LUXURIOUS LILIES

LUXURIOUS LILIES

I have had a fascination and love for lilies most of my gardening life. My earliest memory was in Kirkton in Dundee where my granny lived. She had a gravel path on the south side of the house and every summer up came a mass of tall white scented lilies straight through the gravel. At that time I was being trained as a gardener and since I was in my early teens I knew all about gardening!!!

I mean, I cut grannies grass, planted a rose border for her plus a flower border and some grew some vegetables for her. I knew that plants grow better if they get good soil, so I thought I would

Lily Chelsea

rejuvenate the lilies that grew underneath the gravel path. In the dormant season I dug up the lilies and was horrified to find there was no soil, just a heap of broken bricks left behind by the builders. Being young, keen and full of energy I soon excavated a deep trench of rubble and replaced it with good top soil before replanting grannies special lilies. I waited patiently for the massive display the following summer. The lilies never recovered, but grannies are very forgiving. Lessons learned at great expense. Good drainage is essential.

Lily Brasilia

Today my garden is just full of lilies, but with knowledge that to keep them happy good drainage is very important, and a warm sunny border is much preferred. They still get good soil, as well as a mulch as many varieties are stem rooting. Most are grown with other plants at their feet to shade the ground and retain moisture as well as giving them support. Azaleas are a good plant as they do not have deep roots so less competition and they will accommodate those that only grow a few feet tall. For taller varieties of lily I plant them in between peonies. Tall varieties may need canes to support them otherwise the large heavy flowers will arch down to the ground.

Lily Stargazer

In the early days I started off with the cheaper Lilium regale. It has large white flowers with a strong exotic scent and is easy to grow but needs staking. Then I had to try the very special Golden Ray of Japan, Lilium auratum. A real cracker, but quite tall so they needed good support. In the autumn I collected the seed pods and tried to germinate these after some winter chilling. The following spring I got about thirty young plants which are now all over my garden.

When the scent is important you must go for the oriental types, so bulbs were purchased in autumn of Casa Blanca, Muscadet, Brasilia and Stargazer.

Hemmerocallis Patricia

Another brilliant white lily is Lilium candidum the Madonna lily, but take care with this one as the stems are not surface rooting so do not plant it deep, otherwise it can be prone to botrytis.

Asiatic lilies come in a wide range of colours and only grow a couple of feet tall but unfortunately have no scent.

Many plants are termed lilies, but are not really in the lily family though they can still be very attractive. Water lilies are a must if you have a pond, and the day lily, Hemmerocallis is very popular. I am trying out the yellow Patricia with double flowers. These only last for one or two days, but they are quite prolific so put on a good show.

Calla Lily

Calla lily, also known as the Arum lily, is also very popular both in white form as well as many other colours. The Arum lily, Zantedeschia aethiopica is quite hardy but likes moisture and fertile soil as well as a warm aspect. The Callas come from South Africa so warm conditions improve growth and flowering. Some species of Calla are not hardy and may need winter protection with a mulch or may need lifting up and overwintering in a frost proof shed.

Wee jobs to do this week

Tidying up borders

Mid summer has the garden looking at its best for our enjoyment as well as visitors, so we must keep it tidy. Wet weather following on from warm days has encouraged weeds to grow rapidly so hoe or pull these out before they get established. Many shrubs and roses have completed their first flush of flowers and these plus older leaves fall down to the ground encouraging slugs and snails and looking very untidy. This debris plus the summer flush of weeds can all go on the compost heap, which will be building up with rhubarb leaves and grass cuttings.

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PLANT A TREE FOR FOOD

PLANT A TREE FOR FOOD

Growing fruit trees like apples, pears and plums today is quite normal in gardens, as there is a huge range of varieties available as well as different forms to suit restricted spaces. Wide open spaces take our standard trees, and walls take the cordons and fans but then for those with very limited space we can grow either stepover trees growing a few feet tall or the narrow columnar styles like the Starline Firedance apple. As our Scottish weather could be taking a turn for the better temperature wise now could be the time to extend our range with other fruiting trees once considered too exotic for the north.

Ripening figs

Figs may only form a very small tree or large bush, but with some shelter and a south facing wall or fence fruiting can be very successful outdoors.

Sweet cherries, like Cherokee is also a winner outdoors now it can be grown on the dwarfing rootstock Gisela 5. This rootstock plus some summer pruning keeps the height down to six feet and allows netting the tree otherwise the birds would very quickly get the lot.

Hazelnuts

Hazelnuts are now quite popular as part of the woodland fringe mix for shelterbelts and windbreaks. Hazelnuts have been grown all over UK for centuries as a source of food as well as for the wood for fencing. The nuts are harvested in autumn and can store for many months. The nuts are very high in protein, numerous vitamins and minerals and much of the production which is a main crop in Turkey goes into Nutella and Ferrero Rocher

Mulberry trees make great specimen trees for the small garden and look brilliant in late summer when covered in black to red fruits looking

Mulberry fruit

like a raspberries. However they take up to ten years to fruit from planting so patience is required. Mulberry fruit can be white red or black, but the best flavoured is the black variety of Morus nigra. They are often planted in a lawn to aid fruit collection when plastic sheeting is laid down and the fruit collected daily as it ripens and falls to the floor. It is very soft and juicy which can be quite staining so wear gloves when collecting the fruit. The fruit is sweet but tart and is eaten fresh with cream and honey or yoghurt, or it can be used in pies, tarts or brewed into a delicious wine. The fruit is high in vitamins and minerals and antioxidants.

In its natural habitat growing in southern Europe, Asia, India and North Africa the dark anthocyanin pigment can be extracted quite easily leaving behind the juice to be used in cordials, wine and sauces. Scientists are now evaluating the anthocyanins for use in biotechnology and pharmacology.

Walnut in autumn

Walnut trees are coming up in scale so need plenty of room to grow, but make a very majestic tree on maturity. They prefer warmer climates coming from China and Southern Europe but grow very well all over UK having been brought here as a food source by the Romans. In UK we grow the English walnut, Juglans regia but needs a good summer and autumn to ripen up the seeds. However most of the walnuts we buy in the supermarkets come from China, USA and other warmer countries. Research on the health benefits of eating walnuts just about puts them into the superfood category. They are packed with proteins, minerals and numerous vitamins and also high in the omega 3 oils. I use them almost daily in my morning muesli and always added to salads, but they are used in very many other dishes including cake, soups and the oil is used in salad dressings.

Sweet chestnut

Sweet chestnut, Castanea sativa, is native to Europe and Asia Minor but now grown widely. Introduced by the Romans, who made porridge from the ground down nuts. It makes a huge tree that can live up to 2000 years, and if you want the chestnut harvest soon, plant a grafted tree otherwise those raised from seed take about 20 years to mature. They have been widely used in parkland landscaping and found in monasteries as a source of food. The chestnuts are usually roasted to remove the outer skin. They have similar health benefits to walnuts.

Botrytis on tomatoes

Wee jobs to do this week

Tomatoes are now cropping quite well and growth will have reached the top of the glasshouse, so remove the growing point and keep an eye out for any signs of botrytis on leaves. Remove any of these immediately before it spreads and keep removing the lower leaves once they start to go yellow.
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JUNE BERRIES

JUNE BERRIES

June berries are another name for the Saskatoon berry which is slowly becoming popular with gardeners all over UK. At present there is only one commercial grower down in Worcestershire called Pershore Juneberries and this is a relatively new undertaking producing fresh berries in season and frozen fruit as well as numerous Saskatoon products.

Saskatoon berries

June berries grow naturally along the north west of Canada right up to Alaska so in their natural habitat they enjoy warm summers and very cold winters. My best ever crop was in 2011 after the severe winter of 2010 when my bushes just loved the cold weather. Although they seem to need a good winter chill I got a massive crop last year when the previous winter was relatively mild. This year following a very mild winter my crop is lighter than usual but picking date still the same from mid to the end of July.

Saskatoon pie

Native Americans have been using the fruit for hundreds of years, eating it fresh, using it in soups and cakes, and mixing it with dried grated buffalo meat and fat to make pemmican. This is dried and stored for use throughout winter.

June berries were growing prolifically along the banks of the Saskatchewan River and when the town grew up at this location it was named Saskatoon after the anglicized version of the Cree name.

Harvesting over on the Canadian prairies is done by machine, hand pickers and nearly half the crop by pick your own, as people love a day in the country picking native fruit.

The fruit is high in iron, magnesium, potassium, calcium, vitamin C and very high in antioxidants.

Saskatoom bloom

The berries can be eaten fresh during the picking season of nearly one month and used in jams, compote, pie fillings, yoghurt, and makes a brilliant wine and liqueur. The berries freeze well for future use. Combine them with rhubarb which adds some acidity to balance the sweetness of the fruit for jams and compote.

The bushes are quite dense with a strong root system, making them perfect for landscape planting in shelterbelts, hedges, urban and edible landscapes and on slopes viable to soil erosion. The bushes sucker quite freely so chop these out annually otherwise the rows would get too wide to manage.

Growers started selecting the best varieties and propagated these to produce the superior varieties Smoky and Pembina many years ago. Smoky was the main variety used in the first orchards established about forty years ago. Later as demand for this new fruit exploded micropropagation techniques were used to bulk up other varieties including Thiessen (this one has the largest fruit size), Northline, Martin and Honeywood.

Saskatoons or Juneberries tolerate a wide range of soils from acidic to those with a high pH, clay, sandy, loams and are very easy to grow.

Saskatoon wine

For garden cultivations plant single bushes about 6 to 8 feet apart, or 3 feet apart for hedgerows.

Left without pruning they would grow into small trees but in gardens they need pruning to keep the height down for picking and netting as birds just love these fruits. Cut out a one or two tall shoots every year right down to ground level in winter. These will regenerate with fresh new shoots which keeps the bush young and wont need pruning for another five years.

They will produce 6 to 10 lbs fruit per bush and crop for over twenty years

Wee jobs to do this week

City Road Allotments Open Day Sunday 30^th July 2017

Visit the City Road Allotment Gardens Open Day (entrance at junction with Pitfour Street) and see  allotment life, enjoy a coffee or tea with fresh baking and select from our fresh fruit, vegetables, jams, chutneys and garden plants, including saskatoon bushes, grape vines, geraniums and fuchsias. There is plenty entertainment for the kids, so bring them along and cultivate their interest in plants and the land.

Free parking along City Road, free entry to our Open Day starting at 11am and open till 3pm.

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BERRY PICKING TIME

BERRY PICKING TIME

The berry picking season is now well underway. Early strawberries ripened up at the end of May with the help of some polythene tunnel protection, and then mid season Elsanta kept us in strawberries till July when the later Symphony showed a very heavy crop. However the wet weather in June and July caused a fair bit of botrytis rots, though there was always more berries than we could use so there was plenty for the freezer. The perpetual Albion (an autumn variety) started fruiting in June and hopefully will continue till autumn, but it lacks a true strawberry softness.

Strawberry Symphony

My new Colossus strawberry variety put on a poor show as the expected huge berries described in the catalogue just did not live up to expectations. Not nearly as big as Symphony.

Raspberry Glen Fyne and Glen Dee have been outstanding but we could do with more sunshine to sweeten up the berries. Autumn fruiting varieties are all growing very strongly but cropping is still a few weeks away.

Currants red, black and white are all having a great year. Again Ben Conan is the star performer, but Big Ben in its third year gave us 6 pounds from one bush with very large and sweet berries. They

Redcurrants

were perfect mixed into a yoghurt dessert, as well as eaten fresh off the bush.

Gooseberries have all got branches almost broken with the weight of crop, so straw had to be placed under the bushes to keep them off the soil, and last winter I had pruned off all the lower branches.

Cherry Cherokee is now a few years old but still not too tall, so it was not difficult to cover the tree with netting to keep the blackbirds off them. The dwarfing rootstock Gisela 5 keeps the size down but so does some summer spur pruning. This has been a good year for my cherry and so far no sign of blackfly which often infest the young growing shoots.

Saskatoons, aronias and blueberries ripen up towards the end of July but are best picked in August once they have fully ripened as this increases the sugar content. Birds will eat the saskatoons and blueberries so it is necessary to cover them with netting, but usually the aronias are safe as the fruit is somewhat astringent and less attractive to eat.

Nikki Jennings with new raspberry selections

The James Hutton Institute is currently working on improving the qualities of blueberries, blackcurrants and raspberries through plant breeding. Varieties of blueberries are being assessed to find those suited to Scottish soils and climate as well as size of fruit, flavour, colour and texture.

Blackcurrant breeding looks at varieties that can flower and fruit following mild winters as they normally require a period of winter chilling to initiate fruit buds. Berry size, sweetness, evenness of ripening is also important as commercially they will be picked in one operation by machine. As much of the commercial crop goes into Ribena production flavour is very important as well as a high level of anthocyanins to keep us all very healthy.

Raspberries have different needs as today raspberry root rot is widespread so tolerance to this disease is important. Commercially raspberries are grown under the protection of polythene tunnels and a lot is hand picked so berry size is important making picking easier and breeders also include  flavour and colour. Having the fruit available over a long season is assisted by using autumn fruiting (primocane) varieties, but leaving the old canes on to get two crops. Many primocane selections had fruit ready to pick in June almost a fortnight ahead of the normal summer fruiting (floricane) varieties. Although Glen Ample is well established as the industry favourite, Glen Dee with large sweet fruit is becoming very popular, but soon others will be released.

Lettuce Lollo Rosso

Wee jobs to do this week

There is still time to sow some lettuce such as Lollo Rosso for autumn use as with general crop harvesting from mid summer onwards there is always some spare land needing utilised before the end of the growing season. A sowing of winter lettuce such as Hilde can be made at the end of July to grow outdoors in a sheltered spot and will provide the first lettuce next spring.

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