News - Page 106
Prune summer flowering clematis now – those big, showy stars of the season which take your breath away scrambling up a trellis or twining romantically around a climbing rose.
Summer Flowering Clematis
By now just a big tangle of brown stems remains of last year’s growth. Leave these in place and you’ll just get a lot of flowers at the top of the plant, with an unsightly mass of bare stems at the base.
Keep your summer-flowerin...
Read more...The Royal Horticultural Society needs your help in its battle against the many pests and diseases which face gardeners.
RHS Pest Survey
The charity is asking gardeners to take part in a new study to identify the most important plant pests and diseases affecting their gardens. The information they provide will form the basis of a list of the most damaging problems they face, helping scientists develop more effective ways of controllin...
Read more...Over 80 gardens around the country are opening for the National Gardens Scheme Snowdrop Festival this month, celebrating the beauty of our best-loved early spring flower.
Snowdrop Festival
Some of the gardens are a galanthophile’s paradise with hundreds of different varieties, while others mix snowdrops with other early spring beauties like hellebores, reticulate irises and winter aconites.
At Devonshire Mill in Yorkshire drifts of the double...
Read more...The nation’s favourite summer bedding plants have been named following a public vote at RHS Garden Wisley, in Surrey.
The Uk's summer bedding plants
Visitors were asked to vote for their favourites from a selection of 80 bedding plants across the garden during a period of ten weeks last summer. They chose the exotic-looking foliage plant Solenostemon ‘Campfire’ with its brilliant blood orange colouring and season-long performance as...
Read more...Londoners are to get a new ‘pocket park’ this spring – and it’ll be floating over water.
London Garden
The park at Merchant Square in Paddington is suspended over the Grand Union Canal in one of the busiest areas of central London. The 730 sq m space was designed by the Royal Horticultural Society’s Young Garden Designer of the Year, Tony Woods, and features lawns, nectar-rich raised borders, and communal seating. The mixed planting...
Read more...Slowly, slowly, the season begins to get into gear as you set about tidying borders and sowing the first seeds ready for the coming year. Here’s your list of jobs in the garden this month:
General tasks:
- Get new borders ready for planting during any sunny, dry spells, clearing away turf and weeds and adding lots of organic soil improver.
- Give paths and patios a good clean hosing off winter detritus and scrubbing away algae and dirt to...
Chase away the winter blues and travel to India this month as the 22nd annual Orchids Festival gets under way at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London.
Orchids Festival - Kew Gardens
The sounds of India surround visitors to the steamy tropical glasshouse from the moment they walk in: a giant Indian flag is being created from 900 chrysanthemums, with life-sized animal figures including an elephant, peacock and monkey.
But the stars of the s...
Read more...Few hardy shrubs signal the end of winter better than camellias, highly valued for their stunning floral displays and fresh, glossy, evergreen foliage. With dozens of varieties available you’ll be spoilt for choice, so pick from camellias in shades of pink, red, white and cream.
Their ultimate size, habit and rate of growth vary immensely too, so consider how much space the camellia will need as it grows. Whether you’d like something that stays small and comp...
Read more...Celebrate the beauty of butterflies as the glasshouse at RHS Garden Wisley fills with brilliantly- coloured insects for its annual Butterflies in the Glasshouse event (www.rhs.org.uk/wisley).
Butterflies
The huge tropical glasshouse at the garden becomes home to more than 6000 exotic butterflies, free-flying around visitors as they walk through palms, cycads, banana plants and philodendrons.
There are...
Read more...It will soon be Christmas, and what better way to celebrate the season and bring festive cheer to your garden than with two traditional Christmas favourites – Holly and Ivy. Countless cards carry their image, often with leaves touched by frost or covered with a crisp layer of snow, and your garden displays will have even greater appeal.
These are perfect garden plants, and they’ll provide material for indoor arrangements and table decorations too. What better...
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