What a mild 2025 December we are having! So mild, the weather is confusing some plants, such as lavender, Calendula and yellow-flowered Phlomis, out in flower at present.
One of the joys of winter is admiring all the window boxes, the wide variety of beautiful Christmas door-wreaths and observing what’s flowering in front gardens whilst out strolling.
My garden is looking past its best now, as the heat-waves and lack of rain having taken their toll, but these three plants are looking stunning and all worthy of the status of Plant of Month for July 2025.
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).
Continue reading June 2025: Gardeners Question TimeBeing the month of June, I am pleased to say that there is plenty of colour in the garden, including Rosa ‘Bobby James’ out in flower, but, the star plant for me is definitely the Canary Island foxglove, Digitalis canariensis.
This is an eye-catching shrub (albeit short-lived) with burnt-orange-apricot foxglove flowers, (flowering since May), supported by strong, upright stems and dark green, serrated-edged foliage.
1. Border irises are really doing their thing now and the show can be brief but make sure to keep the soil around their roots free of weeds so their rhizomes can bake a bit in the sun.
2. Time to Chelsea chop your tall perennials to stop them flopping later or to extend flowering. Good candidates are Phlox, Penstemon, Helianthus, Sedum/Hylotelephium – and I include vigorous Clematis too. You can either do the whole plant at once or just some stems to extend flowering, although it may result in smaller flowers.
3. Deadhead displays of pot plants like Violas to keep them flowering and stop them going to seed. Remember to give them a feed to keep the display going.
Those of you who are regular viewers of BBC Gardeners’ World will most likely have noted Monty Don’s table of potted plants, which varies throughout the seasons and looks like something most of us can only dream of! In a recent article by Alice Vincent, she describes what she calls Monty Don’s ‘Fantasy table’. (My latest garden fantasy? An elegant table covered in flower pots)
The scale of Don’s table and the amount he has displayed is something many of us may aspire to, myself included! On a recent visit to Anna L’s garden, I was impressed by how she had similarly grouped a range of plants in pots, a mix of bulbs, a small Phlox stolonifera, Violas, a Clematis waiting to be planted and a miniature Hosta. Anna very kindly listed the plants for me and you can see from this that a display does not have to be carefully curated, but a selection of whatever takes your fancy!
1. It’s time to cut back those late-flowering clematis…the viticella small-flowered types and the ones flowering after June. All that rain last year made mine grow rampantly so cut back hard to just above a bud, 6 to 12 inches from the ground, and give them a feed and a mulch.
2. You can also cut back some of the slightly early-flowering types like jackmanii varieties and Comtesse de Bouchard, but it’s best to check individual varieties or you’ll lose all your flowers for this year. Other varieties such as early varieties like Montana should be trimmed back after they flower in Spring, unless overgrown – when they require drastic action and you’ll be sacrificing the flowers for a year or two. Anyway, please check.
3. If the ground is frozen or too wet then don’t be tempted to walk on it for fear of damaging the structure. Seems impossible at the moment to get much done!
Continue reading Pat’s Jobs for February 20251. Prune Wisteria this month and next by taking all side shoots back to 2 or 3 buds. Very old plants may need severe pruning to show off the flowers.
2. Start pruning roses in earnest although some are still unbelievably flowering. Remove any foliage with blackspot and don’t compost. Old roses respond well to hard pruning so don’t be afraid, removing all dead and dying wood and cutting stems back to above a bud.
3. I had to remove dead Clematis shoots from a Daphne Jacqueline Postill and in doing so pulled off some of the flowers so take care and do it soon if you can. But leave the main prune until next month.
Continue reading Pat’s Jobs for January 2025One of the joys of walking around the neighbourhood is noticing what’s growing in front gardens and I like to stop and admire the imaginatively designed Xmas wreaths on doors at this time of year, planted window boxes and containers, and see what else is flowering in residents’ borders. And, when at bus stops, I have more time to absorb what’s around me.
So, at a bus stop a few days ago I noticed Clematis ‘Freckles’ cascading over the wall of CABAHS member Linda W’s garden.
Linda tells me that she bought the clematis six years ago at around this time of the year – with its grey, dank days – “when one needs cheering up and it has not disappointed.” Linda also says that although the vine was slow to establish when planted on the cooler side of the property, it has really taken off. It was planted with a honeysuckle and it flowers profusely in the south/south-west boundary wall. In the summer months it can soak up the sun and in the winter is sheltered by the brick boundary wall.
Continue reading Plant of the Month: Clematis cirrhosa ‘Freckles’ (December 2024)What a struggle it has been to protect the shoots of these two clematis from sustained attacks by the usual culprits this year! Not only did I use a garlic spray (one clove of garlic simmered in water) but I also liberally (and continually) sprinkled spent coffee grounds around the base of the plants. Although they were saved, I did lose other clematis: scented C ‘Betty Corning’, C ‘Rising Star’ and C ‘Wedding Day’ – all absolutely lovely and such a loss that I will need to repurchase them.
Clematis ‘Princess Diana’
This clematis is definitely one of my ‘top five’. The tulip-shaped flower is an unusual shade of bright pink, with beautifully striped markings both inside and outside of the petals (sepals). This variety (texensis) was introduced by a British breeder to honour the Princess of Wales in 1984 and has deservedly been given the RHS Award of Garden Merit.
As to be expected ‘Princess Diana’ came into flower late – in July, rather than June – and has been flowering continually, with eight flowers and a few buds on the vine at present.
Continue reading Plant of the Month: Clematis (September 2024)
Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society 