Late flowering perennials and ‘plants that die well’ was our focus for discussion today. Umbels are particularly good at dying well and provide wonderful structure in the border so think about what needs to be cut back and leave plants that still have architectural interest.
Umbels are defined as ‘an inflorescence in which a number of flower stalks or pedicels, nearly equal in length, spread from a common centre’. They are often flat topped with flower stalks that are splayed like ribs on an umbrella. Examples of umbels are fennel, angelica, cow parsley, ammi, astrantia, flowers of carrots and parsnips.
Angelica gigas
Umbels at Great Dixter
Plant identification:
We looked at a number of plants that Bridge had collected from her recent visit to Sussex Prairie Gardens in Henfield. The garden is closed now until next June but does include a section within the main garden which demonstrates how prairie planting can be done on a smaller more domestic scale.
Echinacea purpurea ‘Virgin’ – or white coneflower. They are sturdy and easy to care for and need full sun or partial shade. They have large and fragrant blooms from July to October which are very attractive to butterflies.
Amsonia or ‘bluestars’ are clump forming herbaceous perennials. In spring they have star shaped blue flowers, the foliage stays green in summer but in autumn it turns yellow/bronze
Panicum elegans ‘Frosted Explosion’ an easy to grow dramatic frothy grass which is good with cut flowers. It is an annual that can be grown from seed – sow indoors in seed trays from Feb to April, prick out and harden off in May and it will flower from July to Sept.
Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’ or switch grass. It is an upright clump forming grass with red/ brown leaves that are blue /green when they emerge in spring. In autumn they turn a deep burgandy. It has red/pink flowers which later turn beige.
Calamagrostis acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ is a feather reed grass. It is a clump forming perennial that loves shade and stays upright, it grows to 90cm
Rudbeckia triloba is native to United States, it gives a fantastic late summer/autumn display and is good combined with grasses. It can tolerate shade.
Aster lateriflorus horizontalis, has stiff stems set with small, dark green leaves and forms compact, bush-like plants. By October, they are a mass of tiny, silvery flowers with clover-pink, fluffy centres. grows to 61 cm. It is used in Great Dixter as hedging
Aster ericoides – a white aster native to N. America and Mexico
Activities in the garden this week:
Further compost work – digging out the heap and spreading on beds
Lots of discussion about a recent visit by some group members to Great Dixter and how inspirational and extraordinary the garden is even in the autumn in the pouring rain. The plant identification featured some plants bought at their plant fair.
Plant identification:
Thalictrum yunnanense- a low growing clump-forming Chinese perennial with upright slightly hairy slender stems to 60cm tall. It has whitish flowers, from tight pinkish buds. It likes full sun or part shade in any type of drained soil and will do well on chalky soil. Flowering July to August. Thalictrums are a genus of about 130 species and are part of rununculaceae family, common name is meadow rue. Most thalictrums are tall and excellent background plants in the border.
Begonia modestiflora- a hardy perennial that does well in shade. Begonias are a genus of about 900 species and many cultivars of fleshy annuals, perennials, evergreen shrubs and climbers including some succulents. (See picture of begonias in Ann’s garden)
Fuchsia ‘Pumila’ is an upright, bushy, deciduous, compact shrub with dark green leaves and throughout summer, small red and purple flowers. It is hardy and good for low hedging.
Cotinus coggygria Golden spirit. This smoke bush has golden-yellow round leaves that turn coral, orange and red in autumn. In July and August smoke-like plumes of green flowers appear. It needs a sunny spot and well drained soil.
Activities in the garden this week:
Sorting out compost bins
Refreshing Little Dixter
Emptying cold frames
Starting work on an ‘Orsan’ inspired vegetable garden – planting spring cabbages and leeks
Pruning rose in woodland garden, planting out the thalictrums and Japanese anenomes
Taking cuttings of hebe and fuchsias
Panting out foxgloves in sunken garden
The compost team, Hilary and Lil, at work
Mary, Clare and Sharon working on new woodland garden
We discussed plans for the garden over the forthcoming year – there is still quite a lot of colour in the garden but when the flowers in cut flower beds are over this area will be used for vegetable growing. The bed at the back of the garden near the shed will be planted with shrubs and plants that thrive in shade will be planted under the cherry tree in top garden.
Salvia ‘Nachtvlinder’
We also talked about salvias which are part of the lamiaceae family. The genus of salvias contains about 900 species including annuals, biennials, herbaceous and evergreen perennials and shrubs. They are usually grown in sunny sites and many are aromatic and most have distinctive square stems. They can be fully hardy to frost tender. Julia talked about the BBC Gardeners World’s 25/9/14 visit to Great Comp Garden, Kent which holds the national collection of salvias. Recommended as the hardiest for British gardens are: Salvia ‘Jezebel’ (bright red flowers ) and Salvia x jamensis ‘Nachtvlinder’ (dark purple flowers).
Plant identification:
Dahlia ‘Honka’ an unusual dahlia with starry flowers
Zauschineria californica ‘Dublin’, (California fuchsia). This is a spreading, deciduous dwarf sub-shrub that grows to 25cm in height.
Salvia patens – a half hardy annual with deep blue flowers, it needs full sun and well drained soil.
Leucanthemum x superbum ‘Beaute Nivelloise’, a vigorous, clump forming perennial that can be grown in full sun to partial shade. It is fully hardy and will flower from June – September.
Activities in the garden:
Planting asters
Clearing cold frame
Pruning back under the arches
Pruning the Charles de Mille roses
Starting work on making a shrub bed at end of the garden
Maintaining Little Dixter
Working on top garden and taking out and potting up plants that are not doing well
The Garden House held a workshop on roses last Saturday which Cathy described as an inspirational day. Feedback from the day included a reminder that now is the time to prune ramblers and climbers. Rambling roses usually flower once whilst climbers repeat flower during summer and autumn although there are exceptions to this. Climbers also tend to have double flowers and ramblers look more like wild roses and are more vigorous. Climbers are best grown over arches and up walls and trellises whilst ramblers are best grown through trees. Both climbers and ramblers tend to flower better if they are trained as this promotes more flowering shoots. So in autumn stems can be bent into shape,tied and looped around arches or other supports. Ramblers can be pruned by cutting out old wood at the base (removing one in three of old stems) and fanning out the stems, climbers need the main leaders reducing and pruning back the side shoots to about 6″. It is from these side shoots that the flowers will grow. It is good to give the plants a boost after pruning by adding a mulch of manure and compost and feeding again in spring. One tip for planting a rose in a site where an old rose has been taken out is to dig a cardboard box sized hole and plant the rose in the box surrounded by lots of compost.
We also looked at some rose hips. Rosa rugosa can have white or pink flowers and can be grown as a hedge. Ramblers don’t need dead heading and have attractive hips.
Rosa pimpinellifolia has creamy white flowers and blackish hips.
Plant identification:
Paul brought along a wonderful selection of plants that look great in the garden now including a number of asters. The purple/blue of asters combine very well with yellows and oranges of rudbeckias. Asters are very flexible plants for late summer and autumn with their foliage often looking good before the flowers emerge. They also flower for a long time. They like sun but can survive well in semi shaded areas.
Aster laterifloris horizontalis has stiff stems with small dark green leaves and tiny silvery flowers with pink centres. It looks lovely in naturalistic or more formal planting and can grow to 60cm.
Aster turbinellus has arching growth and grows to about 5’or 6′ feet tall. It can loose leaves lower down and flowers at the top so is good at the back of the border.
Aster blue star is more compact growing to max of 4′ with lovely lavender blue coloured flowers.
Aster Kylie is very sprawling with masses of semi double tiny pink flowers
Rudkeckia triloba is a very reliable self seeding biennial and gives a long display of flowers. It is very attractive to butterflies.
Activities in the garden this week:
Cutting back the large Phormium ( New Zealand flax)
Further work on developing a woodland garden in top garden
Continued work to clear, cut back and weed under the arches and in large borders
Potting up jasmine and fuchsia cuttings in greenhouse and continue to sort out pelargoniums for over wintering
Planting up newly bought roses in pots
Paul’s plant stall
Bridge describing to Ann her plan for woodland garden
We had some discussion about our favourite plants or flowers at the start of the group. A favourite of Clare’s is Hesperantha or Schizostylis as they used to be called (common name is river lily). They are plants native to S. Africa and Zimbabwe and are great for late summer and autumn colour. They need a sheltered sunny place with moist but well drained soil. Plants can be divided every 2/3 years in the spring.
We looked at a range of bulbs. Now is the time to plant alliums outside and forced hyacinths for indoors if you want hyacinth flowers for Christmas. Other spring bulbs such as daffodils, crocus, muscari, tulips should be planted outside either in beds or in pots from October to December before first frosts. A bulb is essentially a collection of modified leaves which contains all the food that is necessary for growth – which is why hyacinth bulbs for example can be grown just with their roots in water.
Cyclamen hederifolium are the easiest of cyclamens to grow and are frost hardy. Cyclamen corms can be planted in autumn or spring. A corm is an adaptation of a stem. The corms should be planted when in growth and the tops of the corms should be level with the soil or only just submerged. Cyclamens do best in shade as they are essentially a woodland plant.
Fritillaria imperialis grow to 3′ and need full sun and is part of the Liliaceae family. Plant in autumn and they flower in April and May.
Activities in the garden this week:
pruning back and tidying the area underneath the arches and other beds near the steps
maintaining the ‘Little Dixter’ display outside the garden room
sorting out and potting on the baby sempervivums in top garden
taking cuttings of dianthus
taking out old lavender plants from top garden under cherry tree and taking lavender cuttings
potting up violas and taking cuttings
autumn lawn care – scarifying, aerating and mowing plus edging the lawn
Welcome to the first Friday gardening group blog of our new gardening year. It was good to see the garden again, catch up with returning group members and welcome new ones and get going with our gardening discussion and activities for 2014/15.
We discussed planned projects in the garden for the year ahead which will include replacing the old shed and landscaping the area around the shed and making a woodland garden around the cherry tree in the top garden. There is also a plan to prune back the large hawthorn hedge to try to improve the light and drainage in the big borders. A new development will be a ‘hot box’ for the greenhouse to help with propagating and Bridge will be giving advice on seed collecting and propagation techniques. There will be a number of open days throughout the year including plans to open for the National Garden Scheme, the Garden Gadabout and our own Friday Group charity event in July.
Plant ident:
Tulbaghia ‘Hazel’ Tulbaghia is a South African genus and is commonly know as Society garlic. It is a bulbous or rhizomatous perennial with linear leaves and umbels of star shaped flowers. It can be planted in beds or pots and propagated by seed or division in spring. It is known to be snail proof. Tulbaghia ‘Hazel’ has pale brownish pink flowers and flowers from June to the first frosts. It can grow to a height of 60cm. The more common variety is Tulbaghia violacea which has pale purple flowers.
Tulbaghia ‘Hazel’
Cobaea scandens This climber is commonly known as the cup and saucer vine. It is a vigorous perennial climber which is usually grown as an annual as it is quite tender. It has fragrant bell shaped flowers which change from greenish- white to purple and show themselves from August until the first frosts. It comes from Mexico and needs a sheltered sunny wall or trellis. It is pollinated by bats.
Cobaea scandens
Tagetes ‘Cinnabar’ A tall, branching marigold with finely cut deep, rich green leaves. It has copper orange bordering on rusty red single flowers which are produced from July to October. It is a half hardy annual and grows to 70cm. Can look very good with dahlias.
Tagetes ‘Cinnabar’
Ilex crenata ‘Golden Gem’ or Japanese Holly. ‘Golden Gem’ is a low-growing, compact dwarf evergreen shrub of spreading habit with small, golden yellow leaves.
Ilex crenata ‘Golden Gem’
Activities in the garden this week:
Weeding, dead heading and tidying up the borders
Sorting out pelargoniums and putting them in the greenhouse to overwinter
Cutting back the summer fruiting raspberries
Dividing sanguisorba plants
Cutting back ivy and sorting out plant display in front of garden room
A weekly account of the activities of the Friday Gardening Group at the Garden House in Brighton
