Cobaea Scandens

I have found most gardeners are willing to share their experiences and seeds and cuttings with like-minded people.


This year, I was given two small seedlings in May of a plant I had never grown before, namely Cobaea scandens. One was labelled pink the other blue.


As this plant comes from Mexico (it is a tender perennial climber), it will probably not survive the winter without protection.


They are only now showing some flowers. One has pale green foliage and is growing through a large silver box Buxus argentea. The flower which is like a cup and saucer (cobea is also called the cup-and-saucer plant), is beautiful - translucent cream and green. The other plant is planted at the base of a wall covered with the golden ivy 'Buttercup' and has dark purple foliage. It is only in bud but I imagine the flower will be purple. The white one Cobaea scandens alba is quite rare so I am hoping to get some viable seed.


They are probably blooming so late because of a lack of sunlight and were sown too late. They are well worth growing.

Sowing and Growing Cyclamen

Although it is September and many flowers are past there are still some treasures in store such as cyclamen I started growing six years ago.

I purchased two corms - one Cyclamen hederifolium, the other Cylcamen neapolitan. As they were dormant in a plastic bag, I didn't know what colour they were but later found out one was white, one pink. They were planted at the base of a windswept crab apple tree. The ground was full of roots so I covered them with a bucket of home-made compost.

The following spring the foliage began to appear, beautifully marked silver speckled leaves. As the year progressed a few flowers arrived. At the end of August these were followed by seed pods on stems like coiled springs. Apparently in nature when the seeds are ripe the 'spring' uncoils and scatters seed, but I gathered it before this happened and placed the capsules on the sunny kitchen window. Within a few days they were ripe and to my surprise there was quite a lot of seed inside. I decided to sow the seed straight away so sprinkled it on the surface of a large pot, covering it with some sterile sand.

I left the pot in the shade of a laurel bush at the kitchen window and to my amazement a month later small round green leaves appeared. The leaves disappeared and I thought this was the end of the seedlings but on tipping out the pot I found lots of small corms about the size of a small pea. These I planted singly into small pots and left in the shade that year. It was rather interesting to see the difference in the variation in the size of the plants as they all had the same treatment. Further sowings since have shown similar differences!

To accommodate the large number of plants I killed off the grass around the base of the trees in the plantation and planted them there. Each year they are growing larger and make a great feature now they have dozens of flowers, many with slightly different habits and colourings.

I have since read cyclamen prefer dry, shady places but mine seem to grow and thrive nearly everywhere.

I was also given some seed distributed by the Alpine Society - they were of different species, mainly Cyclamen coum varieties. Very few germinated and the ones that did took almost two years, so if possible sow when fresh.

Doreen Moody

Tomatoes

I have always enjoyed growing vegetables. Nothing pleases me more than gathering the harvest of tomatoes, courgettes, beans and the like.

This year I was given some heritage seed to try by a friend who is a member of the Organic Gardeners’ Society, a tomato called 'Purple Calabash' (Lycoperiscon esculentum), and a few beans, which I think were called 'Lazy Housewife'.

Unfortunately the latter were ravaged by the rabbits, which have done so much damage this year – the four beans were about two feet high when the rabbit cut them down to about six inches. I kept them in and eventually they re-sprouted from the base and are now coming into flower. With the protection of fine plastic mesh I hope to be able to sample them and perhaps save some seed.

I kept one 'Purple Calabash' tomato plant which produced odd-looking fruit, like small flattened pumpkins. When cut they were full of juice and lots of very fine pips – not very attractive to eat raw. but with their strong tomato smell suitable for chutney. I am not tempted to try them again.

I much prefer my own variety grown from seed I had saved. I think it is a natural cross between 'Gardener’s Delight' and 'Sungold'. The tomatoes have good flavour, crop heavily and keep for months. My friends will testify that I still have had edible tomatoes in February!

This year I have also been growing Pic-a-tom in large pots. I picked the first ones on the 12th of July and they have continued producing ever since and now have a fresh flush of flowers – they have a sweet flavour but are rather soft in texture. They do quite well in a sheltered sunny spot outdoors, as my grand-daughter proved last year.

My Pic-a-toms are growing in the cold greenhouse with the door ajar most of the time. As they are growing in pots they are fed every few days with home-made fertiliser – liquid run-off from a compost bin and nettles. This mixture is kept in a bin outside so it frequently is diluted

with rain water.

Doreen Moody

Primroses

Few gardeners can resist the charm of our native primrose Primula vulgaris which used to grow in large numbers but now seems to be decreasing. It was during the reign of the Tudors that primroses first came to be widely grown for the interest and beauty of their flowers, for even then many variations in the wild had become known. A double yellow variety was written about as early as 1500.

They were often used in the quaint knot gardens of that time probably because they came into bloom at the beginning of March in the more favoured areas. They continued in flower for two to three months. Now the more modern hybrids are used for colourful bedding displays for the same reason.

There are numerous named varieties of primroses but for me the double varieties have the most appeal. I had quite a number of different ones some years ago but lost the lot one dry summer. There are some modem double hybrids such as 'Corporal Baxtei', a large double dark red, 'Captain Blood', a shade or two paler and not quite fully double, but if one is lucky you may find some of the varieties that Granny used to grow such as 'Cloth of Gold', a double yellow, 'Quaker's Bonnet Lavender', 'Gerard's White', 'Chevithorne Pink', 'Our Pat' purple etc.

I have started a fresh collection and hope to learn by my mistakes, by sticking to a few simple rules:

1. Move to summer quarters in dappled shade as soon as they have finished flowering.
2. Do not divide in the first season unless growing strongly.
3. Plant in humus rich soil containing some coarse grit to ensure good drainage.
4. Never allow them to dry out.
5. If the plant looks sickly lift and cheek for root damage from the vine weevil grubs (white with orange heads) if you find them wash the roots in a mild disinfectant and move to a new planting area.

Sounds like a lot of work but you will be well rewarded as these plants are comparatively rare therefore expensive.

Doreen Moody

September Photos

Cobaea scandens var. alba? A woman who I looked after as a little girl came to visit the garden and gave me this plant, which I think is a vigorous climber from Mexico. Also known as the cup-and-saucer plant. Strictly a perennial, but I intend to grow it as a half-hardy annual.




Phlox maculata 'White Admiral'. I have increased this by stem cuttings, round about the same time as the Chelsea Flower Show, therefore known as the 'Chelsea chop'. Reduce some of the sideshoots in May when the plant is about 12 inches high. 6 inch pieces root very easily.

Bulbs of Colchicum speciosum. Flowers from September onwards. Also known as 'naked lady'. I read that the flower contains a poison similar to arsenic.




Foliage of the native Euonymus or Spindle tree beginning to turn red. So called because its hard, yellowish wood 'serveth
very well to the making both of Prickes and Spindelles'.

Cylcamen as big as a dinner plate by stump of horse chestnut, grown from my own seed.









(c) David Lewis 2008

Autumn Colour

While still waiting for summer, autumn has arrived. Although we have had such dismal weather the garden has never bloomed so well.

The circular bed I can see from the kitchen window is full of colour, which will remain for some time yet. With deadheading, dahlias will bloom until the first frosts.

The large clumps of Agapanthus occidentalis still have a number of china blue flowers but are beginning to set seed so will soon be over, but the large white Phlox maculata 'White Admiral' (pictured left) is looking at its best, with the added bonus of fragrance.

Further touches of white are added by Lychnis coronaria alba which when constantly beheaded lasts for weeks, and a few pots of white margariles, which I have set on the border where earlier flowers such as the Fair Maids of France and white Aquilegias have died down.

A medium-sized cactus Dahlia 'Pink Princess' blooms profusely as does the white 'sport' which I managed to grow from it last year. The pink tone deepens to red with the longlasting Sedum 'Autumn Joy' (pictured below). Along the edge of the circle the dwarf pink Astilbe chinensis is beginning to flower and several plants of a single pink chrysanthemum have survived the winters without having to lift the 'stool'.

Large patches of the pom-pom dahlia 'Amber Glow' brings it all together. Seedlings of the annual Atriplex hortensis var rubra (Purple Orache, pictured above), which pop up every year add a bit of height with their purpley-puce foliage. If they get a bit out of hand they can easily be pruned to more flowering sideshoots. I believe this plant is edible but I need to find out more about it.

It is a good time for me to see what other people have in bloom in these shades, as I would like to change the chrysanthemums.

Autumn tip - Look out for seed which could be ripening, not only on flower seeds such as sweet peas, both everlasting and annual, but also vegetables such as broad beans, overripe runner beans and, perhaps, some shot beetroot which is flowering.

Doreen Moody