Winter woes

Looks like the British nursery trade will be getting some more money from me next year.
The weather this winter means that some of the plants in my garden are going to struggle to make it through. It's not only that it's cold - flaming cold - but it's the extent and duration of the cold snap.
Currently it is -5.5C, the coldest it has gone down to in the last two weeks is -9.5C, but apart from Sunday, the temperature hasn't lifted above freezing during that time.
Extensive, long cold periods mean that plant roots freeze and, as a result, can't absorb water so it's like they're in 'drought' conditions. Also, as water freezes, it expands, so plant cells literally explode as the mercury drops.
It's even worse for plants in containers as the roots don't have the surrounding insulating soil to keep them warmer.
At the beginning of this year, after the 2009/2010 winter I got inundated with e-mails from people worried about plants coming through the winter. Surprisingly in some respects, the one plant that got most enquiries was cordyline - even those that had been growing in gardens for many years. I'm expecting another e-mail avalanche after this cold snap.
The one good thing is that it hasn't been windy, which puts even more stress on frozen plants, literally sucking moisture from the leaves that isn't replaced as the roots can't absorb anything from the soil. Oh great, I've just heard on the radio that the next few days are going to be windy. Pass me my credit card!
At least I haven't had to drive anywhere recently and so haven't been stranded in my car for 10 hours trying to battle against frozen roads/snow. Every snow cloud has a silvery lining.
The picture shows a shivering Pittosporum tobira.

Lunch munch bunch

Boozing at the Brewery

On Wednesday the great and the mighty of the gardening world assembled at the Brewery, London, for the annual Garden Media Guild Awards Lunch.
Despite the rubbish weather, which did prevent several people from actually getting there - sorry Beanie - everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, especially the 'warming' pink fizz that welcomed us as we arrived.
The food was fabulous as was the table wine - which was more than just table wine - it was very, very quaffable. We all then shot off down the pub to celebrate and commiserate in equal proportions.
If you want to see who won what, then visit The Garden Media Guild website.
For some, just as exciting was the fact that Martyn Cox hijacked the day to announce his alternative OMG! Gardening Awards. Again, there were very few surprises and the gardening police are looking into whether these major awards are now fixed and whether Martyn is going to retire on his 'bungs'!

Going back to blighty

This year, it wasn't too bad. The previous two years were quite bad. The year before that was awful. What is it? Tomato and potato blight - the scourge of veg growers.
OK, we have blight-resistant varieties - the Sarpos, for instance. But I like to grow the varieties I like to eat.
Years ago, when blight was bad, I was happy to spray plants with Dithane and the control was excellent. Then that got taken off the market and so this year I used Bayer Garden Fruit & Vegetable Disease Control with good results. Then horror of all horrors, I read in Which? Gardening that copper-based fungicides are being withdrawn. Cheshunt Compound (which contains copper sulphate) is no longer available to buy from November 30, 2010 and any existing tins must be used up by November 30, 2011 or disposed of safely. The report goes on to say: ”Other products containing copper sulphate, copper oxychloride...are also being withdrawn. Bordeaux mixture, which contains copper sulphate, is currently approved for use until the end of 2013." Bayer Garden Fruit & Vegetable Disease Control contains copper oxychloride. So, I did some checking around - including the PSD website - and also got this information: "Bayer is going to continue to support Fruit & Vegetable Disease Control and so it will go on beyond 2012/2013." So I'm happy.
There were some reports in the summer about genetically-modified resistance to potato blight and then I saw this today on the Horticulture Week website (www.hortweek.com): Researchers from the University of Dundee, the Scottish Crop Research Institute examined the behaviour of Phytophtora infestans and how it interacts with potato plants, and identifying the proteins secreted by the pathogen that play an essential role in infecting the plants. The researchers now know a lot more about how P. infestans gets round the potato plant's natural defences and what it takes for the plant to resist infection. They can now look at a potato plant's genetic make-up and say whether it will be sustainably resistant to late blight. All good news.
The other weapon in my blight arsenal is the Blight Watch website (www.blightwatch.co.uk) where you can put in your postcode and get a warning when blight is forecast in your area. All very clever.

The fall & rise of raised beds

Finally, after eight years, my raised vegetable beds have bitten the dust - literally. For the last year the wood has slowly started rotting away. Now the sides have given up the ghost and started to go awol.
Good time to replace them I thought. So I ordered four new beds - 2 x 2.4m long and 2 x 1.8m; the two old 4.8m long beds were too long - they bowed in the middle and took ages to walk round. Lazy? - me!
Last week I cleared away enough soil to put down one bed, with the intention of filling and moving the soil to get the others down and filled in a logical (kinda) manner. Yesterday the beds were delivered and I stood out in the freezing cold treating them with a wood preservative. Now, today, we've got 5cm of snow, the ground is frozen and everything is on hold.
Thank gawd for the conservatory. After clearing out enough rubbish to give me some room, I've started building the beds indoors. I just need to remember, like someone I knew who built a motorcycle in his attic and then couldn't get it out again without partially dismantling it, that I need to ensure I can get them out of the patio doors.
No doubt, despite my excitement to get them finished asap, we'll have another bad winter and I won't be able to start using the beds until May. Good job I've got some frames to start everything off from seed.

Gardening shows, events and weeks

I need help! Each year I compile a list of national and major flower shows and other large gardening events in the UK, but I want to extend it and ensure I capture all the major gardening events going on in 2011.

I also want to include all the national gardening 'weeks' and 'days' that relate to plants and gardening - like National Tree Week, National Conifer Week, National Allotment Week and National Tomato Day - yes, there is one!

There's so much info out there about shows and events, but no-one seems to produce a really comprehensive list. This is my aim for 2011. Don't worry I won't be following up and asking people to give me money for advertising - honest.

So, if anyone knows of an event going on, or is even organising one, or who knows of a national week or day that needs to be more widely known and promoted to gardeners then please let me know. You can either leave a comment on this blog or e-mail me direct at info@gardenforumhorticulture.co.uk

If there's a website with more info, it would be great if you could let me have the web address.

And no funny quips about me needing 'help' please!

Thanks.

New plants - old plants - best plants

I've just been to the HTA's first ever National Plant Show. It's a trade show aimed at garden centres looking at which suppliers to use for their plants, who's doing what in the industry and showcasing new plants being launched to the trade. There was a real buzz at the show, lots going on and lots of new plants to tempt us to buy and plant in our gardens.

New Plant Awardsd were handed out for the best new introductions. The results are:

Best in Show
Begonia 'Glowing Embers'

Category winners
Best Annual Begonia 'Glowing Embers'
Best Shrub Coprosma ‘Tequila Sunrise’
Best Climber Clematis 'Guiding Promise'

Gold
Begonia 'Glowing Embers'
Coprosma ‘Tequila Sunrise’
Clematis 'Guiding Promise'
Nemesia Maritana ‘Bleuberry Ripple’
Nemesia 'Framboise'

Silver 
Gazania ‘Apache’
Hydrangea paniculata ‘Bombshell’
Hydrangea macrophylla Endless Summer 'Twist-n-Shout'
Leucanthemum 'Real Galaxy'
Nemesia Maritana ‘Vanilla Lady’
Rosa 'Joie de Vivre' - Rose of the Year 2010 

Bronze
Coprosma repens 'Pacific Sunset'
Gazania Garvinea
Geum 'Totally Tangerine'
Nemesia 'Mirabell'
Nemesia ‘Sugar Frosted’
Salvia eigii ‘Christopher Fairweather’
Sambucus nigra ‘Black Tower’

I saw Begonia 'Glowing Embers' earlier this summer at Frosts Garden centres and fell in love with it at first sight - a great new introduction.

Some of the plants are excellent new introduction, most of which I liked. But a few are just a slight improvement on what's already existing in the plants market place or part of the never-ending strive for something 'new'.

This got me thinking. I know it's important to have new plants to excite and interest gardeners, but are there too many? Plants may be seen as 'old' to the gardening trade and people like me who have a handle on what's available, but to people new to gardening an old plant may still be 'new' to them, since they don't know the difference between old and new, having just been bitten by the gardening bug. Some plants have been around and grown in our gardens for hundreds of years and they're still as good now as they were then. So maybe, rather than always getting excited about new plants, we should get excited about good garden plants.

Back to school days

I did my bit for the community and der yuff yesterday. I went back to school to give some six formers at The Abbey School, Ramsey, a taste of what it's like to be a writer/journalist and how to get on in the wonderful world of writing.

It was a bit of an eye opener and brought back memories of my school days. The kids were studying media studies (something that never existed when I was a lad) and English and were (supposedly) all interested in becoming journalists or working in newspapers/magazines. To be fair, most were interested and some even had some good questions; including the expected: "How much can you earn?"

But one delightful little urchin turned up and asked "How long have I got to be here?"! My answer was that as far as I was concerned she didn't have to be there at all and could leave whenever she liked - sooner rather than later preferably. She replied that she had to be there for at least an hour or she wouldn't get her payment for the day! Payment?! Yes, she got paid to go to school. Even I was doing this for free and yet one of the students was getting paid to attend. Again, that didn't exist when I was at school. Can you imagine - getting paid to go to school. I may have had a better attendance record myself if that had been the case.

I think she'll get a shock when she leaves school and starts her career - or, possibly more likely, she'll just leave school and start a family!