News - Page 113
The RHS Hyde Hall Flower Show begins this week, kicking off a summer full of shows at RHS gardens around the country.
RHS Hyde Hall Flower Show
This year the show is celebrating the Queen’s 90 th birthday with a dazzling marquee full of floral displays by Essex artists; the new Artists’ Pavilion showcases work from more local talent, from stained glass painting and photography to botanical art. And of course at the heart of the show are the mouthwate...
Read more...From dainty Blue Fescue Grass to majestic Miscanthus, ornamental grasses provide texture, character and form unmatched by many other hardy perennials. Their presence develops through the seasons as bright and colourful foliage is joined by graceful swaying flower heads that last well into winter.
In large borders grasses can be planted in bold groups or striking drifts, but many varieties perform well in large patio pots, positioned where their individual sha...
Read more...Plant herbs in your greenhouse and take advantage of their magical abilities to keep off pests and diseases, as well as looking pretty and giving you plenty of deliciously fragrant flavourings to pick for your cooking.
Deter unwanted Insects with Herbs
Essential oils from herbs have scents so powerful they can mask those of target plants, confusing predatory insects: others find flying through air fragrant with herbal oils an unsettling experience an...
Read more...The Met Office wants weather obsessed gardeners to help them improve their forecasts by installing small weather stations in the garden to predict thunderstorms and tell them when there’s a weather front on the way.
Calling all Weather Obsessed Gardeners
The country’s leading weather forecaster says its supercomputer – among the most technologically advanced in the world and able to carry out 16 trillion calculations a second – needs more data than t...
Read more...The Royal Horticultural Society needs your help to identify which plants are best for pollinating insects like bees, lacewings and hoverflies.
A new research project carried out by the RHS in partnership with the University of Bristol is trying to identify the most commonly-planted pollinator-friendly plants, and assess how good UK gardens are for pollinators.
Fill out the RHS Survey this Summer
Gardeners can fill out an online survey this sum...
Read more...The city of Belfast is coming up roses this week as the nation’s favourite flower takes central stage for the annual Rose Week at Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park.
Annual Rose Week at Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park
The world-famous rose gardens in the park, already home to 40,000 roses, are playing host to thousands of visitors with a full programme of activities, including music and entertainment for all the family. There are bee walks, floral art dem...
Read more...Sow some late veggies now to keep your harvest coming till well into autumn and early winter. Although you’re picking like mad right now as the harvest builds to a peak, don’t be too quick to turn your back on your seed packets just yet. Canny gardeners know that today's generosity will dwindle after a month or so and turn into the late
August doldrums if you're not careful, when all your summer veg start running out of steam and the pickings drop away rapidl...
Read more...The UK’s first garden devoted to air quality has been planted at Sheffield Botanical Gardens.
Local schoolchildren planted the 6m x 8m (20ft x 26ft) garden, set up by the universities of Sheffield, York and Leeds and funded by the White Rose Universities Consortium. It contains plants which are particularly sensitive to ozone and nitrogen dioxide pollution such as lettuce, wheat, clover, common milkweed and coneflowers.
All will be monitored throughout...
Read more...Give your plants a pick-me- up with a midsummer feed to take them through the rest of the season in tip-top health. After months of non-stop growth, levels of essential nutrients like nitrogen for leafy growth, root-promoting phosphorus and potassium for flowers and fruits are in short supply. In confined spaces like greenhouses and containers feeding is even more critical: multi-purpose compost runs out of nutrients after about six weeks, so your plants become enti...
Read more...How it all began
Canna is originally a plant from the tropics. You can find this exotic plant species in the tropical and subtropical regions of the “New World” of Latin America and even further down south in Northern Argentina. Even though all botanic Canna varieties are originally from the “New World”, various varieties can now be found in almost all subtropical and tropical regions across the world, as they have followed mankind on its travels throu...
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