The Ice Age ends at Henly’s Corner

So during the barren winter months one has to find other distractions to amuse oneself, such as eating and talking. At a recent lunch party (ooh, get her!) I found myself sitting with a retired geography teacher discussing the advantages and disadvantages of London clay in horticulture. (Cor, mixing in the social circles of North London takes a lot of beating!) Well you could have knocked me down with a feather! Did you know that the Pleistocene ice-sheets really did stop at Henly’s Corner* (which is the junction of the Finchley and North Circular Roads). I don’t know how I lived without that knowledge until now.

Spurred on by this revelation I decided it was high time to get back out there amongst said clay and welcome in the new gardening year. As always I venture out with an open mind, and in my thirst for knowledge I discovered two new techniques:

  1. It’s always better to hard prune when in a bad mood. After a particularly grim morning I decided to vent my spleen on the poor unsuspecting roses. What I ended up with were neat little 12” goblet shaped bushes, instead of the usual leggy specimens resulting from hedging my bets. Moving onto the deciduous shrubs, I faced down overgrown sambucus nigra and cotinus coggygria, rubbing alongside one another like reluctant bedfellows. Secateurs in hand, I pronounced, “You grow, you go,” before hard pruning the cotinus in favour of the sambucus.  It’ll be the survival of the fittest. As the saying goes, “There’s no sentiment in business – or pruning”.
  2. Always hard prune ivy in the pouring rain. I dread this task because the dust from dried ivy invariably chokes the life out of me. However by happy accident I discovered that, whilst pruning in the rain may result in pneumonia, it does prevent asphyxiation.

Talking of gardening techniques, for those of you who are yoga junkies like wot I am, here are a few adaptations to poses that may come in handy whilst working in your garden:

  1. Yogi squat or Crow pose. Particularly useful for straining your Achilles tendon whilst pruning ground cover that has spread into the lawn edges.
  2. Warrior One. Stand upright, legs apart, neck at 90 degree angle to shoulders, arms stretched right out of sockets overhead, long loppers in hand, whilst attempting to chop off errant whips on ancient apple tree. Repeat several times then give up and assume Balasana or Childs Pose.
  3. Warrior Three. Great pose for pitching forward to grapple with tenacious clematis adhered to fence, whilst balancing on one leg in order to avoid trampling all over emerging bulbs and perennials in herbaceous border.
  4. Corpse Pose. At the end of every Practice it is customary to rest in Shevasana. Lie down on back and surrender yourself to Nature, finally acknowledging that She knows best and that you will try to work with her at every future opportunity.

Seriously though, after a couple of invigorating spring cleaning sessions in the brisk winter sunshine I am delighted to report that I have got my enthusiasm back. The garden has been tamed into submission; at least, I don’t cringe whenever I step outside now. (Look straight ahead, avoid eye contact with patio cannas, last year’s foliage hanging on like tattered rags.)

Day length is noticeably longer. Iris reticulata, winter aconites, crocus and snowdrops are blooming. Hellebores are in flower. Buds are swelling everywhere. Don’t you just love the tight, bright new shoots clustering in profusion on previously barren stems? Only trouble now is holding myself back from pruning less robust shrubs like fuchsia, abelia & hydrangea.

Looking forward, my T & M trial seeds have arrived! I’m being more realistic this year, trying to stick to plants I know I can grow – not into pushing the boundaries, too much like hard work – and at least I shall have something to report!

  • Tomato Artisan Mixed. Having said that, I tried these last year but they didn’t germinate. Love the colours.
  • Tomato Sweet Baby. Website description: Fabulous and Prolific. That’ll do for me.
  • Tomato Rainbow Blend. Missed the boat on these last year as they were out of stock.
  • Cucumber Nimrod F1. Never grown cucumbers from seed but intrigued by their All-Female scab resistance!
  • Ricinus Communis Impala. Fab-u-lous accent plants. Majestic appearance makes them look difficult to grow (therefore feather in my cap). Easy peasy!
  • Mina Lobata. Seeing as everyone always boasts about how easy these are to grow I thought I’d have a go. Previous miserable attempts to be ignored – hope over experience.
  • Nasturtium ‘Orchid Flame’. Out of stock. Makes you want them even more.

Incidentally the Green Bin Men still haven’t been; that’s 7 weeks and counting. I put ours out last night (the bin, not the men…although.….) in eager anticipation, neighbours following suit shortly afterwards on the assumption that my being The Gardener on our road, I must be In “The Know”. No show. Am not even sure that the Bin Men know when they should return.

I leave you now with a caution: Refrain from thinking spring is on its way as it usually snows on Feb 20th.

 *HENLY’S CORNER – IN THE ICE AGE By Helen O’Brien

What has become almost a local folk legend was confirmed recently (Blogger’s Note: 1979 actually. Still, extremely recent in the grand scheme of things) by the Geological Museum, in answer to a query prompted by current road improvement proposals. But the Finchley glacier did not, as popularly believed, come from the last glaciation but from a much earlier one, approximately a quarter of a million years ago – known, in English terminology, as the Anglian advance; or as the Mindel glaciation in the European Alpine sequence.

Formative Winter Pruning on Mature Apples and Pears

apple tree - pruning blog

Hi all,

If you read my last blog you’ll know I was talking about the different types of gardeners we all are. Since then I’ve been doing some thinking and I’ve had my performance review at work and I’m now working towards becoming a fruit loop! I’d like to learn more about fruit growing, training and harvesting right through to the products we can make with the harvest.

I bought my self a steam juicer in the summer last year to have a go at doing grape juice. I can highly recommend it to anyone! Its so easy to use and all you have to do is stand and watch then pour it into sterilised bottles. I can’t wait to do more from the vineyard this year!

So, after my performance review it just so happened that there were some formative winter pruning workshops on apples and pears that we could go on. I jumped at the chance and four of us went last weekend to a scattered orchard near Ipswich to be taught how to do things properly.

Now being a trained horticulturalist doesn’t mean you know it all, it shows you how little you do actually know. I’ve always gone along the general rule of thumb of pruning no more than a third off a well-trained fruit tree in the winter and you have to get the perfect bowl shape from a neglected tree straight away. It was really interesting to find out that the process of gaining a bowl in your tree is much better to be done over successional years and not to take off more than 10% of the tree.

This is down to the levels of Auxin hormone in the tree balanced against the Abscissic acid levels. Auxin is the growth hormone stored in roots in winter and Abscissic acid is a growth inhibitor hormone mainly in the plant tips. If you take away more than 10% on a Bramley apple tree or other vigorously growing fruit or 20% of the growth of other trees, of the over all tree the amount of Abscissic acid is reduced enough that the Auxin rushes to the cut sight in spring causing a mass of water shoots to be produced because all the embryonic cells aren’t being inhibited by the stunting hormone that is in the growth tips. By hacking loads off your tree to ‘start again will actually do more harm than good and it could end up looking like an unwoven wicker basket.

apple tree - pruning blog

It was really interesting to find this out and it is only recently that it has been explored to reduce the tree little by little over a few years actually has a better overall impact on the tree and its production that attacking it and making it how we want it straight away. With all that in mind I will now try and tell you how to prune your trees. No tree is the same so I won’t be giving you any pictures to look at. It is recommended that you do a winter prune anytime between December and the end of March.

  1. Take a good look at your tree and walk around it several times assessing what you see. Don’t decide on what to cut yet just note the shape, size any damaged or diseased branches, anything that looks hazardous and try to figure out where your bowl is. (this relates more to a neglected tree)
  2. Now think about all the bits you think you need to do to your tree to get it to the perfect shape.
  3. Make a plan of action as to where your bowl is going to be and what you are going to prune. This can be useful to keep a note of (in most cases it’s likely to be over the 10% reduction if it’s a neglected tree) and come back to the notes next and subsequent years. If you have identified pieces this year that need to come off but are going to leave till next or following years then using a piece of string or material tied to that branch to ‘flag’ it will help to remind you next year along with your notes.
  4. Figure out what is most important to come off this year and try not to leave too big of open wounds as this allows more chance of disease to enter. If you have a big limb to come off it is better to reduce it gradually over a few years rather than in one go. This will only produce loads of water shoots as I mentioned earlier.
  5. Now once you have made your mind up on what needs to come off and when you can start pruning.

Take a little time to get to know your tree, it will definitely be worth it in the end. It’s really made a difference in how I’m looking at the trees we have at work rather than going full throttle straight into getting the perfect shape first off. Thinking about it, a couple of years to us seems a long while but when trees can live for hundreds of years, a couple of years is nothing to them.

If you have any questions please ask and I will do my best to help you.

Smile,

Lesley

Clematis – how, when and where?

Clematis is such a versatile plant and can be grown in containers, borders and even trained up walls. You can plant clematis in late spring or early autumn to let the plants get established before the summer heat.  Autumn is the perfect time for planting early-flowering clematis varieties as the weather is cooler and the soil is moist meaning roots will be well established in time for spring. This results in bigger and better displays for next year and also means you will save on watering! They are easy to grow and to look after.

How to plant clematis

Clematis thrives in a well drained and fertile soil in full sun or partial shade.  It is beneficial to place a mulch around the base of your plant with pebbles. Incorporating some well rotted manure or compost into the soil before planting will help aid fertility and improve drainage.

Plant large-flowered clematis varieties such as Clematis ‘Top to Bottom’ with the tops of their root balls about 5cm (2″) below the soil surface. This will help the plant recover if it ever suffers from damage or diseases such as clematis wilt.

Water your plant regularly during spells of dry weather, especially in the first few seasons after planting.

clematis

How to prune clematis

Clematis plants are often categorised in groups according to their pruning requirements. The correct time for pruning depends upon the type of flowering wood that the plant produces. Knowing when to prune clematis will ensure you get the best flowering possible.

Clematis Pruning Group 1 – Early flowering clematis

Group 1 includes winter flowering clematis that bloom in winter and spring on the previous year’s growth. These early flowering clematis varieties include, napaulensismontana and their cultivars. This group also includes evergreen clematis such as armandii.

Start pruning clematis from group 1 immediately after flowering. Remove any damaged or dead stems and reduce the remaining growth to fit the available space.

clematis freckles

Clematis Pruning Group 2 – Large flowered clematis

The large flowered cultivars in group 2 bear flowers on new shoots that emanate from the previous year’s stems in late spring and summer. Some cultivars will produce a second flush at the tips of the current year’s growth in late summer and autumn.

Prune group 2 in spring before they start into active growth, and again in early summer after the first flush of flowers. In early spring, remove any damaged, dead or weak stems, cutting back to a pair of healthy buds. Avoid heavy pruning at this stage as you may reduce the early flowers.

In early summer, after the first flush of flowers has finished, prune back flowered stems to a set of strong healthy buds or a side shoot just below the faded blooms. This encourages healthy new growth. This is also the time to prune overgrown plants to reduce their size. Reduce overgrown plants gradually over several years.

clematis top to bottom

Pruning Group 3 – Late flowering clematis

Group 3 contains the late flowering species and their cultivars that bloom from summer to late autumn on the current years stems. This group also contains the herbaceous clematis species.

Group 3 are arguably the easiest to prune. These plants can simply be cut back to a pair of strong buds about 20cm (8”) above ground level, removing all of the previous year’s growth. Prune group 3 in spring before they start into active growth.

clematis new love

For more clematis advice and guidance, head to our hub page.

Spring spruce up begins in Church Lane

Customer trial panel member Caroline Broome has had a busy weekend, getting ready for spring.

At last we have had a fine weekend and I’ve been making the most of it in spades, literally! Everything is coming into leaf, notably tree peony Hong Xia, and some plants like bog sage never died down. How timely was our decision to get rid of our lawn last autumn in favour of Indian stone – it’s so much easier to access the borders now. A near neighbour’s massive ash tree, which has overshadowed our garden for years, has been hard pruned by half so I’m dying to see how much more sun we will get here. The spring spruce up begins!

Spring spruce up begins in Church Lane

Tree peony Hong Xia

Having compiled a ‘Things To Do’ list I went completely off plan by cutting back the clematis Montana by half! I know that it’s officially the wrong time to prune this clematis but it was smothering everything in its wake. Then I hard pruned the neighbouring choisya. Everything in that corner of the garden looks strangely bare, but a lot brighter.

Next I dug up congested patches of symphytum, white phlox and acanthus to make room for my new T&M trial plants: Wallflower Perfumed Collection & Digitalis Leopardskin plugs, which were overwintered in 9cm pots, now have healthy root systems poking through the bottom of their pots. Also ready for transplanting are barerooted brunnera ‘Starry Eyes’ which have been storming away in their temporary greenhouse holding beds. Can’t wait for the soil to dry out a bit so that I can plant them out. I can’t bear to throw away any potential plants so every time I lift perennials I end up with loads of divisions, which I pot up for sale at my NGS Open Day. It’s only February and I can’t move in the greenhouse for plants. Some of the plants from last autumn that died back naturally over winter are totally unidentifiable, so it’s a case of wait and see.

Spring spruce up begins in Church Lane

Digitalis and wallflowers

I planted Freesia ‘Patio Perfection’ bulbs into terracotta patio pots, but the Trumpet Lily Collection has been planted into plastic pots for sinking into the borders later. Daffodil Rainbow Butterflies Mixed is promising to put on a magnificent display; I planted dozens so I’m anticipating a show stopping display outside our sun room doors.

Spring spruce up begins in Church Lane

Daffodils and Jitterbug, the annoyed cat!

It’s a case of hope over experience with me when it comes to seed sowing, but always the optimist I have sown my Courgette Defender seeds already, along with some ‘Boogie’ peas and sweet peas ‘Old Spice Mixed’ for the allotment. Probably not my most sensible decision was to plant out the Charlotte and Maris Piper potatoes, but they were chitted and raring to go;  so now I am glued to the weather forecast, fleece in hand, in case of impending frost.

A friend made a beautiful raised wooden and aluminium herb planter for our Christmas present, which has been filled with perennial herbs like sage, thyme, chives and rosemary, and I have sown purple basil and coriander to fill in the gaps in summer.

Spring spruce up begins in Church Lane

Iris reticulata in its 3rd year

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