Amateur Gardening 2-Jun-2018

THE spring bulbs have finished their display and died back, leaving tangles of wilted greenery. Deadhead them and leave the foliage to die back completely before removing it. To give them a boost for next year’s flowers, feed your bulbs fortnightly with liquid tomato feed that contains high levels of potassium. The next thing to do is to decide whether to lift them or leave them in situ. Many varieties are happy to be left alone. Bulbs naturalised in lawns and rockeries or returning each year in borders can be left where they are, as can certain tulips bred for the purpose, such as ‘Negrita’, ‘Ballerina’ and ‘Red Riding Hood’. If you do want or need to lift bulbs and keep them in storage until they can be replanted in autumn, carefully bring…

BULBS are well suited to growing in baskets and pots, but if you planted a selection of spring-flowering ones you may now be getting a bit impatient and want to use the container for summer bedding. I, shamefully, discovered a forgotten hanging basket by the side of the shed. Most of the spring flowers it contained were long gone, but the miniature ‘Tête-à-Tête’ daffodils were still flowering bravely among clumps of grass. Once their foliage died back I lifted them (see below) and will replant them in the rockery in autumn. If your bulbs have been in the same container for several years they will have grown and multiplied, produced bulblets and become overcrowded, so will need lifting. Scrape away the top layer of compost to check if this is the case. Remove…

This basket had been forgotten and overrun with couch grass. Even so, the daffs flowered valiantly this spring. 1 Tip your basket or container out onto a piece of plastic or tarpaulin to make it easier to separate the bulbs. 3 Trim the roots and check that the bulbs are healthy. Discard any that are soft, rotten or damaged. 2 Carefully tease the bulbs out from the mass of roots and weeds, taking care not to damage them. 4 Store the bulbs somewhere dark and cool where they can’t be attacked by pests or diseases.…

“What we are doing is unique in the world” THE Royal Horticultural Society is moving into brand-new territory – and mobilising an army of gardeners to help it on its way. The society, which was formed more than 100 years ago, is combining its decades of gardening and scientific expertise to become a world leader in the fight against climate change and help reduce the global impact of mental and physical illness. It is developing a multi-million-pound, world-beating National Centre for Horticultural Science and Learning at its flagship garden RHS Wisley in Surrey, The centre will open in 2020. Instead of being a top-secret research laboratory staffed by unworldly, stuffy boffins, the centre and its trio of new gardens will welcome the public to watch the scientists at work and be inspired to do…

• How did you get into gardening? When I was seven my mother gave me a packed of Virginia scented stock seeds and a trowel. I was devastated! But they grew into beautiful flowers and I was smitten by gardening and have been ever since. • What is your biggest weakness when you visit a garden centre? I’m always trying to get a second trolley of plants – it’s amazing how much you can fit into a convertible car with the roof down! • If you could only have one plant in your garden, what would it be? That’s so hard – I think it would have to be a tree, a Prunus, because they have everything from beautiful bark through to wonderful blossom. • What is your favourite season of the year and why? It’s always…

The RHS is investing £160 million into the new centre – £120 million has already been provided and more than half of the remaining £40 million has already been met. “But we still have an amazing £19 million to raise,” said director general Sue Biggs, “so if any readers of Amateur Gardening can help and give us their support, we would be amazingly grateful.” The society has come up with some novel ways of raising the money. In the herbarium, where the specimen count will rise from 80,000 to 400,000, donors can sponsor a box of plants for £300. “I spoke to one man who had sponsored a box for his grandparents’ diamond wedding, and their names will be on it in perpetuity – he was thrilled to bits!” said Sue. “When the herbarium…