Prairie Planting Looks Spectacular in Late Summer

When we hit August the buzz word on the gardening front was Prairie Planting, technically now called new perennial planting. This is because so many of the late summer perennials and textural grasses emulate the natural planting on vast wild Prairies. These look wonderful right through until autumn.

It is Time to Start Planting Spring Bulbs for 100 Day of Colour

S P R I N G  B U L B  P L A N T I N G

It is a new season and we have a sweet shop of Prinz bulbs and this is the time to start choosing and planting them for next spring and possibly a few for Christmas! You can have 100 days of flower.

Choosing Perennials That Bring Colour From Late Summer Into Autumn

Gardens Do Not Finish at the end of summer

Late summer and you may think your gardens are past there sell by date, but you would be so wrong. Perennials that have finished flowering may just require a chop back to stop them going to seed. You may well then get a second flood of blooms.

Late Summer Colour This Year

We're officially in the late summer season. September is fading into autumn

September Gardener's Calendar

 

We have reached the autumn planting and spring bulb planting season. As we

Come to the end of the growing season gives us the opportunity to prepare for next years garden by planting, pruning and perhaps rearranging borders whilst enjoying a glorious glut of fruit and veg and glorious late summer colour. 

July Gardener's Calendar

 Take steps to prevent your pots and garden getting tired and loosing vigour whilst working hard to delight. A little chopping, snipping and feeding should encourage your annuals and herbaceous to carry on flowering late into the year.

Summer Bedding Plants For Baskets, Borders And Containers

When it comes to our  bedding plants  it’s all about having a huge choice and it always has been in over 40 years of producing summer bedding here at Preston Bissett. Plants are prolifically emerging out of the tunnels every day and deliveries flooding in.

My Mid-Summer Perennials

 

It’s all about summer perennials the first big wave of herbaceous colour or the first hot hit as geum Totally Tangerine strikes out in fabulous contrast against blue geraniums and yellow daisies making up for the loss of what have been fabulous tulip displays followed by a brazen early wave of grand purple alliums.

June Gardener's Calendar

June is a month to be enjoying the garden but with a little bit of care and some snipping and deadheading you can keep those flowers going often into late summer

May Gardener’s Calendar

Here are a few suggestions of what you can be getting on with in the garden this month.

Edible flowers Are Abundant All Year Round

Edible flowers are a hot topic at the moment and whilst I do not recommend taking risks with something new if you may have allergens and many people have pollen allergies there are many reasons for adding pretty flowers to your salads and cakes.

How To Make A Summer Hanging Basket

Here are some step by step photos of us making up a basket

 

There are different ways of potting up baskets and we don't always follow the same pattern but here is one Peter made up.

 You will need:

Spring Season Ready

 

Welcome to the spring season, to the abundant gorgeous shrubs, perennials, roses, climbers and our full arboretum of trees. 

Home Grown Talk

This weekend we 'got going with grow your own'. It doesn't stop at vegetables. Home produce includes indispensable herbs for cooking and seasoning, fruit bushes and trees and amongst this we are thrifty to include all the perennial plants that we do not need to replant annually.

Dealing with slugs : Garlic Wash

This was recommended by a Hosta grower on Gardeners world.

Home produce: Grow Your Own A Quick Guide

Herb Garden Salad

 

My own garden salad. Made impromptu from my herb garden.

Sorrel, wild garlic, Salad Burnet, chives, mixed salad leaves, lambs lettuce, flat leaf parsley, wild rocket and for a sprinkling of colour few violas. Top with a dressing of French mustard, grilled lemon, toasted sesame seed oil and a drop of maple syrup.

There is nothing technical in this quick fix salad and it tasted great.

Companion Planting, Plants That Should and Should Not Be Grown Together

Companion planting is usually something we discuss in reference to protecting our vegetables from pests and enhancing their growth. Herbs in general are very beneficial when often aromatic creating distraction.

Here Are Some Plants That support One Another

Saxifraga in Spring

 

Beautiful low matt forming perennial alpines.

Dwarf lilac Syringa meyer Palibin Looking it's Best

Syringa meyeri Palibin

So here are my 2 dwarf lilacs in their full glory. These are in bud and just waiting to flower. This is a much smaller species of lilac that what we are used to but has all the benefits of one of the best shrubs for fragrance. I love this but smaller and daintier shrub.

A Gorgeous Fragrant Spring Flowering Evergreen Shrub Viburnum Burkwoodii

Another gorgeous viburnum with evergreen foliage, fragrant spring blossom and great autumn colour. This is Burkwoodii

Spring Favourites Spirea x arguta

One of the big spring favourites Spirea x arguta out in early spring. A feathery tall shrub with a cascade of bridal like white flowers. It's a tough shrub. I seam to be able to grow it everywhere. I think you could make a hedge of it as I like the soft foliage but it is deciduous.

Top Perennial Plants for Early Colour This Spring

Lamprocapnos Spectablis, Dicentra Spectablis or good old Bleeding Heart. What ever you now call this perennial it is just lovely.

Vinca, Primula elata, pulsatila, pulminaria, geraniums, bergena, bruneria, polemoniumn, (Solmon's Seal) Polygonatum and tiarella are just some of the gorgeous perennials performing at the moment.

Exochordia Is A beautiful Spring Flowering Shrub

Exochordia  xmacrantha, one of my all-time spring favourites it is soon to be absolutely flush with flowers. Otherwise known as the pearl bush.

Magnolias Month of Glory

Magnolia stellata (Star Magnolia)

Magnolias really about to have their month of glory. I have seen the deep purple Susan, soft pink Betty, Magnolia × loebneri Leonard Messel, M.stellata, Magnolia × soulangeana and Vulcan another deep coloured variety all flowering soon.