The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
‘Some plants are hard to please’
Dobbies, which has branches in Inverness and Aberdeen, is encouraging garden lovers to spend some time getting their back yards, patios, lawns, beds and borders ready for the warmer months. Now is the perfect time to inject some life and a splash of colour into your outdoor space.
Scott Provan, plant buyer at Dobbies Garden Centres has selected his top five plants for brightening up your garden this weekend:
1Fuschia is an exotic plant with two-tone flowers, usually in bright pink and purple or soft pink and white. You can grow this plant almost anywhere, although it tends to grow best in patios or hanging baskets.
2The Osteospermum is part of the sunflower and daisy family. It blooms an abundance of bright
I know that some of you in this area can grow C. armandii, but to perform well it does need a warmer climate. It is in the same category as the Daphne bholua which I mentioned some weeks back when it was flowering in a friend’s garden on the outskirts of Inverurie – only after being moved to a more amenable site 10 metres away did it start to perform.
Just like people, some plants are not easy to please!
Back to the topic in hand – pruning early flowering clematis.
I have to condense this bit of advice rather brutally perhaps. You don’t need to be too scientific when pruning C. montana and flowers from early summer in vibrant whites, deep pinks, delicate lilacs and sunshine yellows. This plant is perfect for creating a stunning border feature. co. You can speed up the job by using hedge clippers giving the plants a ‘short back and sides’. When finished, apply a handful of slow release fertiliser (I’m actually using Vitax Q4 at the moment), mulch and then, give the plants a good soaking.
The less vigorous varieties, say within the C macropetala group, can be dealt with using secateurs but the purpose is just the same – cutting back young vigorous growth to near the older wood. Finally for those of you who can grow C armandii, treat the same as C. macropetala.
Next on my list – have you pruned that unruly, getting too big for its boots rhododendron yet?
Now’s the time. Our attention is drawn to these wonderful plants when they are in full flower and how magnificent they have been again this year. We are, at the same time, making a mental note that this one or that is getting out of shape or beginning to bully another next to it.
My advice is to remove the offending branches any time now, carefully, cutting back to a joint within the body of the foliage while being careful not to create
3The Geranium is a classic, versatile plant that never fails to disappoint – producing flowers in bold, striking colours like pillar box reds and violets. Bedding gaping holes in the canopy. I’m not suggesting the impossible, because given just enough space the remaining branches will ease over to fill minor gaps such that within a month or two the shell-shape will be complete again. Feed, mulch and water to follow!
4Petunias are one of the most popular plants for home gardens – this plant is easy to look after as it doesn’t require much watering and can really brighten up a flower bed or window box.
5Nothing screams summer more than Marigolds. With its bright yellow, gold and sunset orange flowers, this is ideal for adding a splash of colour to your garden. Plant it in pots at your front door to give your guests a cheerful welcome, and next to your fruit and vegetable plants to attract bees.
Moving the focus now to pot plants . . .
In the process of re-jigging the glasshouse layout, the cyclamen plants that flowered at Christmas have finally been allowed to dry out, the corms are now sitting on a tray under the bench. After resting for two to three months, they will be started in to growth again to provide a bit of a show in mid-winter.
Looking ahead once more, we do get asked questions about keeping Poinsettias from one year to the next but here is the downside.
Of course you can prune back existing plants to about 10cm above the rim of the pot, (beware of the milky sap that issues from the cut surfaces, it is poisonous and can damage sensitive skin) give them a feed and grow on into fine young plants.
Let me now change the scene slightly to a Mediterranean seaside resort where you will see the self same Poinsettia plants flowering their heads off three metres up in the air in the middle of summer.
It is the same species as that one you have at home. Dealing with the height thing first of all – the plants you purchase for Christmas are treated with a growth hormone to control the height and its effect will gradually wear off. So, if you have room for a two metre high Poinsettia in the lounge at Christmas, fair enoughski, BUT hold on a minute. What about the red bracts?
Come September, our advice is to put the plant in the airing cupboard from 6pm-8am the next morning then take it out into the light. This plant is daylength sensitive. It is what we call a ‘short day plant’. In other words, it won’t create the coloured bracts until it has something like 10 weeks of 13-14 hours darkness each 24 hours!
Oh yes, and the temperature should not be allowed to drop below 20°C. Why bother if they finish up being as cheap as chips in the retailers come Christmas!