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Spring Great Plants this Month

Thermopsis lanceolata

On bank holiday Monday a neighbour asked me to take a look at a plant in her garden that wasn’t thriving (a seven year old Euphorbia characias… time to take it out!), and while I was there, she pointed out her Thermopsis montana and exclaimed how much she loved it but in the same breath, what […]

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Gardening Tips

Grow-How Tips for May

What a wonderful time of year this is! And so much to do!  Let’s get on with repairing arches, tidying the spring clematis and taking some cuttings, amongst other things: Fallen arches At the entrances to our cottage garden, we had put three metal arches, and since we had not paid a lot for them, […]

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Growbag Blog

Going native to help our butterflies

We all want to encourage pollinating insects into our garden but how can we achieve this? Butterflies and moths are challenging as they have a two-stage life cycle, caterpillar and winged adult, whereas bees rear their young themselves so we need only to worry about feeding the grown ups. So I am leaving Elaine the […]

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Spring Great Plants this Month

Exochorda x macrantha ‘The Bride’

We originally planted this eye catching and bountiful shrub by default. I had been after an obscure shade loving shrub whose name I have long forgotten, so when this bare rooted, twiggy plant arrived (out of leaf) in late winter, in it went and I didn’t give it further thought. Until that is, I spotted […]

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Gardening Tips

Grow-How Tips for April

Things are becoming exciting in the garden now the days are warming up! I have some tips for you on hardening off plants, pruning evergreens, and making a sweetpea wigwam, among other things….. ARE THEY  ‘ARD ENOUGH?! If, like me, you have been madly germinating all sorts of veg and flower seeds inside on windowsills or […]

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Growbag Blog

Spring blossom: What are your thoughts?

It’s spring so which blossom is best? Some people swoon over cherry blossom but personally I wouldn’t give a cherry tree house room in my garden. Having to put up with its coarse leaves and those irritating horizontal circles round its bark all year round just for a week of some sycophantic pink froth of petals […]

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Spring Great Plants this Month

Bellevalia romana

My head tells me that I should be writing about one of the many spring flowering shrubs that are looking so stunning right now, but my heart tells me to go for this beautiful yet seldom seen bulb that is such an eye-catching plant despite being quite small (8”-10”), and one that fits seamlessly into […]

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Gardening Tips

Grow-How Tips for Early April

April garden tasks are almost endless. Sowing seeds, dividing plants, deadheading daffodils and that’s just the start of it!  So let’s get going with sowing tender veg, thinning perennials and tidying up ferns: SENSIBLE SOWING It’s terribly easy to feel you must sow all your annual veg seeds as soon as February morphs into March, and I totally […]

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Growbag Blog

So which primrose should you choose?

March is THE month to buy new primroses. The Primula genus is complex but luckily you’re starting with the most knowledgeable Growbag sister who can guide you through your choices. Lets start with the different flower forms; primroses can be single, double, held aloft on a elongated stem as a polyanthus, or there can be whorls […]

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Spring Great Plants this Month

Primula ‘Dark Rosaleen’

This cultivar, bred in the 1980s by an Irishman named Joe Kennedy, is a beautiful, strong growing, hardy primula, and having chosen it this week as my special plant, I wanted to find out where the name originated. I uncovered more than one explanation, but the one that fits for me was being named after […]

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Gardening Tips

Honing your honeysuckle – tips for spring gardening

There’s SO much to do now it’s early spring! Let’s all make a plan not to feel so overwhelmed that we give up before we’ve begun, and just try to make a start SOMEWHERE! How about pruning the honeysuckle, thinning out your seedlings, and trying some layering of a shrub or two. Here’s how: HELPING THE […]

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Growbag Blog

Ten veg worth growing

Which veg are worth growing because they are so much tastier than anything you can ever buy?  I asked myself this as I am about to set up a garden veg club at work and need some star performers to wow my colleagues. My two sisters will be horrified that I have been put in […]

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Spring Great Plants this Month

Iris lazica

This is not to be confused with Iris unguicularis which I wrote about in this column in February 2017. Although closely related, their needs differ in many respects, and for that reason it is well worth giving today’s plant a plug! Iris lazica is native to coastal areas of the Black Sea in Turkey and Georgia, […]

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Gardening Tips

Gardening tips for a mad, mad March!

March – what a lot of gardening jobs there are to do this month!  I love March – it’s so exciting and full of promise. How about tidying up the borders, planting some gladioli and taking some easy cuttings, as well as dividing herbs, checking some plant supports and planting shallots? Let’s get going: TIDY-UP […]

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Growbag Blog

How to have cheap romance in your garden

Nothing adds an air of intrigue and romance into your garden like climbing plants. Draping languorously with sensual tendrils and evocative scents. But they can be expensive….so here are our tips on when you can cut corners and grow your own, and, just as importantly, when you can’t. Let’s start with the classics: sweet peas, […]

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Great Plants this Month Winter

Ficaria verna ‘Brazen Hussy’

Syn:Ranunculus ficaria ‘Brazen Hussy’Lesser celandine ‘Brazen Hussy’ William Wordsworth wrote no less than three poems in celebration of our native, lesser celandine, so can you imagine the raptures if he had come across ‘Brazen Hussy’? Closely related to the buttercup, this tuberous rooted perennial takes me by surprise every year: one minute the earth is […]

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Gardening Tips

Perking up plants in pots and other jobs: Grow-How tips for very early spring

I hope the weather has been kind enough to let you get into the garden a bit this February!  How about looking after your potted shrubs while you’re out there? Or the aconites? Or maybe sow some more seeds inside? Here are some thoughts about tasks to have a go at, at what’s normally a chilly time […]

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Growbag Blog

8 weeds to worry about, and what to do about them

So which weeds are the worst and what can you do to stop them? Each weed has its own fiendish strategy to insinuate itself and every garden has its own set of infiltrators, but luckily we three old campaigners are here to guide you through your defence options. 1. Bindweed. It’s those clever devils that invade underground […]

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Great Plants this Month Winter

Helleborus argutifolius AGM – Syn.Helleborus corsicus  Helleborus lividus subsp. corsicus

Also known as Corsican hellebore or holly-leaved hellebore. That description, ‘holly leaved’, could put you off. Don’t let it, it isn’t prickly, rather that the handsome leathery leaves have a quietly serrated edge. They also have an almost metallic sheen which perfectly sets off the clusters of palest apple-green, cup-shaped flowers which are very long lasting. […]

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Gardening Tips

Getting to grips with your clematis – Grow-How Tips for February

Mid-February and I just know that you are desperately in need of some tips on what to do in the garden at this murky time of year.  It won’t be long before you’re overwhelmed with spring tasks, so tick off a few now and feel that you’re ahead of the game! COPING WITH CLEMATIS Clematis-pruning […]

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Scotland Grow to.....

Dawyck Botanic Garden

The Dawyck experience starts a little before you actually reach the garden.  That’s because it lies in the pretty Scottish Borders 28 miles south of Edinburgh. Rolling hills, low stone walls and the babbling River Tweed get you fully in the mood for this great woodland garden which has a devoted following. You see, Dawyck […]

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Growbag Blog

Trees to try for winter cheer

Trees, trees, trees – a joy almost always, I think, but  I suspect that some of you who have big trees in your garden (perhaps inherited?) might not be so enthusiastic….?! Do be careful with your choice of garden tree – forest trees need a LOT of space, but boy, do they look dramatic in winter […]

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Great Plants this Month Winter

Dendrobium Berry Oda

Straight off, I’ll admit that I am not a fan of tender orchids, especially not the sort that are so popular in garden centres: so perfect they could be made of plastic, and the flowers so long lasting that they need dusting. However, several years ago when I was visiting one of my sisters, her […]

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Gardening Tips

Grow-How Tips for Early February

The earliest flowers are up, the frogs are starting to croak in our pond, and spring is almost sprung! It’s time to don a cosy jumper and scarf, and tidy up or move some shrubs, sow some beans and sweetpeas, and generally get everything shipshape for the big push next month. During our recent trip […]

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Growbag Blog

What’s hot and what’s not in your garden 2019

So what will the gardening trends be in 2019? E and I have been in Scotland with Caroline this week which gave us all a chance to review some of the pundits predictions on what’s hot for 2019. Gardens resistant to climate extremes. We really do need to prepare for climate Armageddon, but we’re not sure […]

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Great Plants this Month Winter

Crocus tommasinianus

The big reward for me gardening in January, is not only getting ahead of things while it’s relatively quiet, but also coming across all the tiny signs that spring is just around the corner. My special plant today may seem an obvious choice, but it never fails to stop me in my tracks with its […]

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Plant lists

75 best plants to grow for winter

“Gardener, if you listen, listen well Plant for your winter pleasure, when the months Dishearten; plant to find a fragile note Touched by the brittle violin of frost”. Vita Sackville-West Over the years, we have often had online discussions about our favourite winter plants – bulbs, trees, shrubs, etc. Our columnist Louise Sims has also […]

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Gardening Tips

And the gardening year gets underway! Grow-how tips

Here we are, right at the start of a super new gardening year! So let’s get some early seed-sowing done, as well as some tree-pruning and a bit of veg planning, to satisfy our urge to be ‘up and doing’ after the excesses of Christmas: CHILLIES IN THE CHILLY SEASON You have to give chillies a […]

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Growbag Blog

10 garden projects to tackle before Easter

Let’s get 2019 off to a flying start by looking at some garden projects we can all get stuck into between now and Easter. Christmas can be tiring and New Year’s Eve can get a bit messy (particularly for my two sisters if the rumours are to be believed…) but we all know that gardening can […]

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Grow-buys

Jewellery that springs from the sea

Regular blog readers will have come to realise that I am the only Growbag sister with really good horticultural taste. As it is with plants, so it is with jewellery. I go for understated, timeless class from ethical sources, so was delighted when we came across the work of Kate Lewis at RHS Wisley’s Contemporary […]

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Great Plants this Month Winter

Parrotia persica AGM – Persian Ironwood

I first saw Parrotia persica (a group of three) in the winter garden at Polesden Lacey and wanted one immediately: the sight of those deep crimson flowers erupting from bare branches was captivating.  As with many flowers at this time of year you must get up close to appreciate their beauty, but then that is the enjoyment […]

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Gardening Tips

How to keep your festive houseplants happy! Tips for early January

Do you have flowering plants in the house this Christmas? They add a bit of glamour at this time of year, don’t you think? But how do you get poinsettias and amaryllis to stay alive, so they do the same next year? I’m well-known for not having much patience with houseplants, preferring to do my gardening out of […]

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Growbag Blog

Growbags’ tips on what not to wear

Is your body garden-ready?  ‘Yes’ we can shout as one, because other than on Naked Gardening Day our hobby requires multiple, stout layers, which, luckily, conceal a multitude of sins. But gardening garb does require a little forethought so here are our tips on what to wear and what to avoid for that essential post-Christmas […]

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Great Plants this Month Winter

Nandina domestica

Otherwise known as the sacred or heavenly bamboo, it is in fact a member of the same family as Berbers and Mahonia. It is the eastern equivalent of holly, being widespread in India, Japan and China. In Japan (where it is often grown in a pot outside the front door), it is said that if you have […]

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Gardening Tips

Lilies, tree-shaping and tool care – tips for December

How to plant lily bulbs and how to crown-lift evergreen trees, as well as get some soul-improving tool maintenance done – these are the tasks I’m covering this week.  So take a break from the hectic Christmas shopping and menu-planning, and escape into the garden for a bit…. LOVELY LILIES FOR YOU If the ground isn’t […]

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Growbag Blog

The 12 gardening tips of Christmas

Okay, so if you’re wondering what to do in the garden at Christmas, here are our 12 tips to make the festive season special and absolutely none of them involve queueing, alcohol or recipes for vegan sausage meat. 1. Bring your garden birds close up. Hang your bird feeders right up against your kitchen window; your […]