Weeding the Web

A couple more garden offers in 2013

Just a quickie, as I've been alerted to a couple more offers to add to the list in last post.  Shoot Gardening are offering £5 off their annual subscription until 31st January. The subscription lets you save notes, logs and plans of your garden and plants and interact with other members, among other things.

Victoriana Nursery have a range of discounts from 10-20% available on orders from allotment societies, community projects, smallholders and schools. If you don't qualify for any of those, for a one-off £15 you can join their Scarecrow Club loyalty scheme, and receive 15% on all future purchases, forever.

 

Round-up of garden offers and competitions in 2013

A few garden offers and competitions have crossed my path recently, so I thought I'd share them with you.

Suttons Seeds - 2 for 1 entry to the Eden Project, with selected pack of new varieties to Sutton's Eden range. These are 14 in the range, including  Ornamental Corn 'Little Jewels', Sea Holly 'Blue Hobbit', Castor Oil Plant, Balloon Plant, Birds of Paradise, and also tomatoes, aubergines, courgette and pepper.

If you've never tried growing a balloon plant (Platycodon), then I highly recommend it. I've only grown blue ones, but the colour was beautifully clear, and the little "balloon" buds before they break open into the star-shaped flowers are delightful.

Henchman have an Ebay store now, where they're offering End-of-Season and Ex-Demo stock, though you'll have to work a bit to check out what the savings are by comparing the store with their website. Equipment on offer includes tripod and platform ladders, compost tumblers and barrows.

Exbury Gardens, in the New Forest, are looking forward to a bumper season amongst the rhododendrons this spring. Head Gardener John Anderson said that while 2012's wet spring and summer weren't ideal for visitors (obviously a master of understatement. Ed.), the rhododendrons had certainly lapped up the rainfall. "Early summer is the time when the plants put their energy into the following year's bud growth, and 2013 is looking to be an exceptional season, especially for the large-leaved rhododendrons.’ As encouragement to see if he's right, between 9th March and 9th June garden visitors who also buy a ticket for the Gardens Steam Railway will receive a free ticket for a return visit between 1st September to 25th October.

Bulldog Tools need a swift kick for not keeping their website up to date. Their ongoing website competition announces that each month they give away a Premier spade, but they seem to be rather behind. The current competition question was put up for last May.

When I emailed, Marketing Manager Fred Foot told me that they draw around once a quarter, so it wouldn't hurt to put your name down. And you might get a spade.

Mr Fothergill's has named this the Year of the Sweet Pea and, in celebration, is running a sweet pea growing competition at Capel Manor College,Enfield, Middlesex, on 6th July.

There are two categories for the public, each with a prize of £500: one for everyday gardeners and youngsters, and one for schools. The Sweet Pea Society will also be running a competition that day (and those entries will be well worth popping along to see).

You can either send your blooms, carefully wrapped, or turn up on the day.  All entrants receive a £5 voucher to use with Mr Fothergill's catalogue.  There's nothing mentioned yet, but keep an eye on their website, or maybe sign up to their newsletter, to keep abreast of details.

Incidentally, the picture shows Jim Gardiner, the RHS's Director of Horticulture, holding sweet pea Chelsea Centenary, chosen to mark Chelsea's 100th birthday this year. Graham Rice writes interestingly about this and other sweet pea introductions in the Telegraph last year.

UPDATE And don't miss 10% discount on Sarah Raven's website available via Vegplotting until the end of January.

And

RHS Wisley in January

Needing to ferret out some garden history books was the ideal excuse to visit Wisley last week (before The Snow).

In case you've missed it on your stampede to the cafe, the library is a calm oasis on the right where the charming assistants are extremely helpful and you can browse the latest gardening magazines and immerse yourself in books.

They're keen for more people to use it, though I must admit I think that would be a shame. Always nice to have the place (almost) to yourself.

Before I bore home a cache of literature that would challenge a weightlifter, we had a mooch round. Currently starring in the glasshouse are exotic butterflies (there till 24th February).

There's a fascinating emergence case, which displays hundreds of pupae, suspended in rows from dowels (I can only assume they glued them on. The caterpillers can't be that well trained).  Some butterflies had just emerged and were thinking about their next move. Others had just begun the sustained fight out of their case.

Outside, Wisley looked lovely in a serene, pared-down manner which really emphasised shape and colour. The lake was partially frozen, but this didn't deter one duck, which paddled breast-on against the ice, gradually breaking itself a path.

On the bank dogwood features strongly and, combined with salix and the ghostly white thorny canes of the Two-Flowered Raspberry (Rubus Biflorus), created a muted flame effect. 

Dogwood had also been artistically employed elsewhere, as branches pruned from some out-of-the-way bushes made decorative screens to enliven the beds by the rectangular pond.  It's a little early to cut dogwood down, but it's hardy and a passing Wisley gardener said it would survive. Yellow and red had also been combined in a display in one of the urns.  It created a lovely sinuous line and combined well with the daisy cultivar, Bellis perennis 'Pomponette' at its feet.

Incidentally, if you plant Bellis next to a lawn, it's likely to cross-pollinate with the lawn daisies and you'll get pink variations. That's tempting.

 

 

 

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Wisley Has Gone to Bed



Product Review: solar-powered garden lights

Have you ever wondered how well solar-powered garden lights work, as you've missed a step in the dark and tripped over a wayward flower pot?  Well, over the last few months I've had a chance to find out. 

Four varieties of light arrived at the beginning of October, in time for me to report the results in an article for the Christmas edition of Smallholder magazine. The raised bed looked increasingly bizarre as more and more lights appeared among the beetroot but I put them all together to ensure that the conditions for each set were as similar as possible, and this is the garden's sunniest spot with the longest exposure to daylight.

They've been there ever since, so now's a good time to sum up how they've stood up to the wet weather and are coping with this particularly dreary winter.

Solar Light Features

The four types are:

1. Gardman Stainless Steel Solar-Powered Marker Light (stands 26 cms (10¼ ins) high)
2. Benross Gardenkraft 18100 Stainless Steel Garden Lights, set of 4 (18.5 cms (7¼ ins))
3. Smart Solar Dual Function Solar Light Posts, set of 8 (29 cms (11½ ins))
4. Gardman's Solar Sparkling Bubble Lights, set of 3 (29 cms (11½ ins))*

* These are sometimes labelled Gardman, but the name on the box is actually Cole and Bright.

They're set to automatic, which means that they turn themselves on as twilight deepens. At the beginning of October, they came on around 7 pm. This week they've been turning themselves on around 4.45, which is about half an hour after official sunset time.

All can be turned off except the Smart Solar, which instead gives you the option of a steady white light or a rather pretty, gentle colour-changing cycle from green to blue to red.  Of those that can be turned off, only the Bubble Lights have an easily accessible switch that doesn't require the lights to be partially dismantled.  The advantage of being able to switch them off is that they can build up a reserve of power over several days.

The Bubble Lights are also the only ones wired in a string to a separate solar panel. All the other lights stand alone, each containing an inbuilt solar panel.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day: an old standby

 

Well, what else can you expect in January?  Most of my cyclamen are pink with fuller petals, but this is a bit different.