Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i Garden Answers

When we think of an autumn garden, it’s mostly in traditional hues – browns, oranges and russet reds. But as lovely as those colours are, there can be so much more to our plots as the days shorten and the temperature drops. Starting on page 14 in this issue, Liz Potter looks at the Decadent Dawdlers – those summer plants that grow old gracefully - and the Late-Season Lovelies, which always burst into life at this time of year. Combined, they make for a garden that is still a wonderful blend of colour, even if they do not give off the fiery, hot hues of high summer. At a time of the year when many folk are thinking of putting their gardens to bed, it is great to realise that…

Easy leaf collector £14.99 Lightweight woven tarpaulin, coopersofstortford.co.uk. Garden Life Lawn Rake £29.99 Light and easy to use, with stainless steel head, marshallsgarden.com. Hand leaf grabs £7.99 Durable but lightweight, gardeningexpress.co.uk. Long-handled leaf collectors £29.95 Scissor-action grabbers to save back strain, sarahraven.com. Autumn leaf clear umbrella £12.95 Domed-canopy umbrella for autumn rain, brolliesgalore.co.uk. Leaf mould bags £8.95 Set of two bags made from biodegradable leaf jute, sarahraven.com. Japanese maple heatchange mug £14.99 Enjoy a gardener’s tea break with this colour-changing mug, culturevulturedirect.co.uk.…

Taking hardwood cuttings is one of the best ways to propagate new shrubs. Now, just as leaves start to fall, is a good time to do it, but any time between now and the end of winter is fine. While softwood and semi-ripe cuttings (taken in spring or summer) need lots of care, hardwood cuttings require minimal attention. However, new growth is slow and it can be six to 12 months before you pot them on. ● Plants to try: abelia, deutzia, cornus, currants, forsythia, gooseberry, lonicera, parthenocissus and willow. How to do it 1. Select healthy, vigorous shoots from this year’s growth and cut with clean, sharp secateurs above a bud. Snip away the soft tip. 2. Prepare each stem to give you a 15-30cm–long cutting. Make a sloping…

IN THE GARDEN WITH… Heather Pope MBE and Chris Pope AT Milford House Farm, Cheshire SIZE Half an acre SOIL Neutral to alkaline heavy clay FEATURES Large veg patch, walled garden, organically-grown plants, wildlife-friendly lawn WORDS: GEOFF HODGE. Milford House Farm is proof that you can have a beautiful outdoor space and garden organically. The lawn wraps around the house as you make your way through the garden. It’s cut a few times a year, around the edges only to make paths, and no feeds, mosskillers or weedkillers are used on it. The centre of the lawn is left to its own devices and contains lots of different common wildflowers. There’s also a lot of moss growing unabated. “It keeps the lawn nice and soft, and stays greener than the…

SHRUBS Beware blackspot Q What causes new rose growth to blacken at the tips? MARGARET ALLISON, POLGOOTH, CORNWALL A Popularbecause of its sweet perfume, ‘Zéphirine Drouhin’ is prone to disease and your rose is infected with blackspot. The new growth probably is or has been infested with greenfly, which have naturally been controlled by ladybirds, but the distorted growth remains. Don’t worry about the new growth this late in the season, but roses vulnerable to blackspot and rust should be controlled by spraying early in the season. Then, if aphids are seen, rub them off by hand. Weed it or feed it? Q Can you ID this plant that’s growing in our front garden? AMANDA JONES, BY EMAIL A This is the herb fennel, which you have cut back…

Beautiful butterflies This sweet brimstone perched so gracefully and appeared like a leaf. Its perfect disguise ensured a safe dining experience. Another amazing gift of gardening! Aldeen, by email Star letter IN IT TOGETHER Thank you for your inspiring Wildplay article (August, p44). Even though we only have a small back garden in London, you’ve given my four-year-old daughter and I lots of fun things to do together that helpfully don’t require lots of props or preparation. While exploring our garden mini-beasts, we discovered this amazing spider in the middle of eating/subduing a large fly on the agapanthus. My daughter initially spotted the fly and when I took a closer look I noticed the spider camouflaged against the white petals. We were fascinated and both of us took a photo…

1 Give MIchaelmas daisies plenty of space to grow unobstructed and avoid growing them on hot, exposed sites to help reduce the risk of mildew. 2 Persicaria amplexicaulis is a good choice for clay soil and starts flowering in late summer. Divide regularly to control spread. H&S: 1.2m. 3 As autumn begins, stems of Verbena bonariensis sprawl through the border to reach further than ever and make new colour combinations. H: 1.5m, S: 60cm.…

A rare ornamental quince with twisted stems has been crowned Plant Heritage’s Threatened Plant of the Year 2023. Plant Heritage knows of only five of these plants existing in the UK. The winning plant – one of only two cultivars of chaenomeles to have twisted stems – is owned by Chaenomeles National Collection Holder David Ford, who looks after the plant in his private suburban garden in Surrey. The plant originated from Japan in 1929 but despite being grown in the UK for some time, ‘Contorta’ has faded in popularity, although Gill Groombridge of Plant Heritage says the plant has many merits. “With its attractive flowers and contorted branches it could have commercial potential as an ornamental garden plant and also be well suited to floristry. It is a very…

Autumn sees tired summer borders galvanised with a wonderfully fresh injection of vibrant colour from the garden’s last big hurrah of the year, when brilliant blooms join forces with turning foliage and jewel-like fruits, all enhanced by the gorgeous clarity of the autumn light. Michaelmas daisies are among the most spectacular of the season’s performers, renowned for their vivid colours as well as softer shades. Thriving in good soil and sun, these easy, hardy, and long-lived herbaceous perennials offer exceptional variety with hundreds of cultivated varieties and some enchanting species. Pre-2015, all Michaelmas daisies belonged to the genus aster, but scientific study revealed some great differences and resulted in major name changes. So, while Eurasian species remain classified as asters, North American species now have their own genera, symphyotrichum, which…

IN THE GARDEN WITH… Heather Frances AT: Bridgnorth, Shropshire SIZE: Between ¼ and ⅓ of an acre SOIL TYPE: Sandy and dry SPECIAL FEATURES: Slope packed with a tapestry of planting, summerhouse with beautiful views of the surrounding countryside, patio with summer flowers in pots and nearby flowerbeds OPEN: By appointment through the National Garden Scheme in 2024. Visit ngs.org.uk for more details. WORDS: SIMON CANEY. As many gardeners will testify, working with a slope of any nature can be a tricky proposition. And a garden such as that belonging to Heather Frances would fill many with absolute dread. At somewhere between a quarter and a third of an acre, it’s completely sloping from front to back, yet for Heather it has posed no problems. Evergreens and grasses punctuate the…

How can we add colour and texture to our woodland garden? This question comes from the owner of this newly acquired garden, nestled into the top of a woodland nature reserve. They are lucky enough to welcome lots of wildlife, including foxes and muntjac deer on a regular basis, however, they would like to add more interest to the garden but are not sure where to start. Inspired by an earlier prairie-style planting feature, they would like to ensure the area is still in keeping with its natural surroundings while adding more colour and a tad more structure. With tall trees flanking the edges of the garden, introducing sun-loving plants that thrive in full sun or part shade is going to be quite tricky because shadows will be cast over…

CLUES ACROSS 1 Ocean lending its name to a series of giant hybrid delphiniums (7) 5 Botanical name of the larch genus (5) 6 The reedmace, bulrush or cattail genus – a wetland perennial (5) 8 - - - - - - - monanthos, semi-evergreen alpine with yellow flowers in summer (7) 10 Slow-growing epiphyte, Platycerium or - - - - horn fern (4) 11 Metallic element (symbol Zn) important to plants in forming chlorophyll (4) 15 Erect, often toxic perennial also called monkshood or wolfbane (7) 16 Brassica family genus of which aizoides is yellow whitlow grass (5) 17 Daisy-flowered genus with species including helenium or elecampane (5) 18 The so-called ‘carline thistle’ genus of the aster family (7) CLUES DOWN 1 Salvia - - - - - -,…

The Royal Horticultural Society has handed Award of Garden Merit (AGM) status to 29 dahlias, after a trial of more than 90 different cultivars reached its conclusion at RHS Garden Wisley. Judges, including dahlia national collection holders, flower farmers and expert gardeners, looked at how long the plants flowered, bloom and foliage quality, vigour and overall disease resistance. The AGM status is a sign that the plant is a reliable one for gardeners to grow in their gardens. Among the AGM winners were: ‘Totally Tangerine’, an anemone-centred dahlia with gorgeous coral flowers that was found to grow especially well in containers; pale apricot ‘Labyrinth’ with its large informal flowers and complementary dark stems and dark green foliage; ‘Crème de Cassis’, a strong grower with pretty, two-tone lilac and plum waterlily…

ITS FEATURES INCLUDE: ● This classic wood armed chair offers enduring style and elegance and will make a timeless addition to your garden, patio or deck. ● Made from durable acacia hardwood, this natural wooden chair will blend beautifully into your outdoor surroundings and provide the perfect place to relax and enjoy your garden. ● Its rustic charm and natural wood finish make it a welcome addition to any garden, patio, terrace or balcony – plus, its neutral design means it’ll seamlessly integrate with many existing furniture collections. ● The traditional slatted style of this beautiful chair is enhanced by the oiled finish, which creates a gentle shine. Simply apply teak oil occasionally to maintain. For your chance to win, visit gardenanswersmagazine.co.uk/freeforyou by midnight on October 10, 2023. (Delivery to…

Ten saplings propagated from the apple tree that inspired Sir Isaac Newton’s theory of gravity are being auctioned for charity. The online auction, organised by The National Trust and Blue Diamond Garden Centres, will raise money for the future care of Woolthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire, Sir Isaac’s birthplace and the location of the tree where he famously saw an apple fall. The country cottage where Sir Isaac was born is now cared for by the National Trust and is visited by thousands of people each year who want to see the spot where his great scientific discovery was made. The 10 highest bidders will be presented with their sapling at Woolsthorpe Manor on October 21. The auction is live until 8pm on September 29. Visit bluediamond.gg/newtons-apple-tree for details.…

In the home, many of us are skilled at fitting as much as we can into a small space, and what we don’t do is limit ourselves to storing everything on the floor – how illogical would that be? No, we put up shelves and install sets of drawers and mount kitchen units: we think vertically. It’s a great lesson to take into the garden, and I don’t mean in how to organise your shed and greenhouse (although, of course, it’s very useful there, too!). I mean as inspiration for filling your space with plants and benefitting wildlife in the process. It’s all about taking advantage of the fact that plants are excellent at creating their own stacking system, layer after layer from the ground right up to the canopy.…

Many of us are getting more engaged with attracting and caring for wildlife in the garden. And, because of our nosey natures, we want to see what the creatures who visit our gardens are getting up to when they’re there, and wildlife cameras are now very popular. It’s not surprising that we want to watch and even video wildlife since much of what animals do can be very interesting and often extremely entertaining. Seeing eggs hatching and watching the baby birds being raised by their frantic parents using a nestbox cam or finding out who has been eating your roses overnight with a garden or trail cam are all possible. We’re all used to seeing secret filming of wildlife on TV documentaries, and now we can do it ourselves with…

Recently I returned from a trip to Spain. My father is Spanish and moved back to the country’s east coast 20 years ago. I visit as often as I can, though invariably not as often as I’d like. Still, I deeply value these brief, infrequent visits. For the opportunity to spend time with family, of course, but also for another more subtle but no less valuable reason: to refresh my perspective. They say that familiarity breeds contempt. In fact, I’d take it further: in my own experience, certainly when it comes to the plants in my garden and in the local neighbourhood streets and parks, I find that familiarity also tends to breed boredom. Indifference. Apathy. There are certain plants that are such staples in our gardens, roadside verges, woodlands…