Gold1locks

EU proposes ban on traditional seed

From what I have read it seems as if this legislation applies to the marketing of seed, not to anyone harvesting their own seed or giving the seeds away, or plants from the seeds.

 It's a bit like propagation of plants that have assigned breeders' rights. Only licensed breeders can commercially propagate certain cultivars, and must sell them with the rights holder's label, but tehre is no reason why you or I shouldn't propagate them, or indeed sell them, provided we don't label them with the original name. For example, you can't propagate and sell sambucus Black Lace under that name, but you could propagate and sell it on a local WI stall as "purple leaved sambucus"  

Iris Katharine Hodgkin

Thanks Freesia. Was the article referring to early bulb irises like Katherine Hodgkin or to later rhizome irises? I know that's the right advice for the latter.  

crocosmia masoniorum?

Fireglow, just like mine! 

What's the weather like in your area?

Frost tomorrow night in my area. Well, forecast is temperatures down to 2C and as we are in an exposed area that means a good chance the flowers on my dwarf plum and Bramley will get nipped, so out with the fleece. 

When i did this last year my new neighbours had a shock when they looked out of their bedroom window late evening after dark and saw what looked several white ghostly figures floating gently in a light breeze! 

Iris Katharine Hodgkin

The RHS advice is to divide these in early autumn, but by then the leaves have long gone and I am never sure where they are. Can I lift them earlier, like at the end of May, when I can still locate them, and dry / store the bulbs like I would with daffodils? 

Lawn too healthy

Glyphosate is the answer, unless you are 100% organic.  Just keep children and pets off the lawn for 4 hours. If glyphosate was toxic to children then it would not be on sale in every garden centre and DIY store in the country. 

Very few weedkillers (if any) have zero toxicity, but then the same can be said for most of the kitchen chemicals in your home. They just need to be used in line with the instructions. 

Advice on climbing hydrangea

What advice are you looking for? Pruning, support, siting....... 

Google "climbing hydrangea for lots of advice".

The most likely proper name for your umbrella plant is cyperus alternifolius, though several other species carry the same common name, 

Can Thuja Plicata 2' 6" be planted in pot ?

They could well be Ok as hedging, after all no leylandii have as yet reached their ultimate height as the first was propagated from seed in 1934 and is still growing. They could end up being the tallest conifer in the world, outgrowing giant redwood, and yet they work as a hedge, though a very coarse one. The thuja that I planted in my mini-forest were the native ones, not the cultivar, and the leaf growth was tighter than leylandii, but looser than the hedge in my next house. As atrovirens is only half the height I suspect it has a tighter formation and probably grows a bit more slowly. 

Can Thuja Plicata 2' 6" be planted in pot ?

So sorry Tan, just re-read your message properly and you are only intending to keep it in a pot for a year or so. Of course you can, thuja are often supplied in large pots, up to 10 litres.

I have done just the same as you with purple beech - three spares in pots just in case one fails. 

Can Thuja Plicata 2' 6" be planted in pot ?

Atrovirens is a cultivar, final height 100 feet, half the height of the species, but still taller than an English Oak.

I once planted around 1000 thuja plicata as a catch crop in between beech, to encourage straight stems on the beech trees and to provide stout poles for rustic arches etc..  The thuja were vigorous growers. I also had atrovirens as a garden hedge in a later garden. It's foliage is rather more compact than leylandii, but my feeling is that it will not present well when grown in a pot because it is very hungry and will need to be pruned to keep it to a size that can be confined in a pot,  and the foliage isn't tight enough to give it ornamental shape at that size, unlike dwarf conifers, box, holly cultivars etc..

Having said that, you can grow almost anything in pots provided it doesn't have a strong tap root (thuja doesn't). 

Sting in the Tale

Sting in the Tale

ground frost warning

Iris Katharine Hodgkin

Scarifier / aerators / rake

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Who else loves the humble sempervivum

BBC Gardening Arrivals - Meeting Point