Somerset Country Gardener July 2018

Somerset ISSUE NO 159 JULY 2018 FREE

www.countrygardener.co.uk

It all makes

SCENTS! Plants to seduce your sense of smell

Wonderful high summer gardens to visit GARDENING EVENTS GALORE

across Somerset

Recipes for your rhubarb glut

P lus

Fruiting vin e mobile fru s - upwardly it long good , bamboos, bye summer, fl plants for dogwoods owering , min summer fe i plants, eding secrets

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Up Front!

“Dirty hands, iced tea, garden fragrances thick in the air and a blanket of colour before me, who could ask for more from a summer day?” - Bev Adams, Mountain Gardening “The hum of bees is the voice of the summer garden.”

OUR HIGHLIGHTS OF THE GARDENING CALENDAR OVER THE COMING WEEKS IN SOMERSET

Music and flowers – the perfect combination at Hinton St George For the first time in years, the flower ladies of St George’s Church in Hinton St George near Crewkerne are preparing for the ‘Music in Bloom’ Flower Festival, held in the church on Saturday and Sunday, 7th and 8th, July in support of ‘Our Church’ Hinton St George Building Trust.

The Trust was established in 2016 to maintain, repair, restore, preserve, improve and enhance the fabric of the historic Grade 1 listed St George’s Church.

Anne Swithinbank at Holcombe Court gardens day Popular gardening writer and broadcaster Anne Swithinbank will be the celebrity guest at Holcombe Court on Saturday, 28th July when the historic manor house and grounds open for Devon Hospiscare.

Grade I listed Holcombe Court, at Holcombe Rogus is near the Devon and Somerset border, a few miles from Wellington.

The seven acres of Holcombe Court gardens and grounds includes herbaceous borders, trout ponds and a Victorian rockery, a restored and recreated woodland garden and vegetable parterre within the 18th century walled garden, apple orchard and espaliers.

Anne will give a talk and there will be a Q&A session. This will follow a light lunch and a tour of the gardens, led by head gardener Kathy.

Event organiser Susie Healey said: “We’re excited that Anne Swithinbank is supporting our Open Gardens scheme. The event promises to be a real treat for everyone who loves gardens, whether they are keen, green-fingered types or not.”

Admission is ticket only and booking is essential. Tickets, £20 per person, are available from Hospiscare on 01392 688020 or online at www.hopiscare.co.uk and following the links.

- Elizabeth Lawrence

Each flower arrangement will depict favourite melodies which will be played during the festival. Entrance is free, but donations warmly received. Refreshments will be served between 10am and 4pm.

Contact Jane Jackson Email: janefrancesjackson@gmail.com

Hestercome celebrates summer and Gertrude Jekyll

Hestercombe Gardens just outside Taunton has high summer events to celebrate Gertude Jekyll’s work in the Somerset gardens. Over 100 years ago, it was the task of the legendary plantswoman to fill Hestercombe’s formal garden with a dazzling display of plants, climbers and shrubs.

Summer Supper and Talk on Wednesday, 18th July features a tour of the formal garden by head gardener Claire Greenslade on how Gertrude Jekyll created a garden of summer colour. £33 per person (includes two course supper).

Gertrude Jekyll: An Artist’s Eye exhibition runs from 21st July to 2nd September in the Portman Room, bringing together original works, artefacts and memorabilia from the Hestercombe archive.

You can follow in the footsteps of the great gardener from 21st July to 10th August with a new summer trail. Normal admission applies.

Trail: 50p per child.

Hestercombe House and Gardens, Cheddon Fitzpaine, Taunton TA2 8LQ

ELMCROFT GARDEN HAS JULY OPENING FOR ST MARGARET’S HOSPICE The once neglected gardens at Elmcroft situated on legendary Wearyall Hill with stunning views of Glastonbury Tor and the Somerset Levels is open in aid of St Margaret’s Hospice on Sunday, 8th July from 2pm to 6pm. Entry is £3.

Well-behaved dogs welcome on lead.

This tranquil yet diverse garden has been restored and redesigned by its art historian and retired history teacher owner to reflect the ancient landscape and rich heritage of Glastonbury.

Elmcroft, 11 Roman Way, Glastonbury BA6 8AB www.countrygardener.co.uk

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A LOOK AT NEWS, EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS IN SOMERSET

New cider apple varieties at Barrington Court The National Trust has successfully established new cider apple varieties at 17th century Somerset manor Barrington Court, while it’s also planting an orchard with around 90 local varieties on the estate of the Elizabethan Montacute House near Yeovil.

The conservation organisation began its project in 2016 after it was given a New cider apple varieties at Barrington Court collection of 300 rare cider apple trees by collector and orchard owner Henry May. It is planning to grow 16 new varieties at Barrington Court, and has already successfully established 12 saplings.

Barrington Court cider maker, Rachel Brewer, said: “It’s really exciting to have some of the older Somerset varieties come back here to Barrington. Traditionally, cider has always been made on the estate and orchards can be seen as far back as the tithe map�.

Barrington is currently home to 140 local cider apple varieties including Ladbrook Pippin, which was planted in January 2016.

The trees can potentially bear fruit in five years’ time.

Henry May considered moving his sizeable collection of apple trees to Normandy as he couldn’t find anyone in the UK willing to take the project on. After stepping in, David Bullock, head of nature conservation for the National Trust, said: “To be given this collection is a fantastic privilege.�

Summer plant fair at Lower Severalls gardens The gardens at Lower Severalls just outside of Crewkerne, will open on Sunday, 8th July for a new collaborative event between Lower Severalls and the Somerset Group of the Hardy Plant Society. Seventeen specialist plant nurseries will be offering a range of plants. Lower Severalls’ resident nursery, C B Plants, will be open as part of this special event.

Roy Stickland, chairman of HPS Somerset Group says, “This is an exciting addition to our annual programme and is designed to complement the very successful earlier plant fair that we have at the end of March. Our gardens can get tired-looking and uninteresting as summer ebbs away, and now is the time to ensure a continuing display into autumn.

We hope it may become an annual fixture.�

Mary Pring, owner of Lower Severalls, says: “This event

promises to bring together some of the best nurseries in the country. Millwood Plants who won gold at RHS Cardiff and Malvern this Spring will be here, Roseland House Nursery from Truro, the National Collection holders of Clematis viticella and Phoenix Plants owned by author and lecturer Marina Christopher.�

Teas, coffee and lunch will be available along with homemade cakes. The plant fair runs from 10am to 4pm. Entry is ÂŁ4, or ÂŁ3.50 for members of the RHS or Hardy Plant Society.

This includes entry to the gardens.

Lower Severalls Crewkerne TA18 7NX www.lowerseveralls.co.uk

Nynehead Court has July opening for the NGS

The historic gardens at Nynehead Court near Wellington are opening for the National Gardens Scheme on Sunday, 1st July from 2pm until 4.30pm.

The house and gardens were owned by the Sandford family up till 1902, after which time it was let, finally becoming a residential care home for the elderly in 1940. The gardens were completed during the Victorian period, then restored in recent years.

Home-made teas will be available in the Orangery. Admission is ÂŁ6,50, children free. There is limited wheelchair access because of cobbled yards, gentle slopes and chipped paths. A garden tour lasting approximately 45 minutes, will be conducted by head gardener Justin Cole at 2pm. Visitors can also explore freely using leaflets available.

Nynehead Court’s gardens will also open for the NGS on Thursday 11th October, 2pm-4.30pm, and the gardens can be visited by arrangement.

Nynehead Court, Nynehead, Wellington, Somerset TA21 0BN. www.nyneheadcare@aol.com www.countrygardener.co.uk

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GARDENERS’ CUTTINGS IN SOMERSET

Toby Buckland Harvest Festival returns to Forde Abbey TV gardener Toby Buckland’s Harvest Festival returns to Forde Abbey and Gardens at Chard in Somerset for its second year on Friday,15th and Saturday, 16th September with a celebration of the growing season, and more than 170 West Country growers, makers, local food producers, live music and family entertainment.

The two-day programme of talks and harvest-themed demos is headlined by Forde Abbey’s ‘Family fun on offer at harvest event‘ Guardian gardening writer Alys Fowler who shares her knowledge of growing, storing and fermenting home-grown fruit and veg on Sunday, while Matt Biggs of Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time fame is speaking in Forde’s Great Hall on Saturday, with RHS judge Jim Buttress compering both days.

For green-fingered children, the Blue Peter Gardener, Lee Connelly is on hand both days with his special brand of gardening know-how, fun and games, with help from the Higher Beings who will be teaching tumbling, tight-rope and circus skills. Actor and keen gardener John Challis, better known as Boycie from Only Fools & Horses, was so popular at our Powderham spring event when he spoke on creating a romantic garden at his home at Wigmore Abbey in Herefordshire.

Forde Abbey’s renowned gardens, which include a walled kitchen garden, lakes, meadow and dahlia-filled herbaceous borders will be packed with exhibitors, including West Country growers, makers and local food producers who are sure to have something special for your garden or home, from autumn-flowering perennials, bulbs and bespoke sculpture to artisan crafts and gift ideas.

Advance adult tickets £10, family and children tickets available. Dogs welcome on short leads, free parking.

Toby’s Harvest Festival, 15th-16th September, Forde Abbey, Chard Somerset TA20 4LU. www.tobygardenfest.co.uk

Taking care to avoid getting bitten by a tick in the countryside Exmoor is beautiful and good walking country, but walkers are being advised to take care when out on places such as Exmoor, and in country parks, and even in rural gardens, to avoid being bitten by that nasty little creature, the tick.

Ticks can carry Lyme disease which may be transmitted to humans through their bite. There are no vaccines to defend against tick-borne disease in the UK; the best defence is to avoid being bitten.

Early summer and autumn are peak times for tick bites. It’s important to take preventive measures against tick bites and look out for ticks after visiting affected areas. Ticks are tiny spider-like creatures, which feed on the blood of animals and sometimes people.

The best way of preventing Lyme disease is to avoid being 6

Bring your garden to life at Tincknell Country Store Tincknell Country Store in Wells cater for gardeners of gardens all shapes and sizes. As well as being an approved STIHL dealer, offering the full range of electric, petrol and now cordless (battery) garden tools from £99, the store stock everything from great value compost to bamboo canes, gardening gloves and footwear to fertilisers and chemicals, lawn seed to hand tools.

The popular store now also stocks a range of Bowland decorative stone, patio slabs and stepping stones.

Tincknell Country Store, Wookey Hole Rd, Wells, Somerset BA5 2BT. www.tincknellcountry store.co.uk

bitten when you are in grassy or woodland areas known to have a high tick population. The following precautions might help: • keep to footpaths and avoid long grass when out walking • wear a long-sleeved shirt • tuck your trousers into your socks • wear light-coloured clothes (to help you spot a tick on them) • use insect repellent • check yourself for ticks and remove any promptly If you find a tick on your or your child’s skin, remove it using a pair of tweezers that won’t squash the tick (such as finetipped tweezers) or a tick removal tool (available from pet shops or vets).

Gently grip the tick as close to the skin as possible and pull steadily away from the skin without crushing the tick. Wash your skin with water and soap afterwards, then apply an antiseptic cream to the skin around the bite.

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7

Taming the

BEAST! Lots of gardeners don’t trust bamboo - they worry about rampant growth, indestructible roots and invasion of gardens – but there are ways of growing bamboo safely Some people call them ‘demon spreaders’, others just don’t trust them but thankfully bamboos are starting to get a much better profile.

Bamboos are woody grasses and there are about a thousand species found across the world either in moist tropical areas, or in warm temperate countries.

In all there roughly a thousand species subdivided and naturally tropical bamboos do not thrive in British gardens, but there’s still a lot of choice of ones that will grow well.

The first bamboos introduced into Britain in the late 19th century were rampant species from lowland China. These formed large groves in many Victorian gardens, particularly in the south-west. Growth habit often varies according to location so a bamboo that’s rampant in the climate of Cornwall will behave quite differently elsewhere, despite being the same plant. It’s this mixture of fear and uncertainty, regarding size and spread, that often puts gardeners off or leads them to put them in a pot. Most bamboos sulk in a pot.

Thankfully bamboos have changed. In the last 30 years much-better behaved ones have been introduced from the cold, mountainous regions of Chile and the Himalayas. These high-altitude varieties are clump formers, not aggressive

BAMBOOS FOR SMALLER GARDENS Fargesias come from upland areas of China and have thin, colourful canes topped by a fountain of fine foliage. These clump-forming arching bamboos can be grown in containers as well as in the garden.

Fargesia rufa (Chinese fountain bamboo) The foliage has an unusual blue-green glow and each slender green cane is banded with colourful sheaths that vary from orange-red to shrimp-pink, depending on the soil. The more alkaline, the more colourful the sheaths apparently. Give it some shade and it will resemble a Japanese acer from a distance. In the garden Fargesia rufa will grow to a maximum height of 2.5m (8ft), in a clump up to 1.2m (4ft) wide after 10 years so it makes a good screen or hedge.

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spreaders, and some are suitable for smaller gardens, although all bamboos need space to shine.

Taller bamboos that provide effective screens - those that eventually form much looser clumps but are not regarded as insanely invasive - are to be found in the genus Phyllostachys.

Planted in the ground, if at least one-third of their oldest stems is pruned out at ground level every year, they remain relatively static. This is because they have less need to send out running shoots in search of water.

Phyllostachys can be grown in containers but even with regular grooming and feeding it will eventually – in five years or so – run out of steam and is best replaced. There is a Phyllostachys (P. nigra) with stems that turn jet-black with age and an equally fetching golden-stemmed one (P. aurea).

Used properly they add another dimension to a garden, especially in autumn and winter when their canes and evergreen foliage provide colour and interest. Low winter sun makes the canes look much shinier, almost making them appear lacquered, and new canes can be almost-black, green or gold. More vigorous bamboos can be used as hedging, or as ground cover. The secret is choosing the correct one for your position.

Bamboos divide themselves into two groups. Some are tight clump-formers and, although these clumps get larger, they do stay in the same place. Others roam and run and these are not for the small garden, or the faint-hearted.

Fargesia robusta A much more upright bamboo with thicker dark-green canes banded with paper-white sheaths in summer. The contrast of white and green makes this bamboo look very handsome. It will form a tight clump measuring five feet wide and tall after ten years.

Thamnocalamus These bamboos come from the higher reaches of the Himalayas and therefore appreciate a cool position sheltered from sun and wind. They often take time to become established.

Chusquea culeou (Foxtail Bamboo) An elegant, arching bamboo with yellow canes that turn deepgreen. The leafy growth is very bushy, hence the foxtail name, and the foliage cascades down over the canes. After ten years, it should reach 13 feet high.

Country Gardener

“Is it possible to

READER’S STORY

LOOK AT A GARDEN AND TELL

the gender of the owner?

Country Gardener reader Paula Harte says she has visited so many gardens that she believes she can tell whether the driving force behind them is a man or a woman I have been looking over gardens for the past 25 years. It became a passion of mine when I moved to Devon from the Home Counties and I have pursued it with energy and a lot of pleasure.

How many gardens in that time I have wandered through, relaxed in, studied, enjoyed the vast majority of, I have no idea.

It’s a lot though and I’m still having a great time. I am visiting two or three a week if I can and dropped in on a wonderful National Garden Scheme garden in Dorset last weekend.

I’ve been mulling over something for some time now and thought I would write to my favourite gardening magazine with my theory.

It is that one look at a garden and eight out of ten times I think you can tell the gender of the owner.

OK, my theory slips a bit when the garden is shared by a man and a woman but even then there is a predominant sprit which shines through from one or other of the couple.

Here’s the basis of my theory.

I’ve noticed how often a male gardener concentrates on one genus- roses say or daffodils in spring or even snowdrops. He collects his chosen favourites so you feel honoured to be shown the display he has created. It’s a male hobby thing I think and often this commitment to one genus skews the whole garden.

Men also I believe, need more order and control in a garden, from annuals laid out in patterns, regiments of tulips bordering a path or the classic orderly design of a vegetable garden – rows of perfectly placed onions and cabbages.

Lawns are for the most part based on classically straight edges, perfectly manicured (for NGS gardens anyway) and then there’s the hedges.

The hedges of a male gardener are by definition perfect, straight, tidy and not a sprig out of place. Hours I imagine go into wearing the hedge cutter out so that the hedge borders are an object of pride.

I would think potential visiting nesting birds take one look at them and say to each other; “That hedge is too grand for us”.

I think women are more wanton in their needs from a garden, creating more beautifully structured, natural gardens. They move towards colour, scents and I am proud to say more flair. I think also that the examples of when things go wrong can perhaps be more attributable to men. I’ve seen quite a few in over the years.

I believe it’s the male tendency to be more daring, outrageous and pioneering – perhaps more than women. When it works on the grander scale of professional head gardeners then this pioneering spirit is to be applauded. But on smaller gardens pushing out the horticultural frontiers can go wrong quite badly. Believe me I’ve seen a few.

And don’t worry NGS, they are really nothing got be ashamed of - some of my most memorable garden visits have been to those that have gone wrong somehow in the planning stages.

So I believe generally women have a better eye for the amateur garden. They prefer curves in the lawn. They are more tolerant of less than perfect hedges and lawn edges. They are more aggressive about deadheading and dare I say it are better at putting the right plant in the right place in the garden.

I’ve also noticed men are often looking for praise more than women. On a first encounter he will say: ‘Do come and tell me what you think about my garden’. This can be a real poser and I always err on the side of politeness - even though my enthusiasm is less than abundant. Women I think are more confident and don’t go seeking praise.

So there you are.

Huge generalisations - of course.

Am I biased – definitely.

But I remain convinced there’s a lot of truth in my deductions, as I say based on many years of treading lawns and admiring borders, veggie plots and patios.

And finally thanks to you Country Gardener for providing me with a regular list of new gardens to visit. A lovely magazine.

www.countrygardener.co.uk

9

The long goodbye The charms and pleasures of the late show of summer can be underestimated but some sensible planting and planning now will ensure colour for months ahead

When you imagine your garden at its most beautiful, you’re probably imagining it at Wimbledon time, with roses, lilies, delphiniums, poppies and foxgloves all flowering their socks off.

But is your garden still strutting its stuff in August and September – which these days are often the warmest months of the year, and the times you can enjoy your garden most of all?

Keeping your garden looking good right through summer and into early autumn is a challenge. You can buy gorgeous cannas and dahlias in full flower in high summer to plug the gaps, but if you want colour throughout the season without spending lots of cash, now is the time to get going with sowing and planting.

Late-summer drabness is often explained away by, “Oh my garden looks its best in spring,” which makes no sense.

Keeping the show going in August can be a challenge! The early summer flowering perennials and shrubs look tired and lacklustre. The roses are past their best and needing deadheading, lavender is jaded and in need of a prune back and even most of the pinks and hardy geraniums have few flowers now.

But all is not lost and there can be vibrant colour around you and not just from bedding and hanging basket displays!

It’s not too late to sow sunflowers, which will inject a burst of vivid colour into any border or container from July to September. Sunflowers don’t just come in yellow; try deep red ‘Velvet Queen’ or the orange and bronze-hued ‘Earth Walker’.

Nasturtiums, whether orange, yellow, red or cream, will also give you masses of colour for the price of a packet of seeds.

Zinnias are another wonderfully bright late summer flower, blooming in shades of pink, yellow, red and purple. They can be temperamental if you’re raising them from seed, but plug plants are widely available.

Then there are penstemons, which will flower non-stop from July into October. The pretty spikes of flowers come in white, pink, blue, red and purple; buy plug plants now and they’ll be strong and sturdy within six weeks.

Echinacea have attractive daisy-like flowers in white or purple with a prominent brown centre. Bees adore them and birds will snack on the seedheads after they’ve flowered.

The same goes for rudbeckias, which produce dozens of bright flowers on slender stems. There are plenty of yellow varieties, including the lovely ‘Goldsturm’, or try red ‘Cherry Brandy’, or orange ‘Prairie Glow’ and ‘Cherokee Sunset’.

Salvias are fantastic value in summer, bringing a blast of intense colour for weeks on end, and there are dozens to choose from. There’s still time to sow annual salvias like ‘Blue 10

Monday’, which has bright blue flowers, or the superb tender perennial Salvia patens, with flowers of the purest sky blue.

Purple-flowered Verbena bonariensis gives great value, blooming from August to October and also self-seeds freely.

This short-lived perennial is one of those tall, airy plants that looks lovely woven in among other sturdier specimens.

“All is not lost and there can be vibrant colour all around you” Late-summer flowering plants are seen as high maintenance, yet there are plenty of easy-to-grow plants ready to deliver a hit of colour and form at this time of year. Sedum spectabile ‘Autumn Joy’ is one. By the end of August its plump flower buds are bursting with promise, like a class of five-year-olds sat cross-legged with their hands in the air.

The architectural fleshy leaves look great next to the lightness of Cosmos ‘Purity’ and it’s a big hit with butterflies and bees.

Just as the rest of the garden starts to run out of puff, Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ is like a substitute with fresh legs that comes on and scores the winning goal. You’ll look forward to seeing it every year. At 2m it is likely to be the tallest plant in the border, and that creates a dramatic skyline. Despite its height it doesn’t need staking.

An alternative with just as much oomph is Rudbeckia ‘Herbstsonne’. It has chunkier flowers and the colour is more intense but it’s still a great addition at this time of year.

For tall plants to look good you need a few shorter ones nearby to hide their knobbly knees. Phlox are perfect for this – they look great, smell great and are easy to grow.

Give them some leaf mould in the autumn; your efforts will not go unrewarded. Phlox prefers the sun so if you have shade you could try one of the Japanese anemones (which actually come from China).

These plants have almost cornered the late-summer flowering market and with good reason. They’re reliable, easy to grow and despite their delicate appearance are as tough as they come. The variety Anemone x hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’ is tall, elegant and white, whereas A. hupehensis ‘Pamina’ is shorter and pink. Both are gorgeous, especially if teamed with the blue flowers of Geranium ‘Rozanne’, which will have been flowering since May but will still have enough juice in the tank to continue until the hard frosts.

Country Gardener

Above Salvia viridis ‘Blue’ and Centaurea Cyanus

And here are some other planting ideas: Crocosmia Formerly known as montbretia, crocosmia are spreading plants featuring clumps of strappy leaves alongside sprays of trumpet flowers in shades of red, yellow and orange which are wonderful from late summer and looks great as part of a hot border.

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Grandiflora’ Giant cone shaped cream/ pink flowers from late summer throughout autumn. Flowers last up to ten weeks and are a gardeners, favourite and fill that gap when much is in decline in the garden.

simple foliage. Planted in groups of three or more they are an impressive sight. With their beautiful scent and single flowers these are highly attractive to butterflies and bees and make a good cut flower. The garden phlox are a great addition to the garden, you can deadhead to prolong flowering. For best results plant out in full sun, although they will tolerate dappled shade, in fertile, moist soils.

Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’ Large, golden-yellow, daisy-like flowers up to 12cm (5in) across with cone-shaped, blackishbrown centres from August to October. This award-winning ‘Black-eyed Susan’ looks great planted in bold drifts with other late summer-flowering perennials and ornamental grasses.

Japanese anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’

Phlox paniculata One of the most imposing border plants, Phlox paniculata produce a clustered mass of beautiful flowers in a fine mixture of colours above dense www.countrygardener.co.uk

A variety of Japanese anemone with flowers and glamour one size up from the standard single white, with lovely contrasting stamens. This clump forming, healthy, dark-leaved form will grow to 75cm.

11

Fruiting vines Elizabeth McCorquodale looks at the delights of growing decorative, space saving and upwardly mobile fruit For those of us who love to get value for money from the garden, growing something that plays more than one role is a thing to be cherished, and fruiting vines are in this category.

Growing a plant that is both decorative and space-saving, provides privacy and speedy growth and offers up something edible, well, that isn’t something to be ignored. There are numerous varieties of fruiting vines to be had, but curiously only a very few of these find their way into most gardens.

The go-to fruiting vines for British gardens are so popular because they really do earn their keep, at least in the fruit department. On the decorative side it can be a little hit and miss. The common or garden blackberry varieties will, of course, romp away to cover a trellis, wall or arch in a decidedly untidy fashion, though some thornless varieties are more circumspect and a little prettier into the bargain.

The fruit, though, ranges from bland to tasty so make sure you try before you buy. I have a thornless blackberry that came to me highly recommended but I have long since stopped bothering to pick the favourless fruit and just enjoy the privacy it lends to one corner of my garden. My friend, however, has a delightful thornless variety that is not only

Thornless blackberry in flower

12

Stem of Japanese wineberry

very pretty, but every year the large, pink flowers mature into a reliable heavy crop of very sweet and flavourful blackberries that rival the flavour of the best hedgerow fruit.

The loganberry, a wonderful plant, is very slightly more circumspect than the blackberry and though the flowers – if anything, they are less showy than blackberry flowers - do attract a bevy of bees into the garden. In midsummer, once those bees have done their job, the fruit appears and it is a delight; a lovely cross between a blackberry and a raspberry and if it is allowed to ripen fully to a deep, dark red, it is sweet enough to eat fresh as a desert fruit.

Loganberries are handsome, dense and easy going when trained onto wires or trellis, and they are easy as pie to prune; simply cut back all the canes which have borne fruit each autumn, leaving the remainders to fruit the following year.

If you are raspberry fan and you’re looking for a fruiting vine that tolerates shade, the little known Japanese wineberry is the way to go. A vigorous cousin of the raspberry, the wineberry is delicious and easy to grow and propagate and it will quickly clothe an arch or fence with a dense scramble of very attractive fruiting canes.

Climbing melons

Country Gardener

Flowering vines

These canes, and the calyx that surround the fruit, are wonderfully clothed in soft red hairs that glow in the winter sunshine when the lime green leaves have fallen. Grown in half-shade or full sun with its feet in moist, well-drained nutritious soil this vine will repay the little care and tying in that it demands.

Kiwi are a fine choice when you want a quick growing, architectural vine that repays the space you give it with a wealth of edible fruit. Despite their reputations and their almost tropical appearance, kiwis are hardy in most of the UK. Most plants offered for sale are either male or female and both are required for the female to produce fruit ‘Hayward ‘(female) and ‘Tormuri’ (male) are the classic combination.

If space is limited hunt for a self-fertile variety such as the old favourite, ‘Jenny’. Kiwis are large plants that need a little more in the way of pruning than the other plants on this list, both to keep them in check and to maximise fruiting, but it isn’t a complex job and requires only a couple of hours in spring and then again in autumn. If you fancy the idea of growing kiwis but your garden is on the cold side or is subject to freezing winds or frost pockets turn instead to the miniature kiwi, Issai.

Also known as the hardy kiwi, it produces small, grape-sized fruit with a true kiwi flavour on vigorous vines which sport the same attractive foliage as the common varieties.

I have always grown grapes - sometimes have scrambled over fences or through hedges, sometimes they have been confined to wires in a conservatory - but wherever and however I have grown them they have fruited, reliably and heavily.

Contrary to popular belief, unless you are trying to truly maximise your yields for wine growing, grapes do not need constant attention and complicated pruning to provide a good return – simply cut them back in early spring to two or three buds past last year’s growth spur and if you are growing them indoors, be ready to prune out any overly enthusiastic shoot that looks as if it is getting out of hand.

If you are growing for wine production, you will need to be a little more particular about how and when you prune, but your vines will still offer up several bunches of grapes for the

table or for winemaking with a simple cut back each spring.

Even with my relaxed approach to pruning grapes I easily harvest a couple of buckets of grapes every year.

‘Suffolk Red’ is a really nice seedless dessert grape that tolerates cold well but there are dozens of other varieties available, some bred for wine-making, some for juice and others for the table.

If you have a warm wall that allows for a long growing season you could try your hand at growing the edible passion fruit. There is no shortage of passion vines in gardens around the UK but growing one that actually fruits is another matter.

While the common Passiflora caerulea will fruit (I had a bumper crop of about 15 small orange fruit off my three year old vine last year) they are small and lacking the tangy flavour of the true fruiting vine, Passiflora edulis, though, if they are allowed to ripen fully will add a little extra to a fruit salad. P. edulis is only just hardy in sheltered parts of the UK – it would do well in a warm city garden or sheltered spot in a Cornish garden - though it can be knocked back by severe weather.

If you are blessed with a sun-baked courtyard P. edulis is well worth growing.

If time is of the essence you could do a lot worse than turn to annual plants and most of the climbing, fruiting annuals are the scrambling cucurbits – melons, squash, pumpkins and cucumbers- and they are all a great choice for clothing an archway, for providing a little instant privacy or even for providing late summer shade in a sun-baked greenhouse.

Make sure you select a climbing variety (rather than a bush) and tie in securely as it grows. As the fruit matures and grows heavy provide support in the guise of old tights – pop the fruit in the leg of the tights and tie it on to the support. You can provide a little extra colour to this display by inter-planting your cucurbits with climbing nasturtiums – think Monet and the gardens at Giverny. Don’t forget to collect the nasturtium seeds to pickle as a very convincing substitute for capers.

All the cucurbits will do well in moist, well-drained nutritious soil that doesn’t dry out and they will very quickly cover any support they are trained over and provide a huge return for the trouble.

Passion flower Rapid colour nasturtiums

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Screen of small melons 13

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JOBS IN THE

July garden

JOBS IN THE GARDEN

The garden is having its first peak in July and it is a brilliant time for your garden or allotment. Roses will never look better, the vegetable garden is becoming fruitful again, and we pray for warm, dry weather for the strawberry harvest.

STRAWBERRIES need to be netted Strawberries are at the greatest risk over the next few weeks so make sure your crop isn’t wasted. If you haven’t done so already, net fruit to prevent the birds from getting to it first. Strawberries, currants and gooseberries are relatively easy to throw a temporary net over if you don’t have the luxury of a fruit cage, but protecting a whole cherry tree is nigh-on impossible. Wrap a single limb and leave the rest to the birds, or better still, grow cherries as a fan or a cordon.

Dessert cherries favour a warm wall, but the tart Morello cherries like a cool north wall.

T IME OF CUT BACKS To reduce the chance of stone fruit being affected by silver leaf, prune cherries, plums and peaches in the summer. Silverleaf is an airborne bacteria which enters the vascular system via a wound to weaken an affected tree by preventing it from photosynthesising properly. Prune in the winter and the bacteria will be drawn into the wound as sap retreats, but in the summer the rising sap will repel the alighting spores. Fan-trained peaches and cherries should have new limbs trained in from this years’ growth once the fruit has been harvested.

Stop your tomatoes from running wild

Now is the time when you want to make sure your tomatoes produce the best crop. All that time planting seeds, transferring, supporting, mustn’t be wasted now so the key job is to ‘stop’ your tomatoes after four or five trusses of fruit have set. It may seem harsh but it’s all to do with timing. Sad as it might be but summer won’t last forever and you have to make sure your tomatoes have enough time to ripen. Stop yours now: no more will ripen fully, and summer will come to an end.

Keep picking to ensure better crops

Pick sweet peas to encourage further crops of flower. Do the same for repeat-flowering roses. Deadheading also keeps the garden looking spruce, and a regular pick-over of pelargoniums and day lilies gives you the chance to check plants for problems. If the buds on your hemerocallis are looking swollen and bloated, this is a sign of gall-midge damage. Pick off the affected buds and burn them. In a wet year, rust can decimate certain hybrid pelargoniums. It can easily be prevented with an organic fungicide if you catch it before it gets a hold. Once-blooming roses that go on to form hips for autumn should not be deadheaded or you will lose a second benefit. www.countrygardener.co.uk

TIMING WHEN YOU PLANT LETTUCE Germination of lettuce is patchy in hot weather, but you can get around this by sowing in the evening. The crucial moment for germination is a few hours after sowing, and as long as the temperature has dropped by then, you will have abundant seedlings. It’s also important to keep sowing lettuce almost on a regular basis so you get regular crops.

15

Roses still need that extra bit of ‘TLC’

Feeding roses in mid summer is essential

P ERFEC T LATE P O TAT OES Second-cropping potatoes will produce new potatoes in autumn and winter if planted now. Plant in sacks or buckets and move into a greenhouse in blight-ridden August and when frosts hit.

HARVEST TIME Harvest garlic when the tops start to brown.

Eat some green or ‘wet’ – it is delicious roasted. Hang the rest up in a sunny, dry place to ripen. Spray the flowers on your beans with water to help them pollinate.

Continue to dig and eat the potatoes while they are still young, as they will never be better. Use the space to plant out seedling winter greens and leeks or sow salad crops.

Keep up the sowing rotation so you always have new salad, rocket, coriander and dill on the way.

Get growing After the first flush of perennials, cut back plants that can rejuvenate. Lupins, earlyflowering geraniums, Anthriscus ‘Raven swing’ and astrantia all respond well. Cut all foliage and stems to the base, water deeply if it is dry and you will be rewarded by fresh foliage to carry the garden into high summer.

16

Remember to feed roses with a handful of blood, fish and bone after their first flush to repay them for the display they are providing you. Healthy roses are far less prone to disease, and foliar fortnightly feeding will keep them in good condition.

Feed tomatoes with a high-potassium liquid feed to encourage good truss production, and continue to pinch out side shoots. Feed pot plants and annual displays fortnightly.

Why not try making your own comfrey tea this year to make an organic liquid feed. Fill a bucket with foliage and allow it to ferment for a week. It is a pungent brew, but it feels good to make your own fertiliser.

Don’t forget a summer tonic for your lawn Even the greenest lawn will benefit from a summer tonic to help it through the rest of the season. If you use a granular type of lawn feed, sprinkle it on as per the instructions and water it in. Or save yourself a job and do it when rain has been forecast!

For something even simpler, pick up one of the prepared liquid feeds available at garden centres. Mow the lawn at least once week this month and trim the edges after cutting for a neat finish.

TIME TO THIN YOUR FRUIT TREES In what is known as the ‘June drop’, fruit trees undergo a natural thinning process when fruit they are unable to support fall from the tree. Additional thinning is often required for the remaining fruit to attain optimum size and quality. This should be carried out by mid-July.

Thinning has other benefits: • Sunlight and air can circulate more easily, which helps fruit to ripen evenly and reduces the risk of fungal diseases.

• Branches can break if trees over-crop – a particular hazard for plums. An overly large crop can exhaust the tree’s resources, so thinning helps it to develop a manageable quantity of fruit.

• When young trees crop too heavily, energy is diverted from developing a strong framework of branches and roots. This makes them less able to produce large crops in subsequent years.

• Apples: To ensure the largest fruit, thin cooking apples hard; dessert apples more lightly. For both types leave just one fruit per cluster; choosing the strongest and best-shaped.

• Apricots: Thin only if the crop is excessively heavy.

• Plums are particularly prone to over-cropping, so thinning is vital.

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17

44 Lower Blandford Road, Broadstone

GARDEN Visits THE BEST GARDENS TO VISIT compiled by Vivienne Lewis

It’s high summer, with resplendent, colourful gardens opening their gardens for charity. Here’s a selection in the areas we cover. We advise checking before making a journey as circumstances can force cancellations in private gardens.

We’re introducing a key to facilities on offer at the gardens: Refreshments available Plants usually for sale Wheelchair access to much of garden

Partial wheelchair access Unsuitable for wheelchairs Dogs on short leads

Visitors welcome by arrangement Coaches welcome consult owners Accommodation at this venue

44 LOWER BLANDFORD ROAD Broadstone, Poole, Dorset BH18 8NY Exotic garden full of bananas, palms and lush tropical planting, with unusual and rare plants; paths lead to greenhouses and an Abbotsbury-inspired colonial summerhouse and water feature surrounded by tree ferns and shade loving plants. Open for the NGS: Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th July, also Saturday 18th/ Sunday 19th August, all days 1pm-5pm. Admission: £3.50, children free. Contact Mike and Tina Clifford on 01202 904203 or email: addicted2tropical44@icloud.com

SQUIRRELS 98 Barton Road, Torquay, Devon TQ2 7NS Award winning plantsman’s small environmental garden, landscaped with small ponds, waterfall and a new Moroccan area; interlinked through abutilons to Japanese, Italianate, tropical areas.

Tender plants including bananas, tree fern, collections of fuchsia, abutilons, bougainvilleas, topiary. Open for the NGS: Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th July, 2pm5pm. Admission: £4, children free. Contact Graham & Carol Starkie on 01803 329241 or email: calgra@talktalk.net 18

MANOR FARM Hampreston, Wimborne, Dorset BH21 7LX A traditional farmhouse garden designed and cared for by three generations of the Trehane family through more than a century of farming and gardening here, with herbaceous borders and rose beds within box and yew hedges. Mature shrubbery, water and bog garden. Dorset Hardy Plant Society sales. Open for the NGS: Sunday 29th July, Wednesday 1st and Sunday 12th August, 1pm5pm, admission £4, children free. Contact Guy & Anne Trehane on 01202 574223 or email: anne.trehane@live.co.uk Country Gardener

AM BROOK MEADOW

MANOR HOUSE Stratford Tony, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP5 4AT

Ipplepen, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 5UP

Four-acre garden with formal and informal areas, small lake fed from River Ebble, waterside planting, herbaceous borders, pergola-covered vegetable garden, parterre garden, orchard, shrubberies, roses, specimen trees, and places to sit and enjoy the downland views. Open for the NGS on Wednesday 11th July and 22nd August, 2pm5pm. Admission £5, children free. Contact Mr & Mrs Hugh Cookson on 01722 718496 or email: lucindacookson@ stratfordtony.co.uk website: www.stratfordtony.co.uk A new opening for the National Gardens Scheme, developed over the past ten years to encourage wildlife, with native wildflower meadows, large ponds with ducks and swans, streams and wild areas covering ten acres accessible by gravel and grass pathways, also a formal courtyard garden and herbaceous borders with prairie-style planting, with poultry and bees close by. Open for the NGS: Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th July, 2pm-6pm. Admission £4, children free. www.ngs.org.uk/find-a-garden

HONEYHURST FARM

NORTHEND HOUSE 3 High Street, Wickwar, WottonUnder-Edge, Gloucestershire GL12 8NE Victorian walled garden of approximately a third of an acre, run on organic principles, with mature shrubs and informally planted perennial borders designed to attract bees and butterflies, wildlife pond with small stream.

Open for the NGS on Sunday 15th July, 1pm-5pm, with The School Yard at 2 High Street, Wickwar, combined admission £5.

Honey Hurst Lane, Rodney Stoke, Cheddar, Somerset BS27 3UJ A partly walled rural garden with a babbling brook and a four-acre traditional cider orchard, with views. Pergolas, arbour and numerous seats. Mixed shrub and perennial beds, pots planted with shrubs, hardy and half-hardy perennials. Open for the NGS on Sunday 8th and Monday 9th July, 2pm-5pm, admission £3.50. Contact Don & Kathy Longhurst on 01749 870322 or email: donlonghurst@ btinternet.com www.ciderbarrelcottage.co.uk

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19

THE BEST GARDENS T O V ISI T IN JULY

WHARF HOUSE Newnham Bridge, Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire WR15 8NY A developing two-acre country garden, set around an 18th century house and outbuildings (not open). Mixed herbaceous borders with ‘hot’ beds and yellow bed; white garden; double border; courtyards; stream, vegetable garden. There are several levels, with very limited wheelchair access and some uneven paths. Parking 600 yards from garden. Open for the NGS on Sunday 1st July, 10am-4pm, admission £5, children free.

HIDEAWAY

SAFFRONS

Hamdown Crescent, East Wellow, Romsey, Hampshire SO51 6BJ Winding paths lead through a peaceful ½ acre garden, with shade, woodland, sunny borders, grass gardens, wildlife pond and bog gardens.

Fountains, fruit and vegetables. Plants propagated by the owner are for sale, as is a variety of art work. Open (with Hamdown Corner, Whinwhistle Road, East Wellow SO51 6BJ) for the NGS Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th July, 2pm-5.30pm. Admission £5, children free. Contact Caroline & Colin Hart on 01794 322445 or email: hart. caroline@yahoo.com

Holland Road, Steyning, West Sussex BN44 3GJ A stylish garden with agapanthus, spiky eryngiums, salvias, alliums and fragrant lilies, lawn surrounded by borders with Japanese maples, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, specimen trees, ferns and grasses; fruit cage, vegetable beds and fruit trees. Open for the NGS on Sunday 15th and Thursday 19th July, 2pm5.30pm. Admission £5, children free. Contact Tim Melton and Bernardean Carey on 01903 810082 or email: tim.melton@btinternet.com

HELLINGLY PARISH TRAIL Hellingly, Hailsham, East Sussex BN27 4EZ Five cottage gardens and tea at the parish church on this trail, all within walking distance of each other, near The Cuckoo Cycle Trail. Two of the gardens are in Grade II listed cottages (not open) and the Grade 1 listed church are within the bounds of the only complete Circ (Celtic) in Sussex. Open for the NGS on Sunday 8th July, 2pm-5pm. Admission £5, children free.

20

Country Gardener

COURT HOUSE East Quantoxhead, Somerset TA5 1EJ

THE GATE 80 North Street, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire GL54 5PS A new opening for the NGS, belonging to author and journalist Vanessa Berridge who takes over as Gloucestershire county organizer at the end of the season. The garden is in the walled courtyard of a former 17th century coaching inn, with perennialpacked beds, rose-covered arches, separate walled kitchen garden with espaliered fruit and raised veg beds. Open for the NGS on Sunday 1st July, 2pm6pm (with nearby St Mary’s in Cowl Lane, another new NGS opening). Admission £6, children free.

Lovely five-acre garden with views to sea and the Quantocks, which Sir Walter and Lady Luttrell developed in the 1950s. Trees, shrubs (many rare and tender), herbaceous and three-acre woodland garden with spring interest and late summer borders.

Traditional, chemicalfree kitchen garden.

Open for the NGS on Sunday 22nd July, 2pm5pm. Admission £5, children free. Contact East Quantoxhead Estate (Hugh Luttrell Esq) on 01278 741271 or email: hugh_ luttrell@yahoo.co.uk

KITPURVA St Anthony, Portscatho, Cornwall TR2 5EY Enjoy panoramic sea and rural views from this 1920s coastal garden with some original features extensively replanted over the past 15 years. The ongoing restoration includes paths to seating areas, borders and small pond. From a newly planted escallonia maze see across from Nare Head to the Lizard, and you can walk the horses’ track. Open for the NGS on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th July, 10.30am-4.30pm. Admission £5, children free.

MICHAELMAS 2 Old Street, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire PO14 3HU

THE WALLED GARDEN Lindridge, Humber, Teignmouth, Devon TQ14 9TE

Colourful small garden, a short walk from Titchfield Haven Nature Reserve, with small vegetable area, greenhouse, garden room, pot grown vegetables and flowers; a wide range of plants attracting many bees and butterflies. As pictured in the preface of The Gardens of England (2013). Open for the NGS on Sunday 8th and Monday 9th July, 2pm-5pm. Admission £3.50, children free.

A one-acre historical walled former kitchen garden of the Lindridge Park Estate, fallow for over 50 years. Now in the third year of renovation, the garden has a geometric layout, with lawns, mixed borders, juvenile hedges, trained fruit trees, wild flower meadow, ponds, woodland area, set in attractive countryside with far reaching views.

Managed on an organic basis to provide a haven for wildlife. Open for the NGS on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd July, 2pm-5pm. Admission £5, children free. www.countrygardener.co.uk

21

SPECIALIST TREES

TWO ‘GENTLEMEN’

Mark Hinsley’s week in Northern Italy gave him the chance to reflect on the street trees in the country and in particular the sensational ginkgos Being an island, we tend to have a rather insular view on life and fail to notice that things that we feel are our own special preserve actually go on in other places.

I was recently lucky enough to spend a week in Northern Italy and during a visit to Verona stumbled upon the two magnificent Ginkgo biloba.

They are growing in the Piazza Indipendenza, not far from the houses of Romeo and Juliet.

There was a plaque in the piazza that claimed the two trees to be 220 years old, although there was no date on the plaque!

Such an age would have them planted in the late 1700s at the very latest.

I know the first ginkgo planted in the west is generally held to be one in Utrecht grown from seed brought back from Japan by Engelbert Kampferr that was planted around 1730, although there is a larger specimen in Geetbets, Belgium, Ginkgo in Riva

Mark Hinsley with the street trees of Northern Italy

22

of Verona

believed to have been grown from seeds brought there by missionaries returning from China in 1750.

Apparently, there is also a specimen in the Botanical Garden in Padua, near Verona (which is renowned as the first Botanical Garden in the world, created in 1545) that was planted in 1750.

We, the self-styled great gardeners and plant collectors of Europe, didn’t have a Botanical Garden until the one attached to Oxford University was created in 1621 and we didn’t get a ginkgo in this country until 1762.

What were we doing???

Having seen these two old gentlemen (most ginkgos in cultivation are male because the fruit dropped by the female smells of vomit and other unpleasantries when the husks decay), I began to notice them all over the place. In fact, I noticed some very interesting and ornamental street tree planting all around Verona, mainly consisting of ginkgos, tulip trees and magnolia grandifloras. Whilst some of these trees were probably pushing up towards 100 years old, many were clearly quire recent plantings.

Such choices for street planting were not limited to Verona, I saw them all across the region. The second photo is of an avenue of ginkgos planted in the street in the town of Riva at the head of Lake Garda.

In times such as the ones we live in of climate change and global trading, the ginkgo is an extremely good choice for a street tree. It is being used as such on the East Coast of America for its tolerance of pollution and resistance to the dreaded Asian Longhorn Beetle, the ALB having been imported from China where the ginkgo has lived with it ever since it evolved!

I was very impressed with the street trees in Northern Italy.

Unlike our home grown ‘native or nothing’ fanatics that get involved in urban planting schemes, they seem to have recognised that urban conditions are not native conditions and they have gone out to select trees that will grow well in the conditions into which they will be planted, rather than the conditions which existed before anybody actually built anything.

Not that they are entirely without problems related to introduced exotics that have escaped into the wild. Two such tree species that I saw in many countryside locations were Robinia pseudoacacia and Ailanthus altissima. Both are trees that spread by suckers and both are potential problems in this country. The ailanthus is already in London and Cornwall, I believe.

So tree and garden lovers, if your significant other wants to go to Northern Italy for the architecture, the history and the Shakespeare, don’t discourage them – there will be plenty of interest there for you too.

Mark Hinsley is from Arboricultural Consultants Ltd. www.treeadvice.co.uk

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For full details of what’s on and when & class programme schedules, see our web site www.portisheadflowershow.com Saturday 11.30am-6.00pm Sunday 10.30am-6.00pm Adults £5, Children under 17 Free, Free Parking

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Grounds Maintenance

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23

SMELLS interesting!

Coprosma, translates as ‘smells like dung’ and it’s quite true

Gill Heavens appreciates the sheer joys of planting for scent in the garden and the joy they bring to the senses This is a subject I do not claim to be an expert on. My sense of smell is on occasion nonexistent, seldom efficient. I have often felt bereft as others have coo-ed and swooned whilst burying their faces into peonies and rhododendron flowers.

However in this perfume desert there have been noticeable oases, times when I could appreciate the joys and occasional horrors of scent in the garden.

So although some of these musings might be hearsay, I am happy to report that plenty has been often blissfully experienced for myself.

The scientific name for our sense of smell is olfaction.

Cerciphyllum japonicum - candy floss scented leaves For those of you so inclined the mechanics are along these lines. Chemicals in the air bind to specialised receptors located inside our noses. We have hundreds of these receptors, sensitive to as many different scents. These in turn send messages to our brain which very cleverly interprets them. People who have no sense of smell at all are known to have anosmia.

Roses are to many the Fritillaria imperialis - a fragrance of quintessential perfumed garden dubious merit 24

Country Gardener

plant, a rose without scent seems an anathema.

However it is a question of personal preference; some fly the flag for sweet peas, lily of the valley or lilac. As scent has the power of recollection, favourites are often evocative of days past or childhood memories.

Perfumiers over the centuries have drawn on these traits to mix and match and reproduce facsimiles of our gardens. You can however have too much of a good thing. Some people find lilies over-bearing and the heavy bouquet of hyacinths can be cloying.

Quite naturally we seek out plants that smell delicious. These aromatic beauties are especially welcome in the winter months, including the delicious daphnes, wintersweet and Viburnum bodnantense. It is necessary for these shrubs to “shout” a little louder at this time of year, as pollinators are few and may need to be drawn from afar. This ‘turning up of the volume’ is to our advantage, and little can beat the joy of these glorious scents on a gloomy winter’s day.

Of course flowers are not pumping out fragrance to keep us silly humans enthralled, it is no selfless act of philanthropy. They are trying to attract pollinators. Just who these pollinators are is indicative of what scent evolved and when it is produced. It might be musky and fruity for beetles, sweet for bees and we all know what flies are attracted to!

Flowers that bloom in the wee small hours tend to be moth or even bat pollinated. Position the “nightshift”, whose members include

nicotiana, tuberose and honeysuckle, close to evening seating areas to fully appreciate their fragrant offerings.

It is not just flowers that deliver delicious scent in the garden. Leaves are a little more reticent but just as valuable. With just a passing rub, volatile oils are released from herbs such as rosemary and pineapple sage, spearmint and lavender. Roots also can have their own particular scent. The rhizomatous roots of Iris germanica and Iris pallida are used to produce orris, a highly sought after ingredient in the perfume industry.

Some of our most beautiful border specimens have fragrance of dubious merit, including the Imperial fritillaries (Fritillaria imperialis), whose odour strongly resembles that of a fox. Although not especially agreeable to the gardener, it works well for the plant, dissuading the attention of nibbling mice and the like. Now it just has to work out something to repel the lily beetles!

They say “it is all in the name”. In the case of the shrub coprosma, which means “smells like dung”, it is quite true. When the leaves of some of these species are crushed it omits a rather unpleasant odour. The Antipodean is worth the risk, the evergreen foliage comes in a rainbow of colours, making it worthy garden member.

Other stinkers include the dramatic and fetid foliaged Melianthus major, and the stunning Salvia confertifolia, whose leaves are described curiously as either “like meat” or peanut butter.

These strong smells act as natural defences against being consumed, and quite frankly I have no desire to even attempt a nibble of any one of them!

All of these pale into insignificance when you come to some of the plants which are pollinated by scavenging beetles and flies.

Amorphophallus titanum, the Titan Arum, has a 3m floral inflorescence which opens slowly from late afternoon into the night to attract carrion loving insects. The Indonesian Rafflesia arnoldii, the corpse flower, has the largest and perhaps most rancid flower of them all at 1m in diameter.

Things that are good for the garden are not always fragrant, an obvious example being manure. The highly nutritious fertiliser “teas” of both comfrey and nettle are noxious, but certainly worth the discomfort for the benefits they contribute to the garden.

Let us not dwell on foul smells, after all that is not what we strive for in our gardens. Every season there is a fresh fragrance to look forward to. In winter we have the winter box, next we have spring bluebells, then summer phlox and in the autumn the candy floss scented leaves of Cerciphyllum japonicum. Each and every one of these enhances our garden experience, adding another dimension. The smell of freshly mown grass, even the bare soil on a sunny day, they lift our spirits and warm our hearts.

Nicotiana, a delicious scent which is irresistible to bees and butterflies

Iris germanica – its roots are highly sought after in the perfume industry

Viburnum bodnantense delicious aromatic beauty

Lily of the valley - perhaps the sweetest of scents

Tuberose tubular blooms and a fragrance that is rich, sultry and seductive

www.countrygardener.co.uk

25

RHUBARB, RHUBARB, RHUBARB...

by Kate Lewis

The glut season starts now. Our new series on how to cope wit h too much produce from the garden starts wit h rhubarb and how to make best use of it In recent years rhubarb has shed its association with insipid, watery school desserts and is again as loved for its flavour as when the Victorians embraced it and created many of the nation’s culinary classics.

For gardeners it has the added benefit of being hardy and very easy to grow.

Before it made its way across Asia and Eastern Europe via the Silk Route, rhubarb had already been used medicinally in China for thousands of years. Thanks to an increased availability of a less-medicinal variety from Siberia, and the affordability of sugar – a necessity to make the stalks palatable – rhubarb hit European shores in the 1800s.

Rhubarb facts

• Rhubarb leaves contain poisonous oxalic acid and should not be eaten. A number of people in the UK are believed to have died as a result of eating the leaves during World War I after being recommended as a food source. They can be composted.

• Rhubarb stalks are rich in B-complex vitamins, calcium, vitamins K and C and other antioxidants. They are high in fibre and thought to be beneficial in helping digestion, reducing inflammation and improving brain, bone and heart health.

• Enjoy rhubarb all year round by freezing. Cut blemish free stems into roughly 2.5cm pieces and put into large plastic bags. If you want to maintain their colour and freeze for longer than three months it’s best to blanch them first – cook in a pan of boiling water for a minute then plunge into ice-cold water before drying and freezing in bags.

26

Rhubarb in the garden Although officially a vegetable, rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) is commonly described as a fruit, and one that fills a gap in the gardener’s soft fruit-growing calendar – a welcome bridge over the ‘hungry gap’. The attractive dark-green with flecked pink stems can be picked in the late spring, although forced rhubarb – plants which have been covered to shut out the light – are ready by January.

Rhubarb is usually grown from one-year-old plants - or ‘crowns’ – and is planted in late autumn to early winter. It suits an open, sunny or partially-shaded area with fertile, free-draining soil away from other vegetables, preventing the large leaves from overshadowing neighbouring plants. It benefits from a good amount of compost spread around the crowns in winter or early spring.

Plants should not be harvested during the first year and instead left to develop and establish a good root system. A few stems can be removed the following year, then up to a third or half from year three onwards, always leaving some to ensure the plant remains in active growth.

Being hardy in nature it suffers few diseases, the main problem being crown rot – a fungal infection caused by waterlogging. Affected plants should be dug up and destroyed.

Rhubarb should be pulled rather than cut. Tug the stem and twist to remove. The season ends in June. Those who adhere to country lore pick their last on Midsummer Eve.

Country Gardener

Rhubarb in the kitchen

Rhubarb has over the years earned itself a poor reputation thanks to being poorly cooked and usually overcooked. With more culinary care cooks now rejoice in its unique texture, flavour and colour.

Although both outdoor and forced rhubarb can be used interchangeably in recipes, both are too tart to use without sugar. The outdoor crop usually needs more sweetener.

To prepare cut off the leaves and discard. Check the stems for bruising then wash under cold water. Maincrop rhubarb is often stringy so can be peeled. The forced variety is more tender so doesn’t need peeling. Top and tail the stems and cut into small pieces.

Here in the UK rhubarb is most often found in the sweet corner of the kitchen – ubiquitous in seasonal crumbles or pies, or in cakes often paired with vanilla, cinnamon, ginger or even rosewater. However its acidic quality also makes it the perfect accompaniment to savoury dishes as it cuts through the richness of fatty meats and oily fish. Increasingly it appears in raw winter salads, in North African meat stews and even in soups.

Preserving is the perfect way to enjoy rhubarb all year round, and in addition to freezing, is probably the best way to deal with a glut at this time of year. Rhubarb lends itself well to chutney or ketchups to be served alongside cold meat. It is also delicious as a sweeter preserve but as it lacks the pectin needed in jam-making it must be combined with other fruit or added pectin.

Rhubarb is maybe at its best when cooked simply – poached or roasted, with a hint of orange and vanilla - but most definitely not overcooked. Cut 300g stems into 5cm pieces, combine with 50g sugar, a splash of water or orange juice and a few drops of vanilla extract. Poach for ten minutes or roast at 150°C for around 30 minutes. When cooked it should be soft but still hold its shape.

The excess juice from cooked rhubarb need not be thrown away as it can be used as a delicious topping for ice cream or natural yoghurt, as the base for cordial or with champagne or sparkling wine for shimmering bellini. The perfect way to welcome summer.

Next month: Courgette ‘chaos‘

Rhubarb Cinnamon Polenta Cake INGREDIENTS For the filling: 500g rhubarb, cut into short pieces 50g caster sugar 4 tbsp water For the crumble: 125g coarse polenta

200g plain flour 1 tsp baking powder pinch ground cinnamon 1 orange, zested 150g butter, cut into small pieces 1 large egg, beaten 2 – 4 tbsp milk 1 tbsp demerara sugar

METHOD 1) Lightly grease and line a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin. Set the oven to 180 deg C. 2) Put the rhubarb, caster sugar and water in a baking dish. Mix together and bake for 30-40 minutes until it is soft but still keeps its shape. Remove and drain over a colander. Keep the syrup to serve with the cake.

3) Put the polenta, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, caster sugar, orange zest and butter in a food processor. Blitz for a few seconds until it looks like breadcrumbs.

4) Combine the egg with 2 tbsp of milk. Blend into the crumble mix, either in the food processor or by hand. Add more milk if necessary.

Do not over mix. Stop mixing as soon as a soft, slightly sticky dough is formed.

5) Press 2/3 of the mixture into the cake tin, making sure there are no holes. Place the drained rhubarb on top. Sprinkle the remaining crumble on top of the fruit, it doesn’t need to be totally covered.

Sprinkle the top with demerara sugar.

6) Bake for 45 – 50 minutes then cool. Serve with the reserved rhubarb juice.

(Copyright: Nigel Slater) www.countrygardener.co.uk

Rhubarb Chutney

INGREDIENTS 800g rhubarb, roughly chopped 200g caster sugar 200ml cider vinegar 40g grated fresh ginger 1 vanilla pod halved lengthways, seeds scraped 1 tbsp cloves You will also need: 2 x 250ml jars, sterilised METHOD 1) Put all the ingredients in a preserving pan. Bring to the boil then cook over a medium heat for 1 ½ hours until the rhubarb has broken down and the mixture turns thick and jammy.

2) Leave to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then divide equally between the sterilised jars. Seal and label. It will keep for up to three months in a cool, dark place in a sealed, sterilised jar.

(Copyright: Delicious Magazine)

27

SUMMER IS HERE AND IT’S AN IDEAL TIME TO

spruce up your pond Now is the perfect time you need to put some effort into making sure that any fish who enjoy life in your garden pond are looked after and ready to thrive throughout the summer months

If you purchase any product from the Tetra pond range between now and 24th August you could WIN ONE OF TWO SUMMER GARDEN BUNDLES featuring a relaxing furniture set and BBQ. www.TetraWin.co.uk for more details.

To find out more about Tetra products and for a list of stockists please visit www.tetra-fish.co.uk

POND

It’s taken it’s time, but it appears the sunshine is finally here to stay, which means you’ll be wanting to ensure your garden is in tip top condition as you look to enjoy more time outside.

One of the most important things if you want your fish to stay healthy is to ensure you are feeding a well-rounded diet that gives your fish all of the nutrients they need.

Tetra Pond Variety Sticks include a BioActive Formula for increased disease resistance and combine three different varieties of food to provide a nourishing yet varied diet for all pond fish.

The summer is where your pond makes a really great garden feature, especially when it’s looking in good condition. Keeping ponds clear and tidy by cutting back any plants, trees or shrubbery will prevent loose leaves and

debris from falling into the water.

Summer can also mean more instances of algae which blooms in the summer due to the warmer weather creating more nitrate and phosphate nutrients and the greater length of more direct sunlight. It’s always best to use treatments all year round to lower phosphate levels and keep your pond crystal clear but you need to be extra vigilant in the warmer months. However, performing regular partial water changes and dosing the pond with Tetra PhosphateMinus and Tetra AlgoFin will also help keep algae at bay.

Warm waters won’t hold as much dissolved oxygen as cold water, yet in summer, pond fish require higher oxygen levels due to the warmer weather. This means that aeration devices, such as filter outlets and air pumps, must be working flat out, especially at night when the photosynthetic activity of plants ceases. Look out for fish looking tired in the margins of the pond or loitering near aeration devices as this is a sign that your pond isn’t oxygenated enough. Use Tetra Test O2 kits so you can react before it gets too serious.

POND FOOD AND CARE THAT PUTS FISH FIRST

Proud winners of

Find out more at TetraPond.co.uk 28

4287-TETRA POND ADVERT-CL.indd 1

Country Gardener

04/06/2018 11:29

Cuttings Extra

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NEWS, EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS IN YOUR AREA

rate of stamp duty at the top end of the market.

So after eight years as managing director of a large estate agency chain Mark Beresford decided to be creative and launched a prize draw competition with odds better than the National Lottery!

The gardens are a striking feature of The gardens are a key attraction of the property. They are both the ÂŁ3 million home. Photo credit: Lee formal from the driveway and more wooded as the house is McLean/BNPS approached.

A unique competition to win a six-bedroom mega home set in an Currently rhododendrons in the garden are in full bloom and acre of private grounds has become a focal point for gardeners. the first of 60 or so roses are flowering. The magnolias and Located in the picturesque Avon Castle near Ringwood, the camelias are largely finished which have produced a wonderful Avon Place property is worth an estimated ÂŁ3million. avenue of colour of pinks and reds and whites along the 70 Entry into the prize draw costs ÂŁ25 and the competition closes metres from the gates to the house. The lavenders to the BBQ house are almost in flower and bearded iris are in full bloom on July 31. next to the pond and scattered amongst the roses.

The competition was conceived two years ago after a www.winamegahome.co.uk succession of offers falling through, mostly because of the

Gardeners join the queue to win ÂŁ3million Hampshire home

REMOVING BLACK SPOTS FROM PATIOS AND TERRACES

Are you looking to improve the look and cleanliness of your patios, terraces or pathway?

Gardeners often turn to jet washers as the solution in the hope of improving the overall look, which deteriorates year on year, but damage it further by intensive washing.

From the day stonework is laid, the next time it rains, millions of microspores are deposited. These originate from trees, initially as tiny spores, similar in size to pollen. For twelve months they lay dormant, until they establish themselves by feeding off the minerals in the stone, germinating after two years, and appearing as ‘patio black spots’.

Most proprietary patio cleaners will remove green algae, but take weeks to work and have no effect on the black lichen.

The Patio Black Spot Remover and Preventer system doesn’t just remove black spots but cleans and restores the original colour to garden stonework, plus prevents their return. The system works on any type or age of stone, restoring it to the same condition when first laid.

The Patio Black Spot Removal Company Ltd, Tel: 01252 702123 www.patioblackspotremoval.com

Help is on hand if you have pond problems

High summer is one of the busiest times if you have a pond and more often than not any problems will need expert help and advice. Perfect Ponds Plus is an established, pond maintenance company offering a service across Somerset and many surrounding areas.

The business, based in Bridgwater, was started by Martin Cockell in 2000, after he had been a hobbyist for 20 years.

He has always had a pond and can remember when his father had a sunken bath, as a pond, in his back garden when Martin was a child. The only time that the fish could be seen in this

Friars Court opens gardens for the summer Friars Court, on the edge of the village of Clanfield in Oxfordshire, has been the home of the Willmer family for over 100 years and owner Charles Willmer is now opening the gardens to share their beauty over the summer.

The gardens are open every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon throughout July and August. Visitors can enjoy these peaceful gardens at leisure and follow the development of this historic house over the years in the Coach House museum. Cream teas and home-made cakes are available, all baked by Charles in the farmhouse kitchen.

Private tours for gardening clubs, WI’s, U3A’s and other organisations can be arranged on weekdays and evenings throughout the summer.

For more information visit www.friarscourt.com or call (01367) 810206. Friars Court, Canfield, Oxfordshire OX18 2SU.

‘pond’ was when it had been cleaned out and the fish in it then were Roach.

The main pond in his garden now is a part raised pond with a pump and filter house attached, with various fish and plants in it.

Martin has a team who he can call upon to help him provide a first class service for everything from filter updates, revamps,UV systems and full pond and water feature design and construction.

Tel: 01278 429758 or 07790241209 Perfect Ponds, Eastholme, Bath Rd, Bridgwater.

Somerset TA6 4TS

www.countrygardener.co.uk

29

ADVICE

Country Gardener

This month our advice column deals with some very specific problems raised by Country Gardener readers

I’ve been growing raspberries for a few years now but for the first time the canes seem to have been infested and I’m not sure why it has happened and what I need to do about it?

There’s no question about it -raspberry plants are worth growing.

That being said, there are many diseases which can affect raspberry plants.

Canes turning brown are a common symptom.

One of the first things is to understand the Cane disease can be a common raspberry problem difference between a primocane and a floricane. A primocane is a leafy stalk formed during its first year on a raspberry plant. It may produce buds but doesn’t typically produce fruit. You let the primocanes grow and then overwinter for producing flowers and fruit the second year. During the second year of this cane’s life, it is called a floricane. Floricanes produce flowers and fruit.

They typically die or become non-productive after that. You should cut floricanes down to ground level after you harvest your berries. Leaving these uncut can lead to unnecessary raspberry plant problems.

Bacterial diseases include fire blight and bacterial blight. Both of these diseases cause significant browning raspberry canes – very dark or burnt looking stems and leaves are a sure sign. They need a wound opening or pruning cut to infect the plant. It is best to cut out the infected plant below the diseased area. Destroy the plant material. Do not compost it.

Some important fungal diseases that lead to raspberry canes turning brown include spur blight, cane blight and anthracnose. Spur blight starts in the leaves or at the node where the leaf attaches to the cane.

Cane blight is caused by wounds in the stem. The wounds form reddish-brown streaks and can eventually girdle the entire cane causing cane death. All three diseases are spread from cane to cane rather than root to cane. Splashing water spreads transmits the fungi in all three diseases.

The keys to controlling these diseases include: • Reduce moisture and humidity in the area • Keep your rows narrower than 18 inches • Remove non-productive floricanes every year • Don’t prune if you expect rain in the next following days.

ADV ICE

Why do my vegetables seem to bolt so early on in the season – lettuce in particular?

One of the biggest nuisances in the summer vegetable garden is bolting - when crops put on a vertical growth spurt to flower and set seed before the vegetables are ready for harvest. The result is inedible, bitter-tasting leaves or poorquality produce with little that can be salvaged.

Bolting is perfectly natural, it’s simply marks the point at which a plant reaches maturity and produces the seeds for the next generation. It’s the coming-before-the-harvest bit that makes it irritating. The trick is to coax vegetables to maturity quickly and efficiently so they’re ready to eat before the plants have a chance to flower.

Some varieties, for instance beetroot ‘Boltardy’, are specifically bred to be resistant to bolting.

So using bolt-resistant varieties is ideal for the earliest sowings of annual vegetables that respond to increasing day length: spinach, lettuce, beetroot, rocket etc. Resistant varieties are also a good option for biennials like onions and carrots that are sown very late in winter/early in spring.

For annual vegetables, don’t forget to sow little and often to ensure a steady supply of quickgrowers such as lettuces - this way you can pick leaves in good time, before they become too old and more likely to bolt.

If a few plants do bolt it isn’t the end of the world.

You may be able to salvage some leaves to mix in with other salads. Root vegetables can be chopped up and used in stews. And it’s easy enough to cut out the usable parts of onions and leeks left around the hardened central flower stem.

Lettuces are famous for bolting very quickly 30

Country Gardener

We’ve moved into a new cottage with a lovely traditional display of hydrangeas in the front garden. I’m very nervous about pruning them.

Are there any ‘trade secrets’?

Shrubs like hydrangeas flower from mid to late summer on the previous year’s growth. Mophead and lacecap hydrangeas will bloom satisfactorily with little attention, but regular pruning encourages new, vigorous growth that can produce a better display.

Most pruning is carried out in late winter or early spring. However, the climbing hydrangea is pruned after flowering in summer.

Dead blooms on mophead hydrangeas can, in mild areas, be removed just after flowering, but it is best to leave them on the plant over winter to provide some frost protection for the tender growth buds below. Remove the dead flowerheads in early spring, cutting back the stem to the first strong, healthy pair of buds down from the faded bloom.

Lacecaps are hardier, and the faded flowerheads can be cut back after flowering to the second pair of leaves below the head in order to prevent seed developing, which saps energy from the plant.

The climbing hydrangea (H. anomala subsp. petiolaris) should have overlong shoots cut back immediately after flowering. Most flowers appear towards the top of the plant, so try to leave as much of this un-pruned as possible.

Established plants will tolerate hard pruning in spring, but extensive cutting back all in one go is likely to reduce flowering for the next couple of summers. To prevent flower loss, stagger drastic pruning over three or four years, reducing the size of the plant gradually.

Blanket weed seems to be an every present and I can’t get rid of it. A number of recommended treatments, which are not cheap, have failed. Is there likely to be a reason why my pond has what seems a particularly virulent and stubborn form of this weed?

Blanket weed is distinctive and well named, spreading and covering whole areas of ponds. It spreads by branching off and breaking off parts of its own structure which then colonise new areas. Biologically speaking, it is a very successful strategy, allowing it to thrive and spread rapidly throughout its life cycle.

There are numerous types of blanket weed (also referred to as string-algae).

Algae are plants and as such they grow through the process of photosynthesis. This means quite simply that if blanket weed algae spores exist in the pond and if there are sufficient nutrients dissolved in the water then when the sun shines and especially if the water is warm as in summer months then the blanket weed will take on a life of its own.

Once a fish pond has become infected with blanket weed it used to be virtually impossible to get rid of it. Thankfully there are blanket weed controllers, blanket weed cures, blanket weed removers and a whole host of treatments or killers. Not all of them work all the time and the reason for

this is not well known but it probably revolves around the different types of algae in the blanket weed class. This may be the problem here.

A side benefit of having blanket weed in your fishpond is Blanket weed can be a that the pond water season long nightmare is generally very clear and herein lies part of the modern day secret to getting rid of blanket weed.

Why does this kind of pond water stay clear? The answer is the nutrients are taken up so greedily by the fast growing blanket weed that the tiny suspended types of algae referred to normally as green algae can’t get a grip on life.

They are virtually starved out of existence. So you have to get rid of the nitrates. Unfortunately it’s not quite so simple so ask at your garden or pond centre for products work by mopping up nitrates dissolved in water. Removing nitrates by using specific naturally occurring bacteria mixtures was proven in independent tests to be the best way to control blanket weed. They discovered that by using the right bacterial mixes and regular treatment with the bacteria it was possible to reduce nitrates to extremely low levels. Products come in sachet form and many have a mixture of bacteria and barley straw extracts.

www.countrygardener.co.uk

31

Hartland Abbey & Gardens

A SPECIAL DAY OUT IN A SPECTACULAR CORNER OF NORTH DEVON Visit this historic family home with its fascinating architecture, collections and exhibitions. Beautiful 18thC Walled and Woodland gardens and wildflower walks to the beach at Blackpool Mill.

Film location for ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’. * Dogs welcome * Holiday Cottages * House, Gardens and Café: until 30th September, Sunday to Thursday 11am - 5pm (House 2pm - last adm. 4pm)

For all information and events see www.hartlandabbey.com Hartland, Nr. Bideford EX39 6DT 01237441496/234

Stanway House & Fountain

GILLINGHAM & SHAFTESBURY

AGRICULTURALSHOW ‘The Show where town & country meet’

Wednesday 15th August 8.30am - 6.30pm Attractions include: The Imps Motorcycle Display Team Over 500 trade stand including 14 tractor dealers Competitive classes for Dairy & Beef Cattle, Sheep, Poultry, Grain & Fodder. K.C. Dog Show Huge Horticulture, Home-Handicraft Marquee including Fruit & Veg, Flowers & Floral Decoration, Photography, Honey, Cookery, Handicraft, Wine & Cordial - With many classes especially for children Held at the Turnpike Showground SP7 9PL 2 miles north of Shaftesbury - Free Car Parks Tickets (pre-show prices in brackets) Adult £16 (£13 Child (5-16yrs) £4 (£3) Family ticket (2 adults + 3 Children) £39 (£31)

The world’s tallest gravity fed fountain

Disabled facilities - Dogs on leads

CALL: 01747 823955

Jacobean Manor House, home of the Earl of Wemyss, together with spectacular fountain open all year by appointment for group visits.

EMAIL: enquiries@gillshaftshow.co.uk WEB: www.gillshaftshow.co.uk FACEBOOK: GillandShaftshow

Castle Hill Gardens

FILLEIGH, NR SOUTH MOLTON, DEVON EX32 0RH Tel: 01598 760336 www.castlehilldevon.co.uk Explore 50 acres of stunning landscape on pathways leading to follies, statues and temples.

River walk and panoramic views from the Castle.

Dogs on leads welcome.

Tearoom offering light lunches and delicious homemade cakes.

Contact 07850 585539 for details. www.stanwayfountain.co.uk

Open daily except Saturdays Adults £7, Seniors £6.50, Child (5-15) £3, Family £16, Groups (20+) £6.50

Stanway, Cheltenham, Gloucs, GL54 5BT

          



Hidden beauty in rural Oxfordshire

Gardens Open every Tuesday & Thursday in June, July & August 2.00pm to 6.00pm An imposing 17th century farmhouse set within the remaining arms of a 500 year old moat, with over 3 acres of informal gardens and grounds

Cream teas ~ Museum ~ Gift shop

Private garden tours may be arranged on other days during the summer             Clanfield ~ Oxfordshire ~ OX18 2SU

 32

Country Gardener

Privacy in your garden

– the stylish way

Contemporary combi

It’s now possible to build fencing which offers you seclusion and great style and design

Your garden is your own personal oasis; a place to retreat and enjoy peace and quiet. Naturally, when you’re relaxing you don’t want prying eyes peering in.

Once upon a time a fence was quite basic and functional and while it did a job it didn’t do a lot for the design and overall feel of a garden.

These days are different and there’s a ton of ways you can use your boundaries to protect your privacy and enhance your garden design.

People often refresh their gardens with the aim of making them more secluded. Using a fence with solid panels is a good, simple way to do this. This also offers the chance to make a strong design statement while keeping the outside world at bay.

To minimise the chance of other people being able to see into your garden, choosing a run of solid panels with a height of 1.83m (6ft) will help you keep your space personal (a note: most people prefer 1.65m panels with 150mm gravel boards to make the 1.83m).

It’s worth knowing that UK planning laws require consent for fences over two metres.

Solid style panels offer the added benefit of added strength compared to semi-solid fencing Miss and Venetian Hit as well as great noise reduction.

Fencing specialists Jacksons, contemporary styles of fencing are very popular at the moment, particular those with ‘Venetian’ style spaced-out horizontal slats. This provides gardens with a smart, clean aesthetic.

However, for those of us who prefer not to have the neighbours staring in all the time, it’s not really suitable.

Fortunately there is a variant of Venetian fencing known as Venetian Hit & Miss that tackles the privacy Venetian and woven fencing issue and stays true to the contemporary aesthetic. It has alternating slats on both sides, which comes with plenty of benefits. The double-sided approach stops people seeing directly through the fencing, yet still allows light in, creating a beautiful dappled effect.

On top of this, your garden will still have that horizontal, cutting-edge slatted design.

Alternatively, why not use a hybrid panel, such as Venetian Canterbury Combi which comprises solid Tongue and Groove panels with a Venetian style on top? This will give your garden a sleek, modern look while keeping your sanctuary out of view.

You could even mix up the materials used for your perimeter. Combining brick walls with picturesque timber Woven fencing fencing provides both a solid boundary with style, as well as adding a robust rustic appearance to your garden.

Having a ‘living wall’ in your garden is great way of incorporating vibrant colours and it creates a living boundary shielding your garden. By using a Trellis or perhaps a semisolid fence panel with plenty of gaps in the design, you can grow plants such as climbers through the Trellis, a fantastic addition to any garden.

Climbers we love are clematis, a versatile plant with beautiful foliage that can grow almost anywhere, and blackberry bramble – perfect for animal lovers, its fruit attracts all manner of birds and insects.

If you want a light and airy garden, you can still achieve this while keeping it private.

Try creating a specific area in your garden for you to retreat to. ‘Outdoor rooms’ are a garden trend swiftly growing in popularity, allowing you to enjoy the natural setting while still providing a few home comforts, perfect for socialising.

Using fencing or a trellis is a quick way to achieve this by sectioning off part of the garden from the open expanse.

Adding a polycarbonate roof to your shelter will keep it dry allowing you to put furniture underneath.

Another quirky idea is to look for nautical inspiration and use sails. Hoisting a sail shade up a pergola gives your garden a distinct look that provides shelter from both sun and the neighbours.

If you decide to let a bit more sun in and open up your garden, you can easily roll the sails up, making your garden both stylish and adaptable.

Jacksons Fencing www.jacksons-fencing.co.uk New Rock, Chilcompton, Bath BA3 4GJ. Tel: 01761 232647

www.countrygardener.co.uk

33

What to give plants to drink July in the garden is typically a time to kick back, relax and enjoy the fruits of your labour, dead heading and harvesting is really the order of the day.

However, summer plant feeding is also a vital task to make sure you enjoy the best of crops and healthy disease free plants. Liquid feeds are a good place to start and historically many gardeners have made their own by steeping comfrey or nettles in water, a time honoured tradition, still an excellent way of feeding plants.

If however as a keen gardener you would like a more modern approach, nowadays there are a wide range of excellent premade liquid feeds on the market. There are however a few simple tips to ensure you get the most appropriate plant feed for you and your plants.

You get what you pay for

The cheapest liquid feeds, now available in many non specialist retailers, will only contain chemicals nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, (N:P:K), there will be no other trace elements or stimulants. If you want an analogy it is like someone living on a diet of fast food, you can survive but won’t necessarily be very healthy. It is also possible if you overdose on these harsher chemicals to get some quite freaky growth experiences in plants.

Minor nutrients and trace elements

There are about 30 different plant nutrients identified so far.

Generally speaking most good soils will provide the minor nutrients and trace elements. It is possible that a lack of an obscure minor nutrient maybe limiting the uptake of an important element leading to deficiency symptoms.

Super seaweeds

Seaweeds are a very valuable addition to a rounded modern feed.

Seaweed on its own doesn’t contain any nutrients but works hormonally as a stimulant to increase rooting, nutrient uptake and better growth. And a point for organic gardeners to remember and take note of- traditional calcified seaweed is not organic

Tailored feeds for specific plants

One of the developments amongst feeds for plants in recent years has been the growing range of plant foods tailored for not just roses and ericaceous plants but many other plant 34

Liquid plant feeding is now thought to be essential but wit h many different types of fertilisers available, all with different nutrient values, it’s not easy to know which is the best buy

groups. These feeds contain the most typical nutrients and trace elements that the given plant group requires. Have a look at the label and you will see in most cases the N:P:K values are different. A word of caution here - some feed ranges can be the same product just with a different packaging.

Modern ingredients

Horticultural science is constantly evolving and nutrients are starting to come from more sustainable sources and stimulants are enabling gardeners to use less nutrients and achieve the same results. A recent discovery is an amino acid, which is a by product of the UK Sugar Beet industry, which actually feeds soil microbes which in turn feed the plants.

Summing up

When choosing a liquid feed if you have a limited budget, why not make your own? There is a wealth of information out there on the internet. If you choose to invest in a liquid feed pick one that has the widest range of nutrients and trace elements as possible, contains at least seaweed, but ideally other biostimulants as well. Finally, store the feed in a cool dry place, and remember not to leave them in the greenhouse as liquid feeds in a sweltering July greenhouse can break down and lose their potency in a matter of weeks and be useless.

Liquid Afterplant from Empathy rootgrow The liquid Afterplant range produced by the makers of rootgrow mycorrhizal fungi contains a range of plant nutrients, derived from as sustainable sources as possible. Tailored to the needs of specific plant groups such as roses, tomatoes, patio plants, evergreens and ericaceous plants. Liquid Afterplant also contains humic and fulvic acids, a professional grade seaweed and an amino acid to feed soil biology.

FOR MORE INFORMATION https://thegrownetwork.com/15-simple-andinexpensive-homemade-fertilizers/ www.rootgrow.co.uk www.maxicrop.co.uk www.neudorff.co.uk

Country Gardener

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35

Cornus florida rubra in its autumn glory

FLOWERING DOGWOODS

- al l year round perf or mers

early s his love for a tree which offers elegant blooms in Kilver Court head gardener Matt Rees-Warren share autumn and winter leaves in autumn fruits in late summer and burnt and fiery colour in Flowering dogwoods have lost out a little in the race for space in our supposedly ever shrinking gardens.

Acers, fruit trees, amelanchiers – they all seem to be the choice de rigueur for a small tree specimen.

Cornus x elwinortonii ‘Venus’

Maybe it’s a case of mistaken identity as the long running love affair with the shrubby dogwoods (a very different plant that we use for their fiery winter stems) continues unabated and takes the limelight away.

Whatever it is it’s an underserved undercard, as they are fabulous trees perfectly suited to the ‘bells and whistles’ demands of the modern age.

Cornus florida 36

When we talk of flowering dogwoods, Country Gardener

summer, amazing

what we generally mean are the American species Cornus florida and Cornus nutalli and the Chinese species Cornus kousa. Each has its own characteristics and cultivars but both share the same cornerstones of the flowering dogwood style: elegant white or pink blooms in early summer, amazing ‘lychee like’ fruits in late summer and burnt and fiery, copper and port leaves in autumn.

The flowering dogwoods are, as their name suggests, a tree planted for their blooms above anything else and not without reason, as it’s the flowers that truly set them apart. They are in fact bracts that we see as flowers and this, like hellebores, means their blooms are more lasting and immaculately formed.

The colours are almost always white or pink with hints of green and rouge and they have a wonderful habit of tapering at their edges in different hues.

When they hit their stride in early June and begin to smother the tree they look like exotic butterflies sitting on the branches, drawn at the edge by fine pen, waiting for the wind to flutter their wings.

The fruits of these trees are also wonderfully conspicuous, and to me look like a cross

between a lychee and a strawberry. They are edible - or so I’m informed having never tried one myself - and in their native Korea and Japan are eaten fresh but mostly fermented to make wine. If you’re feeling adventurous then current wisdom seems to dictate that it’s far better to try and pick over ripe than under ripe and catching the fallen fruits before they rot may be the best option.

As equally dramatic as the fruit and the bracts are the spectacular autumn colours. The leaves turn to dusty hues of purple and red and with its tiered habit, much like Viburnum plicatum, has a depth and added dimension that is immensely pleasing on the eye. It reminds me of the Parrotia in the way the leaves seem to be imbued with many different shades all at the same time, marking the final flourish of autumn with regal splendour.

At Kilver court we have a mature Cornus kousa var ‘Chinensis’. It sits by the inlet of the river Sheppey, under the lee of a mighty yew, and has seemed, over the years, more than content in its place. This might be because they live on the edge of great forests in the wild and that would suggest a soil that holds moisture, gets direct sun but also likes a little shade.

To know where your plants grow in the wild is one of the pillars of wisdom for gardeners, and it can also lead to an understanding of how plants from such far-flung places ended up in the humble English garden.

Plants can be as much about the people who brought them to these shores as their own distinctive dispositions and the Cornus kousa var ‘Chinensis’ is no different. It was ‘found’, in China, by Ernest Henry ‘Chinese’ Wilson, regarded as one of the great ‘plant hunters’ of the Victorian era. This erudite Englishman introduced thousands of unknown species from the great forests of Asia and, as his nickname suggests, especially from the south west provinces of China. Wilson was young, prolific in his discoveries, and without a doubt one of the biggest influences on the gardens of his era and into the present day.

Whether you want to question the imperial logic of a marauding Englishman searching for rare beauty in distant foreign lands, is open to debate. However, you have to admire the soul of a man who risks everything to stand in the presence of nature’s majestic power and delicate fragility.

When he found the Cornus kousa var ‘Chinensis’ he had already ‘discovered’ and introduced Clematis armandii, Acer griseum, Viburnum davidii and Lilium regale to name but a few. He was doing this under the employment of the Arnold arboretum of

Harvard university in Boston. However, before this, he was working for the world famous Veitch nurseries of Victorian era England – the powerhouse of plant discovery in all of Europe.

At the time of his death on 15th October 1930 he was credited with introducing over a 1,000 new species and there’s hardly a garden today that doesn’t contain at least one of these.

So when you’re wandering around the many gardens of these isles take a moment to realise the endeavours of these pioneers and the sacrifices they made for the simple beauty of these exotic plants.

“The f lowering dogwoods are, as their name suggests, a tree planted for their blooms above anything else and not without reason, as it’s the f lowers that truly set them apart”.

Above left: The colours are almost always white or pink with hints of green and rouge and they have a wonderful habit of tapering at their edges in different hues.

Above right: A reminder of the winter glory - Cornus sanguines ‘Midwinter Fire’.

If you want to go plant hunting for flowering dogwoods like Wilson you might find it a little easier than he did but you’ll still have to go off the beaten track. You are likely to come across Cornus kousa ‘Miss Satomi’ with it’s bubblegum pink blooms and slightly smaller and more arching habit to the ‘Chinensis’.

The colour is much more elegant in the flesh but undoubtedly draws the eye. A newer hybrid is Cornus x elwinortonii ‘Venus’ which crosses the kousa var ‘Chinensis’ to the nutalli, and although I’ve not seen one in maturity they look splendid at 4-5ft covered from top to bottom in creamy white bracts.

The Cornus florida are a little harder to find but you may want to look out for the ‘Cherokee chief’ with its magenta, almost blood red blooms and the more common ‘Rubra’. www.countrygardener.co.uk

37

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Country Gardener

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Three Cotswold Barn Conversions Sleeps 4-10 people. Visit England Four Stars In between Upton House, Hidcote and Chastleton

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North Devon near Clovelly. 3 delightful cottages situated in 12 acres of idyllic countryside. Sleeps 2-4. 1 Wheelchair friendly. Prices from £190 p.w. Brochure: 01237 431324 www.foxwoodlodge.co.uk

Gloucestershire Quality Bungalow B&B Ensuites, rural, large garden with sheep and fruit. Ideal Cotswolds, Malvern’s, walking, cycle storage, ample parking, Wi-Fi £37 p.p.p.n.

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Tel: 01308 488177 Country House B&B Ideal location for Malvern Autumn Garden Show and surrounding gardens. Visit www.littlebridge-house.co.uk or Tel: 01885 482471 for details.

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Flyscreens Enjoy more of the Country Gardener experience by visiting our website Penrice Castle Gower 16 holiday cottages on an 18th century Estate on the Gower Peninsula with beautiful Grade I listed historic park and gardens.

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TIME Off

COMPILED BY KATE LEW IS DIARY EVENTS FROM CLUBS AND ORGANISATIONS AROUND SOMERSET

Here’s a selection of Somerset gardening events to look out for over the next few weeks. Thank you to all those gardening clubs who have sent us their details of events for us to publicise. Send us details of your event at least ten weeks before publication and we will publicise it free of charge. Make sure you let us know where the event is being held, the date and include a contact telephone number.

We are keen to support garden club events and we will be glad to publicise talks and shows held during the year where clubs want to attract a wider audience, but we do not have space for club outings or parties. We suggest that garden clubs send us their diary for the year for events to be included in the relevant issue of the magazine. Please send to Country Gardener Magazines, Mount House, Halse, Taunton TA4 3AD or by email to timeoff@countrygardener.co.uk.

We take great care to ensure that details are correct at the time of going to press but we advise readers to check wherever possible before starting out on a journey as circumstances can force last minute changes. All NGS open gardens can be found on www.ngs.org.uk or in the local NGS booklet available at many outlets.

JUNE

‘CELEBRATING ART IN THE GARDEN’ 11am – 6pm

16th BREWERY HOUSE, SOUTHSTOKE NGS OPEN GARDEN 2pm – 5pm

23rd/24th WEDMORE HIDDEN GARDENS 10.30am – 5pm www.theisleofwedmore.net

18th BURNHAM ON SEA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ‘SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW GLADIOLUS’ – GILL HAZELL 19th BARRINGTON & DISTRICT GARDENING SOCIETY ‘ORGANIC VEGETABLE GROWING’ – BRIAN HESKETH Details on 01460 55950 HOLFORD GARDENERS CLUB ‘I ONLY COUNT THE SUNNY HOURS – A LOOK AT SUNDIALS OVER THE YEARS’ – CYRIL ROUTLEY Details on 01278 741130 20th MENDIP GARDENING CLUB ‘A HEDGEHOG IN THE GARDEN’ – JUNE FITZGIBBON Details on 01761 750139 21st DULVERTON GARDEN CLUB ‘HOW TO SHOW VEGETABLES’ – IAN LAWRENCE Details on 01398 323462 22nd-8th July URCHFONT MANOR, WILTSHIRE GARDEN SCULPTURE EXHIBITION:

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24th NUNNEY, NR FROME OPEN GARDENS DAY 11am – 5pm Details on 01373 836105 26th CHILCOMPTON GARDEN CLUB ‘FEEL GOOD FOOD AND FEEL GOOD FARMING’ – PED ASGARIAN ENMORE & DISTRICT GARDENING CLUB ‘CARPETS, RUGS & DOORMATS’ – JENNY SHORT Details on 01278 671654 NUNNEY GARDENING CLUB ‘THE EDWARDIAN GARDEN’ – CHRISTINE STONE Details on 01460 72298 SALTFORD FLORAL CLUB DEMONSTRATION BY KATHERINE KEAR Details on 0117 9771813 28th TAUNTON FLORAL ART CLUB ‘JUST FOR YOU’ – JO JACOBS Details on 01823 327844 30th CONGRESBURY GARDENING CLUB SUMMER SHOW & FETE Details on 01934 833662

Country Gardener

TINTINHULL, BA22 8PY (DEVON/ DORSET) OPEN GARDENS Details on 01935 824868 30th June/1st July THE MOOR GARDEN CLUB, MOORLAND & FORDGATE, NR BRIDGWATER EIGHT OPEN GARDENS FOR CHARITY Details on 01278 691570

JULY 1st HESTERCOMBE GARDENS, TAUNTON FB POCKET ORCHESTRA JAZZ CONCERT Details on 01823 413923 4th WEST PENNARD SPEAKERS ‘WHAT TO GROW IN YOUR GREENHOUSE’ – GOLD CLUB Details on 01458 80734 5th TATWORTH FLOWER CLUB ‘BEES, BIRDS & ALFIE BOE’ – BARBARA CLATWORTHY Details on 01297 33924 7th PLANT HERITAGE SOMERSET GROUP, EDINGTON ‘NOT JUST GERTRUDE JEKYLL – OTHER AMAZING WOMEN WHO HAVE SHAPED OUR GARDENS’ – CHRISTINE STONES Details on 01278 451631

8th HARDY PLANT SOCIETY, SOMERSET GROUP, WEST MONKTON SUMMER PLANT FAIR 10am – 4pm HARDY PLANT SOCIETY SUMMER PLANT FAIR Lower Severalls, Crewkerne 10am - 4pm 8th/9th HONEYHURST FARM, RODNEY STOKE, BS27 3UJ NGS OPEN GARDEN 9th KILMERSDON GARDENERS ‘PLANTS FOR SHADE’ – ADRIAN HUTCHISON Details on 01761 233325 WESTON-SUPER-MARE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ALLOTMENT COMPETITION 10th BRIDGWATER FLOWER CLUB ‘A FEAST OF …’ – JULIA HARRISON Details on 01823 443485 FROME SELWOOD HORTICULTURE SOCIETY PROGRAMME ‘OE X FACTOR - TIPS FOR A MEMORABLE GARDEN’ - NEIL ROSS Details on 01373 462162 PORTISHEAD HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ‘IT’S NOT TIME FOR BED YET’ – HELEN PICTON Details on 01275 817350 11th NAILSEA & DISTRICT HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ‘CLEMATIS AND OTHER CLIMBING PLANTS’ – JON MASON Details on 01275 855342

KILMERSDON GARDENERS ‘EASY GROWING AND HARVESTING WITH PERENNIALS’ - BRYONY HUNTLEY Details on 01373 813853 12th CREWKERNE GARDENING CLUB ‘THE WHITE GARDEN: THE NEW PROJECT’ – NEIL LOVESEY Details on 01935 509676 14th/15th THE HIDDEN GARDENS OF BATH, 165 NEWBRIDGE HILL, BATH, BA1 3PX ‘ SCULPTURE TO ENHANCE A GARDEN’ 11am-5pm Details on 07793 085267 www.thehiddengardensofbath.co.uk 16th BURNHAM-ON-SEA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ‘A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A MEADOW’ – DIANA REDFERN WESTON-SUPER-MARE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY GARDEN COMPETITION 17th BARRINGTON & DISTRICT GARDENING SOCIETY ‘WILDLIFE CONSERVATION’ – DAWN LAWRENCE Details on 01460 55950 HOLFORD GARDENERS CLUB MEMBERS GARDEN MEETING Details on 01278 741130 18th HESTERCOMBE GARDENS, TAUNTON SUMMER SUPPER & TALK Details on 01823 413923

ENJOY COLOUR IN YOUR GARDEN

all Summer long

HENTON GARDENING CLUB GARDEN PARTY www.hentongardenclub.weebly.com MENDIP GARDENING CLUB ‘CULTIVATION AND USE OF HERBS’ – CAROLINE PAKENHAM Details on 01761 750139 NORTH CADBURY GARDENING CLUB ‘WATER IN GARDENS’ – ALAN EASON 24th CHILCOMPTON GARDEN CLUB ‘THE HIDDEN GARDENS OF BATH’ – HELEN HUGHESDON ENMORE & DISTRICT GARDENING CLUB ‘SCENTED GARDEN’ – JEREMY WILSON Details on 01278 671654 ISLE OF WEDMORE GARDENING CLUB ‘MAKING THE BEST OF GARDEN FLOWERS’ - GEORGIE NEWBERRY Details on 01934 712161 26th TAUNTON FLORAL ART CLUB TINA PARKS – MASTER FLORIST EXETER Details on 01823 327844 28th YATTON & DISTRICT HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY SUMMER SHOW Details on 01934 834889 31st NUNNEY GARDENING CLUB ‘BIRDS’ – PENNY ROBERTS Details on 01460 72298

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COUNTRY GARDENER

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Hardy Exotic Plant Centre Visit our new cacti and succulent house.

We also have a new range of restio and protea as well as great ranges of bamboos, tree ferns, ferns, cannas, gingers, bannas and shrubs, perennials, trees.

Open every day 10am-5pm Lower Henlade, Taunton, TA3 5NB (5 mins from J25, follow A358 to Yeovil, then signs to the Mt Somerset Hotel)

Tel: 01823 443701 www.deserttojungle.com 43

Willowbrook Nursery and Garden Centre your local family-run garden centre

JAPANESE MAPLES Acer palmatum varieties We produce and grow the largest selection available in the UK. Plants are pot grown and suitable for garden, patio or bonsai.

A wide choice of award-winning shrubs, bedding, trees, herbs, climbers, perennials, alpines, roses, soft and top fruit and much more.

We also have a well-stocked shop, Pet & Bird Centre, Aquatic Centre, Shed, Cafe & Tea Room serving home cooked food.

Send SAE for descriptive catalogue.

Visitors welcome Mon-Sat 9am-1pm & 2pm-4.30pm Barthelemy & Co (DCG), 262 Wimborne Rd West, Stapehill, Wimborne, Dorset BH21 2DZ

On the main A38 between Taunton & Wellington www.willowbrooknurseryandgardencentre.co.uk

Tel: 01202 874283 enquiries@barthelemymaples.co.uk www.barthelemymaples.co.uk

TELEPHONE 01823 461324

BROWNE’S GARDEN CENTRE Come and relax in our coffee shop and then select from our large selection of container grown shrubs, perennials, roses, fruit & ornamental trees

HILL CLOSE VICTORIAN GARDENS WARWICK Come and explore 16 unique restored Victorian gardens Open weekdays Nov-March: 11-4pm Open every day April-Oct: 11am-5pm with tearoom Sat, Sun and Bank Hol Mon

Huge selection of terracotta & glazed pots Fencing, paving & aggregates Garden buildings

Plus all your garden sundry requirements Large range of summer bedding & basket plants OPEN: 9am-5.30pm Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm Sunday

Coffee shop open 10.30am-4pm Monday-Sunday

GLASTONBURY ROAD, WELLS TEL: 01749 673050

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Tuesday 3rd July - Heartbreak Productions Drama: The Railway Children Picnic in the gardens from 5.00pm.

Drama starts at 6.30pm. Tickets: £14. Concessions (under 16s and over 65s) £11. Booking essential.

Garden entry £4.50 Child £1.00 HCGT & RHS Free Tel. 01926 493339 www.hillclosegardens.com Access by racecourse to Bread & Meat Close, Warwick CV34 6HF. 2 hrs free parking.

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Stockists of Country Gardener Somerset Country Gardener is available free of charge throughout the area at the outlets listed below. For amendments to details or deliveries call Pat Eade on 01594 543790 email pateade8@gmail.com Axbridge Mawr Agri Banwell Banwell Garden Centre Bath Gardenalia Prior Park NT Landscape Gdn Prior Park Garden Centre Berrow Westcroft Nurseries Bitton Fonthill Garden Centre Brent Knoll Sanders Garden World Bridgwater Bridgwater College, Cannington Bridgwater Mowers Gwillam Kellands Prompt Cabins Walled Garden, Cannington Wynnstay Agricentre Bristol Brackenwood Garden Centre Chief Trading Post Ltd Cleeve Nursery & Garden Centre Kemps Plants Lockyer Fuchsias Pucklechurch Village Store & PO Riverside Garden Centre University of Bristol-Botanic Garden Burnham on Sea Visitor Information Centre Castle Cary Dave Marsh Hardware Heather’s Florist Chard Chard Garden Centre Forde Abbey Plant Centre Tourist Information Centre Charlton Adam Charlton Adam Post Office Cheddar Cheddar Garden Centre Chew Magna Chew Valley Trees Chilcompton Norton Green Garden Centre

Congresbury Cadbury Garden Centre Middlecombe Nursery & Gardens Tincknell Country Stores Crewkerne Crewkerne Horticultural Wynnstay Agricentre Curry Rivel Sandpits Garden Centre Ditcheat Maryland Farm Shop Dunster Dunster Castle NT Forton Forton Nusery Frome Barters Plant Centre Frome Reclamation Oakley Garden Machinery Tourist Information Centre Galhampton Prompt Cabins Glastonbury Sweet Acre Nursery Hambridge Brown & Forrest Heywood Home Farm Shop Highbridge Rich’s Cider Farm Hilperton Avonfield Garden Centre Hinton St George Community Shop Ilminster Loxston Garden Machinery Keynsham TT Mowers Whitegate Nursery Langford Blagdon Water Gardens Langport Kelways Plant Centre Long Sutton Village Store and PO Lower Severalls CB Plants Lydeard St Lawrence Elworthy Cottage Plants

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Warminster Lakeside Garden Centre Washford Pickard Country Store Wellington Chelston Nurseries Stawley Village Shop @ Appley Willowbrook Garden Centre Wells Browne’s Garden Centre Rocky Mountain Nursery Tincknell Country Stores Tourist Information Centre Wells Reclamation Co. West Bagborough Triscombe Nurseries West Coker Greensleeves Nursery West Harptree New Manor Farm Shop West Quantoxhead Wibble Farm Nurseries Whitchurch Whitehall Garden Centre Williton Gliddons Garden Machinery Wraxall Tyntesfield NT Yeovil Brimsmore Gardens Mole Valley Farmers Tourist Information Centre

Country Gardener Magazine Editorial Publisher & Editor: Alan Lewis alan@countrygardener.co.uk Tel: 01823 431767

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45

Small is

beautiful If you think of hostas you probably immediately picture lush, leafy plants forming clumps of bold dramatically coloured leaves.

But that is only part of the story.

There is an increasing interest and even devotion amongst gardeners for tiny hostas defined as’ Minature’ yet just as beautiful versions of their larger brethren with names such as ‘Tiny Thumb’, ’Little Caesar’ and ‘Shining Tot’.

Mini hostas have long been treasured by the Japanese, partly as their private gardens are so small, and also because these plants make ideal planting companions for bonsai.

Mini hostas have now almost reached cult status in parts of Europe and their popularity is growing enormously in Britain.

Most hosta collectors think of a miniature hosta as one that grows no more than about six inches in height. However, the American Hosta Society which sets the international standards for hostas now defines a miniature as one which has a mature leaf area of six inches or less. This means that some varieties with long narrow leaves are designated as minis even though their mature height may be up to 12 inches for example H. ‘Stiletto’ and H. Hacksaw’.

Many ‘very small’ hostas are still suitable for troughs and bowls since, like many vigorous miniatures, they very conveniently ‘bonsai’ themselves if their root-room is restricted.

Miniature hostas look great planted together in bowls or troughs, separately in pots, or in gravel beds. Some of the more vigorous varieties also look good as edging plants or on rockeries, but since they do not spread rapidly make sure faster growing and spreading plants can’t easily smother them.

Most miniature hostas are trouble free and, like their larger ‘Little Caesar‘ hosta relatives, are very easy to grow.

The secret is to make sure they have very good drainage.

Miniatures need a lot of air around their roots and hate sitting in water-logged compost over winter when wetness combined with a hard freeze can cause root rot. Since miniature and very small hostas often have fine and shallow 46

Miniaturisation is not a trend which is limited to the world of electronics. It is increasingly relevant to plants and as in the case of mini hostas shows cult status soon follows

roots, you also need to make sure they do not dry out during the growing season.

Some miniature and very small hostas make wonderful accent plants for bonsai or look good by themselves in the smallest bonsai or Mini hostas look especially accent pots. After a attractive when planted tog ether year or two the plant may push itself out of the compost. In this case, root prune, as you would a bonsai tree.

Miniatures, like all hostas can be given an initial boost by using a weak seaweed feed (root stimulant) between March and May. White centred minis, i.e. those with little chlorophyll in their leaves, benefit from a weak feed through the summer, but do not feed after July, when the hosta is beginning to slow down for the winter.

The best time to divide minis is when they are growing most strongly, i.e. from June to July. Before you divide, check that the root ball is a good size and that the plant has multiple eyes (leaf buds). To divide, depending on the size of the plant, use a sharp bread knife or a cheap disposable blade craft knife, cut carefully through the crown and tease the roots apart. The rule for dividing is: ‘Don’t be too greedy!’ The more divisions you try to get out of one plant the more chance there will be of losses.

All hostas benefit from about four weeks dormancy in winter so over-wintering minis outside in a severe winter isn’t a problem providing they have very good drainage. Cold won’t kill a mini but being waterlogged, frozen, thawed and frozen might, particularly during its first year of growth. Mulch your minis with bark chippings or horticultural grit to help prevent crown rot and the puddling of water around the crown if there is a top thaw after a really hard freeze.

The real joy of minis is that one can grow a great number in a small space.

They may be small in stature but they have a delicate charm of their own so it is scarcely surprising that interest in mini hostas is growing at such a rate.

Suppliers Bowden Hostas, Devon www.bowdenhostas.com 01837 840989

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