Amateur Gardening 7-May-2022

“It’s May at last and, hopefully, here comes the sun – we deserve a good summer of warm days and a few night-time showers to keep the gardens happy. We are bringing you the sun in our pages this week with Hazel’s article on sneezeweeds or heleniums, those wonderful warm-hued flowers that delight in late summer and autumn. I have one helenium that has been moved three times (so far) in an attempt to find it a home where it will flourish. It is finally growing well this year, so hopefully 2022 will be the year it flowers.”…

IT’S time to take advantage of the healthy new growth appearing in the garden and start to think about taking cuttings. New gardeners may find the prospect a bit daunting, but propagating from cuttings is actually relatively easy and gives you new plants identical to their parent – unlike growing from seed, which can be more hit-and-miss. Any softwood or semi-ripe cuttings taken last autumn and overwintered in a snug frost-free place should also be ready to move on into containers of gritty multi-purpose compost, so they can grow on and be hardened off ready to plant out in a few weeks’ time. I took some pelargonium cuttings last autumn, so this week I have been potting them up individually and will keep them in the greenhouse until they are ready to go…

1 When taking spring and summer cuttings, select a length of healthy new growth that isn’t flowering. Ideally, take cuttings in the mornings when they are firm and full of moisture. 2 After taking cuttings, place them in a plastic bag with a few drops of water and keep them somewhere cool and out of the sun while you prepare your compost mix for potting up. 3 Use seed and potting compost when striking cuttings and open it up with a little horticultural grit, perlite or vermiculite for improved air and water circulation around the roots. 4 Insert sticks around the side of the pot so they hold the plastic bag off the cuttings to help prevent moulds and rotting developing on the leaves. Remove the bag when cuttings grow. Step by step Taking basal…

DO you have a rare garden plant that you may unwittingly be helping avoid extinction? If you do, then Plant Heritage wants to know as part of its 2022 Threatened Plant of the Year competition, which runs until May 16. The award was established three years ago to rescue cultivars of plants that have fallen off our lists of favourites and potentially face vanishing altogether. It cost £9.50 – a lot of money in 1985! Vicki Cooke, the conservation manager with Plant Heritage, said: “We set up the Threatened Plant of the Year because there are so many cultivars out there at risk of disappearing. “We want to gather them up and conserve them, but there is a problem because gardeners are not always good at keeping labels or knowing what they are growing!” Plants…

THE newest RHS garden, opened in 2021, is already providing valuable insight into how climate change is altering our environment. Staff at RHS Bridgewater, near Salford, Greater Manchester, are undertaking ‘flower counts’ to see what, if any, plants are affected by changes in global warming. Last year they discovered that a ‘Totally Tangerine’ geum flowered more than a month ahead of its scheduled late-spring blooming, along with a summer-flowering hebe and an Iberian comfrey. Three annual surveys will assess what grows well, the results of which will inform horticultural advice and chart the impact of climate change. The RHS said the findings would “provide a valuable insight” and garden curator Marcus Chilton-Jones said the data would help protect early flowering plants that are vulnerable to late-spring frosts. The £35million Bridgewater garden, which spans 154 acres,…

5-8 May: Malvern Spring Festival, Three Counties Showground, Malvern, Worcs, WR13 6NW. 7 May: Hyde Hall at Sunrise, RHS Garden Hyde Hall, Creephedge Lane, Rettendon Common, Chelmsford, Essex, CM3 8ET. 7 May: Spoon Carving Workshop, RHS Garden Harlow Carr, Crag Lane, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG3 1QB. 7 May: The Art of Garden Photography, RHS Garden Hyde Hall, Creephedge Lane, Rettendon Common, Chelmsford, CM3 8ET. 7-8 May: British Iris Society Show, RHS Wisley, Wisley Lane, Woking, Surrey, GU23 6QB. 7-8 May: Plant Heritage Spring Fair, RHS Garden Rosemoor, Torrington, Devon, EX38 8PH. 8 May: Plant Hunters’ Fair, Adlington Hall, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 4LF. 10am-4pm. Fair & Gardens £4. 15 May: Plant Hunters’ Fair, 1620s House Donington Le Heath, Leicestershire, LE67 2FW. 10am-4pm. Fair & Garden £1. 22 May: Clavering Open Gardens, Clavering, near Saffron Walden, Essex, CB11 4QL, plus…