Heaven Scent

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Dianthus 'Sweet Black Cherry', hanging baskets, Night-scented stock, Plant Me Now, scented flowers

Night-scented stock

A few weeks ago I was asked to come up with a design for a hanging basket for the online plant nursery Plant Me Now. The design had to include a selection of plants which would fit a 30cm rattan basket, there would be no side holes for planting, there should be no more than 7 plants and they had to come from the Plant Me Now bedding plants range or were plants which could be easily sourced.

Oddly, I’ve never made a hanging basket before. I’m not sure why. My neighbour had a beautiful one by her front door this summer and they are an integral part of my village’s Britain in Bloom entry, with shops and pubs producing a spectacular show every year. Because my focus for the last couple of years has been the allotment and the cut flower patch I haven’t even planted containers to have by the front door or on the patio, but this year I did do a few decorative pots for the back garden. The simplest, and what turned out to be the most effective, was a zinc container filled full of night-scented stock. It was one of the first plants I remember growing from seed when I was about seven but for some reason I hadn’t grown them in years. The scent was so fabulous; one pot filled the garden with scent throughout the summer. The fragrance drifted into the house on those warm summer evenings that seem such a distant memory now. It was also so easy to grow from seed and just kept on flowering. I love the element of scent in a garden, something that makes you linger and stops you in your tracks, and that’s where the idea for my summer evening fragrant hanging basket started to form.

I had a quick look around the Plant Me Now website and a few old Gardens Illustrated and Gardeners’ World magazines for inspiration and then set about deciding on the planting criteria for my basket. There would have to be scent obviously, the plants should flower over a long period, they should be compact and there would need to be an element of trailing and tumbling plants to dangle down the sides of the basket.

Dianthus ‘Sweet Black Cherry’

Buying a bunch of sweet Williams from a local cut flower grower at a farmers’ market was one of the reasons why I started growing my own cut flowers. They have an old-fashioned charm, the sort of flowers you remember being given by your granddad when you were a child. Most sweet Williams are biennials so they are often forgotten about, and when you do come to think about adding them to your planting plans you realise it’s too late. That’s why I was so pleased to discover a range of annual sweet Williams. The subtle clove-like fragrance and compact upright habit makes them perfect for planting in the centre of my hanging basket. I chose the gorgeous claret coloured ‘Sweet Black Cherry’.

Nemesia ‘Lady Scented’

Around this central planting I plumped for Nemesia ‘Lady Scented’ with its pretty lilac/pink flowers and its strong fragrance. It forms neat mounds and is very free-flowering.

Petunia tumbelina ‘Melissa’

As this hanging basket has no space for side planting I wanted to include a selection of trailing plants which would tumble out of the top and spill over the sides softening the edges of the basket. Petunia ‘Tumbelina Melissa’ with its frilly, double ivory-coloured flowers fitted this role with the added bonus of scented blooms.

Planted amongst the petunias would be night-scented stock. They have a naturally leggy, sprawling habit perfect for cascading out of a hanging basket. The flowers of night-scented stock open in the evening to release their perfume providing a source of nectar for moths. The flowers aren’t especially showy but I love the pale lilac, pink and white four-petalled blooms for their daintiness. If you would prefer a flower that opens during the day you could grow Virginian stock instead which is scented too.

Verbena ‘Aztec White Magic’

Finally, to add some extra flowery oomph, I plumped for Verbena ‘Aztec White Magic’ as the last addition to the planting. Although not scented it makes up for this with its long season of flower production and it will tumble and trail out of the basket too. Verbenas come in a range of colours but I chose white because I love how white flowers almost ‘glow’ as light fades in the evening.

So that’s my summer evening scented hanging basket. Perfect for hanging by French doors where the scent will waft into the house and linger in the air around an outdoor seating area.

*I received a fee from Plant Me Now for working on this project and I will be donating a proportion of this to the Crisis at Christmas Appeal.

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Lilliputian Gardening

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bedding plants, Crocus plant nursery, garden centres, Nigel Dunnett, Sarah Raven

I’ve had some frustrating experiences in garden centres recently and I’m becoming increasingly disillusioned with them as places to spend my cash. We’re bombarded with the word choice whether it’s where to have an operation, which school you send your children to or the seemingly infinite number of breakfast cereals on offer. And yet you wouldn’t think so if you visited a selection of garden centres.

My attention has been somewhat diverted this spring and summer with all my seed sowing and plant nurturing energies focussed on the plants needed for my book rather than my garden. Once the plants were all happily growing away at the plot I noticed that my garden needed a bit of a lift. Gaps had appeared where bulbs had died down and I didn’t have any plants lurking around to fill these spaces. I didn’t want any perennials, just something that would provide lots of flowers over a long period of time. I didn’t think it would be a problem to find something and paid a few visits to my local garden centres. How wrong could I be.

Meadow style planting on a roundabout courtesy of Newport City Council

I have never been a fan of bedding plants. It seems like gardening for Lilliputians. So many lovely plants that have been bred to be small, which end up losing any charm, and often in the process any pollen and nectar too. I appreciate that some of them have a place in hanging baskets and possibly certain municipal planting schemes. Although I’d much prefer it if councils used more of the meadow-style planting ideas championed by Sarah Raven and Nigel Dunnett. Garden centres and nurseries across the country though are stuffed with bedding plants from April through to June. If you want anything remotely different, something with a bit of height to sway in the breeze or something which provides food for pollinating insects so that the garden is buzzing with life then there’s very little choice in terms of annuals at all. There’s tray upon tray of begonias which I hate with a passion and insipid looking lobelias and alyssum. These tiny, tight, compact plants make me think of a character from Dickens, their face all wizened and screwed up and unhappy with the world.

Cosmos ‘Candy Stripe’

Plants like Cosmos ‘Candy Stripe’ on the other hand, now there’s a plant to love. Frothy, feathery foliage, stems at a height that you can see the flower without having to crouch down and put your back out and lots of pollen for passing bees, hoverflies and butterflies. What about cornflowers, ammi, daucus and rudbeckia? These are all great plants. Now I know what you’re thinking, annuals are so easy to grow from seed and cheap you’d be crazy to buy them as plants from the garden centre. The thing is not everyone has the space, knowledge or inclination to grow these plants from seeds. Even if you do slugs often scupper your plans and sometimes it’s too late to resow and start again. There are times when I’m willing to pay for the quick fix, the plant that someone else has grown and has got it to the stage that I just need to plant it in my sunny garden and within weeks it’ll be flowering. And what about biennials? So many people forget to sow them in June and July probably because they are recovering from the frantic April and May seed sowing and pricking out bonanza. But, come September the only biennials for sale seem to be wallflowers and bedding ones at that. It’s a real pity as there are so many great plants that garden centres and nurseries could sell but they don’t.

Disappointed by the lack of imagination on the annual plant front I turned to dahlias thinking there would at least be a good selection of those. There were a few at the first garden centre but none that really appealed so I thought I’d give some other places a try. With each visit to another garden centre I saw exactly the same dahlia varieties on offer. It was the same with other plants too. So much for choice. Availability and choice for the garden centres themselves is clearly driven by what the wholesale nurseries are offering and, unfortunately for us the consumers, this means less choice rather than more. It feels as if the garden centre industry has succumbed to a sort of supermarketification. I have never really liked the diversification into sickly smelling candles, dubious fashion and travel sweets that so many garden centres have followed in recent years, but I accept that a seasonal business needs to look at other avenues for income. My real gripe is when they don’t get the core element of the business, the reason they are there in the first place, right. I see no point in having 5 independent nurseries within a 30 mile radius when they all sell exactly the same stock.

The online nursery Crocus offers a couple of plants that I see as the new wave of ‘bedding’, taller plants, loved by insects such as Ammi majus and Orlaya grandiflora but mail order isn’t always what you’re looking for on a Saturday afternoon when the time allows for a spot of gardening and inspiration takes over. This is when the local garden centre should come into its own but for me it so rarely does.

Specialist nurseries can be great. Knowledgeable owners and well looked after plants and the specialism means a much wider variety of plants to choose from. But I’ve yet to find one that has tackled the traditional bedding plant market and tried to offer something different. If you know of somewhere I’d love to hear about it. Wildlife friendly gardening is one of the biggest trends at the moment and annuals are some of the best plants for attracting insects and yet the garden centres, or certainly the ones around me, have yet to catch on. I wonder whether it’s because trays of small plants such as marigolds and petunias are so much easier to stack in racks and transport. I can appreciate the logistics but if this is what plant selling has become about, a pile it high sell it quick approach, lacking in inspiration and imagination then it’s sad. I leave you with what must be the world’s smallest dahlia. Need I say any more.

A teeny tiny dahlia

Shrinking violets and dahlia shrieks

Tags

Barnhaven Primulas, Bodmin Plant Nursery, broad beans, heated propagator

Buds on my crab apple

I’ve been feeling a little bit grumpy of late. The weather has been preoccupying me somewhat. With my book deadline looming and photo shoots booked I’ve been anxiously looking at a garden and allotment that should be springing into life. Instead I’ve got bare soil and plants that are sulking, sitting there waiting for some warmer weather. The first photos of the year have already had to be postponed and now it’s a waiting game with me wondering whether spring and summer will arrive in time.

Over the last week or so I’ve started to write a post but I’ve heard my words as I type and I just sounded pretty fed up. I don’t like writing when I feel like that. Sometimes it can be cathartic but most of the time I find it just compounds my thoughts rather than relieving them. I promised myself I would only post if I could write something more positive, rather than inflicting my rants and frustrations on you all. So today I bring you flowers to cheer, green shoots and seedlings galore.

Heartsease

Last week I finally managed to plant up my purchases from my break in Cornwall. My run-in with some ropy seafood and a spell of decorating indoors has meant that they have languished in my cold frame for nearly a month now. I’d chosen a selection of shade loving, spring-flowering plants. a pretty little heartease and a sweet violet which was in bloom when I bought it in mild Cornwall, but a spell in colder Wales has made it a shrinking violet and there are no flowers to be seen at the moment.

My gold-laced primulas don’t seem too perturbed by the lack of warmth though. I’ve developed a bit of a primula addiction recently. Lynne Lawson from Barnhaven Primulas recommended a book to me, ‘The Polyanthus’ by Roy Genders. Written in the 1960s I managed to track down a copy on the internet and I’m now hooked. Hence my other purchases of Primula ‘Francisca’ and P. sieboldii ‘Snowflake’. Francisca has really unusual green, ruffled flowers which are tantalisingly close to opening and ‘Snowflake’ has small, white flowers with intricately cut petals which are held on tall stems above the foliage. My P. denticulata are just coming into flower. This is my first year of growing them and I’m intrigued to discover that they have quite a strange way of producing their flowers. Rather than sending up a stem and then the flower buds opening, the flowers are opening in a tightly packed rosette nestled in amongst the leaves, instead. I had thought it was something I had done but in the last few days I’ve noticed the stems are starting to elongate, carrying the globe of individual flowers upwards. Apparently this is perfectly normal and what these drumstick primulas do.

Primula denticulata

The Bodmin Plant and Herb Nursery in Cornwall is one of my favourites and no visit to the area is complete without a trip here. They have the most amazing selection of herbs. I never realised there were so many different types of rosemary and thyme for instance until I wandered into one of their polytunnels. This time I was tempted by a pot of parcel or leaf celery. Celery itself is notoriously hard to grow and I’ve never attempted it but the leaves of parcel taste just like celery and can be added to soups towards the end of cooking to give a celery flavour. I’m also hoping they’ll taste good in omelettes and salads.

My herb planters are otherwise engaged at the moment, planted up with tulips I couldn’t get into the ground last winter because of all the rain. But once they have finished flowering the parcel can go in the zinc baths along with my other herbs which have spent the winter in the greenhouse.

It may have been unseasonably cold so far this spring, and this may have played havoc with plants outdoors but we have been lucky in this part of Wales to have had some lovely sunshine at least. And, behind the glass on my windowsills, seeds have been germinating at a pace. In fact, my seedlings are at the stage I would expect them to be for the time of year. I sowed some zinnias at the start of April and they had popped up within days. The addition of a heated propagator this year has made a difference, certainly with some flowers I’m growing which needed to be started off in February. I’ve also tried to do everything properly, using seed compost for seed sowing rather than just multi-purpose and incorporating perlite. Germination from most seeds has been good but there have still been disappointments and frantic resowing in the hope I don’t lose any time.

Broad beans ready and waiting

In the greenhouse the broad beans have finally started to grow. I’ve potted them on into bigger pots and they can sit in the cold frame for a few weeks now. I much prefer to plant out substantial plants if I can and my February sown broad beans are even a little further on than some of those my allotment neighbours sowed back in November. I’m pleased I ignored the weather and sowed trays of lettuce, peas, beetroot and spinach. We have a fairly short growing season anyway so anything to try to gain some extra time is worth it for me.

seedlings in the greenhouse

My windowsills are pretty much at full capacity at the moment so some milder weather would be welcome, allowing me to move a few hardy annuals into the greenhouse. Oh, and I did get quite excited yesterday to discover the first shoots of a dahlia poking through the compost. I let out a bit of a squeal, loud enough for Wellyman to come downstairs to see what was going on. I think he thought I’d discovered a mouse or something.

So I’m trying to defy mother nature as best as I can but soon my plants will have to go outside. Lets just hope by then spring, at least, has arrived.

Plant Buying Heaven – Eggleston Hall Gardens

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Auriculas, Eggleston Hall Gardens, Magnolia stellata, north pennines, scented leaf pelargoniums, Teesdale

I use garden centres occasionally, I’m lucky to live near a good family owned place which is perfect for all the garden essentials but when it comes to buying plants you can’t beat a good plant nursery. Eggleston Hall Gardens in one of the best I’ve been to and believe me I’ve been to a few. Situated in the North Pennines of Teesdale, not far from Barnard Castle it is a gem of a place. We discovered it a couple of years ago whilst visiting family nearby. It has now become an annual pilgrimage and I don’t think we’ve ever left empty handed.

We made a trip there this weekend with the vague idea that I wanted a few plants to go around the new pond. It’s never really a good idea to go somewhere like Eggleston with just a vague idea, certainly not for the credit card anyway.

The plant nursery at Eggleston Hall Gardens

The plant nursery consists of over half an acre housed within the old walled of the nearby Eggleston Hall. Attached are over 4 acres of gardens which form the shop front for the nursery, giving visitors the opportunity to see plants growing in a garden setting. There’s a wide selection of plants available from trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials to alpines, climbers and grasses. You could easily stock a whole garden from the plants on offer and with a glasshouse packed full of auriculas and restored Victorian glasshouses housing hostas and pelargoniums, this is plant heaven. Everything is so well cared for, unlike the forlorn specimens you so often see at DIY stores and much better value compared to those plants on offer at my local garden centres. The other advantage of growing plants raised here is they’re hardy fellows. If a plant can survive the Teesdale winters it will pretty much cope with anything.

I am very much like a child in a sweet shop when presented with this many gorgeous plants to choose from. I try to be restrained, remembering my garden is already groaning with plants but sometimes the temptation is just too much. I came away with a marsh marigold, 2 white Primula denticulata (drumstick Primulas) and a Geum rivale album to go around the pond, a couple of white wood anemones, well I’ve seen so many recently on my woodland walks I felt I should have some in the garden and a big clump of cowslips which I’ll divide once it has finished flowering.

A mini Angel of the North and a spot to sit whilst you work out which plants to buy

In recent years I’ve become a big fan of scented leaved pelargoniums but have found them really hard to find. I did pick one up last year from a garden centre but it had one of those frustrating plant labels that just said it was a scented leaf pelargonium, no varietal name, nothing. It has the prettiest, tiny white flowers which I managed to take cuttings from and overwinter them and lovely fragrant leaves. One of my quests for this year was to acquire at least one more scented leaf pelargonium and one of those on my list was ‘Attar of Roses’, which they had sat on a bench in the glasshouse at Eggleston, so that went onto the trolley, too.

The pond with newly purchased plants around it.

Another group of plants I’ve only really started to like in the last couple of years is auriculas. It’s funny how your taste for plants changes, I used to think they looked to strange, a bit fake even but I love them now. Eggleston has a great selection and I chose 2 with deep rich velvety flowers which I’ll plant up into old terracotta pots.

And finally, possibly the cheekiest purchase of the day, and this was Wellyman’s idea, was a Magnolia stellata. We have no space for a Magnolia and we’ve often said how frustrating they are because one frost and all those much anticipated blooms are wiped out, turned brown and mushy. They are beautiful plants however, and whilst I was trying to be restrained with my plant buying Wellyman came to find me saying he had found a real bargain, a small but perfectly formed Magnolia for £7.50. It was just to good to resist. Stellatas are perfect for growing in containers and growing a Magnolia this way will mean we can protect the blooms from frost with a cover of fleece.

Not more plants

I can thoroughly recommend a visit to Eggleston Hall, with a wander around the gardens and tea and cake in the nearby cafe what more could a gardener ask for? Just don’t buy so many plants that you don’t then have any room in the boot for your luggage like we did. We managed to squeeze everything onto the back seat, but only just. Good job we didn’t buy that Ribes as well!

For more information about Eggleston Hall Gardens.

Where do you like to buy your plants, have you got a gem of a plant nursey nearby or one you’ve come across on your travels? I’d love to hear from you.

Toby Buckland – His New Plant Nursery

Tags

bare root plants, cottage garden, mycorrhizal fungi, online plant nursery, Powderham Castle, Toby Buckland, walled garden

Toby Buckland in his garden in Devon

The gardener, author and TV presenter Toby Buckland has a new project – he has set up an online plant nursery, but this isn’t just any other plant nursery. Toby wants to get people buying bare root plants, a more eco and wallet-friendly way to garden. In the first of 2 posts Toby told me a bit about his new nursery.

Most gardeners will have planted at least one bare root plant whether it be a rose, raspberry canes or hedging but how many have planted bare root perennials. I didn’t realise it was possible to treat perennials like this but according to Toby it used to be a popular way, prior to the 1960s, of acquiring new plants, digging up plants in their dormancy and swapping with fellow gardeners. Bare root plants can be planted between November and the end of February.

It is also a much cheaper way of purchasing new plants and kinder on the environment. With no plastic containers or compost, bare root plants can be up to a third cheaper than the potted version.

Toby says “It’s one for the early-bird, for gardeners who like to plan ahead. While putting this year’s borders to bed, gardeners are already thinking about next year. The advantage of planting bareroot in the dormant season is that roots have time to establish over winter, ensuring large, healthy plants next spring. Personally, I love the interaction planting bareroot offers. It’s the difference between buying a ready-meal and one you prepare and cook yourself. It might even go some way in helping reduce the estimated 500 million plastic plant pots we throw away in the UK each year.”

I love this idea, especially since my challenge for next year is to use less plastic in the garden.

Toby has specially selected a collection of roses that are good performers, even in difficult wet conditions such as the west of Britain. He has also used his extensive knowledge and experience to put together collections of his favourite perennials, some of which are great for wildlife and some to create special looks such as a naturalistic theme or a cottage garden look. Plants include Asters, Geraniums, Grasses and Sedums.

Outside of the bare root planting season Toby will be selling container plants. He says they are 98% peat free and are working on improving their own potting mixes.

Toby is also selling ‘Toby’s Planting Powder’ a mix of mycorrhizal fungi, biostimulants and nutrients to get your bare root plants off to the best start.

Toby’s nursery is based in the old walled garden of Powderham Castle in Devon and although the castle and grounds are open to the public Toby’s nursery will only be open for special events and talks. So keep a look out on his website for open days next year.

For more information go to Toby’s website http://tobybuckland.com/.

To come in the second post Toby answers a few gardening questions.