Generally, however, the vascular bundles in a straight piece of grass stem — Maize (Zea mays) being a good example — do not run parallel to the sides but weave from the inner part of the stem to the outer, returning inwards after the leaf traces have branched off. So the vascular tissue forms a series of spirals through the stem. As well as having a different arrangement in the stem, these vascular bundles are different in their individual make-up, there being no layer of cambium between the xylem and the phloem. This means that they cannot develop a woody, strengthening tissue as can dicotyledonous plants. There are exceptions, however, as in the palms and allied woody-stemmed monocotyledons. Read the rest of this entry »

Planting techniques vary slightly according to whether you buy plants in containers from garden centres or bare-root plants (as lifted from the field) supplied by nurserymen. There are also various ways of planting bulbs. Get the technique right and plant at the right time: your plants will then be off to a good start. Some plants will need supports against the wind.

Four planting methods

These are the techniques for planting the major groups ofgarden plants: trees, shrubs, conifers, climbers, perennials, bedding plants and blubs. To get plants such as trees, shrubs, conifers and fruits off to a good start, especially if you have a poor or difficult soil, consider using a planting mixture. Read the rest of this entry »

Three pruning methods for roses

Pruning roses will not reward you with more flowers nextyear. However, it will control shape and maintain health. Wild (species) roses and hybrid shrub roses need no pruning — just the removal of dead wood.

• Bush types Large-flowered (hybrid tea) and cluster-flowered (floribunda) roses are pruned annually in early spring. Remove all weak growth and reduce remaining strong stems to 15-20cm/6-8in above ground level. Cut to outward-facing buds. Make sure centre of each bush is free from growth: shape bush like a vase.
• ClimbersAllow a framework of permanent stems which are trained to their supports. From these stems side shoots grow, which produce the flowers. To prune, cut back old side shoots to within one or two buds of their base in early spring. Tips of main stems can also be cut back, if becoming too tall. Read the rest of this entry »

A shroud of confusion which few gardening books and journals succeed in penetrating. As a result, many gardeners prune incorrectly or indiscriminately. It is wrong to think that all shrubs need a “good haircut” every year. The truth is, most shrubs do not need any pruning; all you need to do is look over them occasionally and if necessary cut out any dead or dying shoots or branches. Conifers need pruning only when grown as ornamental hedges; ornamental trees do not need pruning at all; most climbers are happier if left alone, and so are most roses — although some, such as bush roses, need severe pruning every year. Read the rest of this entry »

Every garden should have a few shrubs for winter colour.

The following offer colour from flowers, foliage or bark. Try combining each of these features to create an attractive mixed group.

• Cornelian cherry (Corn us mas) Masses of small yellow flowers appear on the bare branches of this excellent shrub. 3-3.6m/10-12ft. Likes a good fertile soil and plenty of sun.

• Dogwood (Corpus alba `Sibirica’) Deciduous shrub producing thickets of brilliant red stems. Cut down almost to the ground each year in early spring. Likes a moist soil, and sun or partial shade. Height of annual stems about 1.8m/6ft. Read the rest of this entry »

These flowering shrubs are indispensable for bright colour in the spring garden. Grow some spring-flowering bulbs around them, to augment the effect.

• Barberry (Berberis darwinii) Highly popular evergreen shrub with shiny, deep green, holly-like leaves and deep yellow flowers followed by blackish berries. Any soil, including chalk. Sun or partial shade. Grows to around 2.4m/8ft.
• Broom (Cytisus scoparius hybrids) Green stems bear masses of yellow, red, cream or white flowers. Height about 2.4m/8ft, very quickly attained. Good for poor, sandy, acid soils, needs full sun. Cut off dead flower heads. Read the rest of this entry »

Most flowering plants are not much at risk as long as they are well cultivated. Among the principal sufferers are bulbs, and plants grown under glass, where pests and diseases particularly flourish.

Five troubles affecting roots

A number of insect pests live in the soil and feed on the roots of plants. Usually you do not know they’re there until leaves and shoots begin to wilt.

• Chafer grub Long fat creamy-white grubs with brown heads which feed on the roots of many flowers. If suspected, water the soil with pirimiphos-methyl or dust with gamma-BHC.
• Cutworm Soil-dwelling caterpillars about 4cm/I 1/2in long, creamy brown, which feed on roots and the surface of stems at soil level. Many border plants liable to attack. Symptom: wilting. Dust soil with gamma-BHC insecticide. Read the rest of this entry »

Crop rotation will help to prevent a build-up of the serious troubles listed here.

• Cabbage root fly Maggots eat fine roots of cabbages and relations, until all that remains of root system is a blackened rotting stump. Wilting occurs. Treat soil with chlorpyrifos/ daizinon or pirimiphos-methyl when sowing and planting.
• Carrot flyMaggots tunnel in the roots of carrots and parsnips. Treat seed drills with chlorpyrifos/diazinon or pirimiphos-methyl; carrots should be lifted as soon as they are ready to avoid damage from maggots. Read the rest of this entry »

pretoria

This new rose is able to produce multiple new stems, each bearing a long, pointed, cut-flower bud. In early spring, ‘Pretoria’ blooms a good week before most other varieties — a distinct advantage for exhibitors when the season is late. Buds open slowly into a loose wing formation, and are long-lasting, both on the bush and in the vase. The colour is deep red-pink, maturing into an attractive carmine. The fragrance is sweet and distinct. The tall-growing bush is clothed with lush, green leaves. ‘Pretoria’ also grows well in large containers

pink crinolene

This rose admirably combines the old with the new, and is aptly named for the graceful, wide-skirted dresses of yesteryear. Globular-shaped buds are carried on wiry stems and stiff peduncles, both singly and on huge, candelabra-like flowering spikes. As layer after layer of petals unfold, attractive, nostalgia-inducing blooms appear, silver-pink on the reverse of the petals, and glowing, deep pink on the inside, which intensifies in the sun. Read the rest of this entry »

sandton smile

This rose would fit as well into the new category of Landscape roses — one of the reasons it was selected from many candidates to represent the up-market garden city, Sandton. Pointed buds half open into shapely, fragrant blooms that further unfold into curly semi-double flowers, at all times displaying a clear, soft salmon-pink. The bushes spread their huge clusters sideways to cover an area of about 2 m2, making space for a continuous supply of new stems all carrying clusters of highly perfumed, pickable blooms.

shocking blue

Medium-sized buds open into double blooms with 32 firm petals. The colour is not really ’shocking’ or ‘blue’, but a rather unusual mauve- lavender in the bud stage, maturing into shades of silver-blue as the blooms are exposed to daylight. An outstanding cut flower that is stunning in arrangement with yellow blooms; the yellow ‘Friesia’ is an excellent foreground companion. Vigorous, healthy and prolific growth with new, deep-purple foliage and glossy, deep-green leaves. Highly perfumed. Read the rest of this entry »

These roses are of the long-limbed, spreading variety — and can either be left to organize themselves, or can be pruned and trained to fit in with almost any garden plan. Their security value should notbe underestimated: here is the answer to truly decorative spikes.

Climbers produce longclimbing shoots and must besupported and tied to a fence or pergola. For the best display, annual shoots should not be pruned or shortened, but tied horizontally.

Ramblers have a prostrate growth habit, and if left alone, crawl along the ground. Alternatively, they can be trained over a support many metres high, to hang gracefully down again.

Spire roses grow upright to 2 to 3 m and do not produce willowy canes. Their Hybrid Tea-shaped flowers make good cut roses. They are suited to tall background displays, in corners or as hedges, planted 1,5 m apart. If necessary, top the basal-stems at a height of 1,2 m to encourage branching and flowering. Read the rest of this entry »

As with David Austin English Bush roses, these Shrub and Climbing varieties are characterised by the shape of their blooms — the quartered, highly perfumed blooms of old roses. These sumptuous blooms, combined with the graceful growth habits of Shrubs and Climbers, make this category of roses particularly appealing.

These varieties grow between 1,5 m and 3 m high when self‑supporting, but long climbing shoots can be trained to a height of 5 m on walls, pillars and pergolas. Since they willingly push out basal shoots, winter pruning consists of removing older stems from the centre. Basal stems often grow to a length of 2 m and more. They can be pruned, or if left unshortened, they will arch gracefully and carry blooms along their entire length.

Once spring flowering is over, the main stems can be cut back to about 1.2 m, which will encourage a new flush of blooms. Alternatively, the stems can be shortened in winter, which will increase the length of the flowering stems and size ofthe blooms. Read the rest of this entry »

picaninni

Des Wright, past president of the Federation of Rose Societies of S A, and an amateur rose breeder, created this new Miniature rose. The blend was shrewdly composed, and ‘Picaninni’ inherited the super- healthy, glossy foliage and sweet fragrance of ‘Bella Rosa’ with the bright orange-yellow tones of ‘Little Jackie’. The truly miniaturised blooms are of superb exhibition shape. The plant grows vigorously into a fairly substantial bush and is covered with pickable stems

pierine

A perfect Miniature companion for the Hybrid Tea, ‘Esther Geldenhuys’. Urn- shaped, pointed buds open into deep, coral-pink blooms of classic rose shape. These are carried on long stems and make superb little cut flowers for table arrangements. The bushes are very vigorous and dense, growing to about 60 cm high and wide, and always decorated with masses of pickable blooms. Read the rest of this entry »

gee gee

A real charmer. Sharply pointed buds unfold gracefully into blooms of a classic rose shape. The colouris deep cream and even light yellow during summer, but in autumn, the blooms are suddenly transformed into admirable shades of apricot. The overall performance is

astonishing. The bushes grow to nearly I m, and fill out on the sides almost as much. Slender stems are produced in great abundance and deliver charming, long-lasting cut flowers.

ood morning america

This vigorous, tall and dense- growing Miniature rose is never without long-stemmed cut flowers of a light-yellow colour. The buds are urn-shaped and open into exciting exhibition blooms when the light yellow intensifies, with pink and red on the petal edges. Use in pots, borders or small groupings. Read the rest of this entry »

Miniature roses originated from the Chinensis roses. Over the past 50 years, a few breeders have concentrated on cross-pollinating the original Rosa chinensis minima, cultivated in Europe since 1815, with a multitude of Hybrid Teas, Floribundas and even Climbers. This has resulted in an extensive range of varieties in virtually every colour and shape of bloom. Miniature roses are identified by their small blooms and leaves. Plants of some varieties can grow to a height of 1 m, and Climbing Miniatures are able to cover 3-m-high fences and pergolas.

Miniatures are ‘everywhere’ roses. They grow on garden tables, in old stone wash tubs, window boxes, pots around a bird-bath or in tiny townhouse or duplex gardens where one can simply take up a few flagstones in a paved courtyard and substitute good soil. Miniature Standards make beautiful backdrops for pathways or add colour to patio walls. To keep plants well shaped, they should be cut back twice a year (this can be done with hedge clippers) and they must be heavily pruned in winter. For best effects they should be planted in groups of about five, 30 cm x 30 cm apart or in beds, spaced 30 cm apart, with 60 cm separating rows. Read the rest of this entry »

jhb garden club

A lovely, neat Shrub covered with abundant delicate, single blooms of an exquisite soft coral, which dance like butterflies in the wind. Should hard rain spoil the delicate open flowers, it takes no longer than a day for new flowers to unfold. A hot favourite among gardeners for free form landscaping and planting in pots and tubs.

memory bells

The plant builds itself up with short sideways-growing stems bearing dense clusters of flowers at the tips. Small, round buds unfold into pom‑ pom-type double blooms of clear, strong pink, with quartered centres. A superb rose that looks stunning in a pot or on a short Standard stem; healthy and needs no spraying to perform. Read the rest of this entry »

Colourscape roses are defined by their unusual and informal spreading growth habit and not by the shape of their blooms, which can look like Hybrid Teas, or Miniatures, or be produced in Floribunda clusters. Most Colourscape roses are less subject to fungal disease and leaf drop than their more glamorous cousins, addressing a universal demand for low-care plants. Many of the new roses released every year thus fall under Colourscape or Informal roses. They require little or no spraying and hardly any grooming during the season.

Low Shrub or Informal roses encompass many Heritage- style plants, and grow tobetween 1,2 and 2 m, either arching their branches or filling out to a rounded specimen, flowering all over. Read the rest of this entry »

St John nonacentenary

The bush is hardy, vigorous and healthy, and flowers profusely, in dense clusters at the tip of each firm stem. White, pointed buds unfold slowly into shapely, open blooms, revealing a soft apricot-cream in the centre. At the point where other roses would shed their petals, the blooms of this novelty expand further to the next stage of a quartered centre, and finally the firm petals reflex down-wards, creating the effect of an old-fashioned, immaculate white bustle. This excellent, multipurpose garden rose of medium height will supply an abundance of long-lasting ’spray roses‘ (cluster-flowering roses)

Isidingo

In our search for new climbers that produce Hybrid Tea-shaped, pick- able blooms and that flower more or less continuously from springinto winter, we were most impressed by a novel rose in our trials, bred by Messrs Orard of Lyon in France. The name suggested itself. The tight, full bud is green-yellow with an attractive rosy pink on the edge of each petal. As the bud expands and unfolds into a large bloom of extraordinary exhibition shape, the pink^-intensifies into a luminous coral, contrasting and intermingling with deep gold rising from the centre. Read the rest of this entry »

During the last three centuries, rose breeding has resulted in tens of thousands of new varieties. Not all of these have proved to be extraordinary, but a few have set new standards. Here is a small selection of some of the latest releases.

Even after thorough testing during the ten-year trial period from cross-pollination to release, a breeder cannot be certain as to how good a new rose really is. We now know that ‘Crimson Glory’, bred in 1935, represented a breakthrough in fragrant, velvet-red Hybrid Teas and today, all the popular red Hybrid Tea roses are derived from that variety. ‘Peace’, created in 1937 and released in1945, was another breakthrough in terms of vigour, health and colour. ‘Super Star’ arrived in 1960 as the first vermilion-orange rose.

Although this variety was found to be susceptible to powdery mildew, it became the basis for the creation of a wide range of orange roses. Read the rest of this entry »

The majority of permanent ornamental plants like shrubs and climbers do not need any pruning apart from the removal of dead and dying wood. However, there are some that need regular attention, as detailed below.

HEATHS AND HEATHERS, SANTOLINA (COTTON LAVENDER), SENECIOS AND LAVENDERS

These small shrubs need to have their dead flowers removed. This is quite a simple and quick operation. Trim off the dead flowers immediately after blooms have faded with a pair of sharp garden shears, but do not cut into the wood. Read the rest of this entry »