Aberdeen Gardening - Help For The Amateur Gardener

  If you are considering replacing roses which have past there best  it is essential that you lift the old soil and replace with new topsoil.

Roses never grow well again in the same spot unless you do this. If you like the old fashioned look, Portland rose Jacques Cartier is one to seriously consider.

Allan Titchmarsh once named this one as his favourite rose. There is a bit of  continuing confusion as to the actual identity of this rose, some saying that it may be identical to ‘Marchesa Boccella, Whatever the case may be, this is a fine pale pink Portland Perpetual.

It grows to around four feet tall .It is a shapely shrub that is well covered with extremely healthy, dark green foliage. Blooms are fully double, sometimes showing a button eye at the centre, also has a lovely fragrance.

Hardiness - Fully hardy

Position - Full sun

Tags: portland rose

Monarda cambridge scarlet is one of those hardy perennials which give a brilliant show every Summer. The RHS has given this popular old variety Bergamot it’s prestigious Award of Garden Merit.

This clump forming Herbaceous plant has rich scarlet flowers from late July till early autumn. The foliage is aromatic. Grow the plants in moist but well drained soil in full sun, if grown in partial shade Monarda will still flower, perhaps not Quite so well, and will also be a couple of weeks later before coming into full bloom.

Mulch around the plants with garden compost in spring. propagate by dividing in April. Cambridge Scarlet grows to around three feet tall, Monarda is prone to a powdery mildew, but this variety seems less susceptible,  As well as being a very striking plant, it is also extremely robust.

Hardiness - Fully hardy

Position - Full sun/partial shade

Height - 3/4ft

Tags: cambridge scarlet

Deep rich to pale blue flowers in late Spring, early Summer.  This beautiful flowering hardy perennial, often described as short lived fairs much better in the cooler Aberdeenshire climate and will indeed survive and give pleasure for many years.Although not related this plant is commonly known as the blue poppy. Meconopsis definitely grows best where summer tends to be cool and damp, no problem there then. If you are brave enough, get the plant off to a really good start by removing the flowering stems in the first year, it will pay dividends in years to come. 

Hardiness - Fully hardy

Soil - Humus rich, well drained, neutral/slightly acidic

Position - Partial shade, shelter from cold drying winds

Height - 90/120cm - 3/4ft

Tags: blue poppy

So many Magnolias to choose from, the hardiest of them all is Stellata. I have seen this one growing very well in Aberdeen, however I have given up on it. After several attempts over the years I have decided that our garden which is in a bit of a frost pocket is just not suitable, well thats my excuse.

The silky buds open star shaped and the profuse blooms are pure white,  flowering early/mid Spring before the leaves open. Although the blooms are not the cup shape which we associate with Magnolia you will nevertheless find growing such a plant very satisfying. I have seen a number of these plants growing in the west end of Aberdeen, not just surviving but in fact flourishing. For this reason I am prepared to record it as a hardy specimen for the north east. Plant in a sunny sheltered spot in moist well drained  acid/neutral soil.

Hardiness =Fully hardy

Height = 6/7ft

Tags: hardy shrub

Orchids! not really a plant that we would be likely to think of for the garden in Aberdeen.

Dactylorhiza however is a fully hardy specimen which will thrive in our north east cooler climate. This Orchid enjoys a semi shaded position, a moist woodland site is ideal. Strapping arched green leaves and columns of purple flowers which are made up of numerous individual blooms. This plant looks magnificent in early/mid Summer naturalised in clearings between shrubs in the woodland.

The speciman in our garden which was given to us from a fellow gardener who had been dividing plants has never failed to give a good show. Planted six years ago I think it is now time to split the plant.

Hardiness - Fully hardy

Position - Partial shade

Height - 25cm 

Tags: hardy orchids, woodland plants

Tags: longiflorum

My interest in gardens and gardening began as a child. My brother and myself would visit and stay over at our grandparents house regularly. We lived on the top floor of a tenement block, making the visits to grandmas house all the more special.

They had a large garden which was beautifully maintained, the days spent there were the best of my childhood.

Moving on a little more than a decade, in nineteen sixty nine Myra and I who incidentally married very young got our first house with a garden. It was a council house with a small garden, moving in with our two children who were still babies was like being given a mansion.

Our gardening interest took off. I was given a huge batch of a weekly publication (Garden news) I would read these most evenings absorbing as much information in the knowledge that this would become for the both of us a lifetime pasion. Gradually I found whilst opening the garden news the first pages I would turn to was Geoffrey Smiths garden diary.

 Sadly Geoffrey died last week. Not only his gardening knowledge but his way with words made him the most inspirational of all the celebrity gardeners and broadcasters. In fact when he stopped his weekly article in the garden news I could not stop myself contacting the publishers to express my opinion that their paper would not be the same without Geoffrey’s article. The career of this Yorkshire man of course went much further than a newspaper article. He was made a superintendent of the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Harlow Carr at the age of 26, and continued to work there for two decades. Geoffrey also presented the BBC Gardeners world and also several series on BBC2. This highly accomplished man will be remembered.

Tags: best gardener, geoffrey smith

 

Similar in habit to the red Cardinalis variety, except this one is fully hardy and also with purple flowers of an unusual shade.This is truly a lush lobelia with vivid plum purple flowers held along the length of sturdy upright flowering stems. Long rather lance shaped mid green leaves arch out from the flowering stem.

 

The plant stands around 90 cm/3ft high with a 30cm (1ft) spread. This is the plants sixth year in our garden, and it has grown stronger since planting, so no concern about its hardiness. Must be regarded as one of the best recent introductions.

Hardiness - Fully hardy

Position - Full sun/part shade

Soil - Moist humus rich

Tags: hardy perennials