For
your interest we have an archive newsletter section.
Please note that any special offers and prices mentioned may not
now be current.
 Winter displays start here...
After a so-so summer, why not brighten your spirits by injecting
some welcome colour back into your hanging baskets, pots and mixed
borders!
We’ve got plenty of choice in our seasonal area at the moment
including the new intriguingly named ‘Cat’s Whisker’s’
pansies as well as the reliable Universal single colours and mixtures
and the colourful Panolas (across between a pansy and viola).
Remember to double-layer your spring bulbs displays when re-planting
your pots. This method, introduced to gardeners by the late and
great Percy Thrower, is a good way of increasing the flowering display
time in your pots. Don’t forget to include winter heathers,
ornamental cabbages and kale as well as seasonal favourites ‘Miracle’
cyclamen, ball chrysanthemums and foliage thymes.
By adding two layers of daffodil, tulips and crocus bulbs you
will find the flowers develop over a much longer time, so giving
you a much longer, brighter display.
Wallflowers are certainly tops when it comes to value for money
and our pre-packs in a wide range of colours including Ivory White,
Yellow, Purple, Scarlet and Orange are guaranteed to set your beds
and pots alight next spring. Wallflowers are members of the brassica
(cabbage) family so will benefit from a light dusting of lime to
the soil just prior to planting. Work the lime well in and keep
your plants moist until fully established.
Still on the brassicas front, love them or loathe them ornamental
cabbage and kales are perfect colourful gap-fillers for pots and
window boxes – lasting well into the winter. Give them space
to develop and avoid getting them too wet.
Apple
Day at Buckingham Garden Centre
From a small beginning many years ago Sulgrave Manor launched and
developed Common Ground’s idea of APPLE DAY. As a local nursery
and garden centre we have been involved with the event over the
years and have watched it grow from one marquee to a major event
which was very well attended when the weather was favourable. However,
with the exception of last year when we had sun all day, the years
before gales and rain caused disaster, too few visitors came and
those who did brave the storms were unable to enjoy the outdoor
events. Sulgrave’s directors very reluctantly decided not
to hold the event this year as they could not afford to loose money
again.
We were very disappointed that ‘Apple Day’ was not
going to happen this year in this area as we know many people would
miss the event. We discussed this here then approached Maureen Jeffrey
of Sulgrave Manor and as a result have decided to re-launch ‘Apple
Day’ here at our Garden Centre.
We shall have a large display of unusual apples, and Dr Juniper,
his daughter Sarah Juniper and Mr Alan Watson will be here to identify
apples for visitors. We have always been amazed at how many visitors
arrive every year with apples for identification, and how many unusual
ones are amongst them. Please bring three sample apples from each
tree as this makes identification so much easier.
Apples will be very much on the menu at Ali Templeton’s
cookery demonstrations at 11.30 and 2.30 both days. Ali, author
of ‘Going Green’, runs the Going Green Cookery School
and gives very interesting and amusing demonstrations with the help
of her husband Stuart.
We shall have a good range of apples and pears for sale along
with apple juices, meads and ciders. All good, pure and traditional
English goods, and many sold by ‘The Drunken Monk’ to
add to the atmosphere! We shall also have a local beekeeper with
a display, and with his local honey and related products. His bees
were housed on our nursery at one stage and worked very well pollinating
the fruit trees here.
Finally, we have arranged a falconry display where the children
(and their parents if they can get away from the apples) will be
able to see and handle the birds.
The event will be open 9am-5pm Saturday 16th and 10am-4pm on Sunday
17th October. Free entry.
Sky-hi
apples
As well as traditional apples we are now stocking the original
(and many people say still the best) narrow column-forming apples,
the aptly named Ballerina trees. We have all varieties on offer
and if space is short these can be grown successfully in a large
pot (minimum diameter 75cm (2½ft) and potted into a well-drained
soil-based compost, such as John Innes No3. Do make sure the pot
has a generous layer of crocks (drainage stones) in the base as
waterlogging can cause root problems if you are not careful. Apart
from feeding and watering, care is minimal yet the rewards are usually
good as all the varieties of Ballerina apples are productive in
their cropping potential.
Still on the subject of fruit, if you are really short of space
but have a south or west-facing wall, don’t rule out fan-trained
and espalier fruit. We shall have a range of stock, mainly pot-grown
available later this month.
Plump
for a pumpkin
Spooks! Not only do they look good, but those brightly coloured
pumpkins taste good too! The last day of October is Halloween and
we are once again stocking a weird and wonderful selection of named
varieties of pumpkins and gourds for your culinary enjoyment. So,
if you are planning a party, or a table decoration or perhaps the
children fancy a spot of pumpkin carving, then we should have something
for the project. We’ve a whole range of varieties with prices
starting from just £1.99 (‘Becky’) and the variety
‘Racer’ (£4.99), which is perfect for pumpkin
soup.
Bag
yourself a celebrity!
“Bloomin’ gorgeous”, that’s the best phrase
we can describe the latest celebration roses offerings selected
by our favourite TV gardeners and gardening writers and celebrities.
Now in its third season, this popular line-up always proves popular,
especially as a portion of the sales goes to the Great Ormond Street
Hospital Children’s charity.
Fourteen celebrities, including Alan Titchmarsh, Diamuid Gavin,
Monty Don and Rachel de Thame have selected their all-time favourite
roses including ‘Jacques Cartier’, ‘Dublin Bay’,
Cardinal de Richelieu’ and ‘Penny Lane’. The roses
are grown in rigid 5.5litre pots and are priced at £8.99 each.
Be quick as you can probably guess which ones sell out first!
Seasonal
Tips
DIVIDE clumps of herbaceous perennials as the
leaves turn and the soil is still warm for quick re-establishment.
Remember the central crown is usually the oldest part of the plant
and the least vigorous – the outer sections will give you
the best propagation material. Two garden forks placed back-to-back
is the easiest way of teasing apart larger clumps. When you come
to re-planting the divisions, do improve the soil with some organic
matter and a light dressing of bone meal worked well around the
roots.
CLEAR weeds from around the base of fruit trees,
soft fruit and hedges as these can often harbour pests. If weeds
are a perennial problem, consider laying down some landscape fabric
to reduce the burden of hand weeding.
FORCED bulbs for the New Year need to be planted
now and over the next few weeks. Avoid planting them all on the
same week or else you’ll have a glut of colour in January
and nothing else to follow! Space your plantings fortnightly for
floral succession. Use tulips, double narcissus and amaryllis to
provide the variety.
MILDEW has been a serious problem this season
due in part to the damp, humid and sunless summer. It is essential
that you remove affected leaves as they fall and make sure they
are destroyed (or burnt) rather than placing them on the compost
heap. This applies to honeysuckles and clematis, which can become
re-infected should the spores splash on to spring unfurling foliage.
Assume the same procedure for roses, as blackspot will survive in
the top layer of soil, especially if you help it along with a mulch
of organic matter!! It is safer to mulch roses in the late winter
when you are pruning your roses back for the start of the new season.
GREENHOUSE owners should be giving their structures
a good autumn clean and this should include cleaning the glass,
staging as well as pots. Use Jeyes Fluid or the new citrus disinfectant
Citrox to take care of the interior of the glasshouse – glass,
staging and paths.
LAWNS have never looked as green! Now is a good
time to do some routine tasks to help build your lawn up for next
year. Start by giving the lawn a good rake to remove any debris
and moss – use a spring tined rake for this. Next aerate the
lawn with a suitable aerator – small areas can be treated
pushing a garden fork into the turf and spacing the holes every
12in (30cm) apart, or alternatively, use a device that takes out
cores of turf.
Complete the lawn makeover with a generous lawn dressing –
this should include some autumn lawn plant food (we would recommend
Evergreen Autumn Lawn Food & Mosskiller). This specific feed,
applied from September through until late November, is high in a
root fertiliser and is specially formulated to be temperature controlled
to help strengthen the lawn for the winter as well as giving your
lawn a much welcomed boost come the spring.
CONTINUE to gather fruit and vegetable crops
and provide suitable storage conditions to help them store well.
Vacant spaces in the vegetable garden can be filled with cloched
winter lettuce, ‘Hispi’ cabbage and tasty spring cabbage.
You can also make a sowing of broad beans and peas if cloches are
available to gain ahead start over spring-sown crops.
As far as sowing beans we would recommend the variety ‘Aquadulce
Claudia’ (Thompson & Morgan seeds) for this purpose. Set
the seed direct 5cm deep up until late October to get good roots
going which will support heavy yields the following year. The plants
grow to 5-10cm and stay this size through the winter putting on
side roots. Do not add fertiliser to the soil at the sowing stage,
but add an organic fertiliser around the roots in the spring by
hoeing it in.
Gardeners
warned - killer ladybirds coming to a garden near you!
You may have seen in the newspapers stories concerning a deadly
species of ladybird with the potential to wipe out half of Britain's
native species. It has now arrived in this country.
According to the stories, the so-called voracious Harlequin, also
known as the multi-coloured Asian ladybird, was discovered in a
pub garden two weeks ago.
Apparently the insects are larger, hungrier and more adaptable
than their domestic rivals. If they become established, they could
drive traditional species, such as the seven spot or two spot, to
extinction within decades, scientists say.
Dr Michael Majerus, a ladybird specialist from Cambridge University's
genetics department who identified the "odd-looking" Harlequin,
said: "This is the ladybird I have least wanted to see here.
Given its proximity in Holland, I knew it was on its way. But I
hoped that it wouldn't be soon. Now many of our ladybirds will be
in direct competition with this aggressively invasive species. Some
will not cope."
Harlequin ladybirds, Harmonia axyridis, originated in Asia.
They were introduced to North America in the 1970s as an "environmentally
friendly" alternative to pesticides and quickly swept across
the continent, driving out domestic species and other aphid-eating
bugs. Numbers of the insects are also rising steeply in France,
Belgium and the Netherlands.
Harlequins are more adaptable than most species, living in trees
as well as the ground. In the spring, they out-compete rivals for
aphids. Once aphid numbers start to fall in the summer, they turn
their attention to hoverflies, lace wings, butterfly eggs and even
other ladybirds.
"The species is a threat not only to other ladybirds: in America
in the autumn, some houses are inundated with swarms of harlequins
seeking warmth for the winter. When stressed, they release oily,
foul-smelling yellow blood from their legs which stains carpets
and fabrics, and may trigger allergic reactions. Reports of harlequins
biting people as they run out of aphid prey have risen", Dr
Majerus said. They also damage soft fruit.
Gardeners around the UK are being encouraged to keep an eye open
for this unwelcome guest. They are around 6mm to 8mm long. Most
also have a distinctive W or M mark on the area separating their
heads from their wing covers. If you come across one (or more!),
send them, in clean, dry containers, to: Dr Michael Majerus, Department
of Genetics, Cambridge University, CB2 3EH.
Job
Vacancies
Due to the continuous growth and expansion of our mail
order hedging business we have a number of employment opportunities
available - details can be found here.
|
