Month: June 2019

Six on Saturday – a walk around my garden 29 June 2019

/ karen / 25 Comments

Foxglove. Sutton’s Apricot.

Ethereal. “Extremely delicate and light in a way that seems not to be of this world.”

Exquisite, dainty, graceful, lovely. Will it seed about and make a glade. I hope so. There is so much hope in gardening.

Already seeding about successfully; pale geraniums. A hybrid, crossed with the native geraniums all along the lane, and my Johnson’s Blue varieties inside the garden gate. Looks just as beautiful at dusk when moths find the flowers irresistible. Seedlings vary from white though mauve to deep violet. Always a lovely surprise to see what turns up. You can buy a similar variety called Geranium Mrs Kendall Clark, or grow your own from seed.

I wrote about geraniums in my garden here https://bramblegarden.com/tag/wild-geraniums/

Wild dog roses – Rosa canina. The scent. The essence of a summer’s day. And beetles are welcome here too. Food for the bluetits and wrens currently feeding noisy fledglings all around the garden.

Rosa New Dawn. Another pale beauty. Easy to grow, climbs to the top of a willow tree and drips petals on to the pond. Never needs any sprays or pruning. Just looks after itself.

I hope you’ve enjoyed your walk around my garden today. After all that rain, it feels like summer is starting at last. It’s sunny and the temperature is 28C. I’ll be spending a lot of time sitting in the shade. Enjoy your weekend.

Links: SOS : https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2019/06/29/six-on-saturday-29-06-2019/

Foxglove Sutton’s apricot: https://www.mr-fothergills.co.uk/Flower-Seed/Foxglove-Seed/Foxglove-Suttons-Apricot.html#.XRdUymfTWfA

Geranium pratense: https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/7914/Geranium-pratense/Details

Rosa canina : Hopes Grove Nursery

Rosa New Dawn :https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/new-dawn

You might also like to read : https://bramblegarden.com/tag/wild-geraniums/

https://bramblegarden.com/about/

Favourite Roses – Desprez a Fleur Jaune

/ karen / 11 Comments

None of the roses in my garden are sprayed. Desprez a Fleur June is tough and hardy and repeat flowers all summer. And it has a most beautiful scent.

Typically, all stages of flowering are on show at the same time. New buds are opening as the old flowers fade. It’s a beautiful combination. I love the range of colours from peach and apricot through to yellow and pink. One spray of roses could make a bouquet on its own.

Rose Type

Old fashioned heritage climber. Bred in France by Jean Desprez in 1830. Each rose has 26 to 40 petals, cluster flowering.

Habit

Climbing, up to 5m. I’m growing it on a trellis 1.5m wide, so it will be pruned to fit.

Repeat flowers, if deadheaded.

Very disease resistant. Leaves are pinnate, light green, glossy.

Very fragrant. Fruit salad/ pineapple scent.

Suitable For

Pergolas,arches, trellis, walls, fences, cut flower gardens, cottage gardens.

Soil Type

Any soil, but best on heavy clay, improved with well rotted farmyard manure, plant-based fertiliser and garden compost. As I’m a vegetarian gardener, I don’t use any bonemeal or chicken fertiliser pellets any more. My roses are beautiful- without causing any cruelty to any animal. I don’t use growmore either.

Planting position

Full sun, west and east facing. Can cope with semi-shaded position. Mine gets sun for a few hours in the morning. Then it’s in shade for the rest of the day.

Zones

Hardy in USDA zones 5/6/7/8/9

Tips

Mulch over the winter to conserve moisture. If there are aphids on the rose, tap the bush gently with a cane to dislodge ladybirds. As they are heavy, they will fall to the ground unhurt. Then blast the foliage with a hose pipe which will wash the aphids off. Water is a great natural inhibitor of sap-sucking aphids.

Links :https://www.classicroses.co.uk/desprez-a-fleurs-jaunes-climbing-rose.html

Also : https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/desprez-a-fleur-jaune

https://www.trevorwhiteroses.co.uk/shop/climbing-roses/desprez-a-fleurs-jaunes/

Mum’s Favourite Fruit Cake Recipe, with orange slices

/ karen / 7 Comments

If you were listening in to Gardens Hour today, this is the fruit cake we were eating in the studio. It’s a recipe from my Mum. You can put fresh fruit on top of the cake when you serve it. I put slices of mandarin orange on mine today. I’ve served it with slices of peach and pineapple too. Very moist and tasty. Can be served with cream or custard as a pudding, it is very versatile. Perfect for picnics too.

INGREDIENTS

285g SR flour

85g butter, softened

110g golden caster sugar

180g mixed dried fruit

1 tsp. mixed spice

1/2 tsp. bicarbonate of soda

1 egg

280ml milk

7″ round cake tin

METHOD

Mix flour and butter together. Add sugar, mixed fruit, spice and bicarbonate of soda. Mix well.

Beat egg and milk together. Mix in with dry ingredients.

Turn into a well-greased cake tin.

Cook at gas mark 4, 170C oven for 1 hr 15 minutes. Check after 1 hour and put foil on cake if it is getting too brown.

Citrus Trees Update

I’ve started to move my citrus fruit trees out of the greenhouse into the garden for the summer. I’ll start them off in a shady position until the plant cells have become accustomed to the outdoors. After about four days, you can gradually move them into full sun. Moving straight from greenhouse to bright sunshine can cause

leaf scorch.

In a Vase on Monday- All White

/ karen / 26 Comments

I’m practicing for wedding flowers. You never know when you might need some….

White larkspur and Ammi majus. Such a simple combination. I’d probably add white sweet peas for scent. I’ve got heritage variety Mrs Collier growing on the hazel A frame. And some white love-in-a-mist. The bouquet would be tied with white satin and pearl pins, and not grey twine. But you get the idea.

Larkspur White King was sown on 4th September in 12″ pots in the polytunnel. I used a 50 /50 mixture of peat- free multi purpose compost and John Innes no 2 compost with some added grit for drainage. I used Sarah Raven/ Johnsons Seed, sown thinly, covered with a sprinkle of compost and left to grow on without pricking them out.

I also chose seeds from Higgledy Garden. These were part of a cut flower patch kit. Very good value and nice fresh seed. Everything germinated and grew well. Highly recommended. Plus, I like to support independent companies such as Ben’s.

White “cow parsley” type flowers in my bouquet are Higgledy Garden’s Ammi majus. This lovely airy flower always does better from an autumn sowing. Once you start cutting them lots of side shoots appear and you can harvest flowers right through the summer.

Higgledy’s larkspur mix contains some beautiful ice blue flowers, shell pinks and whites. All packets of seeds cost between £1 and £2.50 each. I probably spent less than £10.

Once I’d sown the seeds, I laid the packets on the pots and took photos to remind me what I’d grown and when. Labels have a habit of moving – all by themselves- on my plot!

Seedlings germinated by 21st September.

I had a bit of a problem with mice. Luckily they just thinned the seedlings for me. I put down peanuts and bird food for them, which they preferred. Hopefully the barn owl will have helped me out over the summer. I know she is feeding fledglings as we see her most nights, and we hear them calling for food. Loudly.

Those few pots of plants have been supplying me with posies for a several weeks now. I’m not sure they produce blooms any sooner than plants grown outdoors; but they have super long stems with plenty of flowers and haven’t been damaged by rain.

I particularly love the green markings on the back of the petals.

Green-tinged buds make a lovely contrast to the white flowers.

If anyone wants to get married next summer- I have the perfect plan for the flowers! Just saying.

links : Cathy IAVOM : https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2019/06/24/in-a-vase-on-monday-respite/

Sarah Raven / Johnsons Seeds : https://www.johnsons-seeds.com/Flower-Seed_0/Annuals_3/Larkspur-White-King.html#.XRDKaGfTWfA

Higgledy Garden, Ben Ranyard : https://higgledygarden.com/

Cut flower growing and arrangements -courses and books: Georgie at https://www.commonfarmflowers.com/

First Polytunnels :https://www.firsttunnels.co.uk/

Dalefoot peat free composts :https://www.dalefootcomposts.co.uk/

Twine : https://nutscene.com/collections/twines/products/candytwist-twine-nutscenes-bakers-twine-large-spools

Please feel free to share this post on any social media platform.

You might also like to read :

https://bramblegarden.com/2019/06/23/prize-draw-winner-hansford-coil-spring-chair/

And

https://bramblegarden.com/2019/06/20/ngs-garden-visit-oak-tree-house/

Or

https://bramblegarden.com/2019/06/15/six-on-saturday-a-walk-around-my-garden-15-june-2019/

Thank you 😊

Six on Saturday – a walk around my garden -15 June 2019

/ karen / 64 Comments

Shirley Temple is undeterred. How can anything so beautiful have survived the deluge. It’s honestly been non-stop rain for weeks.

I planted this peony nine years ago. It sat and did nothing for three years. Since then it’s never let me down. It grows in a semi-shady spot and doesn’t need any attention. I just make sure the annual mulch covering I put on in spring doesn’t go over the crown of the plant. You can cover the shoulders, but not the crown. Planting too deeply is one of the main reasons peonies fail to flower.

Today is the first time in a week I’ve been able to get outside with a camera. It was with a heavy heart. My plum tree has lost a major branch. It crashed down on the cut flower bed. Such a shame. It’s lost a third its growth – and all the plums for this year. We got our Stihl battery power chainsaw out and made it into firewood. Something positive out of a disaster.

On a happier note, my foxgloves are still upright! I don’t know how. It’s been howling winds as well as torrential downpours. I sowed the seed this time last summer. I sowed Pam’s Choice (above) and Sutton’s Apricot, and ended up with 200 plants. All it cost was two packets of seed. Such good value, growing from seed. I’ll do the same this week, growing white foxgloves for the front garden. I’ll sow them in peat-free seed compost, in half seed trays, and place them in a bright, but sheltered position- out of full sun. No special equipment, such as a propagator, is needed at this time of the year. Air temperatures are warm enough to germinate seed. After about four weeks, I’ll prick them out into individual seeds trays or 9cm pots. They’ll stand somewhere cool until late summer, and then they’ll be planted out in the garden. Biennials make strong roots and leaves this year, and flowers next year. Hopefully the foxgloves will start to seed about and I’ll be able to keep the cycle going.

Pam’s Choice is particularly lovely, with white flowers, and a raspberry jam “thumbprint” inside each flower. Bees love them.

Roses have shrugged off the rain too. It’s been a test to see which ones cope, and which ones turn into a soggy mess. None of my roses are sprayed. They have to be tough and look after themselves. This one is Zephirine Drouhin, the thornless rose. A martyr to blackspot, unless you grow it where the wind can blow through, as I have here, all along the field boundary fences. Having seen photos of beautifully-pruned and trained roses along wires, I’ve determined to make more of an effort with these. It’s all a question of time. Which I’m a bit short of, to be honest.

Another lovely rose doing well in the rain is Desperez A Fleur Jaune which flowers on and off all summer. The scent from this old rose is fabulous. Like the best fruit salad with pineapple and ripe peaches. Dating back to 1826, it’s a strong climber – up to 6m. It starts off a bright pink/ apricot colour, and fades to a creamy yellow.

Dear old Constance Spry, David Austin Roses’ first introduction, is another glory in the rain. It flowers its socks off for about three weeks, and then that’s it; the show is over- until next year. Luckily there’s room in my garden for this highly-scented rose. I wouldn’t be without it. It dates back to 1961 and is named after the florist and gardener Constance Spry.

There’s no scent at all with Cerise Bouquet, but this climbs to the top of our tallest beech tree and then cascades down, flowering on and off until November. Sometimes there are even a few flowers for the Christmas table. So if you’ve got space for a robust, disease-resistant rose, choose Cerise Bouquet. It faces north, so it’s also a good rose for semi-shaded positions.

It’s just started raining again. Oh well, I’ve managed to tie in the sweet peas and stake a few perennials. I’ve woven some silver birch twigs into a nest support and propped up some floppy daisies. The barn owl has just skimmed the top of the hedge and glided quietly into the field. She must be feeding young, to be out in the day. We can hear the fledglings calling from late afternoon. Their calls getting desperate by nightfall. I hope we all have some better weather soon.

Links: Six on Saturday : https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2019/06/15/six-on-saturday-15-06-2019/

You might also like : I wrote about Gardeners World Live here : https://bramblegarden.com/2019/06/14/bbc-gardeners-world-live-photos-of-show-gardens

I wrote about Stihl chainsaws here: https://bramblegarden.com/tag/stihl/

My cut flower patch :https://bramblegarden.com/2018/06/18/in-a-vase-on-monday-my-cut-flower-patch/

Roses: https://bramblegarden.com/2017/06/04/mygardenrightnow-chelsea-fringe-event/

In a Vase on Monday – 10th June 2019

/ karen / 28 Comments

It’s the much-awaited summer. And it’s raining. It’s pouring. And it’s 9C. So only one photo today for my Vase- and it’s sweet williams and sweet peas again. They are loving the cool temperatures and moisture. I must admit, I am not.

My dark red sweet williams, Dianthus barbatus Sooty, are suddenly providing buckets of flowers. Sweet williams are such good value plants. For a couple of pounds for a packets of seed, you can have a steady supply of flowers three months or more. They are like dark velvety chocolate. Dark colours don’t show up in photos very well, so I’ve screen shot the picture and homed in on the flowers.

There’s a few forget me nots left to go with the love in a mist. And sweet peas are also flowering faster than I can pick them.

Calendulas are looking fab with peach butterfly antirrhinums, and blue chives are being thrown in every bowl of salad, as well as every vase of flowers. Such a versatile perennial herb to grow. The antirrhinums are flowering for their second year, but I’ll sow some more seed for next summer, just in case they don’t overwinter. They last for nearly a fortnight in a vase, if you change the water each day.

I do hope the weather is better where you are. Hopefully we will all get some sunshine again soon. Meanwhile, it’s dark clouds and white cow parsley -aplenty!

Links :

I’ve been to visit the Cotswold Wildlife Park. Here’s a blog I wrote about it: https://bramblegarden.com/2019/06/10/the-cotswold-wildlife-park-a-celebration-of-the-gardens/

Here’s my recent blog listing the varieties of sweet peas I’m growing: https://bramblegarden.com/2019/06/03/in-a-vase-on-monday-3-june-2019/

Don’t forget to leave a comment on my blog review of Hansford Coil spring garden chairs- there’s one chair to win in our prize draw competition. They are wonderfully comfortable and easy to carry about the garden: https://bramblegarden.com/2019/05/31/product-review-hansford-coil-spring-chair/

In a Vase on Monday : https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2019/06/10/in-a-vase-on-monday-the-very-pink-of-perfection/

In a Vase on Monday -3 June 2019

/ karen / 32 Comments

The first sweet peas are always for my Mum.

I’m growing a mix of old and new. Heritage varieties: Mrs Collier (cream) and Dorothy Eckford (white). New this year: Capel Manor. Old favourites: High Scent, Wiltshire Ripple Mix, Albutt Blue and Chatsworth.

The best Blue is Chatsworth. Five or six flowers per stem, prettily ruffled and gloriously scented. Long lasting in a vase, and flowers until the first frosts. The Duchess of Devonshire, the last of the Mitford Sisters, lived at Chatsworth and was president of the Sweet Pea Society for many years.

High Scent and Albutt Blue are modern grandiflora varieties with a picotee edge. Albutt Blue, bred by Harvey Albutt I’m 1999, has a blue rim on a white ground. High Scent is a cream flower with a mauve edge. High Scent is also known as April in Paris.

Seeds are planted in root trainers in October. Use 50/50 compost and grit for drainage. I start mine in a propagator at 15C. As soon as a green shoot is spotted, I remove them from the propagator and grow on in a cold poly tunnel. Sweet peas can cope with cold, but shouldn’t be too wet or they will rot. To out-wit the mice, I stand the root trainers in a deep straight-sided plastic storage box. When the seedlings are 3-4″ tall, I pinch out the tips to make bushy plants. The tips can be grown on as cuttings. Very useful if you are growing heritage varieties and only have a few seeds in the packet.

I planted mine in April in no-dig beds. I mulch the bed with Plant Grow (plant based) fertiliser. This feeds and holds in moisture, and seems to deter slugs and snails.

My sweet peas scramble up an A-frame of hazel rods. I grow them in the same place for four years, then move them to a different bed to prevent the build up of pest and diseases. By then, the hazel rods are collapsing anyway and need replenishing. Each year I weave in a few more twigs to strengthen the supports. I water with a liquid Plant Grow feed.

In front of the sweet peas there’s a row of calendulas and highly-scented pinks. Every space is crammed with flowers.

Alongside, there’s dianthus barbatus (sweet williams). These are sown in summer, make good strong roots and leaves in the first year, and flower in the next. This year I’m growing a dark red variety called Sooty which is just coming into bloom. Sweet williams follow wall flowers to give a continuous supply of cut flowers. I learned how to grow cut flowers at Common Farm Flowers with Georgie Newbery in Somerset.

Little extras in this posy are the last of the forget-me-nots and some pink alliums I always harvest, as a way of controlling them. They can become invasive.

And finally, a favourite pelargonium. This originally came as a cutting from my grandfather Ted Foulds. He loved his garden and each week came to visit and “inspect the plot.” He never arrived without a pot of something, a few seeds, an offset, a cutting. Half my garden came from my grandfather and my Mum. He died 22nd May 2005 aged 83. Still desperately missed, but not forgotten. I faithfully take cuttings of his pelargoniums each autumn, and they flower every summer, as a lovely reminder of him.

Links : In a Vase on Monday :https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2019/06/03/in-a-vase-on-monday-oops/

Sweet peas at Easton :https://www.visiteaston.co.uk/whats-on/coming-up

Ripple Mixed varieties : https://www.mr-fothergills.co.uk/Flower-Seed/Tall_3/Sweet-Pea-Ripple-Mixed-Seeds.html#.XPTo-4zTWfA

Plant Grow fertiliser : http://www.plantgrow.co.uk/our-products.html

Root Trainers : https://www.haxnicks.co.uk/garden-products/rootrainers

Sweet William seed: https://www.mr-fothergills.co.uk/Flower-Seed/Sweet-William-Seeds/#.XPTptYzTWfA

Common Farm : https://www.commonfarmflowers.com/

You also might like to take part in a prize draw for a Coil Spring garden chair : https://bramblegarden.com/2019/05/31/product-review-hansford-coil-spring-chair/