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Great Plants this Month Winter

Salvia officinalis – common sage

From Roman times onward, our garden sage has, as its Latin name suggests, been valued in connection with innumerable medicinal and, since Tudor times, culinary uses.  Steering clear of the former, I can certainly vouch for its use in the kitchen, as without shadow of a doubt it is my go-to herb in the winter months; not only that, its evergreen good looks are reliably handsome all year round. Over the years, I’ve also grown the forms ‘Icterina’, ‘Purpurascens’ and ‘Tricolor’, also a broad-leaved one, […]

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Gardening Tips

Let’s start preparing! Growhow tips for January

Back to ‘normal’ apparently but no doubt still very challenging days ahead for us all. We lucky, lucky gardeners at least have an interest that can sustain us. There are early seeds to sow, plans to make, tools to sharpen…………..let’s get going! Early seed-sowing Before we start, I must just share with you part of […]

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Growbag Blog

Three gardening lessons learnt from 2020

Twenty-twenty will go down in history as a year in which we went back to basics and changed habits of a lifetime (although obvs a few remain – Elaine still thinks four squares of Cadbury’s Whole Nut constitutes a healthy breakfast, and Caroline continues to count red wine as one of her five a day). […]

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Great Plants this Month Winter

Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’ AGM

eulalia ‘Morning Light’ The plumes are palish pink – very pretty if you’re lucky enough to get them! That doesn’t sound like much of an endorsement does it? So, it seems odd to be recommending a grass that in most years fails to produce a single flower, and even after this year’s hot summer spell, we had none; but I hardly noticed their absence, for that’s not why we grow it. This statuesque, clump-forming grass grows to 1.2 – […]

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Growbag Blog

The3Growbags’ video of the year!

This week we’re doing something a little different. 2020 was tough wasn’t it? If ever gardening came into its own, it was this year so instead of Growtips this week, we’d like to share with you a short video of our 12 months. This, dear readers, was our 2020 Next week we’ll be looking at […]

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Growbag Blog

The 3Growbags Christmas Quiz

As you can see from our feature picture, we Growbags are wistfully remembering the times when we could share large slabs of cake and cuppas in a cosy café…….! We’ve decided this week it’s your turn to put your brain cells to work. To give you a break from baking mince pies and festive Zoom […]

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Great Plants this Month Winter

Ligustrum japonicum ‘Rotundifolium’

“Not a privet!” I hear you cry. But this one is quite distinct: an unusual, curious even, evergreen shrub which once seen is never forgotten. What it does have in common with other privets is the slightly sickly scent that exudes from the white flowers in summer – brilliantly described in the opening paragraph of ‘Spies’ by Michael […]

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Gardening Tips

Let’s help our plants in winter

So. 2020 is just about done, all bar the shouting. Not a year anyone in the world is ever going to forget in a hurry. But Glory Be! At LEAST it’s meant that millions more people love and appreciate plants and gardens now. Let’s escape the knotty and stressful confusion of who’s allowed to go […]

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Growbag Blog

10 fabulous plants for a festive pot

Who doesn’t love a beautifully-planted festive pot by the front door? And surely we need the pleasure of that this year more than ever. So much classier than a flashing Santa on the front lawn (if you know what I mean) and kinder on the neighbours who live opposite. Your first task is to decide […]

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Great Plants this Month Winter

Pelargonium sidoides ‘Sloe Gin Fizz’

Along with P. sidoides, which has deep wine-red, almost black flowers, this festively named pelargonium cultivar is one of the latest into flower and together they take first prize for carrying on longest at the end of the season.  Sloe Gin Fizz is definitely the winner this year, it has been flowering strongly through October, November and now – well into December! Hardly surprising as this has been the mildest of […]

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Gardening Tips

Best foot forward to winter

So, we’ve arrived at December in the strangest year most of us have ever known! We’ve needed our plants and gardens to help us stay sane, in a million different ways, and now we need them to get us through a very difficult winter as well…… A bright spark for us has been the publication […]

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Growbag Blog

Lets tackle that Christmas shopping!

Christmas is starting early this year so we’re here to give you a head-start on your garden gift shopping. Our first offer is something very close to home – our very first book! Unlike E and C who have frittered away lockdown getting their Zoom settings perfectly angled to show themselves and their home offices […]

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Great Plants this Month Winter

Rosa ‘Flower Carpet Coral’ AGM

Make no mistake, this group called the Flower Carpet roses are not trying to compete with the ethereal beauty of the old roses. They were bred over many years by Noack Rosen in Germany, and the main objective within this breeding programme was good disease resistance. They are also exceptionally long flowering, drought tolerant and easy in terms of maintenance. ‘Coral’ was introduced in […]

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Gardening Tips

Looking forward to brighter days – Growhow tips for November

As the world teeters on the brink of a wild hope that an effective vaccine is on the horizon, it reminds me that Hope is one thing we gardeners are pretty good at. Actually Hope and Patience are the two things we need in abundance, to enjoy our wonderful hobby. To illustrate these admirable qualities, […]

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Growbag Blog

How would our gardening heroes fare in Bake Off?

Who inspired you to take up gardening? To whose books do you return time and again? Whose name do you Google when you want an opinion on a plant? Today we three Growbags are going to be talking about our all-time gardening heroes. Obviously, just as in Bake Off (see how our cultural horizons have […]

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Great Plants this Month Winter

Mahonia eurybracteata subs. ganpinensis ‘Soft Caress’

Oregon grape ‘Soft Caress’ The plant is a winner, literally, for it won the RHS Plant of the Year award in 2013 at Chelsea, and deservedly so.  Initially I was so put off by the name I almost didn’t buy it – it sounds like something off the side of a soap powder packet – but […]

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Gardening Tips

Horticulture at Halloween – Grow-How tips for early November

Halloween is upon us! I hope you’re in the mood for clanking skeletons and spooky shenanigans. I might even be tempted to wear my big witch’s hat, as I trim up the rose bushes, plant some lily bulbs and make a bag or two of lovely leaf-mould…. Roses in the wind We’ve had some very […]

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Great Plants this Month Autumn

Chrysanthemum pacificum (or Ajania pacifica)

Silver and gold chrysanthemum It’s an irony that just when your summer pots are looking their very best – in other words now – along comes the first frost and that’s the end of their fine display; either that or you really need the pots to plant your spring bulbs. However, my plant today turns […]

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Growbag Blog

Which trees produce the best autumn colour?

Hey folks, we need some good news and here it comes! It is going to be a GORGEOUS autumn! When it’s not pelting or a Force 10 gale, we should get outside and revel in what is shaping up to be a fabulously colourful few weeks. Let’s just feast our eyes on the glory of […]

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Gardening Tips

Into autumn with a firm jaw – GrowHow tips for October

Right, so our gardens and outdoor spaces have comforted us through March, April, May, June, July, August and September of this ghastly year, and now they HAVE to help us through the cold, damp months as well. Stop watching the news for a while and immerse yourself in tasks like compost-turning, planting garlic or taking […]

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Growbag Blog

Come on, let’s hear it for independent nurseries!

Joy of joys! I’ve been to a Plant Fair, a proper one at Great Dixter, with real people who’ve grown the plants themselves, not imported them on trolleys from the Netherlands as is often the way at garden centres. This precious breed of nursery owners really are among the unsung heroes of lockdown and it’s time […]

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Great Plants this Month Autumn

Miscanthus sinensis ‘China’ AGM – eulalia ‘China’

There are so many beautiful grasses to choose from and we can’t grow them all; but we can visit gardens and specialist nurseries all over the UK, talk to the growers, look long and hard at what’s on offer and then decide which is the best for us There are around 150 named cultivars of Miscanthus sinensis so it […]

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Gardening Tips

Lose yourself in plants – GrowHow tips for early October

We’ve reached October 2020, and it has to be true that most of us, if not all, stand amazed and appalled each day at how the human world has changed for the worse in nine short months. Even as we move towards late autumn and winter, let’s turn with pleasure and thankfulness to our plants […]

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Growbag Blog

Is it time for some garden re-thinks?

Now you might think that since you have been slogging night and day in your garden for months and months this year you can now put your feet up. Oh no, no, no! You’ll be thrilled to hear that September is an EXCELLENT time to renovate your garden. Laura can tell you why, later. You […]

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Great Plants this Month Autumn

Rudbeckia triloba AGM – brown-eyed Susan

‘Nothing flimsy about them’ – so wrote Christopher Lloyd about rudbeckias. Of course, he hit the nail right on the head, and it reminded me that it is this very dense quality that I often find a little overpowering in the genus. So, a couple of years ago I was delighted to be introduced to R triloba with its open habit and well-spaced wiry stems; in this respect it’s rather […]

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Gardening Tips

Thinking ahead – Grow-how tips for September

For most of this year, thinking about horticulture has been a blessed relief from the miserable news headlines, and this September is as crowded with grim stories as ever, so let’s turn with a sense of release and solace to some tasks like pruning shrubs, sowing hardy annual seeds, and planting bulbs amongst other things…………………. […]

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Growbag Blog

So what IS making us smile this autumn?

Oh boy, if ever we needed our plants and gardens to keep on and on putting a smile on our faces, it is NOW. A long, slow beautiful autumn right into the back end of October at least, please. But what plants will help us rage against the dying of the light? (Don’t worry if […]

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Great Plants this Month Autumn

Indigofera amblyantha – pink-flowered indigo

When it comes to late summer and autumn flowering shrubs, there are not so very many to choose from, and the pink-flowered indigo is less often seen than it deserves; but this delicate shrub has great charm and I really look forward to its quiet but effective contribution to our garden at this time of the year. I. amblyantha is native to south central China and is noted for its long flowering […]

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Gardening Tips

Autumn beckons – Grow-how tips for early September

The year has tipped into September, and the light feels softer, the evenings are chillier….A keen gardener knows that these changes signal a return to action after the less frenetic high summer months, so let’s get busy with the herb garden, harvesting veg and trimming hedges………….. Helping the herbs Many herbs are so easy to […]

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Growbag Blog

The Growbags make some cutting remarks……….

You know you’re a proper gardener when you start propagating plants, and generously giving them away to others. My own garden is full of plant gifts from Elaine and Louise, – none yet from Caroline but one lives in hope. Indeed one of the pleasures of a walk around your garden is the memories of […]

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Great Plants this Month Summer

Peaks and troughs

When our old Belfast sink finally became too chipped and stained for kitchen use, out it went by the back door, and my ever-resourceful husband had it turned into a vintage garden trough in no time. No sink, trough or container specifically dedicated to growing alpines, sempervivums and other succulents is by any means low maintenance; this is probably because one has to use such a gritty, free-draining potting […]

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Gardening Tips

Bargain plants and parsley pickings – Grow-How tips for August

Here in the parched south, our gardens were greatly revived by the recent welcome rain – just what was needed! We’ve got lots of treats for you this week including a new Veg Update from Laura, and two reviews of products we have been trialling – see the links at the end of this post. […]

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Grow-buys

Banish those insect bites with Bite-Away

‘Bite Away’ – a treatment for insect bites Bite-Away is a little patented battery-powered device designed for the treatment of insect bites. It is a small gadget, and the idea is that you hold the ceramic end of it against the insect bite as soon as possible after you were bitten, and press either the […]

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Grow-buys

Digging this tip-top spade big time!

Burgon & Ball Sophie Conran Long-Handled Digging Spade I absolutely must tell you about my new favourite garden tool! It’s a Sophie Conran Long-Handled Digging Spade which has been introduced this year by Burgon & Ball. It has replaced my old and trusted border spades, for whenever I am busy in the borders, planting, unearthing […]

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Growbag Blog

10 winning August plants

Never has the sisterly horticultural divide been greater than this summer. I berated Caroline last Saturday for using a photo of Elaine wearing a fleece (unthinkable this week – she would keel over with heat exhaustion) and she hissed back that it was (her words) ‘pissing with rain again in Scotland’. So our sibling suggestions […]

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Great Plants this Month Summer

Datisca cannabina – Cretan hemp*

If plants were twinned with characters from books, there is little doubt that Datisca cannabina would be paired up with Roald Dahl’s BFG. My Great Plant this Month is truly a gentle giant of a plant. This clump-forming, herbaceous perennial, to 2m or more in height, is almost as wide as it is high; however, this […]