EARLY SUMMER FLOWERS

                                                 EARLY SUMMER FLOWERS

In the world of gardening no two years are ever the same. Plant growth and flowering are all

affected by weather from late frosts to dry years, wet years, severe cold and in Scotland we

Anna watering the pansies

occasionally get a heatwave. After the wet year of 2019 it has been quite a surprise to get a very dry and sunny April. The normal April showers reluctantly made a brief appearance on the last day then it was back to dry warm weather which for us gardeners was a gift, though a return to winter is threatened about the time this goes to print. In the meantime the hoe has been out to sort out any weeds, the hose has been in use to give the plants a drink and flowers have been having a great time.

Apple Fiesta

I had hoped to be writing about the flowers that brighten up the garden once the tulips display is at an end, but they just seem to keep on flowering. The early summer has helped plants to grow strong and I am kept very busy potting up plants, planting out and seed sowing. You would think that with the spare time available with lockdown, as trips to shops are rare, trips to pubs a distant memory, I canna even get oot for a haircut, so I should have plenty time for gardening. Maybe it is the extra time watering both around my garden as well as my allotment that keeps me busy. Another affect of lockdown is I no longer have my art classes, and yet as an artist the garden is taking up all my time, so it is months since I had a paintbrush in my hand. However as a trained gardener, spending every day doing a bit of gardening is no great hardship, and I get my daily exercise amongst some beautiful flowering plants.

Doronicum Little Leo

Although the tulips are still very much part of the show, especially the Triumphs and Darwin

Hybrids the azaleas and rhododendrons are now taking over as the main show stoppers.

Mixed Azaleas

Rhododendron Elizabeth has always been a favourite and is now a bright splash of crimson. Other dwarf Japanese azaleas are also seeking attention, as well as Pieris Forest Flame with its bright red young shoots. Down at ground level the deep pink Phlox subulata and the golden Doronicum Little Leo are absolute crackers. Another great yellow plant at ground level is the Euphorbia polychroma. I first saw this in the display garden at Glendoick Garden Centre then had to get a plant. I use a lot of pansies to add to the spring display of tulips, but my hanging baskets are all pansies which seem to want to continue to

Rhododendron Elizabeth

flower well into summer. However by June I will be hanging up my summer hanging baskets, so I will carefully remove the pansies and find a quiet border to let them continue to flower. Late spring and early summer sees the peonys and Oriental poppies coming alive with bright red and crimson huge flowers, making a bold statement, but my Clematis montana rubens is also trying to steal the show. It just will not behave. It has established its own space then clambered up, over and through my climbing rose Morning Jewel as well as a tall Camellia Adolphe Audusson.

Phlox subulata

It is brilliant in full flower, but my Camellia does need rescuing so the loppers are coming out after it finishes flowering. Another shrub in full flower just now is the fruiting saskatoon bush.

We grow apples, pears, plums and cherries for their fruit but at this time of year when they are in full bloom they are fantastic to see. There appears to be more flowers than in other years, except for my biennial bearing Apple Fiesta, which has a few but nothing like Falstaff, Red Devil, Discovery and the best cooker Bramley. Other cherries grown for their flowers like Prunus Kanzan, Shirotae and the upright Amanogawa are hard to beat.

Wee jobs to do this week

Start summer pruning grapes

Indoor grapes have made an early start due to recent sunny weather. Now is the time to begin the summer pruning. Once you can see which young shoots have a grape bunch and which have none, remove the latter or at least pinch the shoot back to a couple of leaves as they help to feed the vine until there is plenty of leaves. Pinch off the end of shoots with grapes leaving two leaves after the bunch. Later on new sideshoots will grow and these should be pinched after one leaf. Outdoor vines will be a few weeks later, but the pruning is the same.

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A DAY ON THE PLOT

                                                   A DAY ON THE PLOT

After a very dry April when the garden hose was in constant use, the rains finally arrived in the last few days of the month. We can now start to plant up our onions and other hardy fruit, flower and vegetable plants, and no doubt weeds will make a comeback.

Watering young crops

The cool dry spell was great for weed control as very few weeds were germinating and hoeing was easy for killing them as they just shrivelled up under cloudless skies. There is so much work to be done with seed sowing, planting and the start of the change over as the spring flower show begins to pass over and we concentrate on the summer bedding plants that the problems of the coronavirus can be put at the back of our minds. Unfortunately there are so many people affected and death rates so high and wide spread over whole communities that many people are aware of losing close friends and relatives. Gardens and allotments are becoming places of peace where the flowers and growing crops help to keep our spirits high. As measures are being considered for how we start the relaxation of

First grapes appear

lockdown rules and with so many people now taken to gardening, there is a great need to open up the garden centres, but with social distancing rules still in place, so folk can buy in some compost, plants, seeds and other gardening aids. Plants brought on early from seed on my indoor windowsills have now all gone into the greenhouse and so far I have not needed to put in a heater over night. However my Pumpkins and Courgettes are still a bit tender so they have the windowsills all to themselves. They have been sown individually in cellular trays. The greenhouse has been a hive of activity as plants are moved out for hardening off to allow more space for other younger plants needing the room.

Earthing up the Casa Blanca potatoes

Sweet corn seedlings in small cellular trays got potted up into individual pots to grow on under glass for a couple of weeks before hardening off and planting out at the end of May. African and French Marigolds, Nemesia and Livingston Daisies all needed pricking out but will stay under glass for a couple of weeks before hardening off once threat of frost diminishes. Geraniums have all been outside since beginning of April, but growth has been poor as weather has been cold all April.

Tomatoes are growing strongly under glass but so far none are flowering so planting will be delayed till mid May. Grape vines under glass are growing just fine. Seigerrebe and Solaris have all got plenty flowering shoots and some may need to be thinned, but Black Hamburg is surprisingly poor with many shoots without any signs of a bunch.

Outdoors the tulips and daffodils are going over so removing the seed pods is a frequent task.

Grafting some apple trees

However as one show ends the next one begins as Rhododendrons and Azaleas begin to flower, as well as my numerous young geraniums grown for borders, tubs and hanging baskets. All through winter I remove all flowers so they can concentrate on growing, but once they go outdoors for hardening off I let them all flower. I keep track of the different colours as reds go in square pots, pink in black pots and white geraniums go in clay coloured pots.

Potatoes are now all above ground so earthing up is done just in case we get a late frost. Sowing has started for turnips, salads, peas, dwarf French beans, runner beans, parsnips and swedes.

A friend up at City Road Allotments has two apple trees with unimpressive apples, so I grafted a few shoots with Discovery, Falstaff, Fiesta and Red Devil, and if they all grow she will have an

interesting family tree. Once you read up about grafting it is a fairly simple operation with a good success rate (provided you have a sharp knife) and gives great satisfaction when the new varieties begin to grow. So fingers crossed.

Wee jobs to do this week

Early strawberries in flower

Early strawberries under low polythene tunnels had the benefit of a long sunny April. Although it was a dry spell it is always necessary to water plants under tunnels so they never suffered. They have now responded and burst into bloom, but the flowers need to get pollinated by bees so the tunnels get opened up. Last year I picked the first berries from my tunnelled crop on 11thMay, but the cool spring this year may delay picking a few days.

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ENJOY THE SPRING FLOWERS

                                               ENJOY THE SPRING FLOWERS

Whether you turn on the television or pick up a newspaper, there is only one topic under discussion, and while we see the bad side of the coronavirus outbreak, a lot of folk are seeking out more

positive aspects to keep us amused, entertained and raise our spirits.

Anna watering young crops

The garden is so full of spring flowers just now and the dry sunny weather allows us to enjoy them taking our minds away from the pandemic.

Azalea Blaaws Pink

I have been very surprised by seeing so many adults and kids getting involved in gardening. So many of us are in lock down and isolation, but if we have a garden it gives us a new venture to have a go at gardening. We need to be strong to fend off the virus so exercise and healthy food are very important. If you grow your own crops you get very fresh and chemical free produce. We tried getting some fresh food from the supermarket, but when you cant pick your own you risk getting some real inferior stuff. Anna’s savoy cabbage looked more like a large brussel sprout, the Braeburn apples were as hard as rocks and tomatoes were huge but totally tasteless.

Cherry Blossom

I have been asked advice on how to convert the lawn into a vegetable garden, so fresh vegetables can be grown. Others ask the best seeds to show the kids how to grow vegetables and flowers. The lockdown affects kids as much as adults now that schools are shut down as they are full of energy and need some activity to keep them happy. The garden can play an important role to let them see where food comes from, and growing a few flowers that attract bees and butterflies is fun for kids.

At City Road Allotments our communal flower border is ablaze with tulips, daffodils, pansies, and grape hyacinths which is great for plot holders as well as passers-by who stop to admire the show.

Euphorbia griffithii Fireglow

The flowers are getting the benefit of the dry sunny weather, but temperatures have been kept low due to a cool easterly breeze, so the show lasts a long time. The wide range of tulips in every colour came about as many gardeners added a few bulbs as well as those bought by the allotment

Tulop Abba

committee. Then bulbs planted in our flower troughs for the spring display were added to the border after they finished flowering. Although the early flowers (snowdrops and aconites) are now finished the early tulips, white Purissima and Red Emperor and Stressa, took over then it was the turn of the dwarf doubles Sun Lover, Abba and Showcase. As these begin to fade the tall Darwin Hybrids Apeldoorn, Golden Apeldoorn and the purple triumph Negrita and single early yellow Bellona have their moment. Wallflower and pansies are bedded in between the tulips to add depth and the pansies can flower well into the summer. Spring colour is also

Tulip Bellona

appearing on the rhododendrons and azaleas with the dwarf Japanese azaleas (Blaaws Pink) quite early. Camellias are also flowering with the pink Donation covered in flowers. Another very bright tall shrub is the Berberis darwinnii with

orange flowers, but if left to grow unchecked it can grow into a massive shrub. However it produces black fruits that keep the birds fed in autumn for several months.

The first herbaceous plants to flower include Euphorbia griffithii Fireglow, but these will be

Tulip Carnaval du Nice

followed quickly by the peonies (my favourite is Doreen) and Oriental poppies which always put on a dazzling show with huge bright red flowers.

This is also the time when the cherry trees, apples, pears and plums all come into bloom, and give us some indication of potential fruit crops to follow. Some flowering on fruit trees sends us a timely reminder to look out for a few pests. Check plum trees as the first leaves appear same time as flowers as they can get devastated by aphids, and gooseberries in flower also need to be checked for sawflies which can devour leaves very rapidly.

Wee jobs to do this week

Emily and Kieran pot up flowers

April has been a very dry month. Not one April shower to be seen, at least up in the north east. No doubt in time the rains will arrive to make up the deficit. Just hope they remember to go off. In the meantime get the hose out and keep the young crops (seeds just germinating and young plants

recently planted) well watered. Dry spell however has been brilliant for hoeing the weeds, though it has been so cold that there’s not many around.

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