Amateur Gardening – 13 July 2019

56 AMATEUR GARDENING 13 JULY 2019

SHARE YOUR STORIES TIPS AND PHOTOSand you will receive

a fantastic pair of Town & Country’s Master Gardener gloves — the

UK’s best-selling gardening glove and a perfect companion to help

you in the garden. State small, medium or large with your letter.

a fantastic pair of Town & Country’s Master Gardener gloves —the

UK’s best-selling gardening glove and a perfect companion to helpUK’s best-selling gardening glove and a perfect companion to help

Subscription rates (51 issues, all prices

shown include postage) UK: £107.53;

Europe/Eire: Û195.99; USA: $254.99; All

other regions Middle East, Africa, Asia,

Far East and ROW £166.99. Cheques payable to TI Media Ltd. Write to:

TI Media Ltd, PO BOX 272, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 3FS

(0330) 333 1133. Overseas +44 330 333 1113 (Lines are open 7 days,

8am-9pm, UK time). Published every Tuesday. TI Media Ltd, 161 Marsh

Wall, London, England E14 9AP. Conditions of sale: this periodical shall

not, without the consent of the publishers first given, be lent, re-sold,

hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade at more than the

recommended selling price shown on the cover (selling price in Eire

subject to VAT). Printed and bound in England by the Wyndeham

Group. Distributed by Marketforce (UK), 5 Churchill Place, Canary

Wharf, London E14 5HU. Registered as a newspaper at the post office.

Amateur Gardening (inc. Popular Gardening) AMATEUR GARDENING,

TI Media Ltd, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Hampshire, GU14 7BF,

01252 555138. Amateur Gardening® is a registered trade mark

TI Media Ltd. ISSN 0954-8513 TI Media Ltd, 161 Marsh Wall, London,

England E14 9AP 0870 444 5000.

Website: ti-media.com/brands

Editorial contacts:

Editorial offices: Amateur Gardening, TI Media

Ltd, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough,

Hampshire, GU14 7BF ✆ 01252 555138

Email: [email protected]

Subscriptions: ✆ 0330 333 1120

Editor: Garry Coward-Williams

Gardening editor: Ruth Hayes

Assistant editor: Janey Goulding

Designers:Al Rigger, Emily Secrett

Picture editor and Letters:Wendy Humphries

Features:Kathryn Wilson, Lesley Upton

Classified advertising ✆ 07572 116044

Advertising director: Kate Barnfield

✆ 07817 629935

Ad manager: Laurence Pierce ✆ 07817 629935

Group managing director: Adrian Hughes

Complaints procedure: We work hard to achieve

the highest standards of editorial content, and

we are committed to complying with the Editors’

Code of Practice ( ipso.co.uk/IPSO/cop.html)

as enforced by IPSO. If you have a complaint

about our editorial content, you can email us at

[email protected] or write to Complaints

Manager, TI Media Ltd Legal Department, 161

Marsh Wall, London E14 9AP. Please provide

details of the material you are complaining about

and explain your complaint by reference to the

Editors’ Code. We will endeavour to acknowledge

your complaint within five working days and

we aim to correct substantial errors as soon

as possible.  amateurgardening.com

Profusion of poppies

I’VE been trying to grow poppies for

a few years now, without success.

I thought they were easy to grow, but

it wasn’t until I dug up an area of my

front garden to sort out my daffodils

that they sprang into life. And how

they have grown!

Photo

of the

week

Good timing: fl owers of the gorgeous

opium poppy (Papaver somniferum)

This year has been fantastic for my

poppies – and the bees that love to

visit them. I took this photo on 6 June,

the 75th anniversary of the D-Day

landings, which I found quite poignant.

Jill Simpson,

Crail, Fife

SAVE runner bean and other seedlings

from slug damage and provide a cosy

windbreak by covering with a two-litre

drinks bottle, cut off top and bottom.

(I use pinking shears to make it easier

to screw into the soil.) Push into the soil

around new plants, and the jagged top

will give the slugs a nasty prick. Add

some petroleum jelly, and more around

the bean pole, and they should be safe.

Mrs M Jarvis,

Aylesbury, Bucks

Reader’s Quick Tip

What are these

caterpillars?

WHAT are these brightly coloured

caterpillars that are eating the flowers

on my verbascum?

June Hall,

Chinnor, Oxfordshire

Wendy says:These distinctive creatures

are the caterpillars of the Mullein moth

(Shargacucullia verbasci). I have read

that these are found in southern and

central England and feast on the mullein

family (verbascum) including figwort as

well as buddleja, and are harmless to

other plants. The brown-coloured (less

attractive) moth is easy to miss when it

lands on a plant stem.

The female lays eggs on a host plant

in May, and these hatch to feast during

night and day. Pretty as they are, you

may wish to pick off the caterpillars as

they will decimate the plant – otherwise,

blast them with a hose.

Mullein

moth

caterpillars

will strip

verbascum

plants