auntie betty

Moving a hob vine

Its actually a rhizome, so you should be able to dig it up without worrying too much about root loss if you do it after the top growth as fully died for the winter and u've chopped it off. Plant it nice and deep, the right way up, somewhere fairly sunny with good drainage. You also might want to give it some wires to twine around. Oh, and do all that before xmas to make sure it gets a period of cold - it needs that to flower well. I'm v envious - I'm starting from scratch this winter with new rhizomes of the ordinary hop, having only ever grown the golden ornamental one - but I've been researching, hence knowing what to tell you!

Help

My cat also brings em in for sport. Not one ever has a mark, despite being arried in the cat's mouth. I guess an injured frog's not as entertaining. He'll just pat them (claws stowed) to make them hop about. He loves it. I just boot the cat out, pick em up, and pop them back in the pond. I can't imagine being able to keep hold of one with wet hands and imagine being dropped and ending up dehydrating in the hidyhole behind the fridge would be worse than being carried 10 paces in a dry palm...

Ideas required for climbers over metal archway

i'd go for a honeysuckle plus either an early large-flowered clem or, for preference, a climbing rose. You can even get thornless ones nowadays, and most repeat flower for ages. Buy em now - they wil look tatty but it doesn't matter - chop em down to a few inches and plant. Plants for sale in small containers always end their season a bit early, but that shouldn't mean they arent healthy.

Talkback: Bats

Maybe old wives used to hang about under lit windows after dark too! Just think, if I'd ever heard that tale I would have felt just like your SiL and been too paranoid to sit there, thus missing out on ever having handled a bat. I confess I knew at the time I should have been phoning a bat person, but was in no position to go off ransacking the house for the cordless phone. 

Saw a dragonfly earlier in my front garden. It kept returning to my yew hedge and kind of bumping into it over and over. Wonder wot it was up to? Could it have been munching on some critter that may live in the foliage? Or are dragonflies just known as the thickies of the insect world? Again, strange but interesting!

Talkback: Bats

We've got bats living under the fascias (or are they soffits?) in our roof. They do sometimes get into the loft, but their poos are so dry and dusty you'd never noticce if yu weren't actively looking for them. I sometimes sit on a bench under my kitchen window after dark (alright, I'm smoking, not just sitting there. Sometimes there's wine too) and I once had a noctule bat (we think) come too close while presumably after something that had been attracted to the light above my head, and the bat got tangled up in my hair!!!! GNEEEE! I went. GNEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Y'know, in that horrified but trying not to wake the children kind of way you do. Then I had a word with myself, VERY carefully disentangled him/her, and it sat in my hand for a few minutes until it had got over its own even bigger (though admirably silent) GNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, whereupon it flew off. It felt moleskinny, very very fragile, and it had the scratchiest feet in the world ever. All in all a weird but fascinating experience from my point of view. Probably just weird from the bat's. I've had a sparrowhawk in my front room, on the windowsill, after flying under the pergola and through the french doors. OH had to deal with that one - its beak and its feet looked just a wee bit pointy for me to get involved with. I once punted a hedgehog off the patio too. By accident, honestly. It was dark, I didn't see it, and evidently I drag my feet a bit when walking in slippers. The whole thing was more than a little Johnny Wilkinson (and not a soul to see!). It definitely 'caught some air'. The hedgehog seemed unharmed, as was I. Still hoping for a nudge from a badger one day, but nothing doing so far. OH says its just as well - apparently they'll have your arm off as soon as look a you. I think he's got them confused with BEARS myself. Ho hum.

Spindly Bamboo

The black one does tend towards the whippy... As already suggested, chop out some of them (I'd start with the ones that flop and annoy you the most), then chop some more when any new shoots appear next year. Feed it at the same time, mulch with manure as well, chuck any clay you might dig out from elsewhere onto it for the worms to slowly take down and water water water when its in growth. Once it begins making thick stems, it should continue to do so with minimal input from you, but it'll get there quicker if you spoil it rotten in the meantime. BTW, when you prune, cut as near to the base as you can get, otherwise you risk the cut stem wasting its energy re-sprouting from the cut all bushy and stunted.

Self-seeding

Yep - and I have literally hundreds this year in particular, from just one plant. Easy to pull tho, as long as you catch em early. At its best grown kind of like a hedge imo - the plants support each other so it doesn't go so lax.

Hops

I'm in North Yorkshire unfortunately Jat. Thanks for the thought, though - much appreciated! Not too worried about getting rid of stems - this is for the top of my (disused) railway embankment - the back of which is so steep and covered in scrub and hawthorns that we only use it to dump all our green waste down, where it happily composts over a period of years! In the meantime, its good rummaging ground for hedgehogs and toads and not much else. I'm wondering if I should put up some horizontal wires, starting very low to the ground to try to accomodate its hugeness? The soil is good for the first 6inches or so, but then you're into the limestone from which the embankment was built... I can whack out a decent hole but would prefer to plant a bare rooted plant so I don't have to. Any thoughts on whether its really necessary, or will a tougher getaway just limit quantity of the plant rather than quality, d'you think? Does anyone grow these successfully in containers? If they do, then i'm thinking i'd probably get away with a smaller hole! Tough rooted plants do get down to decent depth, its just a bit of a struggle for them initially I think. Whaddya'll reckon - worth a punt?

storm damage

Yeah, you can maintain the shape by chopping out dead stems and then pruning by hand to just past a leaf or bud. You can also go at it with a hedge trimmer to get the rough shape and then just tidy up the tips by hand pruning if that's easier - depends how dense it is.  After the first spring flowering and when there's no risk of frosts (wherever you are!) is fine. You'll lose the 2nd flush, but it'll have time to grow next year's flowering wood through the summer. x

Hops

I fancy growing my own hops - for decoration in the house, rather than brewing (though what's the betting my OH can't resist th homebrew urge). Has anybody grown them with any success? The area I have in mind is a sunny willlow-screen covered fence, 8ft tall, 35ft long and the soil is very well drained and limy. I could add some drip irrigation if necessary. Any advice on cultvation, buying the right (female) plants and how best to support them would be gratefully received. Cheers dears! Bx

shrubs for cut flowers

Shady spots

Soft yellow or hot pink climbing roses

new guinea impatiens

Pots of summer colour in partial shade

best annuals for shade / partial shade

Hops

Flowers for July?

Shadyish paving creepers

Associations

top 5

Plant suggestions please