An Evening With Bob Brown Part II

Last week I summarised Bob Brown's reasons why perennials often don't propagate well via seed. This time I'm summarising the remaining top tips from his recent talk at Bath University Gardening Club.

Bob took us through a month by month tour of some of his favourite plants and the best way he's found to propagate them. Sadly we only had time to get to May!

Propagation
  • January: Sarcococca confusa - an example of a perennial which can be propagated from seed - found in the plant's black berries. Sow fresh after cleaning them, on top of compost and top dress with grit (the latter prevents algal growth)
  • February: Miscanthus x Giganteus - divide plants when they're just about to start to grow. This allows the plants to grow out of the stress from division
  • February: Snowdrops - divide clumps of bulbs into smaller ones and replant. This can be done pretty much at any time, but avoid dry bulbs. Another recommended propagation method is twin-scaling, but this is best when the bulb is starting to grow. For snowdrops this is August/September time. Also ensure a portion of the bulb's basal plate is included in each scale
  • March: Salvia nemorosa 'Caradonna' - Bob told us this plant has very recently been awarded the RHS AGM. It grows from a single stem, so is unsuitable for division. Bob finds these are best propagated via basal cuttings
  • April: Arisaema candidissimum - another candidate for division by Bob, though the link given recommends seed or planting up offsets in the autumn
  • May: Agapanthus 'Jack's Blue' and Kniphofia 'H. E. Beale' - division
  • May: Tibouchina urvilleana - softwood cuttings i.e. from the tip of the new season's growth
Other observations
  • The propagation method chosen and timing are designed to provide the least amount of stress to the plant. Thus avoid flowering times (because the plant is concentrating on reproducing itself) and the end of the growing season (the plant won't get a chance to grow away strongly afterwards)
  • Softwood, semi-ripe and hardwood cuttings are essentially taken from the same season's growth, but the type of cutting obtained depends on the time of year. Thus softwood cuttings are usually taken up to mid-summer; semi-ripe (tip is soft, but the base is hard) from late summer to mid-autumn; and hardwood (all the cutting is hard) from mid-autumn to late winter, often when the plant is dormant
  • If only leaves are obtained when pulling up a bulb, these can be potted up and a bulb will form
  • When dividing potted plants, take them out of the pot and divide from the bottom of the roots upwards. This minimises stress on the plant and ensures less plant material is wasted
  • Bob doesn't use peat based composts as there's problems with sciarid fly if he does and seedlings don't grow so strongly
  • There's no need to use hormone rooting powder with cuttings - he and his staff have found it makes no different to the end result
  • Using pot feet under overwintering pots leads to waterlogging. Apparently leaving pots standing on soil or concrete allows excess water to be wicked away. I haven't had any problems with not using them either. Bob also said using broken pots and polystyrene in the pots may also lead to waterlogging
  • The nursery cat is tax deductible!
Sadly Bob only spoke for an hour and we all could have listened for a lot longer. Tim Matcham was also there - here's his view on the evening :)

Comments

  1. Caro7 November 2011 at 11:29

    Sounds like you had a thoroughly entertaining and educational evening! Love all the tips you've come back with: I didn't know top dressing with grit prevented algae or that fungal gnats were worse with peat based compost, both of which I'll bear in mind. (Yes, I am trying to avoid peat based compost but will now try harder!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. VP7 November 2011 at 17:14

    Caro - it was a great evening :) Bob has a very dry sense of humour which sadly I didn't capture in my frenzied note taking. The tax deductible cat is just 1 example from many.

    I thought the peat remark was a good one to include as it shows there are other sound reasons not to use it for those not convinced by the environmental ones.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The bike shed7 November 2011 at 19:14

    One week in and going strong. Bath University Garden Club sounds posh!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Janet/Plantaliscious7 November 2011 at 20:47

    Sounds like one of those talks where you get cramp you are writing so fast trying to capture everything! I am envious...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Juliet7 November 2011 at 23:36

    Sounds as though it was a very interesting talk - thanks for giving us a summary. I didn't know about new bulbs forming just from leaves, or that pot feet increase likelihood of waterlogging - I don't use them but have often wondered whether I should.

    ReplyDelete
  6. VP8 November 2011 at 10:55

    Mark - thanks and so are you. The club's open to anyone interested in gardening and gets top notch speakers :)

    Janet - you almost didn't get the last plant because my handwriting was illegible. Luckily the first 3 letters of the name (and how unusual it is) were enough for me to be able to find it in one of my plant books.

    Juliet - I can't wait to try that one out as my impatience when digging bulbs up often means I end up with a hand full of leaves somewhere down the line. Like you, I'd wondered about getting some pot feet, but in future I can remember Bob telling us they're a marketing ploy whenever I'm tempted

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love hearing from you and welcome thoughtful conversations :)

Comments aiming to link back and give credence to commercial websites will be composted!

Your essential reads

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Image
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it ...
Read more

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Image
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl...
Read more

Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

Image
The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape...
Read more

Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

Image
I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing ...
Read more

VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants

Image
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the...
Read more

#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

Image
Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee...
Read more

Make Use of Mildew

Image
On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi...
Read more

The Resilient Garden

Image
  Part of Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court I've been pondering VP Gardens a lot lately. Last year's drought conditions set me off initially, then our harsher than usual winter combined with this summer's flip and flop weather means the thinking continues. It's a huge topic which I freely admit I'm struggling to get my head around. Tom Massey's Resilient Garden  at Hampton Court recently  tackled this topic brilliantly and was a timely interlude which gave me much food for thought. There he encapsulated the detailed research he'd found which informed both his show garden and book of the same name. I think it's one of the most important show gardens I've ever seen. It's clear the way I garden needs to change so that I have my own resilient garden. I haven't worked out the exact details yet, but Tom's book plus a couple of others (see below), alongside the rainwater management handout from the show garden's  sponso...
Read more

Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

Image
The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom:  Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter, ...
Read more

Testing Times: Tomatoes

Image
  I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener...
Read more