Plantpassion

Autumn Colour, catch it while you can

Lovely Autumn colour, - but why do we sometimes get great colour for ages and sometimes none at all?

Plants don't have an internal calendar, they work from Temperature and length of daylight hours. They can also be affected by too much or too little water, and these all have a massive affect on Autumn colours.

In a year with cool dry weather right until the end of October, the colours will be a lot better than a cool wet autumn, when the leaves will fall off the trees without turning colour or a warm dry autumn where the leaves won't turn colour until later, and then will suddenly drop, the first spell of wet or wind we get.

We've had years recently (in southern UK) where the temperature (particularly at night) hasn't been low enough to trigger leaf colour change until November, - but this year we have got some great colour, although with wetter weather coming in this weekend, don't expect it to last for long, - here are some more pictures i've taken over the last week.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day October 2009

Thanks to Carol at May Dream Gardens who hosts this collection of garden bloggers posts, here is my selection of what's in flower this month at the Brown household in Surrey UK.

My Nerines (Bowdenii) are in their second year, and are loving the south facing border against the house.

Shedloads of seed sowing

I've had a great gardening day today, - ok so maybe the house is a mess, but I got lots done out in the garden, including a huge amount of seed sowing.  i've been deadheading over the last few weeks, but in my "can't throw anything out that might be useful manner," i've been keeping loads of seedheads wrapped in Newspaper in the greenhouse. These are all nice and dry, so today i've been seed sowing frantically.

As some of the seeds are very small, - my first job was to sieve the multipurpose compost i'm sowing into. - Ideally i'd sow into a low fertiliser compost (a sowing and cutting mix), but they are very expensive, and usually only come in 15-20l bags, so I multibuy a fairly cheap and cheerful compost in 75l bags, and then sieve, add in nutrients or feed less dependant on what the plants or seeds need. Normally i'd use some homemade compost in my mix, - but this isn't good for seeds as it isn't sterilised, so may contain weed seeds. Even I can't always tell the seedlings from the weedlings, so best to sow these into a propitiatory growing media.

I used to buy a new load of seed trays each season, - but i've found now that reusing trays I got my bedding in, or using recycled fruit trays or meat trays (with holes put in the bottom) gets just as good results. They just need washing out first.

So what am I hoping for from my trays and trays of (currently) bare compost.

I've sown, - As well as my regular saladings and herbs, - purple & red poppies, Eryngium planum, Tulips (don't know which colour as I didn't mark the stem with a label ) Aquilegia, Allium Christophii, Astrantia, (i'm hoping they come true from seed as it's a very nice red flowering variety), Campanula (probably persicifolia), Eriginium Karvinskianus, and of course seeds from my mistake of the year

This fantastic yellow verbascum which has added height and colour to my front border was sown from seeds sent to me in a packet labelled Verbena Rigida. However I decided I liked them , I had lots germinate so I planted them liberally through the border in the sun. They are now rewarding me with amazing seed heads, If you'd like to grow this plant, and you're in the uk, just leave a comment on this blog, and i'll send you some seeds.

September Garden bloggers bloom day

it's the middle of September already, and today has been a really gloomy wet day, - so it's a good job I got my camera out yesterday to record what's flowering in my garden.
The front border has the most colour in it

The Rudbeckia Goldstrum is still in full colour, and the Heleniums are now being shown off by the purple of the Aster. The Rose is having a second flush of flowers and the Verbena bonariensis is still doing its thing.

August Flowers Blooming

A lot of the planting in my garden is less than a year old, but that doesn't mean that there isn't lots flowering in the mid of summer. - Here is my photo record of those things flowering in the middle of August.

 
Geranium Rozanne and Sedum Purple Emporer- the sedum is supported by an upturned wire hanging basket to prevent it flopping.

Great plants in your borders?, - don't forget the photos

i've been searching for photos to go on my website, which is currently being updated, - Plants and Gardening are a very colourful thing, and i've been enjoying going through my records of my clients gardens and my own to find the plants and mixtures of planting that I like.  What I have found is a lot of is
I wish i'd taken a photo of........, so i'm vowing to take my camera with me everywhere for the next few weeks.

Here are some of the best images from recently

Rudbeckia, Dahlias, Helenium & Geranium Rozanne against a Sambucus black lace that's getting a little too big for its boots

Asplenium fern, set off by Astrantia Roma and Geranium Johnsons Blue

and just to show that there don't have to be any flowers showing to get great colours, this is 2 different spireas with Hemerocallis in the centre (a big enough group of them to make it look great with Orange flowers coming out now since I took the photo)

Have you got space for wildflowers in your garden?

I spent some time in my own garden today, - I even had some help from a new friend (thanks Brenda) and I feel slightly more on top of things now. I was finally getting round to planting some pots of perennials in the front garden border that have been hanging around for ages, drying out and looking sorry for themselves, when someone pulled up in the road outside, wound down the window and said " I just wanted to say that I love this and I've been looking at it every time I go past and I just wanted to let you know" - The this that she was talking about was my Wildflower verge, on the roadside outside my house.

Of course being English, I blushed and said thank you, but really what I wanted to tell her was
" I only did it because I didn't want to mow the grass."

This patch of ground outside my front fence is really poor soil, that was made worse last year from all the tradesmen parking on it when we had the plumbing and electrics sorted.  My neighbours all have grass verges, which need mowing every week and it's pretty obvious if you've been neglecting it as we are the main road through the village.  My solution when we finally banished the last workman was to tip 4 packets of wildflower seed into my measured grass seed pack, and broadcast sow the whole lot onto the raked verge back in early March. I've also planted a lot of bulbs, so hopefully i''ll have several seasons of interest, and at this time of the year I can enjoy the compliments safe in the knowledge that I have until the 3rd week of July before I have to do any cutting, - at which point on a dry day i'll get out the strimmer, let the flower seeds fall where they are and see what comes up next year. If you've got a strip of poor land in full sun, that you'd like to ignore for most of the year, why don't you have a try?

Feeding for extra fruit and flowers

Mid June is a great time for plant growth, and left to their own devices, plants will do well enough at this time of year, however, if you want to have bumper crops of fruit, veg and flowers, you should be feeding on a weekly basis for the next couple of months.

What type of plant food you should be using depends on what you're feeding and how much time and effort you want to put into it.

Controlled release fertiliser. - If you are no good at remembering to feed your pots and planters, then
this is an excellent choice for you , as controlled release fertilisers break down when the compost is watered, (either by rain, or can or hosepipe) and supply a "ration" of feed over the season.  Almost all shrubby plants grown on British nurseries will have a controlled release fertiliser in with the compost when you buy them. - These are often mistaken for slugs eggs, - but these pop if you squeeze them, slug eggs are soft and will just deform if squashed.

The most common brand of controlled release fertiliser is Osmocote, and it is sold in packs with a handy scoop to take the guesswork out of how much is needed. - my recommended choice for use when planting up hanging baskets.

Liquid fertiliser - this is the most direct way of getting food to the plants roots,- most liquid fertilisers can be diluted in watering cans, either from a concentrated liquid, or from granules or crystals, so that they can be watered on to the garden. Another way of applying liquid to the plants, particularly if you have a large area to do, is to use a hose end feeder.  These have come on a long way from when I first used to get drenched as a trainee garden centre manager, and there is now a new system that uses a liquifeed screw in bottle to a hose end feeder. I've just entered a competition to try it out for free, - (1000 kits to be given away) if you want one too, just fill out a small questionnaire and enter the competition click here

Fertilisers that come into this category are numerous, but include worm leachate, Tomato food, Miraclegro, and Seaweed extract. If you have just a couple of pots to do, or a greenhouse of tomato plants to feed, I recommend using a liquid diluted in a watering can.

Granular fertiliser - this is great for lawns, and some feeding in borders (usually in the Autumn). In  my experience granular feeds are the hardest to apply at the right application rate, and this can lead to scorching (overfeeding) which can leave foliage yellowing, and weak.

To ensure this doesn't happen, particularly when using a lawn feeder like the one in the photo, clean it out before using, and walk at a brisk pace, ensuring that you don't overdose at the end of each row as you turn.

I recommend using these on lawns that need a feed and weed, which are a reasonable size.

Now you know which type to use,  there's no excuse, get out there and feed your garden, - i'm off to eat Strawberries grown fat on my worm food.

Do my plants need feeding?

April is a great time of year to feed all your trees, shrubs and plants, especially in the Guildford area as the soil is generally lacking in nutrients rather than overflowing with them.

All Plants need feeding with different types of food depending on what they are trying to do at that point in the year and most fertilisers have an NPK ratio to let you know what proportion of each is in them.

Nitrogen is a fertiliser that encourages leaf growth, - lawn fertilisers for instance are high nitrogen.

Phosphorus is a fertiliser that encourages cell growth so will give healthy roots

Potassium (K) is a fertiliser that encourages fruit and flower production - think tomato food

A multi purpose feed like miracle gro or something like Vitax Q4 will have a fairly balanced mix,

They are produced in different forms, so you need to work out if it is easier for you to dissolve a plant food and water on, or if you prefer a pelleted / granular form  which is added to the soil around plants lightly forked in, and watered in if rain isn’t expected in the next couple of days. 

It is advisable to always water after liquid feed has been applied to plants so that the nutrients are evenly dispersed.

I use the diluted leachate from my wormery as organic plant food, or you can buy lots of organic alternatives now if you don't like putting chemicals on your garden.

As your bulbs finish flowering feed them to ensure strong root growth for flowers next year.

Time to divide and multiply snowdrops

I think i'm beginning to be a bit of a Galanthophile (snowdrop lover), i've been propagtating some more today, and these were Galanthus Elwesii, which smell lovely when they are on mass. 
Now, when snowdrops have finished flowering, but are "in the green" is a great time to be lifting any clumps that you have and splitting them into 2 or three, - just dig a clump out with a trowel or spade, and then ease the clump apart. Don't be tempted to plant individual bulbs as you won't get as good an effect when they flower.
The garden I was in today, I had split most of the clumps last year, so I only attacked the biggest groups this year, but I now have 2 extra groupings, and so the snowdrop carpet will be spread just that bit further next year.