Amateur Gardening – 29 June 2019

14 AMATEUR GARDENING 29 JUNE 2019

Plan for biennials

S

EVERAL of our most beautiful

flowering herbaceous plants –

including such exquisite glories

as foxgloves, Canterbury bells,

hollyhocks, dame’s violet, wallflowers

and sweet Williams – are known as

biennials. This means they need over

a year to grow large enough to bloom

well. Some are actually perennial, but

their first flowering is so much better that

we find these are usually best replaced

with new plants each year.

This is further complicated because

breeders have produced some varieties

of these flowers that bloom in their first

year if started early enough. However,

by far the most impressive displays

come from the plants that are sown now

and moved in autumn to their flowering

positions ready for next year.

Now is the time to prepare for next year’s floral triumphs.

Bob kick-starts the campaign for future biennial beauties

“It’s safer if you

sow right now”

I find that in East Anglia it’s safer to

sow right now than earlier, as with milder

autumns some plants sometimes get

too forward and can then be fooled into

bolting early. Now, you can sow into

individual cells and then pot up if you do

this promptly and don’t let the seedlings

suffer any check. It’s even possible to

sow in trays and then prick out into pots,

but this is more risky, for the best plants

are sown, thinly, in a spare bit of good

rich soil such as in a vegetable plot.

Keep the young plants well weeded,

thinned and regularly watered, and they

should reach a good size by autumn.

You might then wait until next spring to

transplant them, but it’s much better

to move them to their final positions in

late autumn, while there’s still some

warmth left in the soil.

Alternatively, there’s little (save the

cost and satisfaction) preventing you

simply buying ready-grown plants of

these this autumn, or even next spring.

But whichever way you choose, please

plan to have more of these beauties –

I guarantee you won’t regret it.

1

Pick up and bury or burn the

little apples and pears that have

fallen from the trees, as these are

often infested with grubs.

All photography TI Media unless otherwise credited

Bob’s top tips

for the week

with Bob Flowerdew, AG’s organic gardening expert

2

Place a few wasp traps

under ripening fruit. Use jars

of jammy (not honey) water with

pencil-sized holes made in the lids.

3

Regularly water everything,

especially plants in pots. Soak

the soil around sweetcorn, beans

and potatoes, and be sure to drench

leeks, celery and celeriac.

4

Dig up garlic before all the

leaves fade, wither and

disappear, otherwise it’s likely

that you won’t find your crop!

Wallfl ower ‘Sunset Bronze’ should be sown no later
than June and be in its fi nal fl owering position by autumn,
so it has plenty of time to establish for next year
Main image and bottom inset Alamy

with Bob Flowerdew, AG’s organic gardening expert

Plan for biennials

You can buy ready-grown

plants like foxgloves in autumn

• but plan your choices now!

Alamy

Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus)

can be transplanted in September

to the area where you want them

to bloom next summer