WINTER PROPAGATION

WINTER PROPAGATION

We all love to grow a few extra plants for free, and late autumn is a good time to propagate many plants. Winter may be just around the corner, but the ground still has a bit of warmth to help new plants get established. Hardwood cuttings of numerous fruit bushes and ornamental shrubs can be taken now, grape vines under cold greenhouses will be fine and on the fruit patch both raspberries and saskatoons from suckers and strawberries from runners will all help to increase your stock.

John checking over his Bramley apples

Blackcurrant cutting

Red, white and blackcurrants as well as gooseberries, and most deciduous shrubs such as forsythia, philadelphus, cornus and even roses can all be grown from hardwood cuttings. The best time to take these is about two weeks before dormancy when the leaves fall off till about a month later, before winter sets in and the soil turns cold and wet. Take cuttings about six to nine inches long cutting above a bud at the top end and below a leaf joint at the lower end. Prepare the soil in a sheltered spot outdoors or in a cold frame. Add grit and fork into the top few inches to help drainage, then dibble the cuttings in burying two thirds of the stem at spacings of four to six inches apart. This gives the rooted young plant room to grow as it will remain there for a year. If you are growing gooseberries on a leg then remove all the lower buds except the top three or four.

Lining out gooseberry cuttings

Difficult shrubs like Cornus are better when the prepared cuttings are bundled together and heeled into the compost heap where they will get bottom heat over winter with cool tops. This will help the cutting base to callus over ready for lining out in early spring before roots emerge.

Taking grape vine cuttings

Some trees such as willow and poplar are very easy from cuttings which can be quite big (four to five feet) to get them off to a quick start.

Blackberries (bramble) can either be propagated from layering the tips of the growing shoot in summer where they will root and produce a plant by autumn, or in winter you can take a root cutting. Dig up a few roots at least pencil thick and cut into lengths about six inches long with a straight cut at the top end and a sloping cut at the root end so you don’t mix up which way to insert them. They can be lined out in a cold frame or in pots in a cold greenhouse over winter.

Raspberries grow very easily from suckers growing away from the centre of the bush where they would be just a nuisance. These can be planted into permanent position any time during the winter spacing them about eighteen inches apart with rows six feet apart.

Saskatoons also produce plenty of suckers, but new shoots appearing one year may not have roots on them so always give the suckers two years for good root growth.

Planting fresh strawberry runners

Strawberries usually produce plenty of runners in the first few years after planting, and once you have left enough in to thicken up the rows, surplus can be dug up to plant new beds. Keep new plantings spaced about a foot apart with rows three feet apart. Row spacing may look a bit wide at first, but the rows soon thicken up and you need some clear space for your feet at picking. Replace strawberry beds after three years cropping, as any later and the older plants only produce small fruits and not much runners.

Grapes both indoor and outdoors can be propagated during the dormant season once the leaves have fallen off and the growth has ripened. Take cuttings from November to the end of the year, as any later risks bleeding from the cut ends on the vine. Take cuttings about four inches long from strong young shoots with at least one good bud at the tip. Insert these into pots with gritty compost and over winter in a cold greenhouse. They will start growing in spring.

Wee jobs to do this week

Dry Keep checking on apples in store as any damaged ones can quickly go brown and the rot can spread to other healthy apples. Slightly damaged apples can still be used before they go bad for crumbles, stews, pies, tart and juice. Some dessert apples such as Falstaff, Fiesta and Red Devil can last up till next March if kept in an airy cool dark place that is frost free. Cooking apple Bramley may last even longer as it is a great keeper.

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BERRIES

BERRIES

Summer and autumn is the time when most flowering trees and shrubs produce fruit. Some of these we consume as fruit such as apples, pears, plums, raspberries, brambles and hazelnuts. Others we grow as ornamentals for the display of brightly coloured berries, though some fall into both camps.

I had an old dessert apple fruit tree that gave us some reasonable crops, but it was no great display so it got cut back and grafted with several apple varieties that were a bright red splash of colour such as Discovery and Red Devil.

Similarly my huge climbing outdoor grape vine Brant has autumn colour and a lot of small bunches of black grapes in October. I leave these on till about the beginning of November, by which time the local blackbird has decided he fancies a few grapes for breakfast, lunch and tea. As these grapes are quite sweet and edible we have always used them, but when you collect over a hundred wee bunches, we eat a few but most get brewed into a couple of demijohns of wine. Another large climber that gets covered in orange or red berries is the firethorn, Pyracantha Orange Glow. It is very useful, as it is quite happy on a north wall and having ample vicious thorns it can be trained around any low windows to keep burglers at bay as it can be quite impenetrable. Bees love the flowers in mid summer and birds get the berries in winter.

The garden gets crowded at this time of year as the blackbirds, robins, bluetits and numerous others all fight and forage as they stake their claim to the feast of berries.

Berberis darwinii is one of the first to ripen up its black berries, and as this evergreen shrub can grow massive it provides several birds with enough food for several months. Berberis wilsoniae is a better garden plant as it is low growing, with good autumn colour and gets covered in coral pink berries in winter. Other good ground cover shrubs include the evergreen Pernettya with pink, red, white and mauve berries. However these plants come as female forms so will need a male plant for pollination. If you like deep lilac berries try a Callicarpa which is medium sized and its foliage turns pinkish in autumn. For a long display of white berries the snowberry is aptly named, and for orange berries the sea buckthorn is very attractive.

Elderberries are more often used in shelterbelts and windbreaks, but if you have room and wish to provide food and shelter for birds they will fit the bill. However if you also enjoy elderberry homebrew, the

birds will have to find other berries, which fortunately are in plentiful supply.

The Cotoneasters range in size from ground cover to small trees, but all of them are prolific with their berries, most of which are red with some yellow varieties. Cotoneaster frigidus can be spectacular at this time of year and will keep several blackbirds fed well into winter, unless of course the flocks of waxwings and fieldfares coming in from Scandinavia find them.

Several small trees put on a great fruit display in late autumn especially the Malus John Downie and Golden Hornet, but it is the rowans that are essential in the Scottish garden. They are very versatile with brilliant autumn colour as the leaves turn a fiery red, and a range of berry colour from red, orange, pink, yellow to white.

 Wee jobs to do this week

Autumn is not too early to be drawing up a plan for 2016 for fruit and vegetable growing to incorporate a crop rotation to help prevent any build up of pests and diseases such as clubroot on brassicas and white rot on onions. The rotation plan will show where next year’s heavy feeders (peas, beans, courgettes, pumpkins, onions and leeks) are grown so that they get well manured or composted during the winter digging. Potatoes and brassicas get some compost but do not give any to the root crops as carrots, turnips, Swedes, parsnips and beetroot are likely to fork instead of growing as one swollen root. I also add well rotted compost to the bottom of my potato drill at planting as this boosts growth.

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AUTUMN COLOUR

AUTUMN COLOUR

Summer may now be truly over, but many plants go out in a blaze of glory to cheer us up before winter sets in. As gardeners we can capitalise on this by planting trees, shrubs and even fruit bushes for both autumn colour as well as fruit and flowers. Choice is usually determined by garden size, though we can all be tempted to buy that special plant we just have to grow even though our small gardens are just not big enough for them. My weakness happened after my year at College in Chelmsford studying my National Diploma. There was a massive spectacular blue atlas cedar in the college grounds. I knew that once I got a decent garden I would have to get one. Sure enough on moving to Darlington I purchased my Cedrus atlantica glauca which had a space of about six by six feet in the back garden. I enjoyed it for about eight years before realising it was going to need my whole garden plus a few of my neighbours as well. Unfortunately it had to go.

There is so much choice that selection for garden size is easy. Other factors to consider are privacy, shelter, a specimen for the lawn, closeness to the house and even food and shelter for birds. Although my cedar will be fine in any huge garden, its beautiful blue colour lasts all year round as it is evergreen and creates a perfect background for deciduous plants with good autumn colour. However if you wish to have some conifers with good colour then try some of the deciduous ones such as larch, Gingko or swamp cypress, Taxodium, but again check space available as some can ultimately require a fair bit of room. Coming down in size, you can’t go far wrong with our range of rowan trees in Scotland. They all have dazzling scarlet foliage in autumn plus ample berries of red, pink, white or yellow. On a similar size are the maples which are one of the first to show their dazzling autumn colours, though my favourite is the Japanese maples. Acer Sangokaku will grow up to ten feet tall

with brilliant golden autumn colours followed by red stems in winter. Other maples such as Acer palmatum atropurpureum with crimson foliage in summer turns a fiery red in autumn growing to about five feet tall. Other medium sized trees worth growing for autumn colour are the flowering cherries, liquidamber, amelanchiers and upright forms of hornbeam and oak.

However if your garden is too small for a wee tree there are plenty of shrubs to use from the deciduous azaleas, hammamelis molis, Cotinus the smoke bush, chokeberry and Spiraea. There are many more large, small and ground cover shrubs with excellent autumn foliage, so it is worthwhile growing some of these together so one colour enhances the other. My Euphorbia griffithi Fireglow has turned a decent shade of yellow, but with the fiery red dwarf maple behind it they both make a great splash of colour together. Down at ground level some of the evergreen heathers take on terrific autumn colours once they get a few frosty nights, particulary Calluna Goldsworth Crimson and Golden Feather. Climbing shrubs should not be

overlooked but be careful with the dazzling red Virginian creeper as it loves to climb and scramble to great heights. My favourite has to be the grape vine Brant mainly grown for autumn colour, but also provides us with an ample supply of small black sweet and juicy bunches of grapes that never fail to ripen up on my south wall.

                                             

Wee jobs to do this week

Bring wooden patio tables indoors for winter protection as they are most unlikely to be used for the next five months. Once they are totally dry they can be repainted with an outdoor varnish to last for another couple of years.

Once all the old tomato plants have been removed, the grapes harvested from vines and the leaves have all fallen off the inside of the greenhouse can be washed down to clean it up for the winter. If you get a good sunny day take the chance and wash the outside of the greenhouse, which can be very important for those who have applied some glass shading for the summer. I stopped that practise years ago as the sun in Scotland is just not strong enough to cause any problems unless you grow orchids.

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