Many people ask me what I’m writing about at the moment and recently I wrote a general article on Japanese anemones for the RHS Garden magazine. The general response, when I mentioned Japanese anemones, was I wouldn’t grow those things because they pop up everywhere. The fact that they don’t stay in one clump – […]
Inspired by an exhibit at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021, a book yet to be published and a plant that everyone wants to grow, Jean Vernon shares some juicy tomato pulp gossip info history Pretty much everyone that has or aspires to owning a garden greenhouse wants to grow tomatoes. This enigmatic crop has had […]
Hyacinths huge fat spikes of waxy perfumed blooms are way larger than nature provided and a triumph of both breeders’ and growers’ skill. Then to also persuade Hyacinths into bloom way out of their natural season is another achievement in itself. The original of our florists or Dutch Hyacinths were until the late 16thC little […]
Check your greenhouse heater to make sure that it works before the cold nights set in, have a roll of horticultural fleece on standby and pay attention to the weather forecast. It is worth investing in a back-up heater, too. There is nothing worse than being caught out by a sudden early frost Leave chillies […]
Embracing the alchemy of decay will enhance the life – plant, soil, wild and human – in your garden. It was a gamble, but it was also a back-saving, pragmatic experiment from which the wilder life in my garden and I are now reaping rich, dark rewards. Wood – as chips, mulch, paths, poles, stakes, twigs, […]
I’m not keen on plant names being changed generally, because it can be very confusing. I never look at cimificfugas, tall autumn bottlebrushes with divided rich-burgundy foliage, and think of them as being remotely the same as rather boring, berried woodland acteas. The fact that a botanist has peered into their DNA and found it […]
The time to finally give up on the greenhouse vegetables is coming, but for me it’s not here quite yet. The temperature has dropped and when I pop down the garden each morning it is now with a cardigan on, but I am still picking tomatoes and aubergines regularly, for now. Although it hasn’t been […]
Filling the garden with great plants can be a costly affair, but it doesn’t need to be. There are lots of fabulous garden plants that can be grown from seed, and not just the usual annuals. Pollinator plants There’s a group of plants that are called biennials. It just means that as opposed to annuals, […]
If you were a greenhouse gardener one hundred and fifty years ago you could have been growing twenty seven different species of the beautiful Spider flower. Listed in Paxton’s Botanical Dictionary as Cleome with another eight registered under the apparently near synonymous Gynandropsis there were three dozen or more available. Seventy five years ago Roy […]
Early in the month, especially if it is warm and sunny, sow trays, pots or old growing bags with ‘cut and come again crops’ to harvest through autumn and into winter, think land cress, oriental salads, like pak choi, mizuna and mibuna greens plus lettuce, lamb’s lettuce, chicory and radish. You can also use what’s […]
I have never been a great collector of things or of plants – some people have the attention to detail and the tenacity and some do not, and I fall squarely into the latter category. But it struck me recently that I have made a collection of pelargoniums. To proper plant aficionados that may seem […]
You need a warm greenhouse or conservatory to grow Wax plants successfully. Not surprisingly as these originate in the tropical Far East. The first, Hoya carnosa, was introduced to the UK from Java in 1802 and proved an immediate success. In the next fifty years another two dozen species were collected but none ever challenged […]
