ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY SHOW LONDON, SCRUM TO SEE THE EXHIBITS

FEBRUARY 21 and 22 - HORTICULTURAL SHOW IN CENTRAL LONDON

I went to the RHS London Plant and Design Show yesterday, which gave me the chance to spend more money, this time on two lots of potatoes, Sharps Express and Winston, both 'earlies'.
You can buy  a wide variety of seed potatoes at the show, including some unusual ones.

SKETCH OF THE HORTICULTURAL SHOW - BLACK PEN
Here is the sketch I made of the hall, sitting on the balcony at the end at the top of of steps.

RHS Plant and Design Show, February 21

You can see that there were crowds of people milling around, admiring the snowdrops, irises, begonia, bulbs, shrubs -  all the things which seem full of promise at this dark end of the winter. It was difficult to get close to the plants sometimes because of the eager crowds.

Everywhere I looked I saw people clutching carrier bags with their leafy purchases.  Yes, I succumbed to temptation as well.

LILY

I love lilies and I bought a bag of three lily bulbs from the stand of H. W. Hyde and Son, the Lily Experts.  The stall holder advised me that on my sandy, acid soil I should  plant Oriental lilies and I bought a little bag with three nice lily bulbs, of Speciosum alba; they look lovely in the illustration on the stall,  white with curled petals, and they have a scent.  They have to be planted soon, so hope the sun returns next week and dries the soil a bit.  The Asiatic lilies do not like acidic soil so I plant them in pots.  This year I bought some more Asiatic lilies at the Pound Shop, only £1 for three, so it will be interesting to see how they compare with the more expensive ones.

Lily and spider, London garden

YOU TOO CAN HAVE BROWN ROT ON YOUR APPLES

BROWN ROT ON APPLES, WE ALL HAVE IT, DON'T WE?

The ones who got away

I have the dreaded Brown Rot every year in the garden.  Of the three trees, the cooker gets the rot worst, then the early eater, Greensleeves, and then the late eater, which I think has a thicker skin.  Maybe I should get a thicker skin too, because I find the appearance of the rot most distressing, and nary a year passes without its presence.

APPLES IN 2013 WERE FINE TO START WITH, AFTER A LATE SPRING

Apparently the rot is a fungal disease, according to a helpful leaflet from the Royal Horticultural Society entitled (wait for it) 'Brown Rot'.

The leaflet explains that it affects apples, pears, plums, cherries and other fruit. You can't win.

PLUMS GET IT TOO

My plums, supposedly Marjorie's Seedling, had the rots so bad that I got not a single plum to eat this year.  The plum tree is on the allotment, and I chose this variety because it is said to have some resistance to rot, but not a bit of it.  The tree is the object of my displeasure and if it does not behave itself, it is for the chop.

THE SYMPTOMS OF BROWN ROT

It spreads out "from wounds, especially those made by birds, codling moth and apple scab infection".

The fruit may "remain hanging on the tree in a mummified state"

Yes, I get the mummies, and I pick off the apple mummies, but the plums?  The tree is too big for me to reach them.

THE WEATHER WAS HOT AND DRY THIS SUMMER

I though that might stop the rot, but no.  I think I spent many happy hours crawling on all fours, picking up the rotten fruit from under the trees.  Apparently this is what you do, and you must remove it promptly, according the the RHS.

This is just some of them, there were more!

NETS TO STOP THE DEAR LITTLE BIRDS DAMAGING THE APPLES

If possible, I should 'net to reduce bird damage'.  Easier said than done, when you have three apple trees and your collection of rather ragged nets is in use on the raspberries and strawberries at the crucial time.  Maybe I should just fork out for more nets ......  ££££

BONFIRES NOT ALLOWED

I should also "prune out and burn infected spurs and blossoms to reduce the amount of fungus available to infect fruit".   Sounds good, but where do you burn the spurs and blossoms?  There are not many of these spurs, so not enough for a bonfire, and in any case we are not supposed to light bonfires on our allotments otherwise we might annoy the neighbours.

Last of the early eaters

FINALLY,  JUST TO CHEER US ALL UP

Note this:  'the fungus remains in the dead fruit and cankers over winter and releases spores in the spring to cause the blossom wilt phase of the disease."  

Well, this particular blossom is feeling decidedly wilted, just thinking of all the extra work next spring!

RATS

We have got quite a few apples, nevertheless and am still eating them.  There is nowhere much to store them, since they have to be stored in the house.  

One year I put the apples in the greenhouse, while we were away on an autumn break, and found lots of nibbles had been taken out of them when we got back.  Mice, I though?  

That year I then put the apples in the house and so the RATS moved in too!  We had an invasion of rats, who gnawed any apple they could find, even gnawing away at the carpet by the closed door of the room where they could smell the apples. Trying the get through the gap at the bottom of the door.

So (its a long story) we blocked up every possible hole where the rats gained entrance, and are very wary of where we store our apples now.

The last apple of 2013

SAVE MONEY - GET FREE SEEDS (AND GET SOME HALF PRICE)

HOW TO SAVE MONEY ON SEEDS

Yes, I know it sounds unlikely but I am trying a new idea.

After reading an article in The Royal Horticultural Society magazine, September issue, I am saving seeds of perennials to sow straight away.  

SAVING SEEDS FROM PERENNIALS

I read a very interesting article from September issue of The Garden,  the journal of the Royal Horticultural Society.

The author says get your  perennial seeds straight off the plant as soon as you can find the seed pods.
Then plant the seeds now, don't wait until the spring.
He says it doesn't matter if the seeds do not appear to be ripe, either.

I have had problems getting perennial seeds to germinate, ones that I have bought from seed merchants

So I am trying the new technique.  I have collected some lavender seeds (off a tender lavender canariensis), seen in the photo (drawing pin is for size comparison).  They are already germinated and very tiny lavender plants.

TINY SEEDS, LITTLE BLACK DOTS, LAVENDER

And I am trying to find the seeds on the gaura lindheirmeri, which somehow does not seem to have seed pods of any size!

I will also get seeds of verbena bonariensis.  They used to be prolific in the garden but sadly I am down to just one plant now; I love them, they are so pretty.


My first verbena bonariensis was grown years ago from a little flower head, gone to seed, which I snaffled from a plant in Christopher Lloyd's lovely garden, at Great Dixter.

FREE SEEDS OF BIENNIALS AND ANNUALS

Yes I know, everybody collects these, and so far I have old envelopes of cornflower, corncockle, tobacco plant, larkspur and marigold (calendula). 

Being full of good intentions, I sometimes find these old envelopes from past years, with seeds I never got round to sowing. 
One such envelope I found, with a date of 1998 on it, reading 'Delphinium', full of seeds  from a plant bought in Oxford which died after flowering.  I put the seeds in a pot and to my surprise I have three large healthy plants.  I think this one is a biennial.  We shall see.

The lovely hollyhock is so easy to grow, and my little pots of seeds of these, and schizanthus  are already sprouting tiny plants.  I shall also collect cosmos from plants on the allotment.  All for free! Probably the seedlings are not frost-hardy, so I will have to protect them somehow.

THE GARDEN CENTRE SELLS OFF SEEDS NOW

This time of year you can get some 50%  off full price seeds.

My new seed purchases, half price!

The local garden centre has regular sales like this, and you can get Thompson & Morgan, Unwins, Suttons, Franchi etc half price.

Later last year, round December time, the same seeds were for sale at 50p a packet.

Never one to pass by a bargain, I got some more seeds, both flowers and veg, and have sown some already.

Hope that the sweet williams and wallflowers I have sown will survive the winter, in trays. 
Might keep them in the cold frame, and hope they survive, snails permitting.

I have got some sweet rocket coming up too.

It is so exciting to see the little seedlings from your own seeds, but I can't resist buying them if they are really cheap