I'm not generally mad about multicoloured evergreens but Hebe Heartbreaker is a stunner. Its a magnificient small evergreen shrub with striking cream edged green foliage with pink tips from spring to autumn, turning an overall vivid pink in autumn. It flowers are small with purple spikes but the foliage is the main reason for growing. Hebe Heartbreaker is great for containers growing only 60cm high with also a spread of about 60cm.
The Solargrow from www.greenhousesensation.co.ukis a solar powered hydroponic growing system. Plants are planted in a clay granule medium above a reservoir of water and nutrient. The nutrient medium is then directly pumped over the roots and as this drains away into the reservoir, oxygen is pulled to the roots.
Plants grown in a Solargrow typically produce 3x more yield than plants grown using soil, growbags or irrigation kits. This is because the Solargrow makes sure that plants aren’t under any stress, so they grow strong and healthy and can focus on producing fruit.
Is this the future of growing plants in small spaces?
Couldn't resist posting this photo.
Polyanthus are looking good at the moment adding a great splash of colour to any container. I prefer them to primroses as they hold their flowers above the foliage. They look amazing mixed as all the colours are so strong and really do not need underplanting with bulbs. They are perennial lasting from year to year but in small gardens its best to compost them after flowering and buy new plants in the autumn.
Cowichan Polyanthus have the brightest of flowers for spring containers. They are well worth searching out as most garden centres won't stock them.
These stunning polyanthus have flowers with very small 'eyes' which results in distinctive blooms of deep colours including wine reds,ruby and salmon.
Underplant them with simple deep coloured tulips chosen to flower at about 20-25cm high to give an amazing result.
After years in the wilderness, dahlias have become the must have style statement in contemporary gardens.
Having gone out of favour they are now back and available in a myriad of colours and flower shapes. Though in the past the have been grown in borders mainly to be used for cut flowers, they can be successfully grown in containers. The larger varieties will need some support but other than keeping a watch on the watering and feeding once in bud with a 'tomato' liquid feed, they are pretty foolproof.
Sarah Raven at www.sarahraven.com has put together some great colour coordinated dahlia collections that are available to buy now from only £10.95 a collection.
Back in the 80's the easy way to root cuttings was to use a product called Root Gelwhich I believe was supplied by ICI. It was so simple you purchased one of the pots of a special gel, about the size of a yogurt pot and just pushed your prepared cuttings through the lid into the gel.
Placed on the kitchen window sill you could watch the magic of your cuttings rooting while you washed up. Using the gel, cuttings rooted very quickly and then could be potted up into a normal potting compost.
For some reason Root Geldisappeared from the market but now has returned in the form of gel2root and should be available soon from most garden centres.
Out of the grip of a hard winters come moments of pure theatre. Trimming back grasses by the side of the deck yesterday I uncovered my 'mad hazel'.
The 'Corkscrew Hazel' , Corylus avellana Contorta, puts on a real show at this time of year. Its twisting contorted stems show well against a clear winter sky and the bonus is the plump cactkins that unfurl to become long twisty tassels.
It is a great container plant that is well worth growing for its shape, foliage and catkins.
There are many ways around to provide fresh herbs in the kitchen over winter but I think this is one of the most stylish.
The Herb Garden by Royal VKB comes complete with herb scissors to snip bits off as required. At only £27.53 from www.madeindesign.co.uk it is must for any yardners kitchen.
http://www.madeindesign.co.uk/prod-Herb-garden-Royal-VKB-refvt830-dgw.html
Remember the balmy days of summer, sipping Pimms and downing lashing of strawberries and cream. But did those supermarket strawberries taste as good as they looked?
Why not grow your own. They are easy to grow in containers and are specially suited to growing in window boxes. In the past the varieties available had been bred to grow in fields producing big bushy plants and lots of runners - the new plants grown on the end of a long lateral stem.
Today though there are varieties such as Strawberry F1 Berries Galore that has been bred especially for growing in containers and window boxes. These are compact plants that do not produce runners but are still very productive. They are available now as baby plants in garden centres ready to grow on in pots on a windowsill and then plant out in your windowbox in spring.
Haven't worked out a home recipe for Pimms though!
The harsh weather of the last few days has shown the benefit of not only having evergreen plants in the yard to give shape and structure but also how interesting stems can be once bare of foliage.
Deciduous climbers planted against boundary walls and fences create interesting abstract patterns with their bare stems. The dull winter lights cast almost no shadow so the outlines of the stems are stark against brickwork.
The photo shows a 'Russian Vine', the dreaded 'mile a minute' climber that has arrow shaped green leaves in the growing season and then is covered with creamy white flowers from mid summer. The best though I now find to be the shapes and patterns that it draws in the winter with its mahogany coloured stems.
