Dorset Group Hardy Times September 2020 Issue 153 Email dorsethps@gmail.com

www.dorsethps.org.uk Editor: Diana Guy

Special Edition 9 Welcome to our ninth special newsletter. Please keep sending items of interest, including your favourite books and news of your garden or others you have visited to me at:- Diana.kitemoor@btinternet.com.

Late Summer Plants Special As summer stumbles sleepily into autumn there is a visible relaxing of pressure in the garden. The cooler, but still pleasant weather with just enough rain, means the gardens have perked up and freshened and blooms last much, much longer than in the hot days. Watering and feeding can be relaxed a little.

My garden is still full of colour with quite a few late performers waiting in. Currently I am enjoying lots of dahlias Dahlia ‘Labyrinth’ (left), the late Agapanthus inerpertus, and the wonderful shrub-like

Ageratum petiolatum - a really easy tender perennial. Japanese anemones never fail to please. I love A ‘Honorine Jobert’ but despair of the early flowering, pink, thuggy one (possibly A. hupehensis ‘Praecox’?) that hitched a ride here in a hellebore from my front garden, where I spent 10 failed years trying to eradicate it and now it has taken over my front garden here!

The three ‘hels’ are in full spate. First the rich rusty heleniums, then the dainty heliopsis. I do not grow the popular heliopsis ‘Lorraine Sunshine’ (left) because I think the odd variegation on the leaf

makes it look sickly (but you decide!). I favour ‘Heliopsis ‘Summer Nights’, a rich dark orange with chocolate coloured stems or H ‘Summer Sunshine’ which has green stems. The third ‘hel’ are the helianthus featured along with Rudbeckia later in this edition. I am delighted with new, rather than special, salvias thanks to Judy Spratley and Sue Collins. The little salvias have all made substantial plants so I now have quite a range. I was delighted to see a humming bird moth on them today. There is still more to come because many plants are patiently waiting in the wings for their moment, namely the hardy chrysanthemums, more of that in October.

I always think back to visiting Great Dixter at the very end of October (above) when borders and pots were still ablaze with colour. That is what I strive towards, and that is where I purchase most of my helianthus. Of course, at Dixter containers are a central part of the ongoing display of colour. I am sure many of you are caught in the dilemma of when to start on the winter pots. It seems we are pushing summer out of the door if we start them too early, but as bulbs arrive and we see Autumn bedding in the shops we know we must

make a start in order to encourage the plants to settle and grow whilst the soil is warm. Baskets and Blooms, here we come!

Do not forget to order wallflowers from Mayfields. They arrived freshly lifted and transplant really well and are available in different heights and separate colours. Much better than

wilted offerings in garden centres or stumpy little potted jobs. I grow the white ones, which are actually a delicate primrose. I have planted out the double Sweet Williams I grew from seed and am starting to thin out and move the self- seeded forget me nots. I grow the darker variety which does come true to seed. Sometimes white forget me nots ones are available in garden centres and these can be useful. There are still gardens open to visit, Edmondsham House keeps going on Wednesdays and Sundays until the end of October. You no longer have to book to visit Knoll Gardens and as the nursery is open you can pick up a few things to plant now, the ideal time. Meantime, with everything still up in the air it is up to us as individuals to keep up our gardening friendships at a more personal level. Why not invite a fellow member or two round to your garden for a cup of tea? This is the perfect time to take cuttings, collect seed or earmark plants that are to be split later, for sharing. This is the very essence of gardening and I am always pleased to see people in my humble patch. Barbara’s Memorial Garden You will know, by Debbie’s updates and pictures on the website, the garden is now complete and we were all very pleased with the final result. Check out the pictures if you have not seen them recently. When you are next in Colehill, stop and park and have a look. (It is next to the Memorial Hall where we have our meetings). There have been favourable comments by the general public, so people have noticed it.

The final stage is for a plaque to be installed beneath Barbara’s rose. We chose Rosa Glauca, as it was a challenging spot. Jane’s Journal Snowdrops take a lot of my time in February. I mark my diary up with which clumps are looking congested. Snowdrops probably need lifting every third or fourth year. The bulbs are inclined to strangle each other. In June, when the bulbs are dormant, (I recommend planting in aquatic pots) I lift and replace the soil and feed and re plant as many as I want. I label carefully the residue and put in a separate container, one snowdrop looks much the same as the other so essential to be so careful!! The resulting bulbs are known as resting bulbs and they are best sold in this state. The roots are very delicate and once broken they do not re grow. The Alpine group had a bulb sale at Horton in September by which time the snowdrops were potted up with roots just starting to grow so hopefully there will be plenty flowering in pots if I decide to open my garden for Air Ambulance and Snowdrops in early February. The strawberries did really well this year and are still producing the odd delicious berries. I took some runners and potted up (not cutting away from parent plant) until well rooted. Strawberries on the whole do a few large fruits first year, second year lots of medium sized and the third year lots of smaller fruits after gathering third year fruits it is time to pull up plants. I have planted new plants but in a different place. Any runners still about need cutting off. Autumn raspberries have fruited well. For some reason they do not get raspberry maggots and are always pretty clean. I feel they are much easier to manage. Chop them all down in January and feed and mulch. The only snag being I usually have mushroom compost and raspberries do not like this. I grew Nicotiana mutabilis it has been lovely but some plants did not mutate and have remained white. After that amazing downpour which generally smashed up dahlias and other herbaceous plants

the only solution is to have a really good deadhead and cut back and hopefully everything will keep flowering for a few more weeks.

Jane Norris

Hellebore work

Hellebores are starting to break their dormancy so now is the best time to move or divide hellebores, not a procedure they enjoy, so only

do it when necessary and choose a mild damp windless day to reduce trauma. Prepare the planting hole where you intend to plant the divisions really well. Dig a generous hole and work in plenty of mushroom or garden compost. Water the hole thoroughly and only then lift the plant that is to be move or divided. Wait until the clump is a decent size then divide it with a sharp spade or knife. They tend to develop woody middles so the two fork method does not always work. Do not make the divisions too small A little bone meal in the hole and mycorrhizal fungi patted on the roots will get them off to a good start, then top dress with mushroom compost. The plant will already have its embryonic buds ready and waiting to flower next year but the year after it may start a long sulk and not flower at all until it has settled down well in its new place. Check over your other hellebores, the total leaf removal (on H x hybridus) does not start until mid- November but it is ok to remove any scruffy or dead leaves now. Then sprinkle bone meal or whatever feed you prefer around them. Give a good soak and mulch with mushroom compost. September Stars

Rudbeckia fulgida Var.sullivanti ‘Goldsturm’ with Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ in the background.

Rudbeckias are a very useful group of plants for late summer and early Autumn. They seem to last for ages and then give us structural seedheads beloved by goldfinches in the winter.

I have big clumps of Rudbeckia fulgida var.deamii originally given to me over two years ago by Judy Spratley. They thrive in my clay soil and have bulked up extraordinarily well so I am now in a position to offer splits to anyone who would like some in a few weeks’ time. Drop me an e mail if you are interested. R deamii comes in at 60 cm plus high so is slightly taller than Rudbeckia fulgida Var.sullivanti ‘Goldsturm’, which does not bulk up with quite so much vigour with me, but is a useful plant. With larger flowers on shorter stems to my mind it is not as well -proportioned as deamii. The shortest group of rudbeckias are the annual types, which do sometimes give you a second year. Most are around 45 cm high.

I love the simple gold ones such as R. Hirta ‘Prairie Sun’ which has green centres as does ‘Irish Eyes’ (left). Cherry Brandy is a rich crimson and there are various

other hirtas that come in cinnamon and bronze shades. They are easy to grow from seed, and often appear in garden centres in late summer as established plants but I am not going to pay upwards of £8 for an annual! This year, of course, I could not buy seed so I bought mine at the produce stall up Sheepcroft Lane for £2 each, and they are growing well surrounded by self-sown unknown grasses, a setting in which all rudbeckias look good. If really dwarf ones are your thing, grow ‘Toto’

Helianthus I am talking about perennial helianthus not annual sunflowers, which I also grow and love. I must confess to a lovely thug (left) that has followed me around three gardens now, quite

uninvited, I must have had shreds of its roots in with another plant that I potted up and brought with me. It is impossible to eradicate so I am about

to give in and celebrate its tenacity instead. I do not even know exactly which one it is, but you will all recognise it! If you can identify it, please let me know.

In a friends garden in Corfe Castle I saw, and fell in love with, the almost semi double H. ‘Capenoch Star’ (left) which has excellent manners and is a useful

height. With me it grows to about 1.5 m. It has an interesting pom-pom centre. I saw it for sale at Bleak Hill Nursery near Fordingbridge. There are a few others with this characteristic centre but I am yet to see them. Like ‘Capenoch Star’ the fully double ‘Loddon Gold ‘ (right), which is a similar height, you have bigger flowers and less foliage thus making for a showier plant. This is not the case with the popular Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ which is much taller and with smaller flowers. It is a back of the border job. Judy grows it behind Miscanthus, which is ideal, as I am afraid they are prone to developing mildew on the lower leaves which brown and spoil the look of the lower plant. I will have spare divisions of this too, later! All the ones mentioned above do bulk up well and are clumpers not runners unlike my piggy back thug!

Here at Old Court it is grown with Michaelmas daisies, another winning combination with a stunning colour contrast. The final one I grow is a real whopper, at 2 metre plus, truly too tall for my garden. It is H.’O sole Mio’ again, seen and bought at Dixter, a cross between H. grosseserratus and H ‘Lemon Queen’. It sports

larger flowers than Lemon Queen and they are a richer colour’. Splits available! A Big Thank You I am not suggesting you go out to your gate and clap for the committee, but goodness, they deserve it! Luckily I am not on the committee, my role is simply to put this newsletter together and I am always pleased to do a vote of thanks. My long Plant Heritage committee years, much enjoyed but very time consuming, have long gone. I fully understand how much work goes into running a group and we are luckily to have a capable and dedicated committee with Debbie who is a natural leader, full of big ideas and the energy to see them through, at the helm. They have faced a very tough year, first of all organising a cracking year of events, only to have to cancel everything. Then, in an unprecedented era, underpinned by total uncertainty, to try and stitch things back together again for 2021. Amazingly, through this we managed to have a few events whereby we could meet and catch up with one another. The open days at Manor Farm were great and finally gave us a chance sell and buy plants. The Memorial Garden project was a breath of fresh air and it was gratifying to see so many willing hands. When you next see a committee member say a big ‘Thank You and Well Done’.