BEGONIAS

BEGONIAS

Tuberous begonias are hard to beat for an exotic summer bedding plant, providing a wealth of large blooms in any weather in just about any colour except blue. They are perfect for bedding, tubs, window boxes, hanging baskets and as a house plant on a sunny window sill.

The flowers are usually double and can be frilled and some have a beautiful picotee edge.

Once you have grasped their basic cultural needs for growing and storage they will last for years. I purchased my tubers over twenty years ago and at the end of each season I have more than I started with as the tubers grow larger. Protect them from frost at all times as they are half hardy.

It is usual to use different varieties suitable for summer bedding (doubles, Non Stop, Frilled and Picotees), those with a trailing habit for baskets (pendulas.) You can pay up to £40 for one tuber of the best variety, whereas tubers for bedding are about £1 to £6 each. They may be expensive to start off with, but they last for years and slowly increase in size. As they grow bigger you can cut them up in late March to April as long as each portion has a good couple of strong young shoots.

Propagation and growing

Tubers can be split in April when emerging shoots are quite prominent. You need at least two shoots on each piece, but this is a very slow way to bulk up stock. Seed sowing is the best way to produce a lot of plants quickly. Sow in February on finely prepared seed compost. Do not cover the seeds as they need light to germinate, but to retain a moist atmosphere cover the seed tray with glass. Turn this over daily to remove condensation. They must always be moist, but never wet and need a constant temperature of 65 to 70 F. to germinate. When big enough to transplant you will need to make a forked stick to lift them out together with a very small dibber. Plant them in trays about 4cms apart and once they fill those, transplant them again into larger containers.

Dry tubers are started into growth by placing them close together, concave side up in shallow trays of compost in February. Cover them with compost but not too deep. They need a temperature of at least 65 F. Once the sprouts begin to grow replant them into larger boxes or pots. Keep them watered and fed. Harden off by mid May and they should be ready for planting at the end of May or early June. I plant out my begonias in beds at about a foot apart as they can grow into quite large plants. They are gross feeders in tubs, pots and baskets and need constant watering, but will reward you with a fantastic show of colour right up till the autumn.

Storing

At the end of the flowering season, about mid October, cut back the plants to about three or four inches and lift them carefully. Knock off any loose soil and store them in an airy dry cool but frost proof place. Let the soil around the tubers dry out and fall off. Store them in boxes concave side up covering them with the dried out soil or old potting compost. Make sure it is dry.

Wee jobs to do this week

Cut hedges and any ornamentally shaped shrubs. Always start at the bottom, work up the sides and leave the top till last.

Check for leeks on garden shed roofs and repair with new felt or use bitumastic on small holes or tears. Replace any broken glass from shed windows, cold frames and glasshouses.

Areas on the vegetable patch allocated for brassicas, and dug over a few months ago can now be limed to reduce the soil acidity. This helps to minimise the incidence of clubroot disease.

Check for scale insect infestation on rhododendrons and evergreen azaleas as they can become quite a serious pest causing loss of foliage and allowing the fungus sooty mould to develop. They can be controlled with several sprays of Provado or Resolva. However best time to spray is in summer when the young scale nymphs are hatching.

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INTERNET GARDENING

INTERNET GARDENING

Garden lovers have always bought a regular gardening magazine to hold our interest and give us up to date information. We also regularly visit garden centres and nurseries as well as horticultural events in our area. This way we gain knowledge of modern gardening techniques and the latest plant varieties as they appear. Today, even in the world of gardening everything has moved on and now we seek our information on the internet as well as the other sources. There is any amount of information available at the click of a mouse leading to websites, blogs, forums and newsletters.

Schools teach computer studies from primary age, so our kids are well versed up in internet technology, but my generation has a lot to catch up on and although there is plenty courses in basic computing, it is not easy to adapt to this new technology.

My first steps

About twelve years ago I enrolled onto an evening class for basic computing learning a wee bit about all the parts and how they worked, then I found another course on learning to search and surf the internet, “Computing for the Terrified” I was an uphill struggle as the keyboard, which I had never used before, really had me baffled, but Scots don’t give up easily.

At this time Dundee Business Gateway was running a series of courses on computers, the internet and website building for small businesses, so yet again this very determined lad enrolled on all of them. I got enough information on just what to look for to buy my first computer with confidence. Now I could practice all these lessons I had been taught. Before long I was searching, emailing, scanning, adding pictures from my camera, printing, booking buses, trains, holidays, and building up a list of my favourite sites that I look at frequently.

My next step was to build my own website www.johnstoa.com to showcase my paintings, prints and art tuition. However I also added pages to show my gardening activities in and around the house as well as my allotment at City Road.

I then added a new blog, scottishartistandhisgarden.blogspot.co.uk linked from my home page to archive all my Dundee Courier articles for future reference. The latest venture is into Facebook and other social media sites, but being very careful with uploading pictures and content.

Today every worthwhile nursery, garden centre and grower has a website. So do Botanical gardens, the Royal Horticultural Society, stately homes, research institutes and numerous allotment sites.

If you wish to find information, or where you can buy a plant just go to Google and type in the common or botanical name and browse through the result pages. Pests, diseases, weed control, pruning, planting, composts, greenhouses, sheds, fences, polythene are all easy to find.

You can look up local garden centres such as www.glendoick.com  or if you wish to look up specialist plant growers try Cockers at www.roses.uk.com and www.davidaustinroses.com for roses.

For fruit growing try www.kenmuir.co.uk, and for excellent chrysanthemums check out Harold Walker at www.walkersplantcentre.co.uk I have used him for over twenty years.

If you want the best tuberous begonias look up www.blackmore-langdon.com.

Our own Dundee Botanical Gardens can be found at www.dundee.ac.uk/botanic 
For information on allotment sites try www.allotment.org.uk which has links to everything you are likely to grow, then check out both the National Society at www.nsalg.org.uk and the Scottish Society at www.sags.org.uk

Wee jobs to do this week

Lift and divide rhubarb plants more than three years old and replant them in well prepared soil that has been well manured as they prefer a rich fertile soil.

Tidy up the edges of lawns with a half moon lawn edger. Any areas that are damaged can be repaired by cutting a square of turf then turning it around so that the edge is clean and straight on the outside. Add soil to the broken area, level it and sprinkle in some grass seed.

Check over all garden tools and sharpen blunt edges with a file. Many tools such as secateurs, spades, hoes, axes and shears all get blunt with constant use.

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PRUNING FRUIT TREES AND BUSHES

PRUNING FRUIT TREES AND BUSHES

We seem to have a very favourable climate in the north east of Scotland. We may get the gales in winter but we have missed out on the rain and snow, and only enough frost to firm up the ground. As longer sunny days arrive it gives us the perfect opportunity to crack on with any outstanding pruning jobs while plants are still dormant. I do a lot of pruning of fruit bushes pretty soon after harvesting as this gives new growth time to ripen up before winter. I also like to carry out all my pruning at the one time then I can put all the clippings through our allotment shredder and add them to the compost heap.

Raspberries (summer fruiting) fruit on new canes produced the previous year, so remove all the old fruited canes down to ground level and tie in those left. If there is plenty canes available remove weak ones, short ones and any overcrowding ones so those left can be spaced at four inches apart along the top wire.

Raspberries (autumn fruiting) have all the canes cut down to the ground as they fruit on new canes grown in the same year.

 Redcurrants have their own style of pruning. I establish a framework of about nine main shoots which I summer prune by cutting all sideshoots back to about six inches or so, then in winter I spur these back to a couple of buds. Try to replace a couple of these main shoots every year with new strong shoots grown from the centre of the bush.

Brambles, loganberries and Tayberries are all treated the same as summer raspberries, though the canes can be quite long, so sometimes they are woven up and down along their supporting wires to save space. The new bramble Reuben fruits on canes grown the same year similar to autumn fruiting rasps so it is also cut down to ground level.

Blackcurrants have old fruiting wood removed, shoots trailing too near the soil, and open up the centres. Leave all strong young shoots for fruiting for the next couple of years.

Gooseberries are best pruned after fruiting in summer but it is still time to give them a trim now. Most varieties are very thorny so pruning aims to make life easy for picking. Remove growth from the centre of the bush as well as any shoots on the outside trailing down onto the soil. Now spur back weak shoots and any that cause overcrowding, or are likely to impede safe picking.
Plums should not be pruned in winter as this increases the risk of infection by silver leaf disease.
Apples and pears vary in their pruning needs as there are so many different training forms. Bush and tree forms are managed by regulating branches to maintain a supply of young wood that fruits for three to five years and is then replaced by younger shoots allowed to take its place.

Other forms such as cordons, fans, espaliers, stepovers and pillar forms are spur pruned (similar to the redcurrants) in both summer and winter, once the basic framework has been established.

Peaches are usually trained against a south facing wall or fence as a fan shape then spur pruned to control growth and encourage formation of fruit buds.
Grapes grown under glass are usually trained as upright rods spaced about eighteen inches apart. One plant can have one rod or as many as you wish to fill the space. Once these are established all sideshoots growing out of these rods are cut back to one or two buds in December or January.

If pruning is left any later the vine will start to grow and sap will bleed from the pruning cuts.

Wee jobs for this week
Remove all old leaves from Brussels sprouts and put them on the compost heap, otherwise if they build up on the ground they can insulate it from frost. The roots will then still be active whereas the tops could be frozen leading to problems with internal browning of the sprouts.

Pot up small rooted plants of geraniums and busy lizzies, as they begin to grow following autumn propagation from cuttings.

Enjoy aconites as they open up on clear sunny days spreading a bit of golden cheer on cold winter days, but this year well behind the snowdrops that started to flower last December.

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ORNAMENTAL STEMS AND BARK

ORNAMENTAL STEMS AND BARK

It is during the long cold winter months when there is a distinct lack of flowers that we can appreciate other forms of colour in our gardens. There is a wide range of plants grown for winter attraction because of their coloured stems and ornamental bark. These are best displayed in a large group or drift to give impact. Choose a spot that will catch the winter sun and make sure it is well drained, but not dry. Cultivate the soil, adding plenty of garden compost or other organic material to improve the soil structure and add humus. My winter garden is based on heathers, coloured stemmed trees and shrubs, winter flowering shrubs and climbers such as Jasmine, and a carpet of aconite and snowdrop bulbs to add and extend the interest well beyond the winter. Daffodils and tulips can also be used to add colour in spring, then tall oriental scented lilies in summer.

In autumn the show begins when the tree and shrubs lose their leaves to reveal the brilliant red  stems of Cornus sibirica Westonbirt and Mid-winter Fire, bright green stems of Kerria japonica and Leycesteria Formosa and the dazzling orange stemmed willow, Salix britzensis emerging from the ground cover of the black grass, Ophiopogon planiscapus nigrescens. This grass is quite black forming dense ground hugging clumps that give a perfect background to both the bright stems and also a drift of snowdrops. Now white on black; that’s different.

I did have a black stemmed Cornus kesselringii but I am afraid it was a curiosity, not quite a thing of beauty, so it has been relegated to the shade border.

If you wish to try some grey stems look out a Rubus giraldianus, but treat it carefully as it has vicious thorns making it perfect for any vandal prone areas. Another excellent tall shrub is the violet willow, Salix daphnoides which has a beautiful grey bloom on its stems.

As well as shrubs with coloured stems the heather garden is often at its best in winter. It can be enhanced with a magnificent specimen birch tree Betula jaquemontia with pure white bark in a central position within a drift of gold and crimson heather, Calluna vulgaris Beoley Gold and Beoley Crimson. All of these plants are enhanced with the first cold evenings and a bit of frost.

For those in a more frivolous mood in need of the perfect small specimen tree, I recommend the Japanese maple Acer palmatum Sangokaku and although it is not cheap, it will not disappoint. After the dazzling red autumn leaves fall off the bright wine red stems are brilliant in sunshine.

Maintenance

At the end of March the shrubs will start to grow, so now is the time to prune them back to a stool just above ground level to encourage the growth of strong young stems that have the brightest colour. However I do not prune back the Kerria or Leycesteria. These get a light pruning after flowering by removing some older shoots back to decent fresh young growth.

Although the coloured stems have been pruned and the early spring bulbs are finished, it is still possible to use this border for a further show of summer flowering scented lilies. These are quite tall and grow through the shrubs into the light to flower.

In autumn apply a mulch of compost after all the leaves have fallen off.

Wee jobs to do this week

As potatoes arrive place them in a warm light place to allow them to start chitting. A favourite is an old egg container with the potatoes placed rose end up.

Place a mulch of rotted compost or manure around fruit bushes to conserve moisture in dry spells in summer and keep weeds down.

This is the latest time to complete grape vine pruning. They are normally grown in greenhouses as upright rods spaced about 12 to 18 inches apart with all growth pruned back to one bud.

There is still time to take hardwood cuttings of many deciduous hardwood shrubs and fruit bushes such as blackcurrants and gooseberries about nine inches long and lined out in a row spaced about four to six inches apart. They will be fine in open ground or a cold frame.

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