Potting Plants

Bindweed – Deceptively Attractive

Continuing on our theme of garden weeds – these are some of the most common types, which we will invariably have faced at some time.

Couch Grass.

A very common weed which spreads through a system of fine underground stems. On a dry day try digging with a fork and on regrowth try spraying with Glyphosate. Covering with a mulch or solid layer is a good way of weakening or killing the plant.

Horsetail

See Dealing with horsetail. Has been around for 60 million years, if you have some in your garden you will see why. One of the most difficult weeds to eradicate.

Nettles.

Quite easy to deal with. If you are not in a rush, make repeated cuts at the base of the plant and put stems on compost. Nettles make excellent compost and are an excellent mix of stems and leaves. Young leaves can even be eaten and are quite nutritious. Nettles are also good for wildlife.

To kill off the plant use fork or spade to lift up the clumb of yellowish roots. These are not too deep. Also responds well to weedkiller.

Dandelions

In spring these will suddenly grow very vigorously. Before you know it they will have set seed and will be a problem for years to come. Therefore, the best time to act is before they set seed in late April.

They have a simple long tap root. It is hard to lift up the whole tap root without breaking off the lower part which will send up new shoots. However, it can  be satisfying to try and dig up the long single tap root. Will respond to repeated weed killer sprays.

Dock Leaves.

As the saying goes where there are nettles, there will also be docks. Similar to dandelions. long tap root and can easily regrow from the smallest part.

Bindweed.

Grows through deep connection of underground white roots. Also flowers (actually very attractive) and sets seed. The roots can be a pain to dig up. But, for deep infestations, it is best to try and dig up most of the roots.
One helpful tip is to put a cane in the ground. The bindweed will grow up the cane, making it easier to apply weedkiller and avoid surrounding plants. See Bindweed Control

Ground Elder.

- Another tough nut you don’t want to see in your garden. Can spread rapidly if left unchecked. Requires hard work to get rid of it.
Japanese Knotweed.

Could well lay claim to being the worst ever weed. If you have it in your garden Good luck – either that or consider moving. More on Knotweed

More Common Garden Weeds

• Broad Leaved Willowherb. Can set thousands of seeds. Not too difficult to deal with in small quantities.
• Budleia – In one sense makes an attractive plant – loved by butterflies, but, has immense powers of reproduction, growing in most unlikely of situations.
• Thistle. A good hoeing should be enough.
• Cleavers. – Stick to your clothing. hoeing should be fine to get ride off.
• Ramsons (Wild Garlic) tough weeds
• Bittercress
• Shepherd’s Purse
• Broad Leaved Plaintain. – Not too bad.
• Creeping Buttercup – a vigorous spreader. Can grow in middle of crass and through the border. Needs its roots tackling.
• White clover – a common grass weed.
• Ivy Leaved Toadflax
• Ivy Leaved Speedwell

See also list of Uncommon Weeds

• General Tips for Weeding a Garden

Weedkillers for Weeds

• Roundup Weedkiller concentrate. Good for large areas which need treating.

• Weedkillers at Amazon.co.uk
• Weedkillers at Focus DIY

Try something that you don’t often see in your neighbours garden for this summer. There are many new varieties of traditional plants like this fancy Auricula or new seed packets on sale.
Horticultural suppliers are always breeding new stock and launching plants when they have built up salable stock levels. My guess is that the multi-coloured Coreopsis will be popular this year. The Limerock series is being pushed by the RHS with Lavender Pink ‘Passion’, Apricot Pink ‘Dream’ and Ruby Red ‘Ruby’ available at £14.99 each (not quite a snip).

Frilly petaled Roses are being imported from USA for this years Chelsea show. If  Harpageant ‘Easy Does It’ catches the eye, with its range of colours that blend through Red, Peach and Apricot at different stages of the flowers life, then I would seek out one for my garden.

Variegated Impatiens Masquerade has unusual lime green and green foliage to offset the red flowers. According to Thompson Morgan ‘The regal, gold-lined foliage of Busy Lizzie Masquerade will give interest way before the scarlet-red flowers open. By mid-summer, you’ll have a knockout display – plants make a great specimen for decorative pots as well as bedding and borders.’ but then they are trying to sell  plants at about £2 each.

One of the most popular and easy to grow flowering shrubs is the Buddleia. The most common shades of flower are the various blues of Buddleia Davidii but you will often see the white form in hedge rows and embankments.

Growing Habits
Buddleia starts flowering from mid-June and continues through to Autumn
The long sprays of flowers are attractive to both gardeners and insects.
Buddleias are quick growing reaching 6 feet high and wide depending on the variety.

Cultivation Tips
Buddleias are happy in sunny position with well drained soil.
Avoid water logged soil but they can survive very dry conditions.
They can be propagated from semi-ripe cuttings in Mid-summer or hardwood cuttings November to March.
Grow in a large container if you wish. The restriction will make a smaller shrub but flowering will not be impeded.

Varieties to Grow
Buddleia White Profusion, Royal Red or traditional Buddleia davidii Empire Blue.
Buddleia davidii Black Knight is a deep purple colour
Buddleia davidii Pink Profusion not surprisingly has huge deep pink blooms.
Buddleia globosa is not one of the traditional Butterfly Bush types but has round ball shaped orange blossom.
Buddleia alternifolia a weeping shrub make excellent standards and needing gentler pruning.

Pruning Tips
Drastically cut down your Buddleia in spring to about 12 inches from the ground. (For the back of borders you can prune to 2 foot and get flowers starting higher up the bush)
This treatment encourages a fountain of new growth with arching branches capable of producing many larger flower spikes.
Prune off all the dead and faded flowers to encourage new blossom until late autumn.
Dead heading saves energy that would go into seed production and prevents unwanted self sowing.

Growing plants in pots is a great way to make use of limited space and offer colour all year round. Pots themselves can be an attractive feature for a patio. To make the most of growing in pots, bear in mind these points.

Careful Watering.

The difficult part of growing in pots is that they can easily dry out. To guard against this.

• Choose draught tolerant plants e.g. silver leaved plants like lavender do very well.
• Use water retention capsules. These absorb water and expand, this enables the pot to hold more water and reduce the frequency of watering.
• Place pots on trays so that the trays can catch the water and the plant can gain water from bottom up. (Often when watering pots, water just flows straight out – especially if compost is dry)
• Crocks. To protect against overwatering, make sure the pots have sufficient drainage and are not blocked with compost. Using broken bits of pots near the base to ensure good drainage. If necessary, put sand into the compost.
• In the heat of summer move pots away from the scorching of the sun.

A delicate Alpine thrive in a well drained pot

Feeding.

Food in the compost will be exhausted after a few weeks or few months, depending on the growing season. Therefore, they will need plant food. It is better to feed little and often than overburdening them. You could also choose slow release food capsules which gradually release food over the course of a few weeks.

Cycle Plants.

The great thing about pots is that once something has finished flowering you can move them out and put something else in. E.g. once bulbs have finished flowering, you can dig them into some corner of the garden to die back in peace out of the way.

Experiment.

You will be surprised what you can grow in pots. Potatoes can do very well (and make it easy to harvest the crop). Sunflowers and tomatoes can do well in pots.

Related

• Saxifraga in Pots
• Auriculas in Pots
• Garden Pots at Amazon.co.uk

Rheum palmatum ‘Atrosanguineum’ is a rapidly growing herbaceous perennial that can achieve architectural proportions.

Growing the Rheum Family

You often find Rheums planted near to water. They grow rapidly and need the damp conditions to thrive.

The pebbles above are being used as a mulch and the Rheum crown is growing through the covering in early spring. I hope to photograph the plant later in the year and see how it has done in the hot spot where it is planted.

Rheum palmatum Atrosanguineum is suffused blood red and can be used as a ground cover plant in a sunny position.  It is best planted about 5 feet apart.

Rheum palmatum can grow up to 5 feet high and has pale green, palmate leaves and crimson flowers. Rheum emodi has bronze-green foliage and purple blossoms and Rheum Alexandrae has shiny green leaves and pale yellow bracts.

Other Resources

According to the BBC ‘Rhubarbs aren’t just for the kitchen, and many are great fun in borders. The big asset is their large leaves though their flowers, which appear on huge spikes, are also good eye-catchers. The advantage of ‘Ace of Spades’ is that it doesn’t get that big – other kinds hit 2m and more – making it a good choice for a small garden. Its dark green leaves are roughly heart-shaped, and the tiny white flowers grow in a 1m-long vertical spray. The best site is on rich, damp ground which does not dry out in summer.’

See Ornamental Rhubarb Rheum palmatum Atrosanguineum on Gardeners tips

Graham Rice at the RHS says ‘These plants have five good features: the unfolding spring foliage can be very colourful, often dark red; the mature leaves can be impressive too, especially if they retain their red colouring on the upper surface and have an attractive shape; the flowering heads can be bold and colourful; the seed heads can also be impressive; and the whole plant can make a fine and imposing specimen.’

What are your most evocative scents and are they floral based? These are my top three floral scents.

Jasmine has a powerful almost cloying scent that creates a miasma of scent for yards around. A small flowering pot indoors can fill a room and have the scent leaching all over the house.

Tobacco plants Nicotiana sylvestris have a sweeter scent that is very powerful at dusk on a still summers evening. The white form seems to have the best scent but you can buy a perfumed mix of seeds that still have time to flower this year. Try Nicotiana langsdorffii as a scented alternative.

Peonies have a perfume that is lighter still but a joy in early summer as these plants flower freely once established. Float a head in a bowl to make a table centre piece.

There are many other species and varieties I could have selected for this article. Roses would have been an obvious subject but they are covered elsewhere. Hyacinth and other bulbs make there scented contribution in spring. Lily of the Valley is another white flower that has its place in a perfumier’s portfolio in addition to the garden.

Let us know your favourites.

Double the pleasure from Daffodils with extra petals or crinkly trumpets.
I am always on the look out for plants I want to grow next year. I am aiming for shock and awe varieties of common plants and specimen plant of an unusual nature. If I don’t make a note of them in my garden note book I will forget.

Double Daffodils for 2011
Delnashaugh or Repleat have an apricot-pink centre and the slightly smaller Mary Copeland is also unusual.
Dick Wilden is a sulphur coloured sport of Carlton and Golden Ducat or Von Sion are other all yellow doubles.
I grew Winston Churchill this year for cutting. A bit later flowering so I am now enjoying the scent.
Obdam is the only pure white I have found but I can tolerate White Marvel, Acropolis and Bridal Crown in my white bed.
After the point above I then discover that <a href=" Thompson Morgan sell 2 other white doubles, Erlicheer and Daffodil poeticus Plenus.

Just a final word for Cheerfulness a really go doer from the Tazetta Division 8 not quite a double but with puffy centre petals that look the part.

As with many flowers please have a close look and take your time to appreciate the fantastic choice we gardeners have available.