AUTUMN PROPAGATION

AUTUMN PROPAGATION

September and October are great months for propagating all sorts of plants. They have had their summer growing period and now stems are beginning to harden up ahead of the winter, but there is still enough warmth left to keep parts of the plant active. Roots can continue to develop at this time of year. Many flowering and fruiting shrubs can be propagated by hardwood cuttings taken immediately before and just after leaf fall. Herbaceous plants can be divided and replanted in autumn and many annuals are ready for harvesting seed pods to save our own seed for sowing next spring. Now is also the time to take cuttings of geraniums and impatiens from the best varieties to root at home and over winter on a windowsill or in the greenhouse if it has some heat.

Hardwood cuttings

This is a very busy time for nurseries that produce a lot of their shrubs from hardwood cuttings.

Cornus, senecio, cistus, lavender, rosemary, forsythia, philadelphus euonymus, viburnums and hundreds of others will all root from a cutting about four to six inches long, removing the lower leaves and making a cut under a leaf node or with some such as pyracantha pulling off the shoot with a heel. These are then lined out in trays or in a cold frame bedded in a propagation medium (mixture of half compost and half sharp sand or grit.) Keep the compost moist and the frame well ventilated in sunny weather. Plants should be well rooted and put on some growth by next summer when they can be carefully removed and either potted up or planted out.

Blackcurrants and gooseberries can also be done this way, though they do not need the protection of a cold frame.

Divide herbaceous plants

Flag iris, oriental poppies, heleniums, Shasta daisies and many others can be lifted, divided and replanted. Add compost and some fertiliser at this stage. Heucheras can be propagated by pulling off sideshoots and using them as cuttings in a cold frame or greenhouse. They will root in a couple of months.

Collect seeds

Poppy ladybird, Himalayan blue poppies, other poppies and annuals that produce viable seed pods can be harvested for their seeds. Dry off the pods and extract the seed storing them dry but cool.

Summer flowers

Geraniums and Impatiens can be propagated by cuttings taken now. Geranium cuttings of about three inches long snapped off the plant and potted up will root after a few months and can be over wintered on a sunny windowsill. Keep them frost free and cool, but if you wish to produce more plants grow them warmer and feed them. As soon as they are big enough take out the tops and use these as extra cuttings.
Impatiens are even easier as cuttings three inches long with all lower leaves removed are dropped into a jar of water. They will root in about six weeks and can then be potted up.

Both these plants are suitable as flowering house plants in early winter then again in spring.

Plant of the week

Gladioli have been at their best for several weeks. They can really add colour, impact and height to flower borders and it is possible to pick up bags of really good corms very cheaply.

The corms are lifted and dried off to store over winter in a cool dry place free from mice and each year you can add a few more corms of different varieties.

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TIME FOR A TIDY UP

TIME FOR A TIDY UP

The summer fruit, flowers and vegetables have all had a great time, but autumn is not too far away so now is a great time to get the garden totally cleaned up before the leaves start to fall. Some weeds such as groundsel and pennycress keep germinating well into autumn so take the chance of any dry days to remove them. There is still time to tackle any perennial weeds with a glyphosate weedkiller, but it needs plenty of leaves to absorb the chemical so it can translocate it down into the root system. This chemical needs a couple of dry days to work. It is not taken in by the roots as the chemical is deactivated by contact with the soil. Some serious weeds such as mares tail will need a repeat dose after a couple of weeks.

Most summer fruiting strawberries are well past fruiting so the foliage can be cut back and removed together with any straw laid between the rows. This can all be composted, though some of the straw is perfect for placing under pumpkin fruits. As these grow larger it is good to keep them off the bare soil to keep the skins clean.

On the allotment make sure any rows of fruit or vegetables such as cabbage, sprouts, swedes and autumn salads are kept weed free, but other areas where crops are finished can be left as weeds can be dug in during the late autumn digging.

Blackcurrants, redcurrants, saskatoons and gooseberries as well as summer fruiting raspberries have all finished fruiting so pruning can be done at any time. It is not necessary to wait till winter when all the leaves are off though this does make it easier.

If you have access to a shredder the prunings can all be shredded and added to the compost heap.

Gladioli, early flowering chrysanthemums and sweet peas grown for cut flower can be cut as they flower. Sweet peas benefit from flower removal to encourage more to grow.

Other summer flowers such as geraniums, roses, cosmos and poppies will continue to flower as long as you remove any seed heads as soon as the flowers fade.

Grow a green manure crop to increase soil fertility.

Many summer crops such as courgettes, peas, beans, potatoes, onions, brassicas, sweet corn and salads are now finished so there is time to sow a green manure crop to get some growth before winter. These can be dug in during winter or some such as tares can be left till early spring then dug in. Green manure crops have strong root systems that help to break up the soil creating a fine crumb structure to improve drainage and once they break down they add a lot of humous to the soil. Many types such as the clovers have nitrogen fixing nodules on the roots which absorb atmospheric nitrogen and fix it onto their roots. This is released on breakdown as a nitrogenous fertiliser to improve the next crop.

 

Tidy up herbaceous border

Delphiniums, oriental poppies, flag iris and many other plants have now all finished flowering so foliage can be cut back and tidied up. Remove any supports, canes and strings and any weeds previously hidden by the foliage.

Plant of the week

Hydrangeas are an easy popular deciduous shrub flowering in mid summer. They can grow quite large in time but different species can vary and the climbing hydrangeas can be quite rampant. The blue flowered types prefer an acid soil and the pink and red ones prefer soil with a higher pH. To intensify the blue coloured flowers you can use a blue colorant chemical containing aluminium sulphate.
Pruning to remove dead flower heads is normally all that is needed, other than removal of straggly shoots. Propagate by taking cuttings of non flowering shoots in summer and autumn.

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UNDER GLASS

UNDER GLASS

Tomatoes just love my new greenhouse. It was built on the foundations of the previous one blown down in last December gales, but was a lot stronger and also taller. So tall that I couldn’t reach the ventilators so I had to raise the central path and back fill the borders with a mixture of good top soil and Discovery compost. I planted my tomatoes direct into the soil after giving them a decent dressing of fertiliser. They will be a lot happier in fresh soil rather than growbags and the tomatoes should be a lot healthier with access to a soil based growing medium with plenty of nutrients and micronutrients. However I still give them a feed twice a week.

The plants soon grew away fast and furious so I had to stop them after seven trusses when they reached nearly seven feet tall. Normally we remove the lower leaves which begin to die off and this also helps watering, but this year they have all been very healthy so I have been very selective in leaf removal as it is the leaves that feed the bunches of tomatoes.

Alicante has again been brilliant and gardeners delight still a great cherry tomato. I have not been impressed with the new yellow cherry tomato Ildi. It is a very poor cropper and can never compare to Gardeners Delight or Sweet Million which both give lots of sweet but small cherry tomatoes.

It has been great to get back to eating a tasty tomato allowed to fully ripen before being picked.

Grapes are also having a great year with Black Hamburg well ahead of Flame and Perlette for number and size of grapes. Constant training by removal of all sideshoots and now some leaves allows sunlight into the plants and will help the ripening process. Although the old grape vine stems were left outside exposed to the winter from December to March while the old greenhouse was being removed and the new greenhouse was being built it did them no harm whatsoever.

The grapes all got several feeds while swelling up and sideshoot removal meant the plants can direct all their energies into the fruit bunches rather than growth. Flame is now ready for picking.

My white Phalaenopsis orchid never lets you down. It can be relied on to flower every year with a huge spike lasting many weeks. It was kept in a warm bathroom where it would enjoy the moist atmosphere and early morning sunshine through the obscure glass windows. The plant had grown quite far out of its pot so it got repotted in spring with fresh orchid compost after removing a lot of old roots but keeping the crown out of the compost as well as many of the aerial roots.

It soon put on a couple of new leaves then the flower spike.

Other house plants are now quite dormant as my Christmas cactus (Zygocactus) has had its period of summer growth so is now into drying out induced dormancy. It will get a periodic watering no more than every six weeks to keep it alive. The next watering will be when the flower buds appear in early winter. My Amaryllis has also had its summer growth period and is now being dried off to ripen up the bulb to induce good flower spikes for flowering in the winter. The bulbs have divided into several smaller bulbs but these were encouraged to grow so I can get several flowering spikes from one large plant.  

Plant of the week

Peach Peregrine is quite a challenge outdoors in Scotland. It really needs a very sheltered spot on a warm wall facing south. It will grow into a small tree, but growth can be restricted by training into a fan shape against the wall and spur pruning. Spraying against peach leaf curl has not been very effective. Peaches flower very early but still need pollinating. Hand pollination is necessary as there are very few bees around at that time, but then a period of decent warm weather is required for the pollinated flowers to fertilise successfully. Three years ago my outdoor peach gave me a dozen peaches, but last year and this year only one fruit made it to harvest.

I will persevere with them but they really need a bit more global warming.

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LATE SUMMER HARVEST

LATE SUMMER HARVEST

The allotment crops are now being harvested at breakneck speed. Some crops such as salads, potatoes, broad beans, courgettes and turnips are running ahead of last year by a few weeks, but others not affected. In fact my summer cabbage and cauliflower are a week later to harvest. August weather brought a severe halt to our very warm and dry summer, but it was great while it lasted and summer fruit crops have never been better.

It is difficult to find room in our freezers for all the produce, and there is always some more to find a home for every time you visit the allotment plot. We eat as much as possible, but it is difficult for two pensioners to get through a cabbage, two turnips, three cauliflowers and five massive courgettes plus any amount of salads and beetroot each week.

Vegetables

This has been a great year for a succession of salads and beetroot, and turnips would also have been great if my Purple Top Milan had not all run to seed. Red stemmed Swiss chard has been prolific and though some has bolted and been removed, there has been plenty others ready to grow into the vacant space.

Onion Hytech bulbs were all lifted at the beginning of August before the rains came and are now being dried off for storing. The crop from my heat treated sets was decent, but not as great as it normally is when they are grown from seed sown in March.

Potatoes had to be lifted early as black leg disease appeared on a few shaws, then in early August the weather cooled down and the rain returned bringing on the blight which rapidly went through all the foliage. Lifted spuds need drying off for storage in an airy but dark frost free place. Keep an eye on then in case some tubers start to rot from the blight.

 Summer cabbage Kilaton and cauliflower Clapton have been brilliant as they are both clubroot resistant, though it has been difficult picking off caterpillers.

Sweet corn is running later than normal, but looks like a great crop still to come.

Fruit

This has been a great year for strawberries, raspberries, brambles, all the currants and saskatoons. Saskatoon picking ended at the beginning of August, but then the first of my blueberries started to ripen. Wasps have been a real pest on blueberries this year.

Autumn Bliss raspberries have started to crop and should continue till well into autumn.

Our first outdoor figs were picked in early August with a lot more to come, and now the early apples, Arbroath Pippin and Discovery are ready.

Flowers

Summer flowers, especially poppies, have responded to the hot dry sunny weather, but now they are taking a break. Fuchsias that were a mass of flowers have lost most of them and geraniums are well past their best. I hope that once this cool wet period finishes and the summer returns the flowers will all come out again.

Plant of the week

Cottage Pink Odessa has pink scented flowers all summer. It grows up to a foot tall but spreads in time giving good ground cover. They are best in well drained soil in full sun.

They are easy to propagate with cuttings in late summer.

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