Plant advice articles from Claire Austin

Geraniums for shady places

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:00:00 +0100

Many hardy geraniums will grow in a spot that is lightly shaded during the day, but there are a few geranium groups that are happy in a place that gets more shade than sun, such as beneath a canopy of shrubs and trees. All are easy to grow, provided the soil is right for them, and there are lots of different variations to choose from. Being plants for...

Remontant Irises

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:00:00 +0100

When it comes to choosing irises, most gardeners go for the big, blousy Tall Bearded varieties that flower in June. It is quite easy to forget that some varieties of bearded irises will also produce a second flush of blooms from August onwards. These are known as remontant irises. Bearded irises seem to want to naturally bloom twice. It seems to...

Growing plants in dry soils

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:00:00 +0100

So they say we are in drought (April 2012, and who are they anyway). It’s not a problem here in the Welsh Marches, can’t stop the stuff from coming down. But this has not been the case with all the places I have gardened on or grown nursery stock. Dry Sandy Soil The nursery at Shawbury, Shropshire had one the driest land I can imagine...

Gillenia trifoliata

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:00:00 +0100

Gillenia trifoliata is one of the most delightful border perennial, yet it is rarely seen in gardens. Not only is it handsome it is hardy, easy to grow (if a little slow to start off) and care for, and long-lived. Also called Bowman’s Root it flowers from June to August and grows around 90cm high with a spread of about 75cm. Red shoots...

Happy Birthday little Irises 60 years old

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0100

Happy Birthday Standard Dwarf Bearded irises you are now 60 years old this year, but why do you still have such a cumbersome name? Surely the original name of ‘Lilliput irises’ is much nicer! So what are Standard Dwarf Bearded irises (or SDB as I will refer to them as)? These low growing irises are easy to grow, providing colour just...

Echinacea

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:00:00 +0100

Put Echinacea (Coneflower) into ‘Google’ and the few first pages list the plant’s medical properties. But there is more to an Echinacea than a pill or powder. These handsome plants have large, daisy shaped flowers that add a splash of colour to late summer borders. The flowers, which bloom from mid July to late August and occasionally...

Oriental Poppies

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Big, blousy, glamorous, fleeting, whatever you feel about Oriental poppies they are hard to ignore. Wonderful for mixing in borders, they produce large, often brightly coloured flowers that bloom from mid May into June. FLOWERS The blooms unfurl gracefully from large, hairy buds and open into deeply cupped, or shallow saucer like flowers. Some have...

Hybrid Peonies

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Hybrid peonies produce some of the most stunning late spring flowers. Large, often single and cupped, the flowers come in a glorious array of colours ranging from bright poppy red to stunning lipstick pink, and softest pink to purest white. They are hardy, don’t suffer from any diseases, easy to grow and long lived. What is a Hybrid Peony? Peonies...

Helleborus x hybridus (nee orientalis)

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:00:00 +0000

It is beginning feels like winter is on the wane. Of course this is just an allusion as we have at least another 6 weeks to go before we break the back of winter. Still, the birds are beginning their mating calls, daffodils are thrusting through the soil at a rapid rate, and at last the Hellebore buds, which have been teasing me for weeks, are now beginning...

Epimedium

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

It’s difficult to say why, but I always feel a touch of joy when I spot an epimedium. These delightful spring flowering plants with delicate flowers and handsome leaves are neither glamorous nor showy. They are demure, discreet, a little shy, and can be slow to establish. In the wild Epimediums are found in woodlands of China, Japan and eastern...

Pulmonarias

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

When my pulmonarias begin to bud up ready to flower I know that the days are getting longer, and possibly a little warmer. Along with hellebores, pulmonarias (lungworts) are the first perennials to bloom. These attractive, low growing evergreen plants, along with many spring flowering plants, prefer shady places, but they can be grown in sunnier...

December and January

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:14:31 +0000

These are the months when the whole garden goes to sleep – or appears to! TRIMMING PERENNIALS BACK I strongly believe that the leaves of perennials should stay on the plant for as long as possible to provide cover for those smaller creatures that need shelter during the worst winter weather. But there does come a time when plants just...

Bergenias

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:00:00 +0000

Mention to a gardener that you like Bergenias (Elephant ears) and you get a long, confused stare as though to say ‘what those boring things!’ But I really do like and respect these robustly formed, immensely useful plants. Okay, so they may not be the prettiest or most intriguing of garden plants but they do provide architectural structure...

Gardening in clay

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 13:00:00 +0000

We are just starting to develop a new garden. This is presenting a new challenge - a clay soil, or to be more precise, a clay-loam soil. In the past I have gardened in sand, in a good deep loam, on loam with lumps of clay, but never in a really clay soil. This is the sort of clay soil that is pale to look at and stays wet for ages. When trodden...

A Desperate Year For Irises

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:00:00 +0100

Now we are at the end of the iris season, I can look back and say that in 28 years of growing bearded irises this must be the most challenging. THE COLD WINTER, DRY SPRING The year started with a winter like few others. Temperatures down to -19C, with many days not climbing above -10C - it’s unusual to go much -7C. Initially I was...

Daylilies; the overlooked beauties

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:00:00 +0100

Daylilies, or more correctly, hemerocallis, are a rather overlooked group of plants. They are called dayliles because they produce at least one flower per flower stem every day for weeks, but when mature each plant can produce up to 20 flower stems, resulting in a mass of colour for 10 weeks or more. Many years ago (perhaps 25) my father...

Persicarias

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 10:00:00 +0100

Persicarias are one of those overlooked plants that, should they be grown, tend to be used as fillers or ground cover. Once called polygonums, I want to put the case for using them simply for their quiet proud beauty, the usefulness as foil, the whole length of the flowering period and for their gracefullness. All persicarias (or bistorts) produce...

Perennials for containers

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:00:00 +0100

Perennials are ideal for growing in containers and because they come back year after year they are ideal for anyone who has less time to spend in the garden. Almost any perennial plant can be grown in a container, but best are those that produce lots of flowers, or handsome leaves. All can be grown in sunny parts of the garden, but there are lots of...

Autumn Leaves on Peonies

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 11:00:00 +0100

Think of autumn and think of cool, misty mornings and leaves turning red – the leaves of trees that is. It is sometimes forgotten that the leaves of some perennials also change as they start the journey into winter. Among the most colourful perennials with autumn leaves are peonies. Peonies put on a lot of root growth during early winter, which...

Growing and caring for perennial plants

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 17:00:00 +0100

No flower border is complete without at least some herbaceous perennials. These are the non-woody plants that die right back in autumn and emerge again in spring. Some herbaceous perennials are evergreen - but not many. In size they vary in height from 6in (15cm) right up to 15ft (150cm). Some perennials can be ground covering (prostrate in shape)...

A guide to herbaceous peonies

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:00:00 +0100

Peonies are beautiful, long-lived and easy to grow once established. We sell three distinctive types of peonies, herbaceous, intersectional and the tree peony. The difference between tree peonies and herbaceous peonies lies in the way it produces its foliage. Herbaceous peonies produce leaves, which form handsome rounded mounds that die back in the...

Growing tree peonies

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:00:00 +0100

The difference between herbaceous peonies and tree peonies is the stems. Herbaceous peonies have stems that die right back in autumn and leave no trace until they re-emerge in spring. The stems of the tree peony are woody and stay above the ground all year.  Tree peonies grow into medium sized shrubs and are covered with lots of lush, beautifully...

Centaureas

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 09:00:00 +0100

In every garden I have created a Centaurea has been included. More commonly known as knapweed or perennial cornflowers these handsome perennials are “easy-to-grow” and have sculptured flowers, some of which look like flat cartwheels, while others produce a fluffy knob-like flower. All of them are seated on what looks like a brown woven...

Late flowering irises

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 11:00:00 +0100

Now we are back from the Chelsea Flower Show I have had time to look at the iris field. What a sad sight. Normally at this time of year there would lots of blooms, but this year so few irises have flowere we had to cancel our Field Open days. Many flowered too soon, others not at all. The harsh winter knocked out the leaf fans with flowers, followed...

Early irises

Tue, 03 May 2011 10:00:00 +0100

So here we are in early May and normally I would be looking forward to the pleasure of seeing the first little bearded irises blooming in a few weeks time. Not so this year as, due to the unusually hot April (average I would say around 18 degrees instead of 13), they came into flower 2 or 3 weeks ago and are now just about over. The Intermediate...

Chelsea and Warm Weather

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 10:00:00 +0100

So spring is here, or is it summer? The temperature has bounced from a mere 10 degrees at the end of March to 20 degrees in three weeks. All rather Continental! The poor plants don’t know what to do, especially those we are growing for the Chelsea Flower Show. To be honest, if we were only going to show irises for this most prestigious of flower...

Peonies as cut flowers

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Peonies make wonderful cut flowers. The blooms are large, soft, silky and romantic. They can be found in a range of soft colours, and a few brighter ones, making them ideal for weddings, as well as for placing in the house. In many ways they are better as cut flowers than roses, but the season is very short. Peony flowers are only available from...

Types of Bearded Irises

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 18:00:00 +0000

Bearded irises are the irises with large glamourous flowers that have a caterpillar of hairs on the falls (lower petals), and a large rhizome at the base of the leaves. All types of bearded irises have broad, sword-like, greyish green leaves. As there are so many varieties to choose from they are divided by height and flowering time into 6 different...

Looking back 70 years

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:00:00 +0000

The recent cold, snowy weather meant I was unable to do anything outside for a few weeks. So to break the boredom up I decided to sort out the pile of old papers and magazines that lie hidden beneath the spare beds. Amongst them I found a pile of ‘Good Gardening’ magazines dating from April 1935 to June 1939. Before I bought these...

Asters

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:00:00 +0000

September is a wonderful month with its misty morning and warm days. It is also a time when the garden is beginning to fade away, so brightly coloured autumn flowers as important for bringing that touch of gaiety back into the garden. Most Asters are easy to grow. They originate from the USA. They all have daisy-shaped flowers that range...

Astrantia 'Roma'

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 14:00:00 +0000

I have been asked to write a few words about a favorite plant for one of the gardening magazines. What a challenge! Of all the wonderful plants I have grown which one should I choose? So I thought I would write something about all the plants that I would not be without, starting with Astrantia ‘Roma’. I love Astrantias. These days...

Back from down under

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:00:00 +0000

After a 30 hour journey we have just returned from a not too warm Australia enthused by what we saw at Barry Blyth’s iris nursery Tempo Two and those we met at Victorian Iris Society’s conference. We spent two days at Barry’s wallowing in his iris beds. Barry comes from a family with a long history in the nursery trade. In...

Autumn irises

Sat, 23 Oct 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Autumn springs up a many delights, which include fluffy asters, glowing chrysanthemums, stately aconitums and those glorious reblooming irises. Yes, I did say irises. We have just finished lifting irises for orders before the ground gets too cold and wet for planting. However, some varieties are still flowering their heads off, these are the remontant...

Lifting, dividing and planting irises

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0100

If you have an iris that is too big, stopped flowering, or needs moving September, in my opinion, is the best month to do this in the UK. This does not mean they cannot be lifted at any other time of the year. I have lifted irises from 6 weeks after flowering, right through to early spring without harming the plant Lifting them is easy. Simply ease...

How to grow irises

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:00:00 +0100

Irises are beautiful, often flamboyant plants that are easy to grow given the proper situation. There are three types of irises; ones with beards, ones without beards and ones that grow from bulbs. The most flamboyant types, Bearded irises (those with a caterpillar of hairs on the lower petals) like a well-drained, sunny site. A little overhead shade...

How to grow herbaceous peonies

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:00:00 +0100

Forget the myths, peonies are easy to grow. In fact, once established they will live for more years than most people are likely to inhabit their houses. When you move house they can come too. Where to plant herbaceous peonies Peonies need a soil that does not become water-logged at any time during the year. A good well-drained loam is ideal, but...