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Changes to the BBC Gardening website

2012-04-12T09:38:50Z

Many of the BBC's factual websites will be changing over the next twelve months.

Exciting changes are planned but in the short term, it means that we will no longer be updating some of our existing sites including BBC Gardening Online.

You'll still be able to access existing content but this blog post will be our last and the messageboard will shortly be closed to new activity.

We understand this messageboard is an important place for you to share ideas and we will be looking hard at finding fresh ways to allow you to socialise with each other.

More updates as we have them will be published on the BBC Internet Blog

Matt Walker
Managing Editor, BBC Gardening

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T09:59:44Z

The Gardening Blog team are taking a short break for a few weeks, but we'll be back later in January.

In the meantime, have a very Happy New Year and we wish you all the best for 2012!

'Tis the Season to be Holly

2011-12-24T09:03:44Z

‘The holly and the ivy
When they are both full-grown
Of all the trees that are in the wood
The holly bears the crown’

What would Christmas be without holly? Its red berries bedeck our Christmas puds and liven up the wreaths which hang on our doors: and never mind the extra food they provide for birds. But hollies come in lots of colours other than green. In fact there are almost 280 different hollies to choose from altogether; and Jonathan Hutchinson looks after 160 of them, growing in the National Collection of Ilex at RHS Garden Rosemoor in Devon. Here’s his list of must-have hollies to grow in the garden. Happy Christmas!

]]> Our native holly Ilex aquifolium AGM with its rich green prickly leaves and bright red berries has been brought into our homes over the darkest days, along with other evergreens, since ancient times, to give refuge to the wood spirits over that period.

Ilex aquifolium ‘Alaska’ is particularly good at smothering itself with vivid red berries. In leaf it looks like the species, but in form has an upright and narrow habit. Another cultivar that looks the same in leaf is Ilex aquifolium ‘Bacciflava’ but this has yellow fruits.

Of the variegated hollies a favourite of mine is Ilex aquifolium ‘Handsworth New Silver’AGM. The leaves of this cultivar have a crisp cream edge which are shown off well against the dark purple new stems.

This is a slow growing cultivar due to the smaller area of leaf available for photosynthesis through variegation, but it will grow large in time. Though it does produce good crops of red berries they are less visible due to the leaf colour, so should be viewed from close quarters to get the best effect.

Ilex x altaclerensis is a hybrid of Ilex aquifolium AGM and Ilex perado and has yielded a number of cultivars that are generally greater in stature and with larger leaves than the Ilex aquifolium cultivars.

When planting hollies it is important to remember that they are generally male or female. Plant about three male plants to every seven females for a good crop of berries. Some cultivar names can be confusing: for example, Ilex aquifolium ‘Golden Queen’ AGM happens to be male and Ilex × altaclerensis 'Golden King' AGM is female.

Two good male cultivars are Ilex × altaclerensis 'Hodginsii' AGM which forms a tree or big shrub of dark green leaves, and Ilex aquifolium 'Myrtifolia Aurea Maculata' AGM which has smaller leaves than Ilex aquifolium AGM and equally splashed with patches of green and gold. It grows quite slowly producing dense growth to form a small shrub in time.

Ilex aquifolium AGM has also been crossed with Ilex rugosa to produce a hybrid called Ilex x meserveae. This group of hybrids are also known as the Blue Hollies: the leaf colours and stems viewed from a distance give a wonderful dark purple-green effect. A cultivar that grows well at Rosemoor is Ilex x meserveae ‘Blue Princess’: thankfully this is female and proves it by smothering its upper stems in vivid red fruits.

For a really small spot in the garden, you can’t do better than a dwarf Ilex crenata. With the common name of box leaved holly, this gives a good idea as to what this prickle-free plant looks like. Ilex crenata ‘Dwarf Pagoda’ and Ilex crenata ‘Green Dragon’ are very slow growing and are even suitable for an alpine trough. Ilex crenata ‘Dwarf Pagoda’ is female and does occasionally produce black fruit, but it is for their compact growth and lovely form that they are really grown.

Beyond these are a whole host of species that bear no resemblance to what people commonly think hollies generally look like. The genus Ilex is very large with a wide species distribution through tropical America, North America, and the Far East. Possibly the biggest surprise of all is that there are a number of deciduous hollies and not a single prickle to share amongst them.

With this real wealth of species and cultivars there is lots of scope for a garden of any size, and plenty of choice and colour to deck our festive halls!

Winter Flowering Trees and Shrubs

2011-12-19T07:00:00Z

Prunus x subhirtella 'Fukubana'

If you thought there wasn't much to look at outside at this time of year - think again. Dozens of beautiful trees and shrubs are at their colourful best in December and into early spring and here are some of my favourites.

Flourishing in the coldest part of our Derbyshire garden are some of the winter flowering cherries. Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis' bears flutters of white flowers throughout winter from November till Easter; it's close relative, Prunus subhirtella 'Rosea' is similar with soft pink flowers.

The subtle difference, apart from the colour, which I have noted over the years is that the white form usually has a few flowers virtually continuously during winter unless the weather is exceptionally cold whereas the pink clone has bolder flushes of flowers off and on during this period.

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Prunus mume 'Beni-Chidori'

Elsewhere in our arboretum, Prunus subhirtella 'Fukubana' is growing into a small tree bearing delicate, semi-double rose pink flowers sometimes as early as February during mild winters and the Japanese Apricot, Prunus mume 'Beni-Shidare', is now a small, distinctly lollipop shaped tree flowering in late winter or early spring when its' rich carmine pink flowers exude a powerful perfume.

Three , perhaps more unusual choices for flowering winter interest are the Golden Alder Alnus incana 'Aurea', Persian Ironwoods Parrotia persica and Parrotiopsis jacquemontii, both surprisingly members of the witch hazel family.

The Golden Alder is a slender, rather smaller tree than wild alders with soft yellow foliage all summer and really conspicuous bright yellow, flushed red catkins often during the harshest weather.

Parrotia persica 'Vanessa'

The best selection of ironwood, Parrotia persica 'Vanessa' has a myriad of breathtaking autumn colours, indeed the clonal name “Vanessa” refers to the genus of butterflies which includes red admirals. During winter it bears clusters of velvety crimson flowers, interesting rather than showy but yet more interest for the winter garden.

Parrotiopsis jacquemontii is a large shrub or small tree, preferring a woodland garden and bears conspicuous creamy white flowers in late winter or early spring, rather like small versions of the American or Chinese flowering dogwoods.

Arguable the finest winter flowering shrubs or very small trees, witch hazels, will break into full blossom during the New Year. As a young nurseryman in the seventies, there were very few varieties available; nowadays you could find over 100 cultivars in specialist collections.

Witch hazels are hardy, surprisingly wind tolerant and suitable for most situations other than shallow soils over chalk. They have one real need, good drainage and they absolutely won't tolerate wet feet!

Despite all the improvements, Hamamelis x intermedia 'Pallida' is rightly still a firm favourite with its' strap-like, sulphur yellow flowers and a deliciously sweet perfume. Hamamelis x intermedia 'Diane' is still one of the best red flowered varieties and also has fiery autumn colours but little scent. A recent introduction, Hamamelis x intermedia 'Aurora' has especially bold strap like, scented orange yellow flowers and fantastic autumn colour.

Hamamelis x intermedia 'Pallida'

Looking now at smaller plants, already the first few buds of winter sweet, Chimonanthus praecox and the Nepalese Daphne bholua are just opening as I write in mid December, their perfume is heavenly, you'll never buy anything that smells so good in a bottle!

Other woody plants will soon burst forth shortly after the New Year, one of my favourites is the winter flowering honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima and Lonicera x purpusii 'Winter Beauty' (both completely indistinguishable to me). This tough, hardy, semi-evergreen shrub is one of the very few plants which will actually perform better in a cold, exposed and open situation. There it will become completely deciduous and far showier as the flowers can't hide behind the foliage.

Connoisseurs might look out for the very rare Lonicera elisae. Sadly this winter flowering species (the first buds are already opening) lacks fragrance but the ivory white flowers are much bolder than Lonicera fragrantissima and, during the summer months the young foliage is flushed with chocolate purple.

Robert Vernon the Younger, is the owner of Bluebell Arboretum and Nursery in south Derbyshire.

Pruning

2011-12-16T09:30:00Z

No other part of fruit growing creates more uncertainty and confusion than pruning.

Terminology such as renewal pruning, replacement pruning, tip bearers, spur bearers, fruit buds and growth buds abound and cause confusion and trepidation. And that's before the question of winter or summer pruning has been raised. So, as it's freezing out there, let's deal with winter pruning hints.

Pruning an apple tree

Get yourself a good sharp pair of secateurs and a modern pruning saw with a very sharp blade. Both will last you all your life with care.

]]> Stand back from the tree and take a good look around it first. Then, decide how you would like it to look when you have finished and what you are trying to achieve. Pruning in the garden is often as much about the shape of the tree and how it fits with the available space, as it is about getting maximum fruit crop.

Pyramid shape

Always ensure that you try to maximise the amount of sunlight that can enter the tree. Remember that in the summer there will be a full crop of leaves, which will block out much of the available light. The more sunlight that can reach developing buds, the stronger will be the fruit buds for the next year, and that means lots more big juicy fruits.

Unless you have trained trees, the best shape to aim for is an 'A' shaped tree, ensuring the maximum light penetration.

The best fruits occur nearest to the main stem or main branches, so it's important to prune out long straggling branches with little fruit bud on them and retain the shorter more productive wood.

Generally you can tell fruit buds from growth buds by the fact that the fruit buds are plump and white with a downy covering, whilst growth buds are brownish, longer and thinner.

Most trees will have some dead wood in them, especially if they have not been pruned for a few years. Cut out that dead wood, and very often, you will find that new shoots grow from around the pruning cut, and a replacement can be selected the following year if need be.

Never let a branch stay in a tree that is more than half the diameter of the main stem. Ideally, branches should be no more than one third the thickness of the main stem.

Do not be afraid to make more pruning cuts than you imagined that you would. In the middle of summer, you will wonder why you did not cut more branches out. If you are not very experienced at pruning, then try this: Prune the tree to how you think it should look. Go and make a cup of tea and then come back out and prune it again. After the second pruning it should be about right.

Prune trees every year. It will retain the shape, prevent the wrong thickness of wood in the tree and ensure that diseased or broken branches are removed.

Remember, pruning a tree will never kill it, and will almost always improve it greatly both in the quality of the fruit and the longevity of the tree. Always remove the pruning from the ground around the tree as they will often start to grow fungus upon them which can easily transfer to the tree or fruit.

Imagination is your strongest weapon in pruning. Imagine what the tree will look like after you finish; what it will look like in the spring covered in blossom; and importantly how great the apples will taste next Autumn.

Will Sibley is the Chairman of the horticulturally research focused East Malling Trust.

All I want for Christmas

2011-12-11T07:00:00Z

It's easy to buy a plant for a gardener at Christmas, isn't it? You just pop into a garden centre and buy a bright poinsettia or, if you're really pushing the boat out, a pure white orchid tied primly to an upright cane, its roots creeping weirdly out of a seemingly undersized pot. If it was for me, a gift is a gift and I'd say thank you and try to mean it. But ask me what I really want...

I want scent, sweet and heady enough to uplift the grimmest winter day. I want a promise of pleasures yet to come as leaves slowly unfurl and brilliant colour follows. I want to caress a little treasure in my rough gardener's hands and imagine it growing with me for years. In short, I want my rustic heart to skip a beat on Christmas Day. Too much to ask of the time-pressed, non-gardening shopper? It's easy when you know how...

Hamamelis Jalena

]]> Let's start with scent. Witch hazel is my all-time favourite winter scented shrub, usually flowering in the first mild spell after the shortest day. The plants for sale look like bare twigs with bobbles on right now, but what bobbles! As the spidery petals unfurl, the scent wafts out, sweet and rich beyond expectation.

For good scent I stick with the traditional yellows, Hamamelis mollis and H. x intermedia 'Pallida', but there are some gorgeous reds and oranges too - they need a spot with the light behind them as they vanish against a dark background.

Sarcoccoca confusa 'Christmas Box'

For a fragrant welcome home, Christmas box is unbeatable. Sarcococca confusa is evergreen, neat, trouble-free and does really well in a ceramic pot. Placed outdoors, close to the front door, its scented white flowers will greet the happy owner as they fumble for keys in the winter gloom. Last year's shiny black berries will still be on the plant when it is in flower, which adds interest.

For something smaller, tiny narcissus in a clay pot will brighten my day and I can plant them out and enjoy them again next year. But not those tall indoor Paperwhites - I can't be the only person who finds the strong smell unbearable!

Winter is bare root planting season and a bare-rooted apple or a pear tree is a gift for life. Pick a good eater and keeper like Spartan or Conference and buy from a specialist nursery. They all deliver by courier and the hessian-wrapped package will come to no harm in a cold garage for a week or so.

Tulipa 'Carnaval de Nice'

Remember to check that it's grafted onto a suitable size rootstock for your intentions. Or perhaps a bundle of bare rooted Raspberry canes for an allotmenteer? 'Polska' tastes amazing and fruits continuously from midsummer to autumn.

If you're really pressed for time and money, buy tulip bulbs. February isn't too late to plant them out. Avoid the big mixed bags and buy a few pretty miniatures, or a flamed one, like Carnaval de Nice for something special. My mother once bought me orange and purple tulip bulbs for Christmas. I wasn't sure, but when they flowered they lit up the garden and made me smile for weeks. I loved them.

Above all, keep it real. Don't even consider silk flowers. Or plastic. Never, ever. They will indeed leave a lasting impression, but perhaps not the one you intended...

Sue Beesley is a garden writer and designer. Her garden; Grasses with Grace was awarded Gold at this year's RHS Show Tatton Park.

Poinsettias for Christmas

2011-12-08T07:00:00Z

The poinsettia could have been specially designed for Christmas with its bright-red halo and festive green foliage. However that red halo is not just a pretty face: it's the secret of the poinsettia's popularity. It can last for months because the red halo consists of long-lasting leafy bracts rather than soft petals that shrivel up quickly. This allows the poinsettia to look regal for up to twelve weeks or more. Not surprisingly these ornamental lovelies have been used as Christmas ornaments for almost a hundred years.

Poinsettia

Poinsettias come from Mexico and they were discovered by Joel Poinsett in 1825. They were already associated with Christmas however. An old legend recalls that a poor Mexican boy, unable to afford a proper present to take to church, picked some of these colourful red 'weeds' as his Christmas gift.

]]> Their ability to grow and spread in warm countries has seen them colonise lots of different areas throughout the world. In the Canary Isles, for instance, they grow as low hedges all along the roads. They also thrived in the canyons and scrub close to Beverley Hills and Hollywood.

A young rancher, Albert Ecke, admired them and planted them on his own ranch. Ecke began selling poinsettias from Californian roadside stalls in the 1920s. Their Hollywood glamour soon rubbed off and homes all across America wanted their own poinsettia at Christmas, especially when they saw them in the Christmas movies.

Albert Ecke's ranch still produces 80% of all poinsettias grown in America, but the soldier-red ones are still the most popular by far. Thirty different poinsettias have been named and bred, but others seem insipid by comparison.

Looking After Your Mexican Beauty

Don't panic: poinsettias are easy to look after as long as you remember their Mexican provenance.

Keep them warm and away from draughts and don't place them on the windowsill where temperatures and light fluctuate widely. Give them bright light and a warm position instead.

Conjure up the canyons of California in your mind's eye when you water. Feel the pot by pressing your finger into the compost. Water from the top, but only if the compost feels dry, always allowing the water to drain away. You may be able to lift yours out of its cache pot: if it's in a basket water it very sparingly indeed.

These members of the Euphorbia family are short day plants induced into flower by twelve hours of equal day and night length. Once the days begin to lengthen the bracts drop, so expect two or three months of colour.

Can I Keep it For Next Year?

You can, but your second year plant will be completely inferior because poinsettias develop into woody, leggy shrubs. It's much better to save up your pennies and buy another that's been cosseted and encouraged into flower by a regime of good food, greenhouse lights and heat.

Poinsettias are expensive to produce, so much so that British growers are abandoning these high-maintenance Mexican beauties in droves. Despite that, I hope the poinsettia endures for another hundred years at least, for nothing is quite as striking as a poinsettia at Christmas. The last part of its Latin name, Euphorbia pulcherrima, actually means the most beautiful euphorbia of all and there are 7500 species. So that's quite a compliment!

Val Bourne is an award-winning garden writer, photographer and lecturer and she gardens on the wind-swept Cotswolds at Spring Cottage.

Designing a Winter Garden

2011-12-05T11:25:00Z

Right, before you read on I'd like you to walk to a window and take a look at your garden. So, what's it look like? Colourful? Full of interest? My garden is neither of these things right now, and has big patches of bare earth, soggy perennials, the odd shrub and very little colour. In fact, it's dull and boring and I'd bet you're garden looks pretty similar (you have permission to feel smug if it doesn't).

"My garden last winter."

But what's the solution? What makes a garden look stonking through the winter months? Well, in the school of do as I say and not as I do, I'm going to tell you.

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Phormium

Evergreen plants

A gorgeous variegated pittosporum stands in the middle of my main border and goes totally unnoticed during the summer when it's surrounded by more floriferous things - it's a different story now of course and it's really earning its keep at the moment.

Of course what I need is more evergreens in different shapes, colours and sizes. Perhaps a nice dark-leafed phormium, a silver sencio or a glossy laurel would do the trick. Plants like this can form the backbone of a border, springing into the limelight as their showy summer cousins retreat.

Topiary

Okay, I'm not suggesting you should plant a knot garden or create a giant dove out of yew, but topiary is incredibly valuable in a winter garden. Keep it simple with clipped shapes planted in pots on your patio or a low hedge to edge a border - this way you'll have permanent structure for frost to dust and snow to decorate.

I talk from experience with this one as I have two box balls in pots flanking either side of my main path and a group of three box balls planted in a group at the front of a border. You hardly notice they're there in the summer, but come winter they're the only things you really see. And crikey they look good.

Cornus Siberica

Structure

The word 'structure' can apply to all sorts of things in a garden but on this occasion I'm talking about garden buildings, arches, arbours, obelisks, statues and the like. Yes gardening is all about nurturing plants, but it's these 'hard' elements that really give the winter garden clout.

You don't need them all, but take a look at your garden again (go on, up you get) and consider if simple statue would lead the eye and detract attention from the empty brown earth. Or maybe a bit of trellis screening would create sense of intrigue

I've got a small shed in my garden that's at the end of a zig-zag path - the shed's not in the slightest bit fancy, but its being there does make you want to walk to the end of the path without looking too closely at the mess you're passing.

Colour

Winter gardens can often seriously lack in colour (mine included) so hunt down plants that create a splash at this time of year. Look for things with colourful stems (cornus is a winner) or berries (holly or pyracantha are classics) or, if you're really lucky flowers (hellebores, aconites and snowdrops offer good value in the colour stakes).

Admittedly these plants won't transform your entire garden but they will create pockets of interest. Failing that, get out your paint brush (I'm totally serious) and inject a bit of colour that way - a jolly painted shed or a colourful fence makes all the difference in these dreary times.

Kevin Smith is a garden writer, blogger and former Commissioning Editor of BBC Gardeners' World Magazine.

Tree Dressing

2011-12-01T10:45:00Z

Decorating Christmas trees is so last year. This weekend, it's all about sprucing up your local spruce (or oak, or beech, or ash).

Tree Dressing (Photo: Weald & Downland Open Air Museum)

I'm on about National Tree Dressing Day, always held on the first weekend in December, which celebrates our trees by making them centre of attention and giving them a starring role in gardens, parks, and local woodland.

]]> The ceremony has roots deep in legend and ancient custom, going right back to the pagan Green Man symbolising the cycle of growth, rebirth and the natural world. Its modern incarnation is a relatively recent invention (by Common Ground who revived tree dressing in 1990). You can use a tree dressing to celebrate trees in general, honour one particular tree, or use trees to send messages (in Japan they write prayers on strips of fabric or paper and tie them to the tree).

Trees have always held something of a mystical role in our collective consciousness. I like to think of the twisted oak at the end of our garden watching while our house was built by some long-lost 19th-century farmer, probably chuckling wryly to itself as he dug each stone, by hand, from what's now our back garden. Even recent additions like the Ginkgo biloba currently turning bright butter yellow opposite the shed link me directly to the age of the dinosaurs through their prehistoric DNA.

Lanterns (Photo: Weald & Downland Open Air Museum)

So it just seems right that we honour that once a year by dressing ourselves up in silly costumes and masks, dancing around a tree hung with lanterns or ribbons. You can go and join in with a nearby ritual - see below - or dress your own tree in a private back-yard ceremony.

And of course whether or not you take part this weekend, you do your own little bit of tree-dressing each year when you drag that Norway spruce into the living room and put the mince pies on to heat. It's exactly the same thing: a need to place trees at the centre of the story.

The Victorians tacitly acknowledged this by using decorations taken from nature to 'dress' their Christmas trees. You can do the same: forget foil-wrapped chocolate, tinsel and baubles, in the 19th century it was all about objects they found from around the garden, like pinecones, holly berries and evergreen leaves.

Herbs and nuts, like cinnamon sticks and walnuts, were wrapped in ribbon and tied on branches; and dried slices of orange or lemon were threaded on to raffia (full instructions here) It all sounds like a huge improvement on that shiny ribbony stuff that gets caught in the vacuum cleaner.

Just a few of the tree dressing celebrations being held all over the country this weekend:

Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire: Decorate a tree Robin Hood might have climbed, including workshops to show you how.
Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, Chichester, West Sussex: hundreds of home-made lanterns hung from aspen trees form the centrepiece of a candle-lit after dark celebration.
Afton Park Apple Farm, Isle of Wight: decorate the apple trees with flags, ribbons, lanterns or cards.
Newhailes, Musselburgh, East Lothian: eco-friendly tree dressing on this National Trust Scotland estate - bring your own recycled decorations.
Lauderdale House, Highgate Hill, London: children from 10 local schools have created special artwork to dress trees for an exhibition running till 11 December.

Sally Nex is a garden writer and blogger and part of the BBC Gardening team.

Read Sally Nex's Gardening Blog posts.

Poinsettias

2011-11-27T07:00:00Z

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the Poinsettia! At least, that's what many of our customers tell us after visiting our annual Poinsettia Walks, now approaching their 15th year.

The poinsettia season in fact begins as far back as March, when orders are placed for the oncoming season. Cuttings are taken from the mother plants in Ethiopia and flown to specialist growers in Germany to be rooted and delivered for the end of June.

As soon as these arrive on the nursery it's a frantic job to get them potted as soon as possible, as they don't like to hang around! Pots are filled mechanically with fibrous compost with added bark and perlite to help fast rooting - the free drainage structure is essential so that the plants do not become too wet.

Poinsettias

]]> After about two weeks, the plants are sprayed to harden the tips, then a few days later they're pinched back to 5-6 leaves to encourage branching. As soon as the new growth is 4-5 cm long, a dwarfing agent is given to even the growth of the shoots. The plants should be growing quickly now during the summer months and we'll adjust their spacing on the benches a total of three times.

Although poinsettias like to be kept warm they don't like to have the hot sun on them. In the glasshouses we have installed screens that give 60% shade during the day but also help to retain a night time temperature of 20°C. The temperature is kept at this level until the bracts (the coloured leaves) are of a sufficient colour, then it is slowly reduced to harden them for sale.

I've selected the poinsettia I produce as the best varieties I can find, plus a few new introductions. As you might expect, red is the most popular, but there are dozens of other colours including apricot, aubergine, marbled, pink, or two-tone like Ice Crystal.

"I've selected the poinsettia I produce as the best varieties I can find, plus a few new introductions."

Poinsettias are not that hard to look after. Make sure you start off with a healthy plant, checking there are no yellow leaves around the bottom or on the plant as this might show the plant has been in its sleeve a long time. Also check there is no damage to the coloured bracts.

When you get it home place in a warm draught-free place, don't water it too much and don't let it dry out and it should last well into the New Year.

Poinsettia Walks at Summerfield Nurseries are a chance to see the huge range of poinsettias we produce and perhaps take home the colours that you might not see anywhere else. Please come along and have a look: entrance is free, or a donation to Pilgrims Hospice.

Grahame Sear owns Summerfield Nurseries, near Sandwich in Kent. Poinsettia Walks at the nursery take place on Wednesdays throughout November, plus Sunday November 27th and December 4th 2011.

Dried Flowers for Christmas

2011-11-21T11:00:00Z

Christmas has arrived again already at Cotehele, and the gardeners are busy putting together our Christmas decorations and really putting the 'd' in decoration!

"Last year's garland suspended the whole length of the main hall of the Tudor house at Cotehele."

We have a tradition here in Cornwall of constructing a garland made of Pittosporum foliage which is suspended the whole length of the main hall of the Tudor house. It is 18 metres (60 feet) long and about 30cm (12") in diameter and this is the base for our dried flower display.

]]> My memories of this summer are not that it was a particularly good one but the success we have had with the flowers tells another story! Seven months after planting our annual plants we have collected, prepared, bunched and dried over 30,000 flowers for the Christmas garland.

Now that November has arrived the flowers are individually placed into the foliage. This work is being completed by teams of 6 to 8 people per day, but as a first for us this year the Garden Team have invited our visitors to 'have a go'. Although we were a little unsure about this initially, we have been delighted to welcome all those who have lent a hand with staging this unique display.

Building the garland will continue until 25 November and then until 31 December (excluding Christmas Day and Boxing Day) and will be on display in the Hall, with the doorways and walls decorated with winter foliage and the log fire blazing.

Here's my top five flowers for drying, as used in the Cotehele dried flower garland:

Limonium sinuatum: also known as statice. Its flowers are borne in tufts of vivid colours, everything from blue to pink, yellow or white, and the stems are striking for the unusual wings running their length. It's tender and is grown as an annual: sow in late spring and give it the sunniest spot you've got.
Limonium suworowii: the Russian statice forms a big, hefty plant with pink or lilac-coloured flowers. The flowers are very different, borne in vertical sprays rather like astilbes. Another tender annual; treat just as you would for statice.
Rhodanthe chlorocephala subsp. rosea: These annual daisy flowers look as though they're glowing from within: deepest pink on the outer petals gives way to such a pearly pale pink it's almost white at the centre. You can get them in every shade of pink imaginable, but 'Pierrot' is purest white with a yellow-ringed brown centre.
Helichrysum bracteatum: Densely-petalled pincushions of bracts, the straw flower comes in a rainbow of shades, yellow, orange, crimson or white - sometimes two or three in the same flower. It's an annual needing a warm spot with sharp drainage to do well - give it the right conditions, though, and it's an easy, drought-resistant plant.
Ammobium alatum: lovely silvery woolly leaves and heavily winged stems topped with clusters of small button-like silvery-white flowers like perfect little sculptures, each petal crisply outlined and the centre a clear buttery yellow. Grown as an annual, it flowers from June to September.

David Bouch is head gardener at Cotehele House near Saltash in Cornwall. You can see the Cotehele dried flower garland from 25 November till 31 December during normal opening hours.

Night Gardening

2011-11-17T07:00:00Z

If you work any kind of regular hours, it is easy to feel disconnected from your garden. It has its finest moments when you are stuck in the office. Your flowers are blooming away while you play solitaire over an over-chilled sandwich. The answer is to design your garden around the times when you are around: evenings and nights.

A garden designed to work at night can be a magical place, filled with intimacy, intrigue and wafts of delicious scent. Here’s how to go about making it somewhere you escape to after work, rather than gaze at with regret over the washing up.
]]> Scented flowers

Night-time gardeners have a quirk of nature on their side. Flowers that are pollinated by night-flying insects such as moths need first to be found by them. They signal their presence in two ways: by being pale in colour, so that they show up in low light; and by starting to pump out scent as dusk falls. It is therefore fairly easy to assemble a cast of glowing white, pale blue and purple scented that will do as much for you as it does for the moths.

Some personal favourites are jasmine, Wisteria floribunda, night-scented stock and honeysuckle. For true drama I move the houseplant Epiphyllum oxypetalum – known as queen of the night – outside onto my porch in summer. On warm evenings its huge and dramatic for-one-night-only flowers produce a sweet, heady, almost overpowering scent.

In China and throughout the East its blooming inspires ‘sundowner parties’: you sit, sip Singapore slings, and breathe in the scented air.

Cyclamen

Dark backgrounds

A pale plant shows up so much better against a dark, dense background. Yew hedges are the masters at this, but a privet hedge or even a dark brown fence will throw your pale beauties into relief. In a night garden, you can also use hedges to help capture scents. Any breath of wind will whisk them away, so use hedges to filter wind and help pool scents around seating areas.

Light

You can make all kind of night-time effects with uplighters and spotlights and colour washes, but I reckon it’s pretty hard to beat a string of fairy lights and a few candles in jars for magic. Cheaper too. Solar lights save a vast amount of fuss with wiring but the LEDs they use have a slightly harsh blue glow, so look for ‘warm white’ or those covered in coloured paper lanterns.

Fire and stars

You see little of your garden in summer, but the problem becomes worse as nights draw in. You do need something to tempt you outside when evenings are far from balmy. A fire pit with seating around it makes a wonderful focus for autumn and winter celebrations, and if you treat yourself to a telescope, earlier nightfall becomes something to look forward to.

I just have a bird spotting telescope, but it draws me outside to look at the craters when the moon is half full – blanket round shoulders and clutching a hot toddy – and to just enjoy being out in my garden at such a peaceful time.

Lia Leendertz is a garden writer.

Biodegradable Decorations

2011-11-13T07:00:00Z

I once had to sit in a yew tree with a smoke machine and press a button at the required moment so that a great bellow of smoke would appear. It was a pretty awful job, as more smoke seemed to come out of the back of the machine than the front. I came out thoroughly preserved by the end of the take.

This was the same year that as researchers for the Christmas special, Clare and I spent a good month or so, after work, sitting on the office floor creating Christmas decorations from the garden. Clare even perfected frost-tipped seed heads (sugar water and into the freezer).

People would mutter darkly that we weren't Blue Peter as they had to skirt around our ever increasing pile of poppy heads shimmering in gold dust, teasels that sparkled with glitter, pine cones dusted in snow and huge piles of fairy lights.

We tied and sprayed, glued and glittered all manner of garden debris into really quite charming decorations. Both our mother's still have some of these decoration. And I can say, hand on heart that I was truly proud of the end credit that had a tree covered in our decorations.
]]> The opening shot was of Monty striding across a lawn frosted in the Gardeners' World logo. We laid down the plastic template and prayed it would get cold enough. On the actually night, it froze perfectly and the next morning I tiptoed across the lawn to remove the template.

To say we went over the top, is to miss the point, television is a funny game, but the one thing that is for sure is after a year of working with the same crew, the same bad jokes and endless cups of tea, it does begin to feel like family. And although it might have been misguided, we took our task to make the garden look like Christmas seriously because it was, if a little make believe, just like the real thing.

Every year I still make those same decorations though I have forgone the glue gun and glitter for more natural materials that will break down.

Instead of ribbons and fishing line (invisible if you're going for the 'it's magic' look) I use phormium leaves to tie hanging tree ornamentals. New Zealand flax as the name suggests is a wonderful material that can be prized into the finest strands. You take a leaf and pull gently from the edges and you will see that with a little effort you can pull string-like strands apart and tie up poppy or teasel seed heads. It's incredibly strong stuff. These are perfect for naturalistic decorations, the colours compliment the blondes and browns of dried seed heads and will eventually biodegrade back to where it came from, so to speak.

"For a little red I collect some tiny red crab apples from the park."

For a little red I collect some tiny red crab apples from the park that persist on the branches right into January and hanging these as baubles, they have incredible strong stalks that you can tie off and they take a while before they rot. I like to use dried chillies and holly berries as well to make it a little more festive.

I have never bought a tree and don't intend to start. Last year I used a hazel branch stuck in a pot of sand. I admit that is a slightly eccentric take on a Christmas tree, but it worked well enough and when I was bored of it went straight onto the compost to feed next year's Christmas dinner.

Alys Fowler is a writer and broadcaster. Read more of Alys's Gardening blog posts.

Natural Swimming Ponds

2011-11-09T07:00:00Z

On a cold, frosty morning like today the idea of diving into a cold garden pond for a swim isn't my idea of fun. But these natural swimming ponds are becoming quite popular as people like the idea of swimming in clean, chemical-free water. Perhaps in the summer when the water temperature was higher I might be tempted.

They function and look exactly like a pond but have a large plant-free area which is the swimming zone. This can be deep or shallow and usually has steps down into the water. The planting is confined to a 'regeneration zone' outside the swimming space and that is where the filtering and cleaning of the water takes place. Crucially this is also the area that any wildlife stays, as the thought of coming face to face with a frog during a morning swim isn't my cup of tea!

]]> These specially designed ponds first appeared in Germany and Austria during the 1980s and have since become popular across the Continent. They arrived in the UK about a decade ago and there are now an estimated 20,000 across Europe including several open to the public.

Despite my reservations, we are currently designing a natural swimming pond (NSP) for a client in the New Forest and so have been finding out a bit more about them. The two zones need to be roughly equal in size to achieve a balance and a pump keeps the water moving around the system.

The plants and the gravel they are grown in act as biological filters so that the water in the swimming area is clean and soft on the skin and hair. No chemicals need ever be added making the running costs significantly lower than a conventional pool as well as much more environmentally-friendly.

We are designing the pond to look as natural as possible with soft curves and lawn, gravel and rocks around the edges to make it look as though it has always been there. You can also make them more formal with decking or paving. We'll make sure there is a seating area next to the water because it is likely to get plenty of use either as a diving platform or for those who don't want to swim but who can't resist the temptation to paddle or sit with their legs in the water.

Both styles will look amazing after dark with careful lighting. The planting in the regeneration zone can be selected from a huge list of suitable moisture-loving plants. We are choosing low-growing water lilies as well as huge leaved arums and hostas, with flag irises and bullrushes for height.

Regular maintenance will be reduced compared to a normal pool but leaves still need to be skimmed off and there will be need for some gardening to be done as the the regeneration zone does need to be tended like any garden area. Some plants will have to be cut back occasionally, some lifted and divided as they grow too large and there will be some weeding.

My biggest concern is what the water temperature will be and how often swimming in the pond would be comfortable. It seems that the larger the body of water, the more it will retain warmth during the year but there are also options to add some background heating through the use of solar panels or ground-source heat pumps. We are going to find out more about them and that might just be enough to persuade me that I want a natural swimming pond too.

Janine Pattison MSGD is a award-winning garden designer.

A Drop of Exotica: Water Hyacinths

2011-11-06T07:00:00Z

Water hyacinth

Baby blue flowers rising from gloriously glossy, luxuriously generous leaves make water hyacinths among the most beautiful of all the pond plants you can grow.

If you've got a taste for the tropical and your pond is nestled in among exotic Colocasia, canna lilies or bananas, this is the water plant for you.

Mind you, if you're growing it for its flowers it can be a bit of a lottery. It has its roots in hotter climates than ours, it doesn't always flower in the UK unless we have a good hot summer.

If that is the case, you'll be rewarded with that lovely flower stem with clusters of pale lavender flowers, stained darker blue on the top petals. Think of this as hitting the jackpot: most years you'll only get leaves, but what wonderful leaves they are.
]]> Look closer and you'll see bulbous, air-filled spongy sacs at the base of each stem, allowing it to float freely on the surface of the water (no fiddling about with aquatic pots and compost required). The dense purple-black roots hang down into the water below, feeding from nutrients in the pond - and water hyacinths are greedy enough to give even the most rampant algae a run for their money. That means if you suffer from green water or blanketweed, water hyacinths can be a good way to keep the problem under control.

Water hyacinth

As it spreads its glossy green pads across the water, sending out stolons or runners to produce new plants, fish and other wildlife such as frogs or toads start to shelter in its shade.

It can double its size in a matter of weeks: far quicker to cover a pond than a water lily, it's a great filler in a new pond where too much of the surface water is open to sunlight.

With that rate of growth, you might expect it to get troublesome, and indeed in its native waterways in warmer parts of the world, it's a real nightmare, highly invasive with a habit of blocking local waterways.

Luckily here a good frost will stop it in its tracks, so it's never had a chance to become a problem.

You can overwinter a water hyacinth: but you'll need a heated greenhouse, plus lots of light (not a feature of a British winter, on the whole).

We have no heat on the nursery, so we've never been able to keep it - and many people who have tried say they succeed until February or March but then fail. Most people just pull out their hyacinths at the end of the year and throw them on the compost heap. That might seem extravagant, but they're not that expensive and are available again from mid to late May onwards after the risk of frost has gone.

Linda Smith of Waterside Nursery was awarded Gold at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2011 for her display of aquatic plants.