A TASTE OF THE EXOTIC

A TASTE OF THE EXOTIC

I managed to find a spare week for a wee holiday so it was back to Benidorm in Spain (my fourth trip to Benidorm) to catch some sunshine, relax and take a break from gardening and art. My last trip was five years ago, and although I was determined to forget work for at least a week, it was just impossible. The bright blue skies and colours of holiday makers in summer dresses, then the quaint old town centre in Benidorm were all screaming out to be captured on canvas, so before long the camera was out and I returned home with enough excellent images for about twenty paintings.

This year I was having none of that, but then my other major interest in gardening kicked in and before long the camera was out but this time it was the exotic plants, trees and flowers in focus rather than the people. I suppose I need the stimulation of work to relax. I can spend a few hours on a lounger by the pool or on the beach, but then once your lily white Scottish skin begins to warm up as it heads towards a lobster red colour, it is time to find another activity.

I am always conscious of the quality of fruit and vegetables as I grow most of what we eat and I am not impressed with supermarket produce where quality, flavour and goodness are sacrificed for uniform appearance and a long shelf life. We had a trip to the local outdoor market where the produce was not all uniform, some may have had a blemish or two, but it was very fresh and the taste was fantastic. How can you not be impressed with twelve large sweet tender figs needing to be eaten within two days for only 1.5 Euros, (about 10 pence each.) Back in our hotel we were very impressed with the quality and wide variety of food available. There was any amount of fresh fruit and vegetables. My favourites were the large ripe fresh tomatoes, peaches, pineapple and huge sweet soft black plums. However it was disappointing to see so many people opting for huge plates brimming with chips, sausages and beans, though beans are quite a healthy option.

Exotic plants

The hot dry climate of Spain suits plants we can only dream of as tender house plants. As Brits have been coming here for over fifty years most people will just take the native plants for granted, but I still enjoy marvelling at seeing our tender plants almost behaving like weeds here.

Fifty years ago everyone had a rubber tree plant, Ficus elastica, as the commonest, easy to grow house plant, which with a bit of feeding would reach the ceiling before it got the chop. You have to be impressed when you see them as huge trees creating very welcome shade from the hot sun.

Bougainvilleas create a riot of hot colour in spring in these hot countries, but even now there is still a lot of colour on them. Angel trumpets, the Datura is one of my favourite scented exotics for tubs, but now I find them as large shrubs pruned each year to stop them getting too big. However the prize winner for scent had to be the white flowered Jasmine, Jasminum polyanthum, planted at our hotel entrance so you caught the fragrance every time you walked through the door.

Another hotel had a dazzling bed of Portulacas in full flower. I have tried this half hardy summer bedding plant on several occasions, but our climate is just not warm enough to bring out all the flowers. Going further into the building where it was quite dark I found a marvellous bright red coloured Vriesia growing in a bed with other shade loving tropical plants.

One shopping area had large beds of flowering shrubs in full flower including the blue flowering Plumbago, bright yellow, orange and red Hibiscus, and salmon pink Oleanders.

Bananas are quite common here, so it was not unusual to see them planted as shade plants around our hotel pool, but when they all have large bunches of ripe bananas on them it does catch your attention. Dates, oranges, almonds and olives are planted amongst all the buildings and along the streets but more than likely to give shade and protection from the hot sun rather than for their fruit.

Evenings are very relaxing as we sit around the pool and bar where there is always some entertainment and still the scented jasmine fills the air. Then to keep you in a happy holiday mood they ask that daft question for a Scotsman as they pour you a couple of whiskies, “Just say when!!”

I always get stuck for words at this point.

If only that custom would find its way to Scotland. You have to dream.

Plant of the week

Gladioli are one of my essential cut flower plants for the house. I grow about sixty to one hundred corms every year. They add a lot of colour to the garden, the allotment and the house as cut flower where they can last a whole week or longer if you remove the fading lower flowers and a bit of stem so they don’t get leggy.

I plant then out on my allotment in mid May in rows a foot apart spacing the corms six inches apart and six inches deep in well composted soil and adding a handful of fertiliser. I also plant in the garden for colour but plant in natural looking drifts rather than formal rows.

They are pretty foolproof for pests and diseases and as long as they are planted deep enough they are fairly self supporting so I never need to stake them. Lift in late autumn and dry them off before storing them in a frost free airy place. Sometimes smaller corms don’t survive the dormant stage over winter in my frost free garage so I top up each year with a dozen or so new colours.

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SCENTED FLOWERS FOR SUMMER

SCENTED FLOWERS FOR SUMMER

Our summers are just too short in Scotland so we must make the most of every sunny day. Most gardens have some form of permanent plant structure to create form, boundaries, give privacy, screen eyesores or just to include some of our favourite plants. Each year we add to this a range of annuals and biennials to give colour and impact to borders, tubs and hanging baskets.

There is plenty of scope to consider scent as well as colour. Summer scents stay in the memory long after summer has gone and help to maintain pleasant thoughts of those happy days.

In the early stages of planting up the new garden or refurbishing an existing one with new plants there is a strong probability that scented trees, shrubs, roses, herbaceous plants and bulbs will be included as there are a lot of plants with scent. However once you have sorted out your favourites it is worth giving a lot of thought as to where they are best planted. If you have a sunny patio that is well used, then this is a must as well as around entrance doorways. Visitors will always be left with a good impression if they arrive amongst a strong waft of delicious perfumed plants, and sitting on the patio on sunny days is very pleasant if you can also enjoy some exotic scents.

Structure planting

Trees, large shrubs, and climbers planted along fences and on walls are all usually permanent and make a big impact on the landscape so choose the types very carefully. Many cherry trees such as Prunus Amanogawa are scented as are most lilacs, and coming down in size philadelphus may still grow very tall, but the scent is overpowering. Viburnum carlesii, juddii and carlcephallum all have a strong exotic perfume in early summer. Deciduous azaleas have a very pleasant scent of soft woodlands and coming down in scale the daphnes are one of the earliest to produce a scented flower.

House walls and all fences are perfect spaces to plant climbers or other suitable tall growing plants that can be trained to the support surfaces. There are numerous scented climbing roses and other shrub roses that can lend to being trained against a wall. My favourite pink one is Gertrude Jekyll and the Climbing sport of Ena harkness is a brilliant well formed deep red scented rose.

Honeysuckles are a must and if you have a sheltered spot try the white scented Jasminum polyanthum which can last many years but may not survive a severe frost in winter.

Beds and borders

Herbaceous and border plants are often used to bring the garden structure down to ground and lawn level and give ground cover to eliminate weeding. Flag iris, lilies, garden pinks and numerous herbs such as lavender, rosemary, thyme and mint will all add a range of different scents in early to late summer.

Tubs and hanging baskets

Most summer bedding plants are grown for sheer brilliance of colour as most do not have a scent, so I always include some blue petunias both for the deep blue colour but also for the scent. These always get planted in hanging baskets adjacent to house entrance doorways. For larger tubs try a dot plant such as the white flowered Datura, also known as Angels Trumpets, which has an exotic scent at its best in late evenings as it is trying to attract night flying moths.

Cut flower

If you have an allotment or large garden, and can afford to spare some ground for growing cut flower for the house, then plant a row of sweet peas. As you will be cutting flowering stems frequently you will not need to remove seed heads. Keep them well fed and watered and they will flower well into autumn. Border carnations are another perfect scented flower to grow for home decoration. There is a wide range of colours available and many have the strong clove scent.

Plant of the week

Shirley Poppies originated over a hundred years ago when a vicar, the Reverend William Wilks from the English parish of Shirley found attractive variations of wild field poppies which he then started to select from and breed a new strain. Over many years he established a range of colours from white, pink, mauve, red and lilac. They now come as singles, doubles and semi doubles. These annuals are easily grown from seed broadcast onto a prepared seed bed and lightly raked in. They do not need rich soil or fertiliser and even on poor soil will quickly grow and flower profusely all summer.

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SOME LIKE IT HOT

SOME LIKE IT HOT

Peppers in some form or another have been cultivated and eaten for thousands of years. We are all familiar with the sweet pepper known as the bell pepper as we eat it fresh in salads or cooked in numerous dishes very frequently. However hotter peppers such as cayenne, chilli, Thai peppers, Jalapeno, Habanero, Scotch Bonnet and if you like it dangerously hot Dorset Naga are all very healthy. They also add a bit of spice and heat to a wide variety of dishes in curries, as paprika, Tabasco, or they may be dried, ground or pickled.

The active ingredient in hot peppers is capsaicin and the amount present varies according to type grown, method of cultivation and climate.

The hottest parts are the seeds and central membrane that holds the seeds. A method has been established to determine the strength of heat in the chilli. This is known as the Scoville Heat Units. The sweet pepper counts as zero, Jalapenos have 2.5 to 10 thousand SHU, the cayenne has between 30 to 50 thousand SHU, Thai peppers have 50 to 100 thousand SHU, Habanero and the Scotch Bonnet has 100 to 350 thousand SHU. The Dorset Naga was top of the hotties at well over one million SHU, but this has now been overtaken by the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion at two million SHU.

The hottest types are also the source of capsaicin extracted from chillies and used as non lethal pepper sprays by police for crowd control.

Take great care in handling the hottest fresh chillies as the sap can cause severe burning of hands, eyes, lips and other parts of the flesh in contact. Wear thin rubber gloves and thoroughly wash all knives, utensils and cutting boards after use.

Always thoroughly wash all kinds of peppers as they are mainly grown in countries that are still using high levels of pesticides that adhere to the surface of the fruit.

Peppers may be picked green or left to ripen and go bright scarlet, though this often reduces the amount of fruit produced. The red fruits are very high in Vitamin C, vitamin A, and most of the vitamin B range, as well as the minerals potassium, magnesium and iron. If you can build up a tolerance to hot peppers they are recognized with excellent health benefits. Studies indicate they are useful in treatment of arthritic pain, reduces blood cholesterol, and the peppery heat can reduce nasal congestion. Capsaicin studies are also helpful in stopping the spread of prostate cancers.

The plant thrives in hot climates like South America, Mexico, India and Thailand, so up in Scotland we need to grow them in a glasshouse.

Cultivation

This year I have been growing some Jalapeno peppers, but the cultivation of other types is very similar. Only tall varieties may need staking or some form of support. My Jalapenos are now five foot tall bushes that seem to be fine without any support but as the fruit swells I will support any shoot that looks likely to bend over with a heavy crop.

Seed was sown in mid March in seed trays on a windowsill. Young seedlings emerged in a few weeks then were pricked out into small pots and kept on the sunny windowsill. These soon grew and needed potting up into larger pots. Once established they were transferred into the glasshouse in early May and three weeks later planted into a growbag at three per bag. They can also be grown direct into borders that have been well prepared by incorporating ample well rotted organic matter. Peppers benefit from high temperatures and ample sun so they are on my south facing border in the glasshouse.

Keep them watered and fed once a week with a high potash feed just like tomatoes.

They can get troubled with red spider, greenfly and whitefly, but so far I have had no problem.

Keep them well ventilated to build up a strong plant and start to pick the fruit when green or wait a bit longer till they turn red.

Plant of the week

Fuchsia Mrs Popple has always been my favourite hardy outdoor fuchsia. It will grow about three to four foot tall and gives a mass of flowers from early summer till winter. It is not fussy about soil as long as it has good drainage. I grow mine at the top of a wall in a bed with variegated ivy ground cover. This gives the base of the fuchsia some frost protection in winter. If the winter is severe the bush can die back to ground level, but it always seems to survive and grow away strongly again in spring. Once growth has started in spring cut back all dead shoots to tidy up the bush. It propagates very easily from cuttings taken in late summer, but needing winter protection, so I keep mine on a windowsill.

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PERFECT GARDENING WEATHER

PERFECT GARDENING WEATHER

This unusually brilliant summer reflects my first summer as an apprentice gardener in Dundee Parks Department in 1959. We had three months of very hot weather from June till early September with no rainfall, but then the heavens opened up and Dundee got a wee bit of flooding. I never forgot that summer heatwave as I was more used to Scotland’s normal three day summer record.

The new Courier magazine is a new beginning, so although many of the Courier readers will be familiar with my column, my garden and allotment I thought it might be of use to give a wee bit of background to John Stoa, the “Courier Gardener” to understand where all the gardening came from.

My father always encouraged me to do a wee bit of gardening as a young kid. I got the digging and weeding, he did the sowing and planting. I got the gardening bug, so when I left school in 1959 I went for a gardening apprenticeship which lasted six years with Dundee Parks dept. I was very lucky as the Parks were full of very experienced gardeners who had been trained in private service but after the war there was no work left for them so they came to work in Dundee parks, nurseries and greenhouses. We got training in every aspect of gardening from growing fruit and vegetables, glasshouse crops, trees, shrubs, roses, flowers, lawns, propagation, sports and hard landscaping. At fifteen I got my first allotment on the Law Hill and really enjoyed allotment life, though I was very much the learner. I then had a spell at the Scottish Crops Research Institute in Invergowrie studying weed control on fruit and vegetables. After getting married in 1968 I travelled south to Sussex to work on a fruit farm before going to college in Essex to study for my National Diploma in Horticulture. A year later I was manager on a fruit farm near

Worcester, but later went back to Parks work in Dudley. It was here that I took the role of allotments officer for the area. I moved on to Darlington in the late seventies and managed to get a massive allotment about 500 square metres. It took a lot of looking after, but I was younger then. After about ten years I moved back to Scotland to Livingston, and then returned to my home town of Dundee.

You have to leave Dundee and experience other parts of UK before you realise what a great place it is. We are close to fantastic Scottish scenery, clean beaches, vibrant towns, friendly residents, great pubs, good social life and even the weather is no bad in most years.

If this year’s weather was to become normal as we embrace global warming who needs to go abroad for their holidays, and in the garden I could successfully be growing figs, cherries, peaches and outdoor grapes.

Flowers put on a better show in a good year, and this year roses, begonias, geraniums, sweet peas and lilies have just about flowered themselves to death. Dead heading has been a big job to help plants to keep flowering.

Fruit crops have never been more prolific and apples and plums have both got drooping branches weighed down with developing fruits. Black currants and gooseberries gave me huge crops, now either in the freezer or brewing away quite happily in a demijohn.

Figs are plentiful, but need a dry warm spell in late summer to ripen up the fruits.

Vegetables are also having a great year with brilliant cauliflower, cabbage, turnips, salads, broad and dwarf French beans and any amount of large beetroot. Only failure this year is my onions which are all suffering from white rot. I put this down to continual watering during the dry spell as they would have been ok as they are quite drought tolerant. My good deed turned out to be a bad idea.

Greenhouse tomatoes, peppers, cape gooseberries and grapes are all happily growing together with vents fully open as well as the door most days; otherwise it would get too hot for healthy crops.

My best tomatoes have been Alicante and Gardeners Delight, both which are very heavy with huge trusses of ripening tomatoes and grape Black Hamburg has numerous bunches ready to ripen in early September. Red seedless Flame grapes are beginning to ripen now.

Jalapeno peppers have a great crop, but although they can be used green I am waiting till they turn red but as yet there is no sign of that.

Plant of the week

Cosmos is a very useful half hardy annual which can be sown direct outdoors or sown in a glasshouse in late March then pricked out into cellular trays. Harden them off for planting out at the end of May or early June. They can grow quite tall so give them plenty of space. They do not need soil that is too fertile and do not give them fertiliser or they will grow huge at the expense of flowering.

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