NEWSLETTER
ARCHIVE
Summer 2006
Newsletter
Trends in gardens
Hay fever gardening
Water, water, water
Open Gardens & Shows
Garden Centre Shop Expands
Summer Greenhouse Offer
Seed Sale
Water Butts
Autumn is on its Way
Newspaper Recycling
15 Gardening Tasks for July
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Buckingham
Garden Centre
Tingewick Road
Buckingham
MK18 4AE
Telephone:
01280 822133
Fax:
01280 815491
www.hedging.co.uk
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For your interest we have
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Please note that any special offers and prices mentioned may not
now be current.
 Trends
in Gardens
 It’s
the gardening equivalent to London Fashion Week but both the Royal
Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show (back in late
May) and the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show (open 4-9th July)
see keen gardeners as well as TV gardeners hedging their bets on
what’s in (popular) and what’s out (not in vogue).
Well, let’s start with three things, which we have closely
observed here at Buckingham Garden Centre, that are definitely in
and selling well!
- Plant a purple haze… and plum, blue, magenta and, yes,
red. It’s that now famous line-up of alliums, geraniums,
salvias and Veronica ‘Royal Candles’ which when planted
together create a wonderful ‘mist effect’ and look
even better when contrasted with splashes of white from the likes
of foxgloves, geraniums or roses.
- Why not grow your own? We predicted an increase in vegetable
and potted fruit sales, and we’ve seen a sharp rise in plug
vegetables, greenhouse crops as well as herbs. Interestingly,
top TV cook, Jamie Oliver announced at this year’s Chelsea
Flower Show that he would be going into growing fruit, vegetables
and herbs next year for a new TV series. Remember the success
of vegetable growing is continuity of crops, so keep planting
and make sure all space is being cropped to the maximum. We are
growing a range of larger vegetable plants for those gardeners
with space to fill, so check them out. If you are planning your
garden for next year make space for some wall-trainable fruit
later in the year. Apples, pears, kiwis, peaches, apricots, figs
and cherries are perfect for those spare south or west-facing
fences and walls.
- Drought-tolerant plants were much in evidence at Chelsea this
year, so if you are thinking about creating a roof garden covered
in the succulent Semperviviums, that’s one option. Alternatively,
we have teamed up with growers Farplants to bring a succulent
themed display to the Garden Centre, featuring aloe, delosperma,
echeveria, pachyphytum and sedum for planting in pots or on the
odd roof! These succulents are best treated as bedding plants,
bringing them indoors at the end of the summer to enjoy them in
a cool, light, airy spot from late September onwards. Don’t
forget the more traditional drought-busting plants like lavender,
brachyglottis and cytissus.
 Plants
to look out for this summer – Verbena bonariensis, Ipomea
Sweet Caroline (the decorative sweet potato), Coleus ‘Kong
Series’, Restio plants, Melianthus major, fruiting grape vines,
the new repeat-flowering Agapanthus ‘Bluestorm’, the
lovely shrub rose ‘Bonica’ and the intriguing Purple
Millet. And finally one for non football fans, how about one of
our beautifully grown Impatien ‘Ball Baskets’, full
of flower for just £19.99.
Hay Fever Gardening
Grass, tree, rape seed and many other pollens cause great distress
to gardeners and non-gardeners, so if you are itching to find some
pollen-free plants for your garden, where should you look?
Well, first consider plants that produce little or no pollen.
These tend to be ones which are insect pollinated, as against those
which are wind pollinated. The wind pollinated plants tend to produce
far more pollen than insect pollinated varieties and all this pollen
is blown around and then is breathed in, and gets into our eyes,
causing the typical hay fever reactions.
Some examples of low pollen trees are the many varieties of flowering
cherries, any of the magnolias and ornamental fruit trees. For shrubs
the wide range of the hebes, all being evergreen and varying in
height from very dwarf to about one metre tall, the spring flowering
camellias, summer flowering hydrangeas and fuchsias, winter and
spring flowering viburnums and spring flowering weigela. From these
one could create a garden with colour all year round but very little
air borne pollen. Spaces between these could be infilled with perennials
and annuals such as forget-me-nots, pansies, phlox, petunias, begonias,
antirrhinums, impatiens, penstemons, salvias, agapanthus, oriental
poppies, aquilegias, astilbes and hardy geraniums.
The plants to try to avoid are any grasses, except your lawn which
is kept low and therefore does not flower. Grasses flower over a
very long period and it is difficult to avoid being near meadow
grasses if you live in the countryside, but at least you can avoid
planting ornamental grasses such as miscanthus in your garden. Unfortunately
another culprit is the ‘daisy’ family and this includes
so many garden favourites such as the chrysanthemums, asters, marigolds
and zinnias. The other final warning is that many of the beautifully
scented plants like carnations, freesias, honeysuckle, wisteria
and lilies are also not good, but maybe if you avoid putting your
nose right in to savour the delicious perfume (often ending up with
pollen on the nose!) they may not be quite so bad.
Water,
water, water
Summer is sometimes a difficult time in the garden if you have
been busy planting new trees and shrubs as these will all need constant
watering, especially if there is a lack of rain. As ever, we would
emphasise that it is important to make sure that at least two gallons
of water is applied per square yard (8 litres per square metre)
in one watering. This quantity will need to be applied about twice
a week if there is no rainfall. This will ensure that the water
actually gets down to the roots where it is needed. If a small amount
only is applied the danger is that the roots will come to the surface
to get the water then be damaged from the extra heat from the sun.
We think enough has been said about the hose pipe bans that many
are suffering from but we would advise to think about future planting
schemes. We are always here to help on any planting schemes.
Open
Gardens & Shows
 I
expect you are all converted to the ‘Garden Visiting’
with the National Gardens Scheme, but for any who have not taken
advantage of this scheme we would thoroughly recommend it. Not only
do you see some truly wonderful gardens but also get a chance to
speak to the owners and other visitors. We still copies of both
the Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire leaflets giving details
of all gardens open in those counties.
For those living locally another garden to visit is Claydon House.
There has been a lot of work done on the gardens recently, not only
the ornamental garden but also the new vegetable garden. It is well
worth a visit.
Another ‘must’ is to get to the Plant Fair at Chenies
Manor on the 16th July. We consider this to be one of the best Plant
Fairs you could possibly attend. Apart from the many really good
nurseries selling excellent plants, there are other exhibitors with
garden related goods, all of good quality, so unlike some of the
larger garden shows you will not be walking past endless exhibitors
with ‘ordinary’ plants or ‘tacky’ goods.
Also, what a setting! If you have not visited Chenies Manor you
are missing a treat if you love beautiful gardens and interesting
old houses. The fair is only open on Sunday 16th, so make a note
in your diary as we are sure you will not be disappointed. Find
out more at www.cheniesmanorhouse.co.uk
Garden
Centre Shop Expands
By the time this get to you our new giftware department should
be nearly complete. In order to increase the floor area in our shop
we have moved most of our shop store out from the main shop. This
area will soon be incorporated into the main shop so we will be
able to display such bulky items as furniture and barbeques in a
less cluttered way. Also it will also enable us to increase the
range of goods we have on offer.
Summer
Greenhouse Offer
If you are considering investing in a greenhouse for this autumn
and want a coloured one against a plain aluminium one, we are able
to offer a 5% discount on the price of the Halls coloured greenhouse
range. This would mean, for instance, that if you were interested
in the Green Supreme 86, the price would go down from £690
to £655.50. This offer is only on orders taken between 1st
July and 31st August 2006.
Seed
Sale
As last year we shall be having a half price sale to help clear
the end of this year’s seed stock. As the ‘sow-by’
time of seeds is often many years, this is good time to pick up
bargains for next year’s sowing. The new range will come in
at the beginning of August – always exciting to see what is
new.
Water
Butts
At last we have a good range of water butts available, but unfortunately
we cannot provide the rain to go into them! There are many different
styles available and you should be able to find one to suit your
house. Apart from the fact that rain water is so much better for
the plants, if you have one where you can plunge your watering can
in to fill it up, it is so much faster than filling the can up from
a tap.
Another useful new watering product we have in the shop is the
Hozelock ‘Flower Shower’. This is basically a pressure
sprayer which has been adapted for watering hanging baskets and
flower pots. It is more precise than using a watering can, it is
easy to carry with a shoulder strap and therefore there is no heavy
lifting, and with the on/off switch there will be no spills or wastage,
and for those with a hose pipe ban it is approved for use. One filling
will water up to twenty pots. These are on promotion at the moment
at £19.99.
Autumn
is on its Way
 It
hardly seems possible, but autumn bulbs have already been scheduled
in for the second week in August. Daffodil of the year is Sir Winston
Churchill. This daffodil has the RHS Award of Garden Merit, and
not surprisingly as it is a very attractive double, multi-headed,
scented flower, with a white perianth (outside petals) and a small
orange-red centre. The bulb of the year is Muscari. We will have
a good supply of both, but if the pattern is as previous years it
will still be advisable to buy early as once it gets mentioned on
the television gardening programmes, stocks will quickly be taken
up.
Newspaper Recycling
All the year round we are sending plants out on our Mail Order
Service and in order to wrap these satisfactorily for transporting
we use a lot of newspaper. Despite all our staff bringing in their
read papers and collecting all the unsold local papers, we still
always seem to be looking for more. So if you live close to our
shop and want to help us recycle newspapers please drop these off
at the Customer Service Desk in the shop. This really will be very
helpful to us.
And
finally our 15 Gardening Tasks for July
Flowers
CUTTNG back plants in baskets followed by feeding can encourage
new growth and help revive tired displays.
SOME late-flowering border perennials may benefit from a quick-acting
feed before they come into bloom, especially if the soil is not
very fertile.
CUT BACK delphiniums and geraniums after the first flush of flowers
to encourage a second flowering period. Feed after cutting them
back.
Fruit
CUT back side-shoots on gooseberries to four or five leaves, or
just beyond the fruit clusters. This will speed ripening (by increasing
sun on the fruits), encourage fruit bud formation for next year,
and control aphids on the new growth.
FRUIT picking can begin now, with strawberries, cherries, summer-fruiting
raspberries, currants and the earliest of the plums. Remember to
harvest red and white currants in bunches, still on the stalk -
they will keep and taste better. Blackcurrants can be picked singly
or in clusters, as preferred.
CONTINUE to tie in and train new blackberry canes. Keep new canes
separate from older, fruiting canes to ease later pruning.
Vegetables
SOW spring cabbage, turnips, oriental vegetables, chicory, fennel,
and autumn/winter salads such as lamb’s lettuce. Plant out
leeks and brassicas for a winter supply, if not yet done.
REMEMBER to pick your bean and pea pods as they mature, to stop
them becoming tough and stringy later in the summer.
ENSURE all vegetables get a regular, consistent supply of water.
This will aid healthy development, and help to avoid diseases, disorders
and bolting.
Trees & Shrubs
TIE-IN climbers and ramblers as they grow.
REMOVE rose suckers and tree suckers.
PRUNE June-flowering shrubs such as Philadelphus and Weigela after
flowering.
Lawns
DON’T worry unduly about brown patches on the lawn - they
will recover quickly when the autumn rains arrive.
REMEMBER that some areas are under a hosepipe ban. Check with your
local authority for details, as the levels of restriction vary.
KEEP mowing regularly, except during drought. In hot weather, set
the mower at a slightly higher level than normal for early summer.
This can prevent the lawn drying in hot weather.
Pests and Diseases
CONTINUE to spray for aphis, blackspot and mildew on all roses
on a 10-14 spray cycle. Use Rose Clear 3 or Multirose.
SAP-SUCKING aphis on bedding plants can cause a sticky mess and
spoil your displays, especially if sooty mould gets a hold. Use
Traditional Soft Soap or Pravado Ultimate Bug Killer on ornamentals
to keep the problems at bay. Do read the recommendations on all
garden chemicals before usage.
MILDEW on honeysuckles has been especially bad this season –
high humidity and water stress can fuel this disease. Do keep all
honeysuckles well-watered (using grey water if available) and feed
with a Tomato fertiliser to help boost growth.
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