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Superb Spindles.

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

In one of last months’ blogs I mentioned what a remarkably good year it is proving to be for fruit and seeds, with the warm, dry spring allowing maximum pollination, followed by a wet-ish summer when the fruits need moisture in order to swell and ripen. The Rowans – Sorbus species – undoubtedly lead the charge in mid-summer, but in terms of wow-factor, and as summer moves to it’s conclusion, the Rowans are now being eclipsed by an altogether less well-known and less celebrated group of plants – the Spindles.

Euonymus grandiflorus fruit capsules.

Spindles are from the genus Euonymus, well-known to most gardeners as the home of the very widely grown and bomb-proof (if rather innocuous) evergreen ground-cover plant E. fortunei and the equally indestructible shrubby E. japonicus, widely planted as hedging. I would guess that for many those two plants are both the beginning and the end of their experience of Euonymus, which is something of a minor tragedy, as this fascinating genus contains over 175 species, many of which are exceedingly ornamental. Spread across all of the continents (barring Antarctica, obviously!) these highly successful plants have evolved and diversified into small trees, shrubs, climbers and creepers, such as good old E. fortunei.

Euonymus planipes with semi-ripe, unopened fruit.

By far the majority of their number, however, are medium-to-large-growing shrubs. This band includes our native species, Euonymus europaeus, a deciduous shrub or small tree widespread across much of Europe and into Asia minor, and commonly seen forming part of the living tapestry of ancient hedgerows and woodlands. The wood of E. europaeus is unusually hard and was traditionally used to make the spindles used for the spinning of wool, flax and hemp, a utilitarian purpose which has lent the common name “Spindle” not just to our own species, but also to all of it’s shrubby relatives.

Euonymus cornutus var.quiquecornutus - this rare Chinese species has wonderfully "horned" fruits.

Throughout the early growing season the Spindles quietly get on with the business of growing, rarely drawing the gardeners attention. Their flowers are extremely curious and rather fascinating, but they are also absolutely tiny and are generally coloured in the green/brown regions of the colour spectrum. The casual observer might not even notice that a Spindle was flowering, even when at it’s peak. Those miniature blooms are popular with bees and hoverflies, which is always a plus in any garden, but it’s what happens next that holds the key to the Spindles splendour.

Euonymus europaeus in flower.

Following pollination the flower ovary expands considerably to form a fruit, and by mid August the fruits of the earliest of the Spindle species are beginning to ripen and burst open in the most spectacular fashion. Although their shapes vary somewhat across the species all Spindle fruits are heavily lobed, commonly likened to spinning tops or jesters hats – these are plants of great character, to be sure. Those fruits are also vividly coloured – typically bright pink or red externally, opening to reveal tangerine-orange coloured seeds. As they ripen the seeds, rather than simply being shed onto the ground, are held for several weeks  to dangle on delicate threads that extend from their cases. In a good season – and 2011 is about as good as any I can remember – the overall effect of a Spindle in full fruit is quite wonderful.

Euonymus hamiltonianus 'Winter Glory', with it's heavy clusters of fruit.

The Spindles have another trick up their woody sleeves too, and as the chills of autumn arrive the leaves of many of the deciduous species start to turn to a dazzling array of colours from deep black-ish plum-purple, through every shade of yellow, orange and red and, in some cases, bright pink, all forming a backdrop to those fruits that are often retained well into winter.

An individula fruit of E. europaeus 'Red Cascade'.

In order to produce a good fruit set two or more individuals of the same species need to be grown together. Even then some Spindles are showier than others and both fruit set and particularly autumn foliage colour will vary greatly from year to year, dependant, as they both are, on the weather. Our own native E. europaeus, one of the largest growing species, is no slouch, and bears an abundance of fuchsia-pink seed capsules, followed by bright scarlet leaf colour. The best form for use in gardens is undoubtedly ‘Red Cascade’ which couples abundant fruit set with much more reliable autumn colour. E. europaeus f. albus is a variant with porcelain white fruit capsules, and the two are particularly effective when panted together, also forming pollination partners to ensure good fruit set.

Euonymus europaeus albus.

Euonymus hamiltonianus is the next most widely grown and distributed species, and many forms have now been selected and named. The fruits ripen much later, well into autumn as a rule, and mature to pink, whilst the large, glossy leaves fade to delicate shades of apricot, yellow and coral.

E. alatus, with it's full-on autumn effect.

E. alatus is very widely grown in the USA where it is a mainstay of some municipal plantings – not exactly a recommendation, perhaps – and is also freely available to gardeners here. Plants are compact, rounded and slow-growing, forming a tangled web of branches that bear wide, corky “wings” that are pretty attractive over winter. The fruits are small and red-purple, but the autumn leaf colour is vibrant, crimson-pink.

Euonymus latifolius.

E. latifolius and E. planipes are close relatives of one another, the former from Europe, the latter native to Japan. They are both readily cultivated and each produce large scarlet fruit and brilliant autumn foliage – highly recommended.

Euonymus myrianthus.

Not all of the Spindles are deciduous, and some of the most beautiful are evergreens native to China. E. myrianthus was a species that I first encountered as a teenager and, indeed, the one that awoke my enthusiasm for the Spindles in general. That particular plant was growing, as it still does, in the National Trust garden at Killerton, here in Devon, and I spent much time being fascinated by it’s deep golden fruits as well as admiring the tropical-lushness of the long, glossy leaves. E. myrianthus is a little tender in the garden, but it’s relative E. grandiflorus, is much tougher with large leaves that can remain evergreen in mild winters, or else age to deep burgundy and are slowly shed over the winter – a great foil for the beautiful, shell-pink fruits.

Euonymus grandiflorus, with not-yet-opened seed capsules.

The recent rise in interest in the Spindles, coupled with a mass of plant-hunting expeditions to Asia, has brought many new species into British cultivation and popularised others that have long been on the horticultural back-burner.  A few of my favourites are the exceedingly elegant E. bungeanus, with delicate, arching branches, slender, drooping leaves and blush-pink fruits; the wonderfully named E. cornutus var. quinquecornutus, a narrow-leafed semi-evergreen with perhaps the most dramatic fruits of all the Spindles; and E. americanus, with fruits that look just like little pink sea-urchins.

Commonly known (in the US) as the Strawberry Bush, Euonymus americanus is irresistible in fruit.

Aside from the few somewhat tender species, the Spindles are an adaptable and easily cultivated lot. We grow them successfully here on our mildly acidic river soil, but they will thrive on most soils, and do particularly well on chalk, making them amongst the most valuable of all shrubs for those somewhat difficult alkaline gardens. They are not large or difficult to accommodate in even small sites, and provided they receive a reasonable amount of sun they will reward you year after year with their impressive displays.

The delicate autumn colours and cascading foliage of E. bungeanus


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Planting for Wildlife: Daisy, Daisy.

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

It’s no exaggeration to say that there is a crisis looming, or already in full swing, for many of our native insects. Something in the region of 70% of our native butterfly species are in steep decline and many of our bee species are now regarded as threatened, with the short-haired bumblebee having gone extinct in the last few years. Even one third of our native wasp species are now on the endangered list. All of these insect groups are vital for the ongoing health and well-being of the entire ecosystem of our countryside, and the reasons for their declines are not hard to pinpoint.

A Honeybee feeding upon an Ox-Eye Daisy.

Climate change is certainly a factor, as the seasons that species have evolved to exploit change their nature or become more unpredictable, but of far greater significance is the rise of intensive agriculture and the fragmentation or loss of wild habitats that has resulted. To put that in perspective, 97% of Britain’s wild-flower meadows have disappeared in the space of the last 70 years. When viewed from that stand-point it’s surprising that more of our native insects haven’t succumbed altogether, but part of the reason for their continued survival, and that of much of the rest of our native wildlife, is that many species have managed to transplant themselves into our gardens and the margins of habitats that might otherwise be thought of as wasteland.

One of my favourites - the Spotted Longhorn Beetle, a guaranteed visitor to a flowering patch of Ox-Eyes.

The enormous economic importance of pollinating insects is only just being appreciated. Without them virtually all of our arable agriculture would, overnight, simply cease to exist. The very nature of our landscape is also inexorably linked to the fate of it’s pollinating bees, butterflies, hoverflies, moths, beetles and wasps, and their continued survival is very much in our own hands.

The Buff-tailed Bumblebee is our most widespread species.

Alerted, as never before, to the alarming declines of insect species and their populations conservationists are becoming evangelical in their calls for us to plant more wildflowers. Food sources and living spaces are the two key areas that we, as gardeners, can readily provide for our our invertebrate neighbours, and both are served by planting wildflowers. Attempting to reverse that fragmentation of habitats, that I mentioned,  is particularly important, as insect populations can all too easily become trapped in an ever dwindling micro-niche that is both genetically unstable and highly vulnerable to climate or other physical changes.

A Heath Fritillary feeding on nectar.

The goal is to provide a network of linked wildlife corridors through which species can move and slowly expand their numbers and their range, and these corridors are created and defined by the planting of native wildflowers. Road verges, car-parks and railway tracks can all be pressed into valuable use, but the largest green area outside of farmland, and the one over which we collectively have the most control, of course, is that contained within our gardens. Each of our gardens can be thought of as a cell of the environment, and by keeping the habitat of our own “cell” happy and healthy then the whole organism will thrive, along with all of it’s wildlife diversity.

The Ox-Eye is unpretentious and naturally charming.

A good emblem for this wildflower resurgence must be the Ox-Eye Daisy - Leucanthemum vulgare. The specific name “vulgare” means common, and there’s something pleasingly unsophisticated and fundamentally natural about the look of this native wildflower that sums up the whole ethos pretty well, I think. The Ox-Eye thrives on roadside verges, poor soils and neglect. It’s the antithesis of formality, with it’s cheerful, but raggedy appearance, as the stems tumble over one another and present their flowers to the sun. Traditionally the species was a stalwart of natural wildflower meadows, and, where allowed, it is an early coloniser of meadow grassland and newly disturbed ground. The plants do equally well in a traditional English border, and can easily be incorporated into a wide variety of schemes and designs.

One of the many species of hoverfly that frequent the flowers.

Flowering more or less continuously from May through to early September the Ox-Eye is one of the quintessential British summer wildflowers. You can grow them in turf, and indeed it’s possibly to buy-in turf which already contains growing plants, and these will happily survive being mown along with the grasses, but to properly benefit your wildlife, they must be allowed to grow to their full size (around 60cm) and to flower, which they do prodigiously. You can readily raise your own Ox-Eyes from seed, which will generally flower the same year it’s sown, and is entirely undemanding in it’s requirements. The plants are perennial, but often rather short-lived, thriving best in sunny situations, which is also where they will be of most benefit to your insect population.

Common Malachite beetle, feeding on and smothered in pollen.

Ox-Eyes are adored and relied upon by a wide array of insects. Flower Beetles of many species, such as the jewel-like Malachite Beetle, will be attracted and nourished by the pollen the flowers produce, whilst the nectar is a guaranteed draw for a constellation of butterfly, day-flying moth, bee and hoverfly species. Where space and your garden conditions allow the plants will very readily self-seed, but if you need to limit their ambitions it’s easy enough to remove the spent flower heads and prevent them from multiplying.

A Green-Veined White Butterfly pays a visit.

So this is one area where we really can all make a difference, and we really can all do our bit –  sow some wildflower seed or plant some plugs, and bring swathes of meadow flowers back to life in our own back yard. In so doing we’ll be helping to maintain the health of our own garden, and that of it’s wildlife inhabitants, as well as contributing to the whole network of wildflower habitats throughout the land.

The magnificent Emerald Flower Scarab seated on his pollen meal.


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Planting for Wildlife: Foxgloves.

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

All planted gardens, no matter how modest in scale, and no matter their style are beneficial to wildlife. With the increase of industrial scale farming through the last part of the 20th Century, many species of bird, mammal and invertebrate have come to rely upon our gardens and use them as a refuge or even as their permanent home. The combination of habitat, food-source and breeding location makes the garden an obvious and invaluable sanctuary for wildlife, but, of course, some gardens are more useful than thers when it comes to providing for the needs of wildlife.

The common, wild form of our native Foxglove.

Lots of recent research has underlined the importance of native plants in attracting and then maintaining populations of wildlife in the garden. This is hardly a great surprise, as virtually all our our native flora and fauna have evolved together and a host of different inter-dependent relationships have emerged as a result. Taking this to it’s ultimate conclusion you could argue, as many do, that the ultimate wildlife garden would contain only native plant species, and in so doing would replicate a little patch of habitat that has been lost from the open countryside.

That’s all well and good in theory, but in practice only the most dedicated, or those with the most garden space to spare, are likely to head down the all-native route when planting out their plot. But what almost every gardener certainly can do is to integrate some native plants into their garden schemes. The British flora is well known for having been greatly impoverished by the last ice age, and it’s true that we can’t get close to the variety or numbers of species found at similar latitudes in Asia or North America; still, a little investigation will turn up a really quite remarkable array of highly appealing species that will sit comfortably in any ornamental garden whilst giving the local wildlife the opportunity to benefit at the same time.

The soft pink of Digitalis purpurea 'Suttons Apricot'.

A good case in point is our native Foxglove – Digitalis purpurea. Foxgloves are so familiar, so commonplace both in the landscape and in our flower-memories, that it’s easy to take them for granted and ignore their great appeal. In this case, though, commonplace certainly doesn’t mean dull or unworthy of garden space. If you stop and take the time to really look at a foxglove in full flowering glory you could easily imagine that you’re looking at some exotic, tropical hot-house plant, rather than a vigorous and ultra-tough wildflower.

Digitalis purpurea Excelsior Group.

Digitalis is a small, but highly ornamental genus of herbaceous plants, pretty much all of which are endemic to Europe. D. purpurea is the only truly British native species, (although a few others have escaped from gardens are form localised populations in the wild) but rather handily, it is also the largest-flowered, and most easily grown of the group. The species is very easily grown from seed, which germinates rapidly (a week to 10 days is the norm) with no special treatment. The plants are generally biennial, meaning that the first year is spent bulking up and the second flowering, after which they die, leaving copious seed behind. If you grow them in a semi-natural area or bed, then they will invariably self-seed and quickly provide an ongoing succession of generations to grow and flower. Alternatively it’s easy to collect some seed and sow in a pot or seedtray the following Spring. In the wild they often colonise disturbed ground and woodland edges, but in the garden they will do just as well in full sun or semi shade in a regular herbaceous bed.

A wild stand of Digitalis purpurea.

Foxgloves have an exceptional reputation for attracting certain kinds of wildlife. They don’t bring in birds or butterflies, but they are absolutely unrivalled attractors of one of our most important and most threatened groups of insects, namely bumblebees. You only have to look at a Bumblebee feeding at a Foxglove to see how obviously and closely the two have co-evolved, each benefiting the other. The foxglove flower fits the bumblebee like a glove, and indeed, so specific is the match that few other insects are able to access it’s resources at all. For the flower the bumblebee brings a reliable and dedicated pollinator, whilst for the bee the Foxglove provides a feast of both nectar and pollen, which they feed to their larvae.

A White-tailed Bumblebee coming into land on a Foxglove flower.

Each individual flower is spotted and lined to our eyes, and much more vividly so to a Bumblebee, whose vision, like that of all insects, operates primarily in the ultra-violet spectrum. These patterns have evolved to precisely guide the bees onto the landing strips of the flowers, and then up into the bells to where the nectar and pollen lie.  The flowers even have an array of hairs on their lower surface to help the heavy insects get a secure grip as they do their work.

A Foxglove flower in close-up, with the guide spots and hairs for the benefit of the bees.

Wild populations of Digitalis purpurea are almost invariably rosy red/purple in flower, and show relatively little variance. However their very long history in cultivation has, over time, lead to the selection of  a number of other colour forms. D. purpurea f. albiflora is an exceedingly beautiful and very well-known form with pure white flowers.

The elegant, cool white of Digitalis purpurea f. albiflora

Digitalis purpurea 'Sutton's Primrose'.

‘Sutton’s Apricot’ is a soft, flesh-pink whilst ‘Sutton’s Giant Primrose’  extends into deep nearly-yellow-cream. Many other forms, such as the Excelsior Group, have also been selected for increased spotting or heavy blotching on the flowers, which reaches an extreme in ‘Pam’s Choice’ and the Giant Spotted Group. All of these are seed grown and so the flowers of each individual plant do vary somewhat, within the general limits of the group, but all are highly worthwhile and can provide essential drama for you and a lifeline for your equally fascinating and beautiful garden residents, the Bumblebees.

Digitalis purpurea 'Pam's Choice'.


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Gardening Tips June

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

Is this everybody’s favourite month? I suspect it is.  The evenings are at last warm enough to sit outside and appreciate the heavy scents of high summer.  Lovely wafts come from the flowers of a superb silver-leafed shrub Eleagnus ‘Quicksilver’, from the perennial white stock (Matthiola perennis) that I grow in large pots all around my terrace, and the white sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis ‘Alba’) dotted around in the semi-shade of my borders together with the almost sickly-sweet  smell of a small pot of Zalulanskya – an annual night-scented stock relation – that sits in the middle of my garden table.  And as if that was not enough, any moment now the tiny white star-shaped flowers of the so-called evergreen jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) will join the headily-perfumed throng.  There is a reason so many night-scented flowers are white: they attract pollinating moths in the gloaming.

My pond, however, is having a prolonged green water moment.  To control the algae I floated small bags of barley straw in the water some weeks ago (each with a small empty sealed plastic drinks bottle inserted deep into the middle for buoyancy, to keep them in the sun).  As the straw rots it releases hydrogen peroxide into the water which inhibits the growth of blanket weed and other algae.  It takes a long time to work, and while it does you have to keep hauling out the green, hair-like stuff (and rescuing tadpoles caught up in it) but gradually, miraculously, the water does clear.


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Poorly Pumpkins!

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

 

For the last three mornings I have woken up to a ground frost, and today I regret not taking better care of my newly planted pumpkin seedlings  …  they seem to have been doomed from the beginning .. first the mice dug up the seeds and ate them! And now Jack Frost has visited my vegetable patch and decided that the pumpkins are not to be, and has damaged them beyond repair.  Determined to not be beaten in the quest for homegrown pumpkins for Halloween,   I planted out a packet of seeds directly into the ground when I planted my seedlings, so I am hoping they will germinate when the soil warms up, and produce some heavyweight fruits!

On the chicken front, I have had a poorly hen too :(   Her tail feathers were looking a bit mucky, so I tried to bath her in a bucket of warm water, and then on closer examination, I found that she had louse eggs firmly cemented to the base of her feathers.  After seeking some advice from a fellow hen keeper, I have dusted all the girls with some Livestock Louse Powder and will check later in the week, to see if the problem is under control.  I love the ethos of  the EcoCharlie Garden, and would prefer to use environmentally sustainable products as much as possible, so I researched some methods for keeping chickens fit and healthy, and found that if you add Apple Cider Vinegar and garlic to their drinking water, it works not only as a poultry tonic but also to control intestinal worms and parasites.  My garlic is growing well at the moment so we soon be self sufficient, and I have found a local source the the vinegar  … it has to be live and non-pasturised and not the sort you buy from the supermarkets.

 

 

On a more positive front, my rhubarb is immense, and I have been picking it regularly for the last couple of weeks.  This will also encourage it to keep growing throughout the Summer months.  I usually simply roast the rhubarb in orange juice and zest, fresh and ground ginger and a sprinkling of brown sugar for about 15 minutes in the Aga.  the combination of flavours works so well, and the cooked rhubarb can either simply be eaten with a dollop of creme fraiche, or made into a crumble or fool, or used with any other recipe requiring cooked rhubarb.

My next job of the day, is to sow some Cat Clear as I have a continual challenge of the neighbours cats using my front flower bed as their toilet area!  Cat Clear is an Eco-Friendly solution to feline control in all sized gardens.  It works on two instinctive properties of the plants that are grown from seed – odour and texture.

Hopefully the next time I write, the frost should be gone for this part of the year, and I can continue to plant out some of the more succulent varieties of vegetables including some courgettes.


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Cold Enough for Soup!

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

I can’t believe how cold it has become again …  I even woke up this morning to frost on the roof of my car!  But luckily it hasn’t seemed to settle as low as my lettuces, and new potato shoots that have been emerging from the ground during the last week.  3 years ago we planted some asparagus plants in our vegetable patch, and somehow we managed to lose 2 of the plants the second year but the remaining plant has this year done exactly what it said on the label … started to produce really respectable looking asparagus spears!  My home grown spears are too precious to use to make soup, however my local farm shop and all the major supermarkets have shelves bursting with asparagus at the moment, so this weekend I used the last of my homegrown leeks and some of my white onions, with the shop bought asparagus and made some really delicious soup bursting with nutrients, and this is the recipe I used:

 

FRESH ASPARAGUS SOUP

  • 800g asparagus, woody ends removed
  • lug of olive oil
  • 2 medium white onions, peeled and chopped
  • 2 sticks of celery, trimmed and copped
  • 2 leeks, trimmed and chopped
  • 2 litres good-quality chicken or vegetable stock, if preferred
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Chop the tips off your asparagus and put these to one side for later. Roughly chop the asparagus stalks. Get a large, deep pan on the heat and add a good lug of olive oil. Gently fry the onions, celery and leeks for around 10 minutes, until soft and sweet, without colouring. Add the chopped asparagus stalks and stock and simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on. Remove from the heat and blitz with a hand-held blender or in a liquidizer. Season the soup with salt and pepper until just right. Put the soup back on the heat, stir in the asparagus tips, bring back to the boil and simmer for a few more minutes until the tips have softened.

We ate the soup hot, but if the weather was warmer this soup is equally tasty served chilled.

I have reason again to sprinkle EcoCharlie Natural Slug and Snail Deterrent in my vegetable patch.  Last year I vowed to never again buy a shop bought pumpkin for Halloween.   After a false start due to a mouse digging up the planted pumpkin seeds to eat, from the 4 little pots that were waiting to germinate in the potting shed, I was able to plant out the replacement seedlings that germinated in my conservatory!  I loaded the soil with some well roted compost, and once the plants were securely in the ground, I applied some Natural Slug and Snail Deterrent around each plant to save them from the next potential attack! 

I am happy to say that the seed strips that I have been experimenting with, have all germinated and I have perfectly straight lines of well spaced rocket, beetroot and carrots emerging.  Also the first of the rhubarb is now ready to harvest, so I feel sure there will be a recipe to follow next time.   Anyway, must be off now ….   it’s time to give the hens their afternoon treat of mixed corn!


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Greenhouse vegetables.

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

With temperatures rising and summer just around the corner the unheated greenhouse can really start to earn it’s keep. Whilst there are a huge range of vegetables that thrive outdoors in our climate, there are also a select few that really do need the protection of glass in order to give their best.

Tomatoes.

The most obvious and perhaps even traditional of these are undoubtedly tomatoes. There are now a vast array of varieties and types of tomatoes available for the home grower, some of which can be successfully cropped outdoors if the weather is kind. Down here in “sunny” Devon the last two summers of eternal wetness have well and truly put paid to any attempts to produce outdoor tomato crops, with most plants succumbing to blight and weather-related fungal attacks  long before they were able to set fruit.

For those plants grown under glass, though, the outcome was much happier, and although 2008/2009 will certainly not go down in any veg growers record book some decent crops were eventually produced despite the cold temperatures and general lack of anything resembling a traditional summer.

Tomato variety Sunbaby.

The upright, cordon tomato varieties such as ‘Sunbaby’ and ‘Shirley’ should be selected for greenhouse use. Seeds should be sown in mid-March, with the subsequent seedlings being ready to transplant in mid-May. There are also many outlets for young plug and seedling plants which will perform equally admirably and which allow you to catch up if you didn’t have a chance to start from seed earlier in Spring.

Transplant seedlings into 12 inch pots with a rich, free draining compost, and make sure to include a tall cane or other support for each of the plants. Given a little care, plus lots of water and tomato feed, the extra heat afforded the plants under glass will produce much higher yields of fruit, with much better ripening than would be the case outdoors.

Cucumbers.

The range of cucumbers for home growing has expanded considerably in recent years with the arrival of a range of easily obtainable F1 hybrid varieties (such as ‘Fernspot F1′) that are easily grown and produce consistently good results.

Cucumber plants tend to be rather fragile under the weight of the heavy fruit, but should be carefully supported on canes.

Care is pretty much as for tomato plants, with seeds sown in March and seedlings or plugs transplanted into 12 inch pots in mid-May.

The wild plants from which cucumbers have been developed are trailing, rather than climbing, but the fruit ripens far more successfully with good access to light and air, so plants should be supported with canes or tied into wires that run along the length of the greenhouse.

Once the first half-dozen leaves have appeared on the young plants the growing tip should be pinched out to encourage the production of several growing shoots.

Cucumber plants are only weakly twining at best and obviously carry very heavy fruit, so it’s particularly important that these developing shoots are carefully tied in to their supports to keep them upright and stable. Plants should be kept well watered and a rich tomato-type feed given every two weeks.

Aubergines.

Far less commonly grown in this country, aubergines, like tomatoes, are South American members of the nightshade family that most definitely need the extra heat and protection from wind that a greenhouse can provide. As with cucumbers, much work has been done to develop varieties that can be easily grown at home, and very heavy fruiting varieties like ‘Moneymaker’ make for easy and extremely rewarding  greenhouse crops. The plants are also very attractive, not just for the rather spectacular fruit, but also the for the foliage and large purple flowers.

Aubergines - highly decorative, highly tasty.

Aubergines should be sown indoors or under heat in March or in an unheated greenhouse in April. Once they have produced four leaves – any time from mid-May to mid-June, depending on when they were started – they can be pricked out and transplanted into 9 inch pots, together with the same staking/support as for tomatoes and cucumbers.

Plants should not be allowed to develop lots of small fruits or none will be able to ripen properly. Each plant is capable or maturing anywhere from three to six fruit in a growing season – depending on how warm and sunny the summer turns out to be - so pinch out any weak or poorly developed fruit-lets to let the plants divert energy into a few really good ones instead. Lots of water and regular supplies of tomato feed will, once again, ensure the best crops.

Capsicum.

Saving the best to last, we come to the real hot-house gems, the Capsicums or peppers. Until fairly recently hardly anyone grew these South-American beauties in their home greenhouses in this country, but now they are very much the “vegetable de jour” and plug plants are almost as readily available as tomatoes and cucumbers.

Capsicum Sunrise.

Capsicum plants are somewhat more tender than toms, cus and aubergines, particularly when first germinated. Seed should only be sown under glass when temperatures are remaining consistently above 12C, and the seedlings (or bought-in plugs) transplanted into 8 inch pots once they have developed three of four true leaves.

Capsicum are not true climbing plants, but, rather like cucumbers, they certainly do require additional support of a short cane etc., in order to successfully bear their large fruit. The plants should be shaded from mid-day sun and kept slightly on the dry side, without actually ever quite drying out completely. A half-strength tomato feed should be applied every two weeks once the plants are growing strongly.

Capsicum Tequila.

There are now a wide array of Capsicum varieties available to the gardener, from the sweet bell peppers that start out green and ripen to yellow, orange, red or black/purple (like the fabulous ‘Tequila’), to the smaller, much hotter chillies than all turn scarlet upon ripening – they are all part of the same Mexican species: Capsicum annuum.

Aside from the obvious culinary uses Capsicum are such beautiful fruiting plants that you’ll be continually admiring their progress. Personally I can’t think of any more rewarding use for your greenhouse space this summer.


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Erythroniums.

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Another genus that provides some of the real stars of the spring garden is Erythronium. Commonly known as dogtooth violets – referring to the bulb of the species E. dens-canis, which does sort-of resemble a canine fang – as well as trout lilies – after to the speckled leaves of many species, that supposedly look like trout scales…if you’ve been on the ale, maybe – these are truly beautiful lily relatives.

Erythronium dans-canis bulbs - the Dog-Tooth.

The 25 to 30 species of Erythronium are mostly woodland natives, but some species range up into sub alpine and even truly alpine regions of Europe, Asia and Western North America, this last being the place that most of them call home.

Much like Trilliums Erythronium can be divided into two botanical groups. the Eurasian species (the Dogtooth violets, if you will) are the smallest and are represented by E. dens-canis and it’s close relatives/variants –  E. japonicum, E. sibiricum, and E. caucasicum. The North American species (the Trout Lilies)  that form the second group are taller and represent the large bulk of the species. These two groups do not overlap geographically, are don’t seem to be very closely related botanically, having evolved in divergent directions after the break up of the supercontinent where their ancestors must have first appeared.

Erythronium americanum.

In the Eastern states of North America there are 5 native species, but the remaining 18 species are all native to the forests of the western seaboard, with particular concentrations in Oregon and California.

Erythroniums are quintessential Spring flowering perennials and display many of the typical qualities of other plants from the woodland floor. Like their native companions such as Hepatica, Trillium and Uvularia they emerge from dormancy between February and April, before the woodland canopy has leafed out, and then flower and set seed fairly quickly before dying back down again in early summer.

Erythronium Susannah.

In common with pretty much all bulbous plants the flowers and general performance of Erythroniums in one season is dependent upon the reserves of energy that have been laid down over the previous season.

The longer that a plant is able to keep in leaf the better the vigour and the display of foliage and flower will be the following year, and this length of growing season can be effected by water and food supplies, to it pays to keep a close eye on plants once flowering has finished.

Unlike their relatives the true Lilies Erythonium bulbs don’t respond at all well to being dried out and should ideally never be bought as “dry bulbs”. In addition many species have very delicate, fragile,  thin bulbs that are easily damaged if you do attempt to dig them up and dry them out, so careful handling is definitely required when dividing or splitting large clumps.

Erythronium Craigton Cover Girl.

Without doubt the best way to introduce and establish plants if to look for healthy, lush, pot-grown plants that are in full leaf, although the rarer species can also be successfully purchased damp packed having been freshly lifted in Summer from specialist bulb suppliers.

The alpine species, are, not surprisingly perhaps, quite demanding and tricky to accommodate in most garden conditions, but many of the woodlanders are amongst the easiest and most rewarding of all Spring perennials.

Erythronium californicum is a tall, stately and very easily grown species with bright white flowers that have a contrasting golden yellow centre. The form ‘White Beauty’ is widely available, and totally reliable in the garden.

Erythronium dens-canis Snowflake.

The little 15cm tall European species Erythronium dens-canis is early flowering and is widely available in a plethora of different forms and selections, which, for the most part don’t differ hugely from one another. All have lovely, dark-speckled leaves and ‘Snowflake’ is a distinctive beautiful white flowered form.

Erythronium oregonum is a normally white flowered species with wonderfully patterned and mottled leaves; E. oregonum ‘Sulphur’ is a form with equally appealing lemon yellow flowers.

One of the most widespread American species (and one that has also been used extensively in hybridisation programmes) is the pink flowered Erythronium revolutum.

Erythronium revolutum.

This 30cm tall plant is quite variable in terms of leaf quality and flower size and depth of colour, but there are a number of well tested selections – including the Devon form ‘Knightshayes’ Pink’ - that are worth seeking out in preference to the general species.

Amongst the many fine hybrids involving this species are E. ‘Joanna’, a particular favourite of mine, with gorgeous apricot coloured flowers that change colour as they age and E. ‘Craigton Cover Girl’ with very large flowers of pale pink.

The variety most frequently seen in cultivation, though, is definitely the bright lemon-yellow flowered old hybrid E. ‘Pagoda’, a tough, vigorous and widely available garden plant with broad, glossy foliage that emerges with a pleasing bronzy tint. E. ‘Sundisc’,  E. ‘Kondo’ and E. ‘Susanna’ are similar, and are also widely available, but both have rather superior flowers.

Erythronium Pagoda.

Erythronium love conditions that replicate their wild habitats. A spot beneath deciduous trees in an open, loamy soil that dries out a little in Summer will suit them admirably, but any conditions that accomodate the likes of snowdrops will also work well. pH is not particularly critical, although thin, chalk-based soils will certainly need bulking up with organic materials and heavy clay soils will require opening up to improve drainage. Where soil conditions are unsuitable then Erythroniums can also be grown very happily in raised beds or in large containers, which also makes it easier to observe the extremely beautiful flowers in close-up detail and at eye level. The most vigorous varieties can also be naturalised in grass and can look spectacular in large groups planted around the margins of trees and shrubs.

Erythronium Joanna.

All of the more vigorous forms will multiply well at the bulb and the longer they are kept in leaf the quicker they will bulk up. Preventing them from setting seed will also increase the rate at which they increase underground, and can be easily achieved by simply removing the dead flowers.

Erythonium do set seed in quantity and this can be easily collected once the seed capsules have ripened, dried and are starting to split. The seed should then be stored dry and sown in August into a deep container which is then left outside to overwinter, since seed requires a period of winter cold to stimulate germination.

Growing from seed is a rather slow process though, and plants take anything up to 5 years before reaching flowering size. As with adult plants, keeping the youngsters in leaf for as long as possible is the key to speeding the process up as much as possible.

Erythronium californicum.

Luckily Erythonium are not greatly troubled by pests and diseases and the woodland species don’t have any great specialist needs in the garden.

Slugs and snails can be a pain during wet springs but most other problems are due to poor drainage causing rotting and fungal damage to the bulbs.


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Pollination.

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Flowers and pollen.

A honeybee, covered in Dandelion pollen.

Plants in nature employ a fascinating array of strategies to ensure pollination of their flowers. When they first evolved wind was the only agent that could use to move pollen from one plant to it’s neighbour, and ancient lineages of plants such as cycads, ferns and conifers still make do with drift pollination to this day.

Much, much later on came the flowering plants. The myriad forms, colours and patterns of flowers that now exist, and in which we gardeners take such delight, all developed for one single purpose: to ensure pollination.

Flowers do this, of course, by using their none too subtle signals to attract an equally large galaxy of insects, birds and mammals to carry out their work for them.

Clouds of Pine pollen released on the wind.

This has proven to be an incredibly effective strategy and, as a result, flowering plants are able to reproduce themselves despite only producing tiny quantities of pollen.

Your average conifer, by contrast, consigns truly industrial quantities of pollen to the air each spring in the hope that a minuscule proportion of it will land in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, to ensure successful pollination.

It’s fair to say that most wild plants do successfully manage the trick of pollination in most years and are thus able to set seed and attempt to reproduce themselves.

Pollination in the garden.

An Aquilegia - a typical hummingbird pollinated flower: red and with elongated nectaries.

In the garden however, things do not always go so smoothly. Almost all of the plants that we grow as ornamentals and for food are well outside of their wild environments, and often totally isolated from their natural pollinating partners.

Not too many of us have hummingbirds visiting our gardens for instance, yet it’s they that are the wild pollination partners for a number of our red-flowered garden favourites such as Aquilegia.

Which is where hand pollination comes in.

Hand pollination.

Hand pollination is simply the pollination of a plant by “mechanical” means – i.e. by you the gardener. There are three good reasons why you might want to hand pollinate flowers in the garden.

Tomato flowers.

Firstly, many fruit and vegetable plants (tomatoes being a prime example) often need help in pollination to ensure a good crop of fruit develops.

This is particularly so when the plants are grown under glass where any potential pollinators may not be able to reach them, and where the plants may well be flowering artificially early, before most pollinators are on the wing.

Secondly, you may wish to ensure a crop of seed is produced that you can successfully harvest for sowing or distribution. In the absence of natural wild pollinators some plants will only set seed if given this additional help.

A mature stigma with a few pollen grains already attached.

In addition, in order to limit the number of genetically identical copies of themselves, many plants have developed various strategies to prevent self-pollination.

These plants are referred to as being self-sterile (heterothallic, if you want to get really technical) and they will need artificial assistance from a second donor plant in order to fruit well or to set seed at all.

Thirdly, you may, like me, wish to have a go at playing god and try to make your own hybrids. This can be extremely rewarding, and it’s certainly great fun watching new babies develop and seeing how they differ from, and hopefully improve upon their parents.

Techniques and strategies.

Anatomy of a Tulip. Dark brown pollen on the anthers of the male stamens which surround the white female stigma in the centre.

The simplest form of mechanical help that you can give a plant is to simply give it a gentle shake. Some fruit and veg plants that are self fertile (but that suffer from a lack of insect pollinators) can benefit greatly from this as the loose pollen is easily dislodged from the stamens and transferred  via gravity to the stigma. A number of glasshouse crops are pollinated in just this way and electric “shakers” are used commercially on a vast scale.

Of course this isn’t much help of you’re looking to create a hybrid or to be certain of pollination of a particular, individual flower, so this is where true hand pollination comes in.

Although the anatomy, structure and size of flowers differs hugely, the basic reproductive elements are present and correct in all of them.

Simply put, dust-like pollen grains are produced on the anthers of the male stamens and need to be received by the female stigma.

Once on the stigma the pollen grains will germinate and grow towards the ovary where they can fertilise the waiting seeds.

Hand pollination tasks.

Lily stamens and stigma.

The stages of the hand pollination are:

1) To correctly identify the stamens and the stigma in the intended flowers. Sometimes it’s blindingly obvious what’s what, but other floral anatomies, especially in small flowers, can be a bit more cryptic. The internet can usually help.

2) To figure out when the stamens are ripe and shedding pollen, and when the stigma is receptive. This is crucial.

Stamens are of no use unless they are shedding fluffy, light pollen. They only do this for a few days, so timing is important.

The stigma becomes moist and sticky when receptive, and most also change shape and curl outwards, all ploys to try to trap pollen.

Normally the stigma ripens first and then the stamens mature some time later (although some flowers operate the other way around) so you will need to keep an eye on several different flowers and use each at the right stage.

Pollen grains on a tulip stamen.

3) Transfer clean pollen from stamen to stigma. Traditionally this has always been done with a very fine artists paintbrush…which I personally think is a terrible idea.

Firstly much of the pollen is lost either in the bristles or in the act of moving from flower to flower. More importantly, once used the brush is then tainted with the pollen of that flower and needs to be sterilised with alcohol to kill the pollen residue before being used on the next variety of flower.

Unless you are only pollinating one variety of flower this is totally impractical and some flowers produce such tiny quantities of pollen that almost none would be transferred on a brush.

Hand pollinating an Iris using tweezers.

Another popular technique uses cotton buds. These are pretty good at collecting pollen and can be discarded after each plant, so there’s no danger of pollen contamination.

In my experience though much of the pollen is again lost in the fibres of the cotton and some of the flowers that I hybridize - Epimediums for example – are far too small for a cotton bud to be of much use.

By far the simplest and best idea is to use a pair of long handled, narrow pointed tweezers to pluck the ripe stigma and us it to “paint” the stigma with pollen. If the flower parts are large enough, you can simply use your fingers instead of tweezers. This way you get the maximum possible amount of pollen transferred and there is absolutely no possibility of contamination. Easy!

Painting the stigma of a courgette flower using a plucked stamen.

4) If you’re attempting to hybridize you must prevent anything else from pollinating the flower afterwards. There are two aspects to this.

Firstly you’ll need to prevent the flower from pollinating itself. The surest way to do this is to simply remove all of the stamens before they ripen and shed their pollen. This process is called emasculation, and is easily done with those same long tweezers.

Secondly you need to prevent any insects from visiting the flower.

If you are pollinating a small-ish plant then you might want to have it in a pot which will allow it to be moved indoors for a few days until whilst the stigma is still receptive.

Alternatively you can hood the flower, to prevent anything gaining access to it. Paper bags secured with cotton or cotton are ideal, and allow good movement of air and humidity, which is crucial if the pollen is to germinate successfully. The third option is to remove all of the petals from the flower so there’s simply nothing left to signal to an insect.


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Germinating Molehills!

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

 

 Well, since I last wrote, the weather has been beautiful, but the ground has become very dry with a total lack of rain!  I have had no excuse not to disappear to the bottom of my garden, and get to work on my vegetable patch.  I am happy to report that my chitted potatoes are now planted underground, and I keep looking hoping to see the first sign of an early shoot, but have just checked again and still no sign :(  

 

However, I experimented with some new seed strips, which are seeds, placed on strips of what looks like toilet tissue, evenly spaced and ready to just lay in shallow trenches in the ground, and have just noticed that only one week later the rocket is just starting to appear in perfectly straight lines….  a bit of a cheat maybe for the serious gardener, but new and innovative and incredibly easy for a novice.  Because of the lack of rain I have been watering daily to help with the germination process.  The slugs have kept away from my lettuce seedlings thanks to the slug and snail deterrent however, I have had another resident in my vegetable patch since the Winter snows melted!  Molehills have been germinating and appearing daily, and although they are the most gorgeous critters to look at, they can devastate gardens. Luckily I know a local man who is expert at trapping moles so it is with mixed feelings that I can tell you the mole has now gone.

In the Summer, when my homegrown fruit is plentiful, I freeze fruit such as gooseberries, which I top and tail first and then bag up. My gooseberries are the dessert variety so they are a lovely pink colour. This simple recipe is for good old-fashioned gooseberry jam. Makes a delicious and unusual sweet yet sour flavour, and this jam sets remarkably well as gooseberries are full of pectin. Remember to keep everything simple and it will taste absolutely delicious.

 

Ingredients

  • 900g gooseberries, topped and tailed
  • 900g-1kg granulated sugar
  • 600ml water

Method: How to make gooseberry jam

1. To every 450g prepared fruit use 300ml water. The riper the fruit, the less water you will need, and also the pinker your jam will be. Put the frozen fruit and water into a large, heavy-based saucepan. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently until the skins are soft – they will not soften after the sugar has been added.

2. Add the sugar and stir over a low heat until it has dissolved completely. If you boil the jam before it has dissolved, it may crystallise during storage. Bring the jam to a rapid but steady boil and boil until it reaches a temperature of between 105°C and 110°C.

3. Meanwhile, wash some jam jars in hot soapy water, then rinse well. Put them into a preheated oven at 160°C/fan140°C/gas 3 until you are ready to use them.

4. Do the ‘wrinkle test’ to see if you have reached setting point. It should happen after about 15 minutes or so of boiling, and your jam should by now have become slightly more viscous and clear. Have a saucer ready in the freezer. Take the pan off the heat, spoon a little jam onto the plate and leave until completely cold. Then push it across the plate with your forefinger. It should wrinkle up if it’s ready. If it only slightly wrinkles, bring back to the boil and boil for a few more minutes.

5.Discard any scum from the top of the jam and pour it into the prepared jars, using a jam funnel if you have one, or from a jug. Cover the surface of the jam with waxed discs, wax-side down, and either quickly cover each jar with a dampened round of cellophane and rubber band or leave to go cold before covering with cellophane or a screw-top lid. Sealing the jars well will prevent the build up of condensation under the lid, which could lead to mould.

Just heard this weeks weather forecast, and there is the possibility of some ground frost over night, so I need to go and search out some protection for my lettuce seedlings and mangetout plants…..


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