DAFFODILS AND NARCISSUS

DAFFODILS AND NARCISSUS

Mixed narcissi

Narcissus Flower Record

April flowers are dominated by daffodils in gardens, local authorities’ parks and open spaces and as cut flower in the home. They are very easy to grow, quite cheap to buy and very versatile as we can all find a spot in the garden that needs brightening up as we leave winter behind. Many years ago when the Britain in Bloom contest was at its most popular, most local authorities competed with each

Narcissus Dick Wilden

other for top place in the contest. Flower impact in open spaces, parks and along highway verges of massed drifts of daffodils and narcissus was crucial to impress the judges, but also to create beauty for locals in towns and villages. Daffodils planted in massive drifts fifty years ago are still there and we reap the benefit every spring when the towns come alive with the yellow flowers. Once planted, they will live forever, as they are fairly free from pests and diseases. In past times when council budgets were under less pressure, allocating funds to enhance the environment was a high priority as locals were proud of the beauty of their locality. Daffodils were planted by the thousand, and numerous organisations got involved in planting their own patch from school kids planting in school grounds and adjacent open spaces, then boy scouts, girl guides, council gardeners and workers on job creation schemes. Organising the planting was easy once the technique was demonstrated by a few gardeners. Using a spade, a turf was cut in three sides and flipped over to allow two bulbs to be

narcissus Cheerfulness

placed in the corners, then the turf was flipped back into place and firmed down with the feet. The next sod was cut about nine inches to a foot away from the last one. However the shape of this drift was marked out to allow grass cutting around the outside of the flowers. After flowering it was normal to leave the foliage to die down before it was cleared off with flail mowers which collected the dead foliage and long grass. Usually six weeks or longer was enough to let the leaves develop and bulk up the bulb for the following season.

In gardens we most often plant amongst deciduous shrub borders, or under trees; perfect for orchards and allotment flower borders. To give the biggest impact it was

Narcissus Replete

normal to plant with the large flowered trumpet daffodils such as King Alfred or Golden Harvest as well as the white flowered and scented Mount Hood. However to get the show off to an early start February Gold was often used as it is often the first to flower, usually in March in Scotland, and even after our mild dry winter it was still March before it appeared.

Daffodils and narcissus have always been very popular for hundreds of years so breeders have introduced new varieties by the thousand. Every year there is a new one that catches your eye so just buy it and plant it.  They are great in tubs and pots for displays at door entrances and patios, then once they finish flowering they can be transplanted to another spot in the garden to flower the next year. I love the scented varieties so I always have some Cheerfulness types as well as the smaller flowered Jonquils. They can also be used in autumn in

Narcissus Sir Winston Churchill

pots to flower indoors in early spring or even late winter.

Daffodils and narcissus however have a darker side as many species contain the alkaloid poison lycorine mostly in the bulb but also in the leaves, so take great care when handling the bulbs.

Dermatitis can also be a problem for flower pickers, packers, florists and gardeners, causing the "daffodil itch", with dryness, fissures, scaling, and erythema in the hands. Of all the alkaloids, only galantamine has made it to therapeutic use in man, as the drug galantamine for Alzheimer’s disease. The daffodil crop is growing in Wales not for the flowers, but for the extraction of galantamine for medicinal use in the treatment of alzheimer’s disease.

Wee jobs to do this week

Greenhouse packed with plants

The greenhouse is now packed out with plants growing strongly, so open the ventilators at every opportunity to harden off plants. Tomatoes in pots will need more room to grow before planting out into borders, pots or growbags once that first flower appears. Broad beans, onions, sweet peas and salads and geraniums can all go outside on a good day, but keep an eye on the weather forecast in case we get a late frost.

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BUSY SPRING DAYS

BUSY SPRING DAYS

It sounded like a good idea at the time. The mild winter and warm dry spring gave the garden plants a great boost. Crocus was a good three weeks ahead of last year and the bees in large numbers were having a great time. So I ran with the good times and sowed seeds and planted potatoes three weeks ahead of my planned seed sowing schedule.

Planting Mayan Gold potatoes

However, now in the middle of March numerous jobs are piling up. Windowsills are bursting at the seams, but winter has returned for a few more days and many of my young plants need the warmth so I cannot transfer them to the unheated greenhouse. Tomatoes got pricked out into cellular trays and

Tares and clover green manure

are now happy on the windowsills. Tuberous begonias in deep polystyrene boxes are still indoors but really need to go into the greenhouse and get spaced out into more boxes as they can grow quite large before they are ready for outdoor planting. Bizzie Lizzies grown from cuttings last autumn have grown into large plants in full flower so they remain indoors as house plants. Later on I will take more cuttings from them to grow into small plants for hanging baskets.

Broad beans and onion seedlings

The snowdrops and aconites put on a great show early on, but now is a great time to transplant some “in the green” up at City Road Allotments flower border. Aconites are getting ready to disperse their seeds so these get carefully gathered up to sow in new locations.

A start has been made to weeding as speedwells and sticky willy are now germinating. These are usually the first weeds to grow after winter and this year they are ahead of the game.

Anna planting snowdrops in the green

Strawberries perked up with the mild winter so one row of Honeoye got covered with a low polythene tunnel, which should advance cropping by about three weeks. On sunny days the temperature can rise, so raise the polythene a little to ventilate the row to keep the strawberries from over heating. Strawberries under tunnels can dry out faster than those in the open so keep them watered. On rainy days it helps to pull back the polythene to let them have a good soaking.

Early potato (Casablanca) and second early (Charlotte) got planted at the end of February and now the maincrop potatoes (Mayan Gold and Maris Piper) can go in. I take out a deep furrow, line it with well rotted garden compost then plant the seed potatoes into this before covering up and dusting the rows with some potato fertiliser.

Now is a good time to sow green manure on land allocated for courgettes, pumpkin and sweet corn as these do not get planted for at least another couple of months. Tares, rye grass and clover all grow

Saskatoon seedlings

very fast giving a lot of foliage to turn in and the roots really break up the soil, penetrating quite deep. It is a great way of adding fertility to the soil. I avoid mustard green manure as it can carry over the clubroot disease of all brassicas including radish and rocket.

Seed sowing outdoors can now begin with leeks, lettuce, radish, spring onions and rocket. Some of these can go in between rows of sprouts, cabbage, kale and cauliflower which take a bit of time to grow over the ground. You can also use salads grown under glass which are well on and may only need a few weeks before you start to crop them.

The greenhouse is just as busy as existing plants begin to grow and new ones such as sweet corn and all the brassicas get sown. Lettuce and saskatoons sown earlier are all big enough to prick out into cellular trays. Broad beans, sweet peas and onions have now all germinated so they need pricking out into larger pots and give them room to grow on.

Wee jobs to do this week

Taking geranium cuttings

Take more geranium cuttings. Cuttings taken last autumn were rooted in cellular trays on a windowsill then potted up singly into three inch pots in winter. These have been growing strongly and many have been potted up into five inch pots. It helps to remove the tops to encourage the plant to branch out, and these tops can be used as cuttings. Now we are heading into spring looking for warmer weather these later cuttings will grow fast, so before they get too tall take their tips out to produce a well branched stocky plant. Use those tops as more cuttings. Remove flowers as they appear so the plant can concentrate on growing.

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PLAN THE SUMMER FLOWERS

PLAN THE SUMMER FLOWERS

Although the spring flowers are just getting started we still need to look ahead to a plan of action to make sure the summer flowers will put on a great show. Gardening is a continuous activity and a lot of work is usually involved well ahead of flowering.

Early border chrysanthemums

Tubs and hanging baskets are planted up with geraniums, marigolds, Busy Lizzies, petunias, nemesia, lobelia, fuchsias and tuberous begonias. Many of these plants are annuals grown from seed in early spring, but some (geraniums and Busy Lizzies) are also perennials retained over winter from autumn cuttings, rooted, then grown on a sunny windowsill over the winter months. The tuberous begonias are retained year after year by drying off in autumn and stored in a frost free shed, but brought back into growth from early March in a warm place. At this time of year nurseries and garden centres are full of summer bedding plants so a good selection is always available.

I make up my summer hanging baskets in April, but keep them in a sunny sheltered spot on the ground to establish before they get hung up. My spring flowering hanging baskets full of pansies like to keep flowering well into summer so at some point these come down so I can put up the summer flowering baskets, but I always find a spot for the pansies to brighten up a dull area for another couple of months. Any spare plants are planted where ever I see a bare patch, usually after removing some shrubs that have gone past their sell by date, overgrown their allocated space, or just died. Outdoor

Purple peony

fuchsias can die out after a bad winter as well as Ceanothus.

This is a good time to visit nurseries and garden centres to see plants in flower, as it is hard to imagine colours from a catalogue. Rhododendrons, azaleas and Camellias can all be found in flower to make selection easier. Buying in some new shrub roses, bush or climbing roses will need to wait a bit longer, but as they are mostly container grown this is no problem. My climbing rose Mme Alfred Carrier had been scheduled for a winter removal as it had out grown its tall supporting fence by putting on massively long shoots reaching up to overhead telephone lines and blocking paths nearby. However it is such a beauty, that I could not dig it out, so it got a severe pruning and a verbal warning to behave itself or it would get the chop next year. That usually works.

Check young shoots on roses as the mild winter has allowed greenfly an early start and I see them beginning to make themselves at home on fresh young growth.

The herbaceous border will soon come alive with Oriental poppies, Delphiniums, flag iris, lilies, peonies, phlox and mine is bordered with pinks,

Garden Pinks

Verbena and Shasta daisies as the border is up a bank retained by a three foot high wall. Weeds are now getting organised so sharpen up the hoe and let the war commence.

Summer hanging basket

As the soil surface is beginning to dry up and warm up this is a good time to sow annuals. Poppies, godetia, candytuft, clarkia, cornflower and numerous more will all grow fast and put on a great show for summer. They flower best on poorer soils, so no need to add compost or manure to annual borders, but prepare the surface by raking to a good tilth to achieve a decent germination. Once the seeds germinate and begin to grow they will most likely need thinning some of which can be used as transplants.

Gladioli, chrysanthemums, and sweet peas all make brilliant cut flower for the house as well as adding a splash of colour to the garden and allotment, and these can now get planted out. Gladioli corms retained from last year can be supplemented by buying in a few more colours to add variety.

Wee jobs to do this week

The coloured stem winter border has brightened up the garden since autumn, but now crocus and tulips planted in between the shrubs need room to

Winter border

flower so it is time to cut back the Cornus, and willow to ground level. They are very tough so grow up again quite quickly. I also grow Kerria japonica and the Japanese maple, Acer Sango Kaku, but they do not get cut back. Just tidy up any straggling shoots from the maple, and prune old flowering shoots from the Kerria after flowering in late spring but leaving any strong young shoots which will flower next year.

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TOMATOES

TOMATOES

Home grown tomatoes will always be so much better than those purchased from the supermarket. They are not exposed to chemicals to keep them pest and disease free, and we let them fully ripen before picking. Picking a fully ripe cherry tomato fresh from the plant for immediate consumption is a wee taste of heaven, and in mid summer when

Feeding the tomatoes

we are picking bumper yields there are always a few cherry tomatoes that split, so we may not want to spoil the look of our harvest, and not wishing to waste a good tomato so we just eat as we pick and enjoy the moment.

Having grown tomatoes annually for nearly sixty years I have tried out borders, pots, growbags, ring culture and straw bales, which were popular for about ten years in the mid sixties. Flavour has been best for me when grown direct into a prepared soil border which I put down to the tomato plant having a great growing medium and access to plenty of every type of nutrient it needs. In past times this was normal commercial practise, but each winter the soil was sterilised with steam to kill all

Healthy young tomato plants

disease spores. Sometimes chemical sterilisation with chloropicrin was used so that the main problem disease verticillium wilt spores were killed. I have no access to either so I have to remove six inches of border soil and replace it with good garden soil to which I add well rotted compost then mix a few bags of compost from growbags into the surface plus some additional fertiliser as tomatoes are gross feeders. This may be a wee bit of strenuous exercise but for people of a certain age we are told it is good for us, and in any case it is on a small scale, taking about two days.

Seed sowing for this part of Scotland may depend on whether you have greenhouse heating or not and if you have access to a decent windowsill. I normally sow my seed first week in March but this year with a warm winter they were sown in the middle of February, hoping the good weather continues. This year I am trying out a range of cherry tomatoes so I do not need a lot of plants in total. Just as well as the packets had only ten seeds each. Been your normal tight Scotsman the plan is to sow half the packet and keep the rest for next year so I am counting on getting 100% germination. A couple of weeks

Summer harvest

later they all germinated apart from one seed. This gets the highest rating in Scotland of No Bad!!!

It is important to grow on plants with good light and a decent temperature to keep them sturdy. Plants are ready to plant out in early April, but plus or minus a couple of weeks depending on the weather. I space plants out about 18 inches apart along the border which is two feet wide. If you use growbags these are usually placed end to end with three plants per bag. Always shake up the compost in the bag before planting. If you have any spare plants it is always worth trying a few outdoors against a south facing wall or fence in a sheltered place.

Outdoor tomatoes

Tomatoes are grown as a single stemmed cordon and sideshoots are removed as soon as they are big enough to break off. I suspend strong polypropylene binder twine from strong wires along the roof and twist the plant around the twine as they grow taller.

Varieties This year I will again grow my favourite Alicante as my main crop but am trying a few cherry types such as Sungold, Cherry Baby, Rapunzel, Sugar Gloss and Supersweet 100. I have dropped Marmande a beefsteak type, which was a very poor cropper, though I have heard others getting good crops. I also dropped Yellow Delight which gave a massive crop, but with poor flavour and the plants were so vigorous they took over space from others nearby.

Wee jobs to do this week

Broad beans ready to plant

Up on City Road allotments some plot holders have been taking advantage of the mild winter and run ahead with broad bean sowing and planting out. I started sowing a fortnight ahead of last year and now germination has taken place I have potted up my seedlings into larger pots to give them more feeding and space to grow. They are quite hardy so they have been moved from the warmth of a south facing windowsill in a warm room into my unheated greenhouse. However if winter decided to make a last stand I have a greenhouse heater at the ready.

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THE FIRST SPRING FLOWERS APPEAR

THE FIRST SPRING FLOWERS APPEAR

Spring arrived in February with record high temperatures following a very dry and mild winter. The garden plants just loved it. Crocus bloomed from mid February onwards. Over the years, crocus have given a very bright splash of colour heralding the end of winter, though usually from mid March onwards. They take over from the drifts of snowdrops and aconites which this year started the show in December for the early snowdrops then in

Tulip Scarlet Baby and yellow Saxifrage

January and February for the aconites. I can always find another corner to brighten up with more crocus ordered in the autumn. It was great to have afternoon coffee break on the patio in the sun at the end of February surrounded by huge drifts of crocus.  Looking ahead, the drifts of flowers can be enlarged with careful planning. Thick clumps of snowdrops can be lifted and transplanted in the green, but water them in if weather is dry and sunny. With aconites it is best to collect the seed and scatter it where ever you want more plants, but take care to check them out once the seeds germinate.

Naturalised narcissus

In the first year they only produce a pair of seed leaves, then in the second year you get the first true leaves but no flower. This comes along in the third year, but well worth the wait.

As the crocus display comes to an end along comes the other spring bulbs such as the blue flowered Chionodoxa and Anemone blanda followed by drifts of grape hyacinths. These just seem to love our soils and can be a bit invasive as they establish very easily. I underplant the grape hyacinth drifts with narcissus and oriental lilies. The narcissus flowers at the same time as the grape hyacinths, but then in summer when the spring bulbs are going into dormancy the Oriental lilies take over with massive scented flowers in white and pink. I tried planting crocus into this scheme, but the foliage of the grape hyacinth emerges in autumn and is too strong for the crocus to push through. In a normal winter, snow and frost help to flatten this foliage so the crocus can be seen, but not this year.

Narcissus February Gold nearly made flowering in February this year, but at least it is very welcome

Spring crocus under the apple tree

in early March as one of the earliest narcissus, and then all the other daffodils and narcissus follow on. Now we can have scent as well as colour, especially with the Cheerfulness types and the Jonquils as well as the large white trumpets of Mount Hood, but the bold colour of Golden Harvest is very hard to beat for sheer impact in large drifts.

Saxifrage is one of the earliest dwarf rock garden plants to flower, but plant the dwarf Tulip Scarlet Baby along side it and in most years they will flower together, though this year the Saxifrage has run ahead with the mild weather, and the dry soil has held back the tulip. Sometimes you just cannot win with our unpredictable climate, but we keep trying.

Pulmonaria started to flower from the end of February, but like the saxifrage it is ahead of the early tulips Monte Orange and Red Revival chosen to accompany it. The Pulmonaria is underplanted amongst my apple trees to add colour and give a display while the apples are coming quietly out of their winter dormancy period.

Coming up the scale my first Rhododendron praecox has started to flower, so fingers crossed that there is no late frosts as often happens as the blooms are too tender to with stand a cold snap.

Planting polyanthus

Forsythia, however is quite tough though it usually flowers at the end of March and into April, but this year flowering is well ahead with a good show in mid March.

Wee jobs to do this week

Check over tubs, pots and hanging baskets planted last autumn with spring flowers and replace any losses. Sometimes vine weevil maggots are a nuisance with polyanthus and over wintered pansies are prone to greenfly and leaf spot disease. Garden centres are well stocked up with spring flowers, so replace losses now while plants are thinking now is a good time to flower. Many of my tubs and hanging baskets are planted up with pansies which I grew from seed harvested early last summer from the best blue, mauve, yellow and lemon colours I could find. However most have ended up in deep blue shades and only the occasional lemon.

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A NEW SEASON BEGINS

A NEW SEASON BEGINS

This year’s mild winter with warmer, dry, sunny days

Taking chrysanthemum cuttings

encourages us to take advantage of this and start seed sowing a week or so earlier than planned, and just hope there is no sting in the tail with a winter flurry and a cold spell as we head for Easter.

Onion Hybound seed and sweet peas were both sown in a propagator in mid February. Both are in cellular trays with the sweet peas at two per cell and the onions at several per cell. Once they germinate the onions will go into individual cells to grow on in the greenhouse which at this moment

Geranium ready to pot up

is not heated. However as other spring grown plants will also go under glass as well as a large stock of geraniums, I have a heater just in case winter decides to return to try and catch us out. Geraniums were propagated from cuttings in autumn, then potted up once rooted and kept on windowsills, but now they all need potting up, but as space is limited they will go into the unheated greenhouse. Chrysanthemum stools lifted in late autumn, boxed up and overwintered in the greenhouse have just loved this mild winter as they are showing a lot of growth, so I took a large batch of cuttings putting them in cellular trays and keep them close to house windows, but away from direct sunlight. In another cool room with a north facing window I keep my seed potatoes in trays close to the light for chitting. If this mild winter continues I will gamble a wee bit and plant my first early Casablanca either at the end of February or early March. They will go in quite deep in case of late frosts and I will earth them up as they break through the

Potato Charlotte with good chitts

soil. Hoping to pick the first spuds ahead of last year, when I dug up my first shaw the first week in July.

Tuberous begonias are great value for flower impact, but they are always the last of the summer bedding plants to flower so I have started them a fortnight earlier than last year. My tubers must be heading for well over thirty years old, though most have been chopped up as I divide the big ones as long as each piece has a couple of buds showing. However over time they have become so misshapen I cannot tell which way is up, so they just go into boxes packed close together and covered with potting compost then placed in any warm room. At this stage they do not need light, but then once I see some buds appearing they will be removed and get boxed up with a bit more space and go into my greenhouse.

Broad beans are scheduled for sowing in early March, but as the weather so far has been in our favour it has been a late February sowing with one bean per cell in

Sweet peas and onions in the propagator

cellular trays. They are kept indoors until germination then they go into my unheated greenhouse as they are quite hardy.

Tomatoes are also getting sown at the end of February on a windowsill. Once they germinate they will need more space so my large geranium collection will have to come off the windowsills and go into the greenhouse to make space for the tomatoes which are not hardy. I will continue to grow tomatoes in a soil border in the greenhouse instead of growbags, but I remove some soil, replacing it with fresh soil from the garden then add compost to increase the fertility. As soil is packed with all the nutrients and minerals the tomatoes need, I find this enhances the flavour. This year I will be trying out a few new varieties of tomato as well as some tried and tested types. Alicante never lets me down so it is always on the list together with the golden cherry Sungold which I found to be really sweet. Added to those will be Cherry Baby, Rapunzel, Sugar Gloss and Supersweet 100. Two varieties from last year include Marmande, a beefsteak which cropped very poorly and Yellow Delight which was extremely vigorous and a very heavy cropper, but with poor flavour.

Under glass the grapes are still dormant, so the upright rods which were pruned in January can now get lowered so spur growth so buds break will be even from top to bottom. If left alone growth tends to be strongest at the top of the rod and weaker at the bottom.

Wee jobs to do this week

Putting tunnels on the early strawberries

Early strawberry varieties can be encouraged to fruit a good fortnight ahead of normal if the rows are covered with low polythene tunnels. The varieties Mae and Christine are perfect as well as Honeoye. Make sure the polythene is well secured as we seem to be getting more gale force winds.
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GARDEN HEDGES

                                                      GARDEN  HEDGES

Italian Garden at Glamis Castle

Garden hedges are still as popular as ever, but most folk fall into the love them or loath them category. They and their problems come into Gardeners Question Time events constantly. Way back in the mists of time when John was a boy doing his apprenticeship, many winters were spent cutting council hedges and massed areas of shrubs trimmed precisely at chest level, though some ended up as cubes

Forsythia

or neat round balls. It was a criminal act to suggest to the foreman that some shrubs liked to flower and correct pruning could encourage this. However it kept us employed all winter and we got numerous offers of spare time gardening jobs from Joe Public and his wife to come and sort out their garden hedge that had run riot over the garden. These experiences had a huge affect on my gardening life and I resolved that my garden would never have a problem hedge.

Hedges provide many benefits in the garden, but need careful consideration in plant material. Privet is not the only plant available. Hedges provide

Kerria japonica

shelter from winds, screening for privacy, screening around eyesores, compost heaps and they keep animals in, neighbours dogs out, and separate vegetable patch from ornamental garden areas. They are also an excellent place for nesting birds.

Plants selected will depend on use, as some can grow very tall such as beech and Leyland cypress, but lavender and box are quite dwarf but very attractive. Beech has the advantage of retaining its leaves in winter. Consideration for neighbours is very important, especially when Leyland cypress is chosen. It is a high maintenance hedge but needs constant clipping. It can be allowed to grow very tall, but depending on what and who are next to it. It would never be on my list of good plants for a hedge. For the lovers of privet, it may be better to choose the more attractive golden privet as it is a slow grower. Another slow growing hedge is Lonicera nitida, but even more attractive is the form with yellow foliage, Lonicera Baggesons Gold. This hedge is very dense and is a favourite for nesting

Saskatoon

birds. I use it around parts of my garden, but allow it to grow naturally with just the minimum of pruning in winter. However for something that is functional as a hedge and attractive there are plenty flowering shrubs to add to the list. Some climbing plants can form hedges with practically no maintenance when allowed to clamber up fences, such as Clematis, Honeysuckle and winter flowering Jasmine.

Camellia

Good shrubs for tall hedges include Escallonia with pink and red flowers, Camellia in pink, white and red flowers, Berberis darwinii which is a mass of orange flowers in spring followed by black berries to feed the birds well into winter. These are also evergreen, but a few tall deciduous shrubs include the Forsythia and Philadelphus with white scented flowers in early summer, and Kerria japonica with yellow flowers in late spring. Some plants can be both ornamental, function as a hedge and also provide a fruit crop. Both Saskatoons and Aronias fit this need and can grow quite tall if there is room to leave them alone. However the birds will feast on the saskatoons unless they are netted, but they leave the Aronia berries (chokeberries) alone. Another low growing shrub, Fuchsia Mrs Popple is very attractive with flowers well into winter and has edible fruits. However every so often it gets cut back to ground level if the winter does not suit it, though mine always recover in spring.

Where ornamental shrubs function as a hedge select those that only need the minimum of pruning to enjoy them in flower as well as getting the shelter and screening value.

Wee jobs to do this week

John fixing too large steps

We seem to be getting another mild winter in these parts with just a few nights of light frost. It was early February before we saw the first snow but it only lasted one day. It has also been remarkably dry, so outdoor gardening work continued with very little hold ups except for a wee coffee break. My garden steps were installed by a younger John Stoa nearly twenty years ago when twelve inch risers were no problem. Visitors were none too happy, especially as many of us now in the older generation have a wee bit of arthritis, so I decided to reconstruct them with a more manageable step to access steep parts of the garden and a fence with rail is also in the plans.

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WORKING WITH THE WEATHER

WORKING WITH THE WEATHER

Great year for outdoor figs

Gardeners just love the challenge of growing something better than normal, whether it be a huge pumpkin, a massive potato, a dazzling show of flowers, or a brilliant fruit crop. We study the techniques for growing each plant, water them, feed them, prune them, spray them for pests and diseases and keep them free from weeds. Success however is still dependant on the weather being in

Outdoor grape Brant

our favour. We never seem to get two years the same, so we must monitor the weather forecasts and work within its limits. I like to try and get all my allotment digging done at the beginning of winter, but last year autumn was wet and continued well into December so digging was delayed. Then the rain stopped, the ground surface dried up and winter never arrived till February, so I spent January on the plot and got the lot dug over leaving the surface rough for winter weathering.

Climate change is very debatable, but we can all remember the unusual years of hot dry summers like last year, then 1976 and 1959 (for us old enough to remember.) In 1976 I was in Darlington where we grew thousands of geraniums which put on a fantastic show of colour helping us to win the regional Britain in Bloom award. Working in horticulture outdoors you can remember many very bad winters. I don’t remember 1947 (I was only 3 years old) but I do remember 1962/63 cycling through deep snow to get to work. In 1981/82 I had come north from Darlington to Dundee for a Christmas holiday, but before I could return blizzards closed all the roads. There was no trains, no buses so no-one could get to work, but there were several well trodden tracks through the deep snow heading towards the Nine Maidens pub, which we discovered was packed. Then 2010/11 winter

Pansies in January

returned and blocked off all the roads again, and killed off to ground level all my fuchsias and a ten foot tall Cordyline australis. Severe winters are not frequent, but dry hot summers seem to be coming in more regularly, so I am happy to try growing some of the more exotic plants to see if I can succeed with them. I grow several grape varieties outdoors as well as peaches, cherries and figs, but they all need a warm dry autumn to help ripening. The challenge also exists with strawberries where it is possible to get the first berries ripe towards the end of May using low polythene tunnels, an early variety and a warm spring. Cropping then continues with maincrops, late varieties then autumn fruiting types. However they still need warmth to ripen up so a good autumn really helps.

Planting first early potato Casablanca

Last year the mild winter continued well into spring so tulips had a fantastic display in the cool climate, but other plants were running three weeks late with the lack of any warm spring weather. However the long hot summer reversed this trend so we ended up three weeks ahead by the end of summer. This year the mild winter allowed me to pick a large bunch of red roses for the Christmas table and my winter pansies were showing flowers from early January.

Early potatoes can give the first spuds by the end of May if with a good spring, planting them in March and hoping there is no late frost. Earth then up to protect them if frost is forecast.

Wind can be a problem for any young or tender plants in spring, or ripening crops in late summer and autumn, so if the garden is very exposed plant a narrow hedge or erect a fence as a windbreak.

Pests and diseases infestations are also very weather dependant. A bad winter kills off many pests including slugs and disease spores. Last year the summer was so dry that potato blight never arrived till late summer, and rose diseases were not a problem till late in the season. I never forget the greenfly plague in 1975 starting in Lincolnshire and extending up to the Scottish borders, followed by the ladybird plague of 1976. Ladybirds feed on greenfly.

Amaryllis

Wee jobs to do this week

Amaryllis that were started back into growth last October are now in full bloom and a light liquid feed every two to three weeks will help to build up strength in the bulb. Once the flowers start to fade the leaves and roots still need feeding throughout the summer. They can go outdoors in summer in a sheltered sunny spot, but keep them watered and fed. However usually in mid summer withhold watering for about ten weeks and let the bulbs dry off to ripen them up. As they go dormant next years flower buds will be forming in the bulb.

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FLOWERING TREES

FLOWERING TREES

The dormant season (November to March) was

Apple Red Falstaff

always the time to plant trees and shrubs as most came as bare root plants, but today they are mostly container grown so planting can be done all year round. However with flowering trees we do not want to miss the flowers so planting in winter is a good idea. As gardens vary in size the selection of plants will depend on how much space is available. The small garden is not left behind as there are quite a few flowering trees that do not take up much space. Trees add scale to a garden, provide shelter from wind and shade from sun as summer climates get warmer. In my early gardening days my small council house garden still managed to find room for a Laburnum vossii and the upright growing flowering cherry, Prunus Amanogawa. However if space was really limited then the dwarf weeping cherry, Prunus Shidare Zakura was perfect. Later on as my

Eucryphia rostrevor

gardens got bigger I went for the brilliant Prunus Shirotae with horizontal branches which got covered in a mass of pure white flowers in spring. Flowering cherries were very much in fashion in the sixties and the pink Prunus Kanzan was so popular that it became the number one of choice, but those with a wee bit of experience avoided it before our horticultural street cred went oot the windae.

Lilac Michel Buchner

Lilacs were not a huge tree but flower potential was enormous and the white Mme Lemoine is still very popular. The red Charles Jolly is still outstanding and most lilacs benefit from a great scent. Many lilacs come as hybrids grafted onto the common Syringa vulgaris, so keep checking for suckers growing from the rootstock and remove these as soon as seen.

Another less common tree suited to the small garden is the Euphorbia Rostrevor with white flowers towards the end of summer. It grows slowly with an upright form so suits the small garden with limited space.

Prunus Amanogawa

For those who like to try something different there are a couple of medium sized trees a bit less hardy than most, but with climate change who knows if global warming comes to Scotland what we can achieve. The Australian bottlebrush tree, Callistemon citrinus 'Splendens' is a red flowered beauty but needs a sunny sheltered spot. It grows very well outdoors in London as a street tree, but their climate is just a wee bit kinder. Another worth trying is the Pocket Handkerchief Tree, Davidia involucrate, with white bracts in early summer.

Prunus Kanzan

The common hawthorn is very hardy and comes with a pink flower, Crataegus Pauls Scarlet, beautiful in spring and not all that common.

Some people may with to grow a flowering fruit tree, and apples, plums, pears and cherries will all

laburnum vossii

give a great flower show in spring then follow on with a delicious harvest in the autumn.

Apple Starline Firedance grows upright taking up very little space and produces a great crop of red apples in autumn. Another form of apple is the stepover  trained type on a dwarfing rootstock.

Both cherries and peaches can come on very dwarfing rootstocks suited to the small garden.

upright apple Starlight

Many tall growing shrubs can also give the same virtues as smaller trees.

Cornus kousa chinensis has always been one of my favourites after seeing it in full flower in Wisley gardens down south, and Cytisus battandieri, the Pineapple broom tree is a great spectacle but needs a bit of space or a wall to lean against.

Other tall and impressive shrubs include Forsythia, Philadelphus, Ceanothus and Magnolias.

Wee jobs to do this week

Sweet peas

Sweet peas are usually the first seeds to sow as they are quite hardy and like a long season to grow. They can be sown in the autumn and overwintered in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse, or sown in late winter to early spring. The seed coat is quite tough so you can soak the seeds in water overnight, or chip the seed coat with a sharp knife. Sow seeds three to a pot then after germination transplant one to a pot, or you can sow one seed to a cell in a cellular tray. After germination grow on in a cold greenhouse and harden off towards the end of March, for planting out in early April.

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