Plantedd Blog

6th May 2013

Plants for bees

Simple flowers. From March to September.

That’s really what it comes down to when we’re looking at what plants to grow to help bees. We all know that bees have been having a tough time of it recently and there are a number of reasons for it. Neonicotinoid pesticides have been getting the most attention, but there’s also been a reduction in the variety of different flowers for them to forage throughout the year. Gardens can offer something of a sanctuary though because a garden, unlike a big field of oilseed rape, can have a diverse feast of flowers over a long period.

There are some useful lists out there of bee-friendly plants – for example, from the British Beekeepers Association (why don’t they have an apostrophe in their name??) and the Royal Horticultural Society. As a general rule, stay away from plants that have overly fussy double flowers that are packed full of petals. These are no good for bees. You want to choose plants with simple, single flowers so that the bees can reach the pollen and nectar easily.

One effective way of encouraging bees is to let your weeds in the border and the lawn to grow and flower. After all, these are wild flowers and the vast majority are British natives so you can be sure that bees will like them. However, in case you don’t fancy going too unkempt, I’ve picked out five plants that bees love and which gardeners can enjoy too!

Pulmonaria

Pulmonaria is in flower just now and it’s been going since March, so it provides nectar in spring when the bees are stirring from their hives.

Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’. Photograph: Roger Bastin/Creative Commons

Lavender

Lavender is a great choice because it’s rich in nectar and it flowers so profusely, but it’s particularly valuable because it’s in flower in that gap in June and July when there can be a surprising shortage of food sources for bees.

Lavandula angustifolia ‘Folgate’ (Lavender). Photograph: Laura Nolte/Creative Commons

Aster

Asters are useful because they flower in late summer into autumn.

Aster ‘Little Carlow’. Photograph: Robert Kennett/Creative Commons

Sedum

This is another flower for the end of the season. When the bees (and butterflies) land on sedums, the flat flowerheads must be like dinner plates to them.

Sedum ‘Matrona’. Photograph: Scott Weber/Creative Commons

Eryngium

Eryngiums might look prickly and uninviting, but the flowers are very popular with bees.

Eryngium x zabelii ‘Jos Eijking’. Photograph: Roger Bastin/Creative Commons

28th April 2013

Chelsea Flower Show 2013: Clematis ‘Samaritan Jo’

Raymond Evison Clematis is introducing this striking new clematis, Clematis ‘Samaritan Jo’, at the Chelsea Flower Show next month.

This is a compact clematis with a long flowering season, running from late spring to late autumn. The flowers are a silvery white with a tinge of pink and there’s a line of purple at the edges, looking like the sepals have been dipped into a bowl of crushed blackcurrants. Raymond Evison Clematis suggest that it looks especially good “with grey foliaged plants and pastel-coloured flowers in the mixed border or with wall-trained shrubs and roses on archways or pergolas”. Any aspect except full sun. Prune hard in spring.

Height: 4-5ft. Flower size: 10-12cm.

6th April 2013

Bamboo plants in the garden

A bamboo was one of the first things that I ever planted in my parents’ garden. This was about 15 years ago, and it’s still there brightening up a shady boundary along with its neighbouring epimediums and Primula florindae. It didn’t occur to me until today though that it’s still the only bamboo I’ve ever planted, so I’ve been having a think about why that is and why it is relatively rare to see them in gardens. I suspect that it’s the bamboo’s bad luck to have a few members of the family with a marauding nature. Sure, there are those like a lot of the Sasa or Indocalamus species that will conquer and plunder your garden, but there are also many more that are good-natured clump formers or ones that spread slowly.

What got me thinking about all this? I was catching up with last night’s Gardeners’ World on iPlayer. Rachel de Thame was looking at hepaticas, Carol Klein visited the cavernous Temperate House at Kew and Monty Don was at home at Longmeadow planting hydrangeas. However, the piece that caught my eye was about the National Collection of bamboos that Mike Bell grows at his garden in Cornwall.

No doubt Mike Bell has a large garden but when I was watching the bamboos on screen, it struck me that they would also be very effective in a smaller garden. The gentle rustling and swaying would add movement and sound that ‘lifts’ a garden, which is useful in small spaces that feel constricted and heavy. Using them at the boundaries of a garden would give you privacy without closing you in. If you keep the base of the canes bare by removing the lower leaves and branches then they can also have quite a small footprint (as well as showing off the canes).

The trick to keeping bamboos happy is to keep them well-watered in the first two or three summers that you plant them, whether that’s in the borders or in a pot. We’ve got a good selection of bamboos on Plantedd so it’s the perfect place to start having another look at this useful group of plants. Don’t let those greedy pandas hog them!

Here are a few suggestions for bamboos that are well-behaved:

Fargesia ‘Jiuzhaigou’ - This is still quite rare in the UK. It’s a clump-forming bamboo with canes that start off green, but which turn slowly to a red/purple colour and eventually to a light orange. Fargesia ‘Jiuzhaigou’ is especially useful because it will grow well in quite shady conditions. Height: 8-10 feet

Phyllostachys nigra f. henonis - This is a form of the popular black bamboo, Phyllostachys nigra, which has light green canes and it’s the one that Monty Don was planting in a big steel container on last night’s Gardeners’ World. As Monty said, it’s a very hardy plant so it’ll shake off any cold that’s thrown at it and it’s tall. Height: more than 15 feet (up to about 20 feet)

Fargesia denudata - A bamboo with delicate small leaves and an arching habit, so it looks very graceful. The fresh green foliage also makes it a very ‘light’ plant. This will keep to itself and form a tight clump. Height: 12 feet

29th March 2013

Plants for a Shady Spot

Choosing plants for a shady spot always seems to be presented as a problem. However, after Desert Island Discs was on this morning, I got to thinking about my ‘Desert Island’ garden and I’d find it hard not to plump for a woodland garden. A shady position would give me the chance to grow gems that come from forests, or in the openings or margins of woods, where the air is stilled by the trees and the ground is moist. There’s very little that is more atmospheric than the landscape underneath a canopy, with its different layers of trees and shrubs and perennials and bulbs.

(Incidentally, here is a list of episodes of Desert Island Discs that feature gardeners including Alan Titchmarsh, Monty Don, Geoffrey Smith, Penelope Hobhouse, Rosemary Verey, Graham Thomas and Percy Thrower.)

When we are faced, then, with shade in the garden it makes sense to look to woodland plantings for inspiration. These types of borders can often look effective because the gardener has a more limited palette of flowers to choose from and, through necessity perhaps, there is more restraint in the plant combinations. That’s not to say that there’s a shortage of plants that will live in the shadow of a tree. I’ve made a list (and checked it twice).

I did a bit of daydreaming and planted a border in my mind’s eye. These are the plants that I came up with for somewhere in dappled shade that doesn’t dry out. As soon as I get the chance, I’ll be putting these together in real life!

Magnolia laevifolia. Photograph: Carl Lewis/Creative Commons

Dryopteris wallichiana. Photograph: Barbara S./Creative Commons

Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare'
Pulmonaria ‘Diana Clare’. Photograph: Madelein Vreeken- Buijs/Creative Commons

Dicentra spectabilis alba
Dicentra spectabilis ‘Alba’. Photograph: Facing North East/Creative Commons

Lilium martagon var. album. Photograph: Vincent Dunne/Creative Commons

Athyrium x ‘Ghost’. Photograph: Safia/Creative Commons

Nectaroscordum siculum. Photograph: edgeplot/Creative Commons

Why I support British plant nurseries

I wrote a guest blog post for the nice people over at Counter Culture about why we should think about where our plants come from.

Here’s a link.

25th March 2013

Rhododendron herzogii x aurigeranum

24th March 2013

Rhododendron himantodes and Rhododendron ‘Lucy Sorensen’

Living in Scotland, it can sometimes feel like I’m in Rhododendron Country. That abundance and familiarity can sometimes dull your palate, and it wasn’t until earlier today when I visited the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh that I saw rhododendrons again with fresh eyes. A rhododendron is a rhododendron is a rhododendron, right? No. Here are two I came across that demonstrate the big difference that they can display.

Rhododendron himantodes

Rhododendron ‘Lucy Sorensen’

23rd March 2013

10 AGM daylilies

When the panel on Gardeners’ Question Time are asked to suggest a plant, there’s often a long list of things on the person’s wish list. It should have flowers; it should be easy to grow; it should have a long season of interest; and it shouldn’t get too big. Eric Robson or Bob Flowerdew might then jokingly say “… and you’ll want it to be edible too, no doubt.”

Well, it turns out that the daylily is the plant that fits the bill.

Yes, you can use the unopened buds in the kitchen in much the same way as courgette flowers – lightly sautéed in butter or stuffed or, because I like to perpetuate Scottish stereotypes, dipped in batter and deep-fried. In the garden though, they are unfussy plants that will look at home whether you pair them with miscanthus and echinacea in a prairie style border or with roses and phlox for a traditional look.

It’s the curious plight of the hard-working, that they can sometimes go unrecognised and so it seems to be with the daylily. The tide is turning though. Over 40 hemerocallis, or daylilies, were recently given an AGM (Award of Garden Merit) by the RHS and there are nurseries such as Pollie’s Daylilies who are flying the flag for varieties that do well in the UK and make good garden performers.

Pollie has chosen 10 of the best daylilies with an AGM. They are all available to buy on Plantedd if you click on any of their names, or you can see the full range of Pollie’s daylilies here. Take it away Pollie!

Condilla One of my favourite daylilies. A real show stopper, bright gold double, blooming towards the end of the season, a really good season extender.

Custard Candy The Candy series are all perfectly round and ruffled and great bloomers. This one is a yellow cream blend with great maroon/plum eye and a distinct gold edge.

Eggplant Escapade Wonderful broody aubergine spidery daylily with darker chevrons, flowering very generously for a very long period.

Mary’s Gold I swear this bloom could be seen from space or at least from across the field. Large round blooms of golden orange with a smart green throat.

Pink Damask A real oldie but still one of the best. Unique glowy pink blooms with a yellow throat, and loads of flowers over a very long period.

Ruby Spider One of the very best old spidery daylilies. Large rich ruby red blooms flowering from late June onwards throughout the season.

Selma Longlegs Gorgeous pale orange spidery blooms with a cinnamon blush. An earlier bloomer and a great start to the display season.

Serena Sunburst Always very much admired in the garden. Large and showy peachy yellow blooms with golden highlights and a sharp gold edge. Scrumptious!

Spider Man A stunning large red spidery bloom, flowering over a very long period. Very eye catching!

Strawberry Candy The best known of the Candy series. Bright strawberry pink blooms with a rose red eye zone and edge. Clumps will bloom for ages and there are loads of flowers opening every day.

22nd March 2013

Black raspberry ‘Glen Coe’

Gardeners’ Question Time just recommended a black raspberry called Glen Coe. It sounds like a novelty that might be worth trying. This is another interesting fruit developed by the Scottish Crop Research Institute.

James Wong was the panel member who suggested the raspberry because of its very sweet fruit. He mentioned the Brix rating, which I hadn’t heard of before, but it’s used as a measure of how sweet something is and apparently Glen Coe is “off the scale”. It’s thornless too.

I did a bit of digging (figuratively…) and found these suppliers:

Chris Bowers

Marshalls Seeds

Suttons

13th December 2012

Frosty the Primrose

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