good covering of light green foliage and small dark red clusters of flowers.

Rosa 'Rambling Rector'

Rosa 'Rambling Rector' is a rampant vigorous rambling rose that would cover a tree or pergola. It has small white scented flowers followed by red hips. Ramblers don't usually repeat flower and usually produce attractive hips.

Rosa 'Ghislaine de Feligonde'

This is a rambling rose that unusually will produce a second flush of flowers - it is fast growing with apricot flowers that fade to cream with a light musky scent. It is a good choice for covering an archway and is generally disease resistant.

Rosa 'James Galway'

Rosa 'James Galway' is a beautiful pink climber with double flowers with an old rose fragrance. The stems are virtually thornless; it flowers freely and repeat flowers and can grow up to 8'.

Rosa Glauca

Rosa Glauca is a vigorous deciduous medium sized shrub with a simple deep pink flowers and good foliage and looks like a wild rose. It prefers full sun.

Rosa 'Charles de Mills'

Rosa 'Charles de Mills' is a small upright shrub rose that grows up to 1.2m and has copious mid green foliage with very fragrant double crimson purple flowers.

Bridge recommends Peter Beales as a supplier of roses and the RHS Encyclopedia of Roses by Charles and Bridget Quest-Riton.

Activities in the garden this week:

• Potting up chillies and feeding and labeling them
• Weeding the veg plots and planting out chard and beetroot plants
• Planting out 'Black-eyed Susan' climbing plants with blue flox, planting out gaura
• Staking the ammi
• Weeding and sorting out herbaceous border
• Tidying up area around the pond
• Sorting out plants in cold frames and general dead heading

Friday 13th June 2014

Knifofia 'Moonstone'

The plant fair at the Garden House was a great success and we had some discussion about our new purchases and the fact that Vicky bought her first yellow plant a Knifofia. These plants are in the lily family and come from South Africa and don't have to be red. Good drainage is needed for these plants.

Activities in the garden this week:

• Staking corn flowers and some of the ammi
• Deadheading
• Taking out opium poppies and planting dahlias, sunflowers, salvia, nasturtium, antirrhinum
• Planing out runner beans
• Planting a black stemmed hydrangea and fern in large pot in front garden
• Planting more climbers

Some pictures from the garden:

Rosa Mme Hardy - a damask rose

Friday 6th June 2014

Hydrangea aspera 'Macrophylla'

We had some discussion about hydrangeas - they can be shrubs or climbers and flower from late spring to late autumn. They thrive in moist soil in a cool or semi shaded part of the garden and they are easy to grow from softwood or hardwood cuttings.They come in a number of habits and forms from mophead, lacecap, paniculata, oak-leaved and climbing and usually flower on current season's growth.
Hydrangea 'Annabelle' has profuse white flowers from July to Sept and grows to a height of 4-5ft
Hydrangea paniculata 'Phantom' has conical flowerheads that are creamy white and flushed with green and pink and grows to 4-5ft
Recommended book: Hydrangeas: A Gardener's Guide by Toni Lawson-Hall

We also looked at bronze fennel (Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum') which is a very useful plant for the border.

Bronze fennel

Activities in the garden:

• Planting up pots and hanging baskets
• Planting sempervivums in chicken feeders
• Lots of weeding and getting the garden ready for the plant fair

The garden looked particularly beautiful for the plant fair on Saturday, after early rain the sun shone for the rest of the day and there was a profusion of wonderful plants to buy.

Paul's plants

Stanmer plants

Friday 30th May 2014

You just have time to consider doing the 'Chelsea chop' on your perennials. You can do this in a number of ways - either cut back the whole plant by about one third or only chop back one third of the plants leaving some to flower earlier. Doing this encourages bushier growth, can stop the plants from flopping and can also extend the flowering period. Sedum, rudbeckia, echinacea, helenium, nepeta, phlox, asters will all respond well to this technique.
You can also cut back geraniums after they have flowered and you may get a second flush of flowers but you do need to water and feed them well.
Book recommendation:

The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques-Tracy DiSabato-Aust

Plant identification:

• Centranthus ruber 'Albus' - which is the white form of red valerian. It has sprays of small white flowers in late spring and summer
  
  

  

  Centranthus ruber 'Albus'
• Valeriana officinalis - or common valerian - this is a tall and airy plant with pinkish- white small flowers with a nice vanilla scent

  

  Valerian officinalis

  
  
• Dinathus deltoides or Maiden pink is an evergreen perennial and has a mat of green foliage with clusters of cerise or white flowers. It is happy in chalk soil and can be grown in gravel gardens or with other alpines

  

  Dianthus deltoides

• Geranium 'Southease celestial' a lovely clump forming geranium with lavender blue flowers

Geranium 'Southease celestial'

• Stipa gigantea -or Golden Oats is a striking evergreen grass, it has oat like flower heads in summer and can grow up to 6 feet. It likes well drained light soil and full sun

Activities in the garden this week

• pruning and cutting back the clematis armandii
• pruning the pittosporum
• planting up the cosmos
• planting up the big containers
• potting up the tomatoes

And clearing the pond starring Katy ....

 

Friday 23rd May 2014

Bridge talked about her visit to Chelsea Flower Show this week and to a talk given by Fergus Garret and Dan Pearson at the Royal Geographic Society which was arranged via Gardens Illustrated magazine – highly recommended. Dan Pearson talked about The Garden Bridge, an exciting new project which will span the Thames at Waterloo.

Plant identification:

Some of the plants this week were from photos that Bridge took at Chelsea. 

Tellima grandiflora

Libertia 'Goldfinger'

• Libertia ixoides ‘Taupe Sunset’ – a perennial with thin spiky leaves with unusual variegation: good for containers as fairly drought tolerant. At the Garden House we have Libertia ‘Goldfinger’ in clay urns. It is currently flowering - sparse small white flowers - but is essentially a foliage plant.
• Tellima grandiflora – hardy perennial, tiny creamy lemon flowers on long spikes, fresh green heuchera-like leaves. > 80 cm. Likes semi-shade; good for shady borders and wild gardens.
• Euphorbia oblongata – good acid greens/yellows for flower arranging. It is a short lived perrenial often grown as an annual. It grows > 1m and has loose flower heads. Sun. Euphorbias were popular at Chelsea e.g. Euphorbia palustris > 1 m., E. Cornigera   >75 cm leaves with pale midrib, and the smaller feathery-leaved.  E. Cyparrissus ‘Orange Man’. All euphorbias have milky sap which can irritate the skin on contact, especially in sunshine.
• Rosa ‘Warm Welcome’ – electric orange small blooms. Small climber. Scented.
• R. James Galway’ – Pale pink flowers with dark centre, shaped like a centifolia rose. Climber. Scented.
• R. ‘Dublin Bay’ – velvety dark red climber with hybrid tea shaped blooms, disappointingly no scent.
• R. ‘Cecile Brunner’ – small, abundant pink flowers, perfect buttonhole rose. Scented. Climber.

Rushfield Nurseries near Henfield are good for roses.

Peter Beales, Norfolk- based specialist rose nursery, on-line and always exhibiting at the big flower shows. Also David Austen Roses, their main rivals!

Activities in the garden this week:

•          Trialling tomato plants outdoors in various containers.
•          Creative planting of bedding in unusual containers
•          Seed sowing: more biennials and Painted Lady runner beans with pretty flowers
•          Clearing hostas etc from side passage and planting and clipping box in containers
•          Plant out annuals and fennel
•          Weeding large border

Thought you might enjoy this pic of Sue and Mandy on a shopping trip (only 2 of the tiny blue carrier bags were mine!). We had a fab visit to the open garden at Newtimber and managed to do just a little bit of plant swapping and shopping.