SUMMER ROSES IN DISTRESS

                                             SUMMER ROSES IN DISTRESS

In a good year roses are always the favourite for bright colour, scent and lovely shape of blossom, but in the last few years they have had a bit of a struggle with weird weather. They enjoy a deep

fertile clay soil that is well drained, weed free and with plenty organic matter added as a mulch or lightly forked in over winter.

E H Morse

Then with decent weather, plenty warm sunny days and just enough rain to keep them happy they will put on a great display. The wet winter added just a wee bit too much moisture and a few floods but then the rain went off as spring arrived and the sun came out for nearly three months. Unfortunately this favoured mildew which took hold and weakened the bushes. At the same time the long sunny weather favoured plagues of greenfly which did the young shoots trying to grow no favours at all. The rains finally arrived in mid June but the weakened bushes were then subjected to blackspot disease. The wet weather at the beginning of summer brought with it torrential rain and thunderstorms as well as gales. The poor roses trying to put on a show with their first flush, had no chance. The gales, shredded the young leaves and broke the heads off numerous roses. Now at the end of June weather has settled down to the normal pattern of a few days rain and a few days

Iceberg

sunshine so I am hoping the roses will put on a great show in their second flush. Choose a dry day to give a spray of fungicide and pesticide to sort out any remaining greenfly, blackspot and mildew and add a bit fertiliser to give them a wee boost. Remove all old flowers before they form hips and cut back to the nearest young shoot or even further if leaves have a bad dose of blackspot fungus.

Now is a good time to visit garden centres which have all reopened and check out roses in pots for sale as they will all have some flowers on them. Roses can also be propagated from hardwood

cuttings in winter about six to ten inches long spaced about four inches apart and grown in a nursery row in the first year as they may not all grow.

Roses are very accommodating. They can be grown in prepared beds as bushes (floribundas and

hybrid teas) up walls as climbers and along fences as ramblers. Shrub roses are also great to add

Rosa omiensis pteracantha

height and structure at the rear of shrub borders adding security and privacy to the garden. One of my favourites is Ispahan, a large shrub rose with scented pink flowers and healthy disease free

foliage. If you need added security try Rosa omiensis pteracantha, the red winged rose, an

ornamental shrub rose with stems covered in huge red thorns. There are numerous climbers for all walls and even on the shaded north wall there are several climbers that will be happy to grow and flower. Try some of the white flowered Mme Alfred Carrier, Climbing Iceberg, Claire Austin or

Alberic Barbier. For pink flowers try Albertine, New Dawn or Gertrude Jekyll a shrub rose but happy to be trained as a wall climber. Good yellow roses for north walls are Maigold and Golden Showers and good red ones include Paul’s Scarlet and Danse du Feu.

We all have our favourite bush roses, but my list prefers those varieties bred with strong disease

Dawn Chorus

resistant foliage, a trait still sadly lacking in numerous roses. My favourite reds include E H Morse, Ingrid Bergman and Deep Secret. Good yellow roses include Arthur Bell, Freedom and Golden Wedding. My best white rose is still Margaret Merril but still a bit prone to blackspot. Iceberg has always been the best white floribunda. Myriam is a great pale pink and Congratulations a deeper pink and Dearest a great floribunda. My best orange rose is Dawn Chorus. Two good bicolour roses are Piccadilly and the old Rose Gaujard.

Wee jobs to do this week

Saskatoon bushes get netted

Saskatoon berries are ripening up and our local blackbird is getting quite agitated as he knows the nets will appear and stop him getting his summer food source. Bushes are over six foot tall, but with tall posts and nets I can still make them secure. Where nets reach the ground I cover the ends over with soil as I’ve seen the blackie flick up the nets and limbo dance under them to get into his fruitful paradise. Saskatoons down south in Worcester have now been harvested due to a warmer climate.

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SUMMER FLOWERS

                                                           SUMMER FLOWERS

The long periods of lockdown have not really been a great hardship for the keen gardener. After nearly three months of dry sunny weather then a fortnight of heavy rain the garden has never looked better. Weeds were slow to get started so plants had little competition and as long as the hose kept the plants watered in the dry months everything in the garden was rosy.

Anna securing the cordon sweet peas

The spring display was brilliant and lasted a long time but now it is the summer flowers turn to brighten up the garden.

Roses all made an early start but the dry spell brought on some mildew as well as plagues of greenfly.

Fuchsia Swingtime

Then just as they were just getting into the first flush the gales arrived and numerous heads on bush and climbers got broken off. However they are now recovering and soon they will be getting their second flush. Hopefully summer weather with a wee bit of global warming will be in their favour. Flowering shrubs seemed less affected by weather and Philadelphus a mass of scented white flowers has been amazing and very long lasting. Yellow Senecio greyi and pink Cistus purpureus and Silver Pink as well as Genista and the golden broom Cytisus praecox all flowered well as the long dry spell really suited them. I have several outdoor Fuchsia Mrs Popple in borders and the less hardy fuchsia Swingtime in pots all enjoying this weather all full of flowers.

In the herbaceous border the Oriental poppies, Peonies and Bearded Iris are now over but Shasta Daisies, Delphiniums, Day Lilies, and

Geraniums and Petunias

Oriental lilies are now taking over. They are all self supporting except the Delphiniums and the taller Oriental Lilies which all require to have supporting canes. I use some Oriental Lilies as dot plants in tubs to add height to the summer bedding plants and with their exotic perfume they are perfect near entrance doorways and on the patio. The lockdown may confine us to be near home, but this gives us plenty time for garden work to keep weeds under control, carry out essential watering, staking and as flowers fade continual dead heading. Spring flowering pansies removed from tubs and hanging baskets in May were carefully replanted in bare areas amongst other plants as they always continue to flower into mid summer. However I identify the best white, yellow and blue colours and save seeds for growing on young plants for next years display.

Geraniums Petunias and Nemesia

These will be sown at the end of this month. I also have some very colourful Californian poppies as well as Poppy Ladybird and Opium poppies which have all naturalised in both my garden and allotment flower borders so I again save some seed for sowing next year in early spring. Poppies this year have been brilliant in all their different forms except my group of Himalayan Blue Poppies which are a bit slower to flower this year.

Yellow cactus dahlia

A wide mixture of summer bedding plants are used for tubs, hanging baskets and any bare areas in flower, shrub and herbaceous borders. The red geraniums have been outstanding as the long sunny spring was perfect for them. I had plenty of spare plants as I keep my own stock of best colours from cuttings in autumn, then as these grow I take out the tops to keep them bushy and use these as more cuttings. If you continue with this practise you can have a lot of plants by the end of spring ready to plant out.

Locked down but still smiling

These are brilliant for tubs and hanging baskets along with Nemesia Carnival and Petunias. Tuberous begonias are my favourite in tubs and borders, though they are later in starting to flower. This year the flowers seem a lot bigger than normal, so must be liking our weird weather. Sweet peas and Dahlias grown for cut flower on the allotment are now providing plenty of flowers to take home though gladioli and chrysanthemums will come into bloom a bit later.

John tops up the compost heap

Wee jobs to do this week

Early summer is the time to clean up the garden after the spring display of bulbs and spring flowers has finished. The old foliage from bulbs and spent spring bedding plants together with grass cuttings and ample rhubarb leaves can all be added to the compost heap. Recent heavy rain has been brilliant in helping to keep the heap moist to allow the worms to start converting plant remains into well rotted compost. To help them out turn the compost over so that the fresh material is buried by some old compost. It helps if all the old plants have been chopped up before adding to the heap.

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SOFT FRUIT PICKING SEASON BEGINS

                                            SOFT FRUIT PICKING SEASON BEGINS

The fruit picking season has got off to a flying start with strawberries enjoying the long sunny weather followed by a period of plentiful rainfall to make sure they never suffered from drought.

I was picking my early variety Christine from the end of May.

Emily and Kieran at Cairnie Fruit Farm

Other mid season varieties as well as my everbearing autumn variety Flamenco are all bearing crops. Just hope the season keeps going, but at present it is strawberries for breakfast, lunch and a snack in the evening almost daily, and Anna makes sure there is plenty jam and scones. There has been plenty

John picking redcurrants

surplus to add to the freezer to keep us going well into next year. Mice have been a nuisance, nibbling the outer seeds off berries which then quickly rot, so action will be taken. I know they just love a bit of blue cheese; well it will be their last meal.

Red currants look to be the next crop to ripen up, and they also need to be netted as the local

blackbird is very partial to a few red currants. Red currants are quite prolific croppers so Anna gets plenty for the kitchen and freezer and I get my ten pounds to start off my wine brewing season. This will give me three demijohns to lay down after fermentation and siphoning off the lees. I usually leave them for three years to mature before bottling up.

Blackcurrants are already very heavy with crops so my Ben Conan, which is blessed with very large berries, had to be staked to prevent the branches laden with berries from trailing onto the soil. Blackcurrant Big Ben also has very large berries with even sweeter fruit so can be used in desserts, compote and jam, as well as wine.

Raspberry Polka

Gooseberries are another fruit that is cropping at full capacity, but the recent thunderstorms with torrential rain did a bit of fruit thinning. However there is still plenty left to swell up and ripen. They are brilliant as compote, added to some jams and surplus put in freezer as well as leaving me with my ten pounds for brewing.

Raspberries are still growing and as yet the fruit is still to start to colour up but again looks like

another great crop, though constant watering was necessary during the dry months from April till early June.

Saskatoons are starting to colour up so they will get netted so blackbirds cannot get access

Anna picking young rhubarb

otherwise they would strip them bare in a few days, even those berries not yet ripe. Saskatoons are favourite added to rhubarb for

jam, as the berries are sweet and the rhubarb balances this with some acidity. However I need another ten pounds for my brewing programme. Although I usually keep saskatoon wine for three years, last year I tried a surplus bottle at six weeks old and it was perfect.

Rhubarb has been growing very fast so picking has been prolific and no need yet to stop, though I keep checking as it needs a rest at end of summer to build up good crowns for next year.

Figs, Brambles and Blueberries normally ripen in August but progress looks good in all except the blueberries that suffered when gales swept across the land in June and shredded off all the leaves.

Gooseberry Invicta

Cape Gooseberries were grown on my allotment a few years ago, but following a few bad summers when they

just would not ripen I gave them a miss. They are a lovely fruit so they are back this year in large pots against a sheltered south facing wall and all are in flower, so hopefully we will be sampling them before too long.

Wee jobs to do this week

Thinning apples

Apple June drop in Tayside was on time this year, so we can assess the young apple clusters left on the tree and thin out where there is still too many apples. The natural June drop only removes a small number, so further thinning is required. Aim to leave only one or two fruits per cluster and at least 4 to 6 inches apart. Remove any with damage or misshapen fruits and the king fruit. This is usually the biggest at the centre of the cluster and is often misshapen. Thinning allows the remaining apples to grow bigger.

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PLANTS FOR A DRY GARDEN

                                               PLANTS FOR A DRY GARDEN

In my early years of horticultural training at Balfour Street Trades school, Kingsway Technical

College, then at Chelmsford Agricultural College we learned how to create a garden and grow crops on all kinds of soils. For low lying wet soils it was waterside plants, bog and ponds with a range of plants that enjoyed those conditions.

Delosperma nubigenum

Many areas in north west Scotland on heavy clay soils with high rainfall have problems, but rhododendrons, azaleas, turnips, swedes, kale and cabbages all just love it once some soil amelioration and drainage are attended to. Gardens down in the south east can be on deep peaty fen soils that are great once drained. Some coastal locations on sandy soils needed plants that could grow on dry soils and tolerate salt water spray. However it is not just soil type that affects plants but also climate which changes from north to south as well as west to east. Up in Tayside we miss out on all of these heatwaves enjoyed by those in the south, but we also miss out on all the rain which arrives in the west of Scotland. Training in horticulture covered all of these variables over the UK, but today we also have additional problems with climate change and very

Dianthus Doris

erratic weather patterns that are hard to work with. After a very wet 2019 year we have just come through a very dry spring, with cloudless skies and almost devoid of any rainfall from early April to mid June, though we did get a wee April shower at the end of April. The garden hose was in

constant use and even although the weather forecasts promised a few showers for our area, they

Cordyline australis

always missed Dundee, except one thunderstorm arriving on 21^st June with gales and hailstones. That did help to add moisture to both garden and allotment. However that long dry spell did make me think on what changes I would make to the garden if dry conditions prevailed. Over the years I have continuously added more plants and removed those that died as soil and climate were not to their liking. The 2010 severe winter killed out many plants, but then surprisingly several came back to life a couple of years later. My palm tree Cordyline australis (great for dry soils) died back to soil level but grew back again after two years, however my well established date palm never survived. Fuchsia Mrs Popple regularly dies back to ground level but always comes back in spring. Many of my dry areas have been improved by adding in garden compost to add fertility and retain moisture. My garden is on a south facing slope with soil on several levels retained by walls so there are many dry spots to find plants for, especially in cracks in the wall as well as on top of it. The landscape structure uses several flowering shrubs preferring dry conditions such as lavender, rosemary,

Euonymus, both the silver form, Emerald Gaiety, the golden leaved Emerald n Gold, and the pink flowered Cistus purpureus. Plants with silver to grey foliage which reflects the hot suns rays are

favourite for dry gardens. Eucalyptus makes a very attractive tree and the shrub Senecio with

Sedum spathulifolium purpureum

yellow flowers is superb on top of dry walls next to the succulent Delosperma cooperi with purple flowers, and Erigeron with mauve flowers all in flower in June. The brooms Genista Lydia, Genista hispanica and Cytisus praecox will also thrive in dry conditions, as will many garden Pinks such as Dianthus Doris. Down at ground level the yellow flowered Delosperma nubigenum smothers the ground and can also be grown in cracks in dry walls by pushing a few shoots into a crack where it soon roots and grows quite happily. Both the ground hugging Sedums and Sempervivum will be happy in crevices in wall as well as on top. To add some colour in the summer months try a few

annuals such as poppies, Livingston daisies, Nigella, Osteospermums, Nemesia and Geraniums, but if dry weather prevails it will be back out with the hose to make sure they thrive.

Wee jobs to do this week

Remove grape vine sideshoots

Tomatoes are usually grown as single stem cordons with all sideshoots removed, and some form of support is needed. Canes are often used or strong polypropylene twine suspended from roof wires with the tomato cordons twisted around the twine as they grow. Side shoots need removing about twice a week. Grapes under glass also need removal of sideshoots twice a week but outdoor grapes grow more slowly so remove side shoots about once a week throughout summer.

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