PERFECT POPPIES

PERFECT POPPIES

A Scottish garden without some form of poppy is never complete. From the very popular Oriental poppy to the annual poppies sown from seed they somehow always find a spot to appear in, and if you let the weeds get a hold the corn poppy or Welsh poppy is sure to pop up.

Poppies have an ability to spread into everyone’s garden in one form or another. In my early training days my granny proudly showed me her two favourite flowers. One was an Oriental poppy with large scarlet heads and the other a smaller golden yellow flower which came up every year with a nice show of small blooms swaying in the breeze. Later on with more knowledge I realised this was the common Welsh poppy, a bonny weed by the name of Meconopsis cambrica. We also frequently see our soft red corn poppy Papaver rhoeas, another common garden weed, but never the less still very attractive. I have also had several poppy types blown into my garden and quite happy to set up a wee colony that expands every year. These have turned out to be the Californian Poppy and the Opium Poppy. Several years ago I got a packet of seeds of Poppy Ladybird, which were fine at the time. However the flowers dropped seeds which have lain dormant for about four years then reappeared to start flowering all over again.

Californian and Shirley poppies however can be a bit invasive unless you keep them controlled. One City Road allotment plot was very famous for his poppies which had run riot all over the place and in great danger of spreading into all the neighbouring plots till action was taken. However they were very attractive so I managed to get a few good photos of the show before a dose of glyphosate weedkiller sorted them out. This gave me a great image for a painting when I did a dozen allotment scene paintings. Poppy heads produce large quantities of seed which will all grow given half a chance, so only save enough of the best for your own needs then dead head the rest immediately after flowering, unless you have the space to establish an ever expanding colony.

Perennial poppies

The Californian tree poppy, Romneya coulteri can grow up to six feet tall producing large showy white flowers with a yellow centre of conspicuous stamens. The flowers are set off against the warm grey green deeply cut foliage. Being native to California it needs a hot dry location and can be quite a challenge this far north.

Oriental poppies come from Turkey and Iran, so also prefer a warm spot to show off their huge dazzling scarlet and other coloured flowers. They are very easy to grow and flower in great profusion every year. The foliage will die down after flowering in late summer.

Propagate by division in autumn, but don’t leave any old roots around as these grow very rapidly into big plants at the first opportunity.

Himalayan Blue poppy known as Meconopsis betonicifolia is a short lived perennial lasting a few years. It forms clumps which may die out in the centre but usually some buds around the rosette will grow into the next plant. It has intense blue flowers in May and June and prefers a woodland fringe aspect in dappled shade and moist soil rich in humus. I propagate mine from seed sown in seed trays late summer or early autumn then left outdoors to overwinter. It needs a cold frosty spell before it germinates in spring. Keep the soil moist at all times and protect it from slugs, mice and birds.

Annual poppies

Iceland poppies are biennials, flowering in early spring and summer from a sowing made the previous year. They are absolutely glorious with large pastel shade flowers blowing in the breeze. They grow about a foot tall.

Californian poppies, Opium poppy, poppy Ladybird and Shirley poppies are all annuals, sown in early spring outdoors on a fine seedbed and either left alone or thinned if very thick. Keep them weeded and watered early on to build up a strong plant. They do not need a fertile soil, or any fertiliser, so long as the topsoil is friable to assist good germination. They can all drop seed after flowering which will grow again the following year, so dead head the plants after flowering if necessary.

Plant of the week

Phlox subulata (moss phlox) is an easy to grow rock garden plant with pink flowers. It makes a perfect ground cover plant a few inches tall as it is an evergreen perennial flowering profusely in late spring every year. For best effects plant it in full sun in well drained soil. It loves spreading over walls and rocks in the rock garden. It is easy to propagate from cuttings taken in spring.

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SUMMER FLOWERS

SUMMER FLOWERS

The spring bedding plants have given a great show, especially tulips and the cool weather meant we enjoyed a long flowering season, but now it is time to start replacing them with summer flowering plants. Winter flowering pansies can continue to flower for a few more weeks, but they have been disappointing this year as the cold weather stopped them bulking up into strong plants, so they are destined for the compost heap.

When removing old bedding plants from tubs and borders, keep bulbs and corms from tulips, narcissus, crocus and hyacinths as they will flower again the following year. However if they are still growing lift them carefully and replant them in good soil to keep them growing for a few more weeks to build up a strong healthy bulb. Once the foliage dies down lift them, dry them off and remove old soil, leaves, and roots then store them in a dry place till autumn.

Summer flowers can be grown from seed as annuals or half hardy annuals, or from corms, tubers, bulbs or half hardy perennials like geraniums, which can be grown from cuttings taken from the previous years bedding display. Impatiens, (Bizzie Lizzies) can also be grown all year round as they root very easily from cuttings and make nice house plants but they do suffer from red spider that is very hard to eradicate with available chemicals.

Garden Centres have a wide range of suitable plants for bedding to be purchased as seed, small plugs or larger mature plants ready for immediate planting. Where larger tubs or beds are to be mass planted it is a good idea to create a bit of height with a few dot plants. Choose those with exotic foliage such as Canna, Sweet Corn, Castor Oil plant, Eucalyptus, Brugmansias, Date Palm or Cordylines. Some of these perennials which are not really hardy can be retained for another year by lifting up at the end of the growing season and keeping them in a warm place, or drying off for Cannas and Brugmansias.

Tubs and hanging baskets

Geraniums and tuberous begonias are my favourites for tubs and large pots as I have big plants that give a dazzling show. My geraniums have slowly been growing larger from last autumn when I started them off as cuttings, and my begonias from tubers were purchased about twenty years ago and although they have been split up several times they are still quite large. These are supplemented with African marigolds, Petunias, Impatiens and trailing Lobelia. The latter range is also used for hanging baskets plus a central bright red or white geranium. Use small plug plants for inserting through the sides of the basket as these are less likely to get damaged.

Fuchsias are perfect for hanging baskets as you can look up into the flowers which always hang down. They can grow quite large so you only need one plant per basket. Keep baskets and tubs watered and fed as they can be quite demanding and respond to good treatment.

I have one large tub that always gets a central dot plant to give it height. Brugmansia is a favourite as its huge trumpet flowers are very bold and the evening exotic scent is powerful.

Beds and borders

I use the same range of bedding plants for my formal flower beds, but extend this range with annuals sown from seed for bare patches of garden where I have been renovating plants. We always seem to be buying a new special plant, so something has to go to make room for it, and in its early years I like to add a few bedding plants to brighten up the area. The cultivations and compost add fertility to the soil at the same time. This year I had gaps after losing a broom, Cytisus praecox and a Cistus Silver Pink.

Some raised borders are a bit stony and dry so I grow some Livingston Daisies from seed in cellular trays then plant direct when the plants are big enough. Keep them watered to get them established.

I also grow Cosmos in cellular trays for planting out when bigger.

Other bare patches of soil get cultivated and sown with Shirley Poppies, Poppy Ladybird and the fluffy pink Opium Poppy which makes a very bright splash of colour.

Plant of the week

Euphorbia griffithii Fireglow is very useful for brightening up the garden in late spring to summer when it produces its bright crimson flowers. It is an herbaceous perennial that spreads by rhizomes just below the soil surface. It is easy to grow as it likes most soils, partial shade, can tolerate dry conditions, though it prefers a moist rich soil and grows about two feet tall. Sometimes when given ideal conditions it can be quite invasive.

Take care when handling the plant as it easily produces a milky sap when bruised which is poisonous and can be very irritant in contact with skin.

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TULIP TIME

TULIP TIME

The garden in May is dominated by displays of tulips, and on my allotment the front border is packed with a mixed show of tulips of every colour. Every year I buy in new bulbs in the autumn for tubs and flower beds. I try to match up tulips to the spring bedding plants for colour and height so tall tulips go with my wallflower, but I use dwarf tulips with polyanthus, myosotis and pansies.

I am also always tempted by new varieties to try out somewhere, though some of the older standard types such as Apeldoorn are very hard to beat.

The Dundee Parks Department, where I did my training in the sixties, planted tulips by the thousand in parks, town centre, libraries, highways and tubs in streets. In those days, colourful flower beds were everywhere and Dundee had well trained gardeners who took great pride in keeping up very high standards. We soon learned about the different types of tulips and how best to match them up with bedding. You never forget your training and although you can now only work on a garden scale it still gives a great feeling to see successful mass planting of tulips.

However it is sad to see so few flower beds in our once beautiful city.

Types of tulips

Tulips are classified by type, species and also flowering time.

The first ones to flower are varieties of Greigii such as Cape Cod and Red Riding Hood, and varieties of kaufmanniana such as Scarlet Baby and Concerto all flowering in late March. These make perfect companion plants for early flowering Pulmonaria and Anemone blanda.

Then in April the fosteriana types such as Red Emperor and dazzling white Purissima begin to flower. Red Emperor can be very attractive planted underneath a Forsythia shrub as the red tulip contrasts brilliantly with the yellow forsythia, both flowering at the same time.

In May the bedding tulips have their day starting with the single early Bellona, a bright yellow, Princess Irene, an orange and White Marvel. These can all be planted with wallflower, but for mixing in with Myosotis and pansies try the dwarf double early tulips such as Peach Blossom, William of Orange and Vuurbaak a very old but brilliant red variety.

However for impact with size and brilliance you must plant the tall Darwin Hybrids such as the  bright red Apeldoorn, and Golden Apeldoorn as well as Orange Sun.

Triumph tulips flower in mid May then in late May the single late tulips such as Queen of the Night, the Black Tulip, flower.

To complicate the types we also have parrot tulips, lily flowered tulips, multi headed tulips, fringed tulips and many tulip species.

Propagation

In autumn always buy a decent sized tulip bulb and plant it about six inches deep into good well composted soil. Keep beds fed, watered and weeded, then after flowering leave for as long as possible before lifting the bulbs and dry off on a hard surface. If the bulbs are growing in their own space let them wither naturally and do not lift them. Over time they will multiply and form a group giving a bigger display each year. Once bulbs have dried off clean them up removing old stems and roots and store them in a dry cool place. In autumn replant all the biggest bulbs to flower next spring, but retain all the wee bulbils and plant them somewhere so they can grow on into bigger bulbs to flower a couple of years later.

Plant of the week

Wallflower is a perfect spring flowering bedding plant giving a blaze of colour in May and usually underplanted with tall tulips. I grow Cloth of Gold as its bright yellow colour is a great match for red or purple tulips, and wallflowers have a wonderful scent. One packet of seeds should give you about sixty plants. Sow them outdoors at the end of May, then when four inches tall lift and transplant them into nursery rows allowing about another four inches between plants. In autumn you should have sturdy well branched plants ready for bedding out.

Painting of the month

Tulip Carnaval de Nice is an acrylic painting on canvas showing one of my special tulips growing in my winter garden. When in full bloom it was so outstanding I just had to capture it on canvas.

This painting will be on display with many others in my exhibition in the Angus Open Studios event from 23 to 27 May when I team up with fellow artist Fiona Haddow at her studio in Liff.

Details and directions can be found on the internet at www.angusopenstudios.com

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FULL SPEED IN THE GARDEN

FULL SPEED IN THE GARDEN

Last year was the wet year. This year seems to be the cold one, unless that jet stream sorts itself out and we get our summer back. Everything is running about four weeks late. Window sills and greenhouse are overflowing with plants, but every time I start to put plants out for hardening off a frost threatens and they go back to the greenhouse.

The winter garden has now had its day, so all the cornus and salix have been chopped down to the ground. This will give uninterrupted views of the flowering bulbs planted in the bed, and the cornus and willow will soon regrow from the stool as if nothing had happened.

Spring flowers are giving a good display, though winter pansies and Iceland poppies are very slow to grow. Tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and narcissi are looking great planted all over the garden and on my allotment. Wallflower provides the bright splash of colour as well as a lovely scent.

Apples, cherries and plums are starting to blossom so potential crops show a lot of promise, but peaches and pears are not looking good with very few flowers evident at this moment. Most fruit bushes are not yet in flower except saskatoons which are covered in white flowers. On the allotment the ground is still cold but it is time to be sowing and planting a lot of vegetables.

Those that have been sown need hand watering as the ground is quite dry.

On the allotment

Sowing has continued while the soil is dry, but a wee bit more warmth would make a big difference.

Lettuce, radish, spring onions, beetroot, turnip and parsnips are now all in. My first sowing of peas Feltham First is in with another later sowing of Kelvedon Wonder planned to give me a succession of crop. Pickling onion Paris Silverskin has been sown as I have not tried that variety for years.

Most of my cabbage, cauliflower, kale and sprouts are still growing strongly in pots so I get a sturdy plant before planting out. Onion Hytech seedlings are still in a cellular tray but will be planted out soon once the ground warms up a bit better.

Fruit bush prunings as well as garden tree prunings have now all been shredded and added to the compost heap, but it could do with some rain to wet it and help it to rot down quicker.

Harvesting continues

Swede turnips, leeks, and Swiss chard are still giving us freshly picked crops to eat, though the chard only lasts till it runs to seed in a few weeks time. The winter salad leaves sown in an old used growbag is now outside and still gives us fresh leaves and now some radish which had overwintered. Rhubarb is at its best just now with brightly coloured stems on my Timperley Early.

In the greenhouse

Sweet corn has now been potted up and I will grow it on under glass for another fortnight before hardening off for planting out at the end of May. I am in no hurry as the ground where they are to go has a green manure crop of red clover growing.

Pumpkin and courgette seed has now been sown.

All geraniums, fuchsias and chrysanthemums have are now being hardened off outdoors.

Grape vine cuttings taken as short one or two bud sticks have now rooted and are being potted up.

Garden flowers including Cosmos, Livingston daisy, African marigold and Lobelia were sown in cellular trays are now bulking up.

The existing grape vine rods which were lowered down to encourage even growth have now been tied back to their supports as bud break is good and even. We now have to wait to see how many grape bunches appear, so all side shoots are allowed to grow for the time being. Once I can see a decent crop of bunches I will remove all sideshoots that are barren.

Jalapeno peppers are now planted in a growbag awaiting warmer weather to boost growth.

Tomatoes grown from cuttings from one of last years successful plants came through the winter just fine and got a really good head start. They went into growbags in the middle of April and are now flowering on their second truss, with small tomatoes forming on the first truss.

Tomatoes, Alicante and Gardeners Delight sown this year are only just big enough for planting out now into growbags. It has been a struggle to plant them in my overflowing greenhouse as I still have a lot of plants such as tuberous begonias trying to put on some growth, but held back by cold weather and lack of sun.

Plant of the week

Doronicum is a small low growing herbaceous perennial which flowers in late spring with a mass of golden daisy shaped flowers. They associate very well with blue flowering plants such as Anemone blanda and Pulmonaria as well as dwarf early red tulips. Plant them in good soil which holds moisture in sun or partial shade. They are easy to propagate by dividing up the clump in autumn.

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