Tag: SeptemberPage 1 of 4

Silk threads but not from a Mulberry

The flowers of Dianthus superbus var. longicalycinus are delicate in composition, resembling silk threads. The plant is a short lived perennial sending flower stalks up to 180mm. These…

The scent of Onions

The disadvantage of Tulbaghia violacea is the ever present smell of onions lingering around the planting. This gets worse in wet weather, the force of raindrops bruising the…

Review of the Year – 2018

Following on from a Met Office decreed White Christmas in 2017, Edinburgh had a day of snow and then Storm Dylan blew through on the 31st. Fortuitously, the…

A perennial daisy

The space around one of the alpine troughs is awash with a multitude of small daisy like flowers. From minute green button buds white ray florets quickly turn…

But will there be Chestnuts to roast?

The iconic Sweet Chestnut on the NW corner of the Rock Garden has sustained damage to the canopy over the years. The westerly storm force winds have ripped…

In the bowels of the plant

Astelia chathamica is a vigorous bold clump of sword shaped leaves. A native to New Zealand, more specifically, the Chatham Islands. Our well established plant is fruiting prolifically….

Ash

A homage to the best of all autumn colours can be seen in the Nursery. Fraxinus angustifolia ssp. angustifolia when seen with the late afternoon sun lighting up…

First frost and autumn colour

Early sunshine and heavy dew this morning, yet on the front lawns the dew had crystallised as the first ground frost of autumn. With it are signs of…

Out of season flowering in Rhododendron

There are several Rhododendron species and cultivars flowering out of season this autumn. At this time of year the buds should be initiating for the spring 2018 flowering….

Ten years of seasonal plants of interest – 12 that flower or colour reliably year on year.

A lot of plants have caught my eye during the past decade while compiling a weekly profile on a seasonal plant of interest. Below are the consistently reliable…

Community Garden Produce Show at the Harvest Festival

The Edible Gardening Project held it’s 6th annual Harvest Festival on the 17th and 18th September. The event is a celebration of the vegetable growing year with music,…

Prune it

During the first growing season a newly planted shrub will establish; needing light, water and nutrient. Subsequent seasons will see good growth and the plant thriving. This newly…

Two blue Salvias

Two South American Labiates that are set to brighten the borders for autumn are the sturdy and felty Salvia corrugata and the more spindly S. meyeri. Both with…

A tall growing succulent

Impatiens tinctoria; from tropical east Africa to the glasshouse border and growing a stately three metres tall. The tall succulent or watery stems are sent up annually from…

Boundary best

With the sun shining on the canopy of Acer saccharum we are reminded that the autumn equinox passed and the day length is now shorter than the hours…

Chard

A nutritious and versatile vegetable, also well suited to the decorative border. From a packet of seed and an April sowing the seedlings of Chard ‘Bright Lights’ have…

Gardeners Kitchen – Runner Beans

Runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus) can become overwhelming at this time of year. In this cool, overcast summer it seems like we have been waiting all year for them…

A bigeneric hybrid

X Amarygia parkeri is a bigeneric hybrid of garden origin. The result of a cross between two South African genera; Amaryllis belladonna x Brunsvigia josephinae. The flower stem…

High chaparral

In flower just now is a plant of the Californian chaparral; a shrub land plant community evolving through mild wet winters and hot dry summers. These areas are…

Harvest Festival and Courgette Cake

  We were extremely lucky to have a beautiful weekend for our annual Harvest Festival. The sun shone and the garden was busy. We had all sorts of…