June 2025: Gardeners Question Time

This is now a regular and popular event in which our panel answer questions sent through in advance from members, some with illustrations or examples sent in plastic bags. The panel this year consisted of our very own CABAHS committee member and all-round plant guru Pat K, our President Sir Nicolas Bevan and horticulturalist and teacher Joe Woodcock. Sir Nicolas invited advice and contributions from the audience too, saying that in a room full of gardeners, the panel did not “have the monopoly on wisdom”. We did our best!

Last year we were all overwhelmed by slugs and snails, this year’s scourge is aphids! The first question related to a particularly damaging infestation on Buddleja, which seemed to have caused a virus. Several people, including Joe, have experienced the same this year. He was able to tell us that it is likely to be a specific species, the Melon-cotton aphid, which the RHS are monitoring (you can report cases to the RHS here).

Quite a few other questions also related to pests and problems:

• A discussion about growing onions concluded that they’re fussy about conditions and climate change has made those conditions unreliable and often extreme: therefore many failures are likely to be environmental rather than the fault of the gardener.
• Non-flowering peonies are likely to be because of planting depth, excess mulch covering the crown or perhaps just because they are young plants not ready to flower yet.
• Thrips, scale insects and other houseplant pests can be dealt with by applying spirits (surgical spirit, vodka, etc) and meticulously removing them. Though mealy bugs may require more drastic action…
• Questions about onion white rot (conclusion: doesn’t look like it), unpleasant-looking gooseberries (advice: looks like mildew – nothing to be done this year but observe and hope for better next year) and a case of fig-leaf skeletoniser moth (see our most popular post ever) all elicited a sympathetic response from members.

Members had also been asked to bring along a favourite gardening tool. Our favourites included a hand cultivator for the allotment, a small hand-held hoe, a little plastic ‘widger and dibber’ set and a complicated but evidently effective weeding tool. All were hand-held, but one member asserted that his favourite tools were his hands themselves! Good point.

Several members asked about dealing with unexpected or excessive growth: an oak growing out of the crown of an old yew (advice: they’ll both be fine, so keep the oak if you want to), an extremely leggy rose (advice: be brave and cut back very hard in the winter), and an established and large Clematis which needs to be moved for trellis maintenance (advice: take cuttings first, then remove carefully and try to retain some growth to re-attach after the work is done).

A brief discussion about ‘show stoppers’ ensued after hearing about an enormous giant fennel plant causing lots of comments from passers-by. Echium pininana, Pyracantha and a Sambucus ‘Black Lace’ had had a similar impact. The panel were then asked about their garden ‘guilty secrets’ – a chocolate biscuit enjoyed in a hidden corner, a bottle of sherry in the potting shed, and activating compost heaps with, er, recycled beer/tea (think about it…) were all mentioned.

Finally, requests for plant suggestions all seemed to be for climbers for various situations. Suggestions of good plants included Billardiera (formerly Sollya) heterophylla, Clematis ‘Alba Luxurians’, C. ‘John Huxtable’, C. ‘Betty Corning’ and C. terniflora. There was good feedback about another climber, a rambling rose (Rosa ‘Bobbie James’) which had been advised upon at last year’s Q&A. The advice was sound and the problem is solved – a floriferous rose this year! Let’s hope that the advice dispensed this year proves as useful.

Many thanks to the panel for their time and expertise, to the members and committee members who staffed the raffle table, plant sale, welcome table, refreshments and ran the meeting – until next year!

Ali H