Blog – Thomas Stone MCI Hort MPGCA

Posted on November 15, 2018 by thomashort — Leave a comment

Workshops and Speaker days at Sculpture by the lakes

IMG 5804 Workshops and Speaker days at Sculpture by the lakes

For the next year in conjunction with the very beautiful gardens, set in the rolling Dorset countryside, we are running garden workshops and talks, both utilising the gardens onsite. Sculpture by the lakes highlights the stunning sculptures of Simon Gudgeon and with the ex fishing lakes now moulded into the beautiful site it is now, by his wife, the very talented Head Gardener Monique Gudgeon

During the next few months, we shall be doing the following workshops and talks

These workshops take full use of the gardens, utilising them to demonstrate each subject.

The dates are as follows

November 24th 10.30-3.30 Winter propagation workshop

January the 16th 11am. Choosing companions for your Roses, a talk

January the 16th 2.30pm. Everything you ever wanted to ask about roses, a talk

January 26th 10.30-3.30 fruit tree pruning workshop

January the 30th 11am. Hardy Geraniums_ the backbone of every garden. a talk

January the 30th 2.30pm. Discovering winter plants to brighten your garden a talk

February the 9th 10.30-3.30. Rose pruning workshop.

May the 9th 10.30-4.30. Creating and maintaining a wildflower meadow

June the 13th 10.30-4.30, Gardening for wildlife workshop

July the 11th, 10.30-4.30 Creative pruning workshop

The price for the workshops is £75 for the day, that includes a light lunch, tea, coffee and free entry to the Sculpture by the Lakes

The talks cost £15 for 1 or £25 for both talks on the same day. This includes free entry to the Sculpture by the lakes

For more details on the talks and workshops, please visit www.sculpturebythelakes.co.uk or phone 07720637808

Posted on June 30, 2018 July 4, 2018 by thomashort — 2 Comments

Six on Saturday 30th of June

Good morning folks, what a dry week that has been! Everywhere I look the grass is a shade of brown, pots seem to dry out within minutes of being watered, it’s more like late August than the last few days of June. The rain they forecast is always on the move isn’t, one day it’s forecast for Sunday and the next it’s been changed for the following Thursday. God knows we need it!

Anyway enough of me moaning about the lack of rain it’s the high temps that have got me, it’s made a pretty horrid week at work I can tell you but now I am away for a few days, down at Butlins at Bognor Regis and that my dear friends is where my six comes from this week, I hope you enjoy them taken from the landscape around this world famous holiday park

The reedmace is just starting it awesome flowering, I love the flower and soon to be seed spikes on this beautiful and stately Reed. From our hotel, we have a semi circular water feature that has groups of these around the edges

And of course it has water lilies there as well and these are flowering their little hearts out at the moment, loving the heat

There is loads of lavender growing around the resort, most being Hidcote I think and the site of this purple/blue is a great distraction from the brown of the grass. It also full of the sites and sounds of bees

As is the Hebe albicans, again in full flower all around the resort, giving the visitors a delight to see. It’s also full of bees as well

The stunning grass Calamagrotis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ is making itself seen, there are small beds of this stunning grass just scattered around the site and in the light sea breeze, the flowerheads are almost shimmering in the sun

The little petunias are one plant that loves this summer sun and heat, they preform best when the weather is like this and how delightful does this little one look in the evening glow

Well that’s just some of the highlights of the flower world here at Butlins, I hope you enjoy them a little and I will catch up with you all soon, maybe Monday when we return! Until then, take a look at other peoples sixes via the hosts site

Posted on June 27, 2018 July 3, 2018 by thomashort — 2 Comments

Dead heading and summer pruning on roses

Well that’s the first and only time that I shall use the word dead heading in this blog, it’s such a negative word so let’s use a more positive one that describes the old flowers perfect, spent bloom removal, see more up lifting straight away!

I have also now labelled it as part of summer pruning of roses. I prefer to do the main prune during the late winter months but doing a little bit of summer pruning can help the plant to become stronger, healthier plants.

First of all, spent bloom removal is really just needed on repeat flowering roses to encourage more flowers to appear and also open a little quicker. With once flowering roses, there’s no real need to remove the old blooms but just a cosmetic reasons

Removing the blooms is pretty easy,

with the multi headed flowering type of roses you can thin out the spent blooms as they finish or wait until the whole floret has finish and then prune back down to the first full set of leaves. Why the first set of leaves? Well can it’s just helping to plant to maximise the water and nutrients by removing a section of wood that is going to die back down to that bud anyway. It is also well worth looking at the plant and seeing where it wants to be cut, some roses are very helpful and start sending up a new shoot where it wants to regrow.

Removing the odd flower in the middle of a bunch of flowers

Or taking the spent bloom down to the first full leaf

This rose shows that perfectly and you can see I have trimmed it down to just above with new shoot.

I also tend to carry out a slightly heavier spent bloom removal or indeed summer pruning of roses that have produced stems that are to thin to hold the weight of the flowers. This is tends to happen on the once flowering roses and the English rose type and the simple way to reduce the weight on these branches, is to remove the spent bloom to a lower bud and even to thin out the branches as below. This help to lift the branches off the ground

A branch hanging over with the weight of the flowers

To help to reduce the weight I am thinning out some of the stems

And then trimming back the spent blooms a little harder

The finished branch with weight reduced

The other part of summer pruning is to remove any dead branches and any branches at the base of the plant that have simply done nothing since pruning in the winter. Yes it could be done in the winter but removing these bits of wood now again helps the plant to use the water and nutrients more efficiently. It also can improve air flow though the plant and help to reduce fungal infections

This is the type of growth I am talking about

The finished cleaned plant

Equipment wise I tend to use garden snips sold by Niwaki, to carry out spent bloom removal, mainly as the thinner points and lightness makes them ideal tool to use. secateurs are brilliant for the heavier form of summer pruning, I carry both using this great double holster

Well I hope you enjoyed this blog on summer pruning of summer roses

Dead heading and summer pruning on roses

Posted on June 23, 2018 July 3, 2018 by thomashort — 25 Comments

Six on Saturday 23rd of June.

Well well good morning one and all and we are back to the weekend once more! Thankfully it’s a weekend I am seeing again, confused? Well last Saturday I did something rather silly but does show how dangerous gardening can be and how whatever you are doing, you need to think about it at all times, what did I do? Well I was replacing a fence at the in laws, which involved using a 6ft solid iron bar that weights about 25kgs and is about 11/2″ thick to help lever out lumps of concrete. Normally I am good with it pulling it down to either side of me, this time I pulled it towards me, for some reason I pulled it towards me, it came free of the concrete and smacked me on the head with some force, lucky for me I escaped with just concussion but it really could of been a lot lot worse! It did take me up to yesterday to feel back to normal, just left with a lump and a slight dip in my skull. It just shows that gardening isn’t just a carefree hobby or Job but one that in milliseconds, can turn into one that can have life changing repercussions, so be safe this week in the garden

Anyway enough of the be careful stuff and onto the the plants

img 0839 Six on Saturday 23rd of June.

One of my first salvias to flower and one of my favourites, I love the dark rich flowers offset with the dark flower stems on Salvia Bordeaux, one of two bargain rescues at £3 last year

img 0838 Six on Saturday 23rd of June.

Rosa falstaff and me have some history which sadly I can’t say in public but never less she is a stunner and one of the best Austin roses I think!

img 0835 Six on Saturday 23rd of June.

My clematis last year were crap to put it lightly, first year after planting and they were mildewed rubbish, this year is another matter and Rosalyn is the first one to flower for me

img 0834 Six on Saturday 23rd of June.

And she is growing though one of my last roses to flower, the rare blushing lucy, this once flowering rambler is Just starting to open now

img 0841 Six on Saturday 23rd of June.

This Geranium is a total stunner! But also a total pain in the backside to over winter, it the 4th time I have tried to grow geranium joy and you can see why I want too, let’s hope I am lucky this time

img 0837 Six on Saturday 23rd of June.

Let’s finish with another geranium, this ones called brook side and is a great geranium, flowers all summer long and so easy to grow and look after

That’s my six for the week, I hope you enjoyed them and don’t forget to pop over to the memes host, the wonderful, the king of the cuttings himself, The propagator!

Posted on June 18, 2018 June 18, 2018 by thomashort — 4 Comments

The glory of the moss roses

Moss roses are a distinctive group of roses, their flowers fill the air with fragrance whilst the soft sticky growth that covers their buds, act as sellotape on anything that passes by. The moss roses are indeed part of the larger centifolia group of roses but these roses at sometime, produced sticky soft growth to ward off sap sucking insects like aphids. The rose breeders during the 1800’s leaped apon this natural deviation and bred even more roses that were covered in this sticky soft mossy type growth. Some as a result were slightly less sticky than others!

This mossy growth is basically formed from the glandular projections that cover the Rose stems and buds, this is what gives the roses the scent. In moss roses this somehow took a slight turn and became this soft sticky fragrant growth, which to many smells of spicy apples.

The moss roses were introduced to the uk from Europe in about 1700 and indeed many 100’s were bred although sadly we only have a handful of that figure left

Well here’s 10 great moss roses to give you a taste of what this fabulous plant can bring us, some grow to a few feet tall while others make 8ft quite easy. They are indeed a great group of roses to grow

Mousseline was bred in France in 1855 and repeat flowers thoughout the summer, fragrant and gets to about 4ft tall

General kleber was bred in France in 1856, great quality blooms which are highly scented, flowers in June and July only. grows to about 5ft tall and is great rose for a large pot

Celina was again bred in 1855 in France, smells Devine but does suffer quite badly will mildew but the striped flowers are stunning to say the least

Henri Martin, bred in France in 1863is one of the real stunners of this group, it’s flowers are one of the darkest of the moss roses and changes to a deep red as it ages. It is well scented, can can be successful grown either as a supported shrub rose or as a climbing rose

Rosa oeillet panache is the only stripped moss rose left now sadly, it’s fragrant flowers only born during June and into July. It is a sport off the common moss rose

James veitch is a little stunner, bred in France around 1864, it barely gets to 2ft in height and flowers all summer long although sadly the flowers aren’t the most highly scent of the group. It also grows well in pots

Little gem is One of my favourites as well, wonder scent and gets to about 3ft high in the garden, it’s featured in my six on Saturday a few times now. Bred in the uk in 1880

Muscosa is the father of them all, this stunning rose has been around for over 400yrs now, it can get to nearly 4ft in size and flowers just the once

Shailers white Mose rose is a sport off the common moss and can indeed at times revert back to the pink form just as the pink form can at times throw up this white form, again highly scented and once flowering. Though to of been around since 1790.

William lobb, well I am saving the best to the last, one of the most highly of scented and beautiful of all the moss roses, indeed is one of my top ten roses of all time, bred in France in 1855 it a big rose growing to over 6ft as a shrub or 8ft as a climber. It works well trimmed as a shrub or having the long stems pinned down, but it is as a climber it performs best as. It flowers on and off all summer long

I hope you enjoyed my brief look at moss roses and this will led you to enjoy, study and hopefully grow many of these stunning plants. There are lots more available than I can list or feature here but this is just a taste for you all

Posted on June 16, 2018 June 16, 2018 by thomashort — 28 Comments

Six on Saturday, 16th of June, 2018

Ahh back to Saturday once more, it’s been a busy week to say the least and lead to not a lot of time spent in my own garden but that’s the delights for the time of the year, plants and ideas are there, just need to be added to the garden! I would do it this morning but off to work again this morning but at least I have fathers days off only thing that’s worrying me is the lack of rain, both my front and back gardens are looking a little tired already, even though I am watering young plants and recent planting’s, I won’t water the established plants as I hope they should be big enough to look after them selves, tough love

This weeks six comes from my own little space so I hope you will enjoy my little 6

I have always had a soft spot for campanulas and it is many due to this lovely form called persicifolia and it’s a great form to grow with roses and in the front of the borders

Rosa iceberg was in the garden when we started renting it about 8yrs ago now, was a rather poor specimen and now its stunning!

Geranium palmatum is one of the half hardy hardy geraniums, confused? Well add me too that list, comes from the canary island but has been growing in mine for 4 years, could of been longer but it’s still going well. The foliage is stunning as well and evergreen!

I have a huge soft spot for moss roses and this is one of my favourites, Eugenie Guinoiseau scented with a little bit of repeat flowering

And how can anyone not love staychs Byzantina or lambs ear, these tactile plants to me are the unsung hero’s in my garden, their silver foliage does such great work in the borders and then it flowers

Cat mints are another favourite of mine (really need more space to grow all the plants I love!) this is a slightly different form called nepata nuda and is new this year

well that’s me done for this weeks six, next week I shall hopefully finished a couple of things in the garden so hopefully will showcase them but that said it’s another manic week planned but I hope you all have time to enjoy your gardens and are time out to read about others too, the memes founder has some great sixes every week so why not pop over to mr propagators and take a look

Posted on June 13, 2018 June 13, 2018 by thomashort — 3 Comments

Identifying rose stock

Most rose that you buy here in the uk, have been grafted or budded as it’s called, onto a root stock of another rose. This is done for various reasons,

the Rose maybe difficult to propagate from cuttings and budding is done to produce a higher success rate,
the rose maybe weak on its own roots and not make a good garden plant on its own, and need a stronger growing root system to produce a garden worthy plant
To contain some roses, some like Rosa gallica and rugosa have a habit of spreading on their roots and being budded, they are more controlled
It produces a bigger plant for sale quicker than by taking cuttings

The method of budding is quite simple, a 1 year old root stock is planted in the spring, then in July, a T cut is made into the rootstock and a bud of the rose you require is slipped in and held in place with a special rubber clip, left for the summer and then top of the rootstock is removed down to the bud in the spring, that inspires the bud to break producing the rose of your choice. This is lifted in the autumn for sale as bareroot or containerised. R V rogers produce an excellent blog on how it is done please click here to read it That’s a simple guide to budding

Many roses have been used for the root stock over the years but now for most roses, only one in the uk is now commonly used and that is Rosa laxa or Rosa corynbifera ‘Laxa’ to give it’s full name. The English dog rose Rosa cainina has also be used in the past. Rosa laxa was choosen as it suits a wide range of soils, produces longer lived plants and is more disease resistant than other types used but when it does how do you tell it apart? Well here we go!

Firstly the leaves normally have 7 leaflets and have a slight sliver tinge to the older leaves while the younger ones are a bright green colour

The thorns are also slightly different with the barbed points facing downwards and with a distinct twist at the ends

The stems are often a giveaway too, being a big green colour while young and maturing to a deeper brown colour with whitish lines on the stems

Then there’s the flowers at this time of the year, the top one is Rosa laxa and the bottom is Rosa cainina, some people put the two forms into the same botanical group and they are almost identical

Best way to remove them is to pull them up, tearing them off the root system more than cutting them down as when pulled off, all the buds below ground are removed while cutting down leaves the buds underneath and allows them to regrow again

I hope that helps with Rose stock problems

Posted on June 11, 2018 June 11, 2018 by thomashort — 12 Comments

Gallica roses, forgotten gems

Once flowering roses are having a hard time of things of late, mainly as there are some great repeating roses that do have some great scent as well. But let’s not forget these beautiful roses, some of which, have been around for many hundred if not thousands of years. Yes they may only flower once but that is also a good reason to plant them in our gardens, it’s something positive to look forward to each June, seeing the rose slowly open and that delightful fragrance hitting your nostrils, either from close up or from a distance. These roses also have a flower unlike no other, the shape and the way some of the petals are formed within the flower, some are quartered, some semidouble. The colour range may also be limited to the pinks and reds but does that matter, not too me I may add. But anyway, enough of me singing their praises, you can see for yourself below, with 10 great forms just showing you a little of what they have to offer

Charles de Mills is a famous and well grown form, just look at the flower shape and colour!

Alain Blanchard is one of my favourites too, great for bees the the mottling on the flowers is quite special

There a several stripy galliacas, Camuyeax is one of my favourites

Lycoris with it’s green button eye is quite distinctive

While complicata is one of the daftest named forms, nothing complicated about this rose

Look at the colour of Cosimo Ridolfe

Belle Isis is one of my favourites and just look at her, the Greek goddess

Tuscany also needs no introduction, been around since the 16th century at least

President de Seze is another great form

These were also the first roses to really be hybridised, many by the French but also the English, German and Italian gardeners. This breeding has been going on for hundreds of years and sadly what remains today.

These are also pretty tough roses, Rosa gallica grows naturally in sandy free draining soil so these types will take some poor soils. One word or warning though, on their own roots they do like to spread out a little, well more than a little, so always worth buying budded Plants unless you have a lovely sunny bank on free draining soil you would like covered!

They also pretty disease free, some forms suffer more than others but on the whole they can be pretty black spot and mildew free.

In all that are a cracking plant to grow so why not give them ago

20180226 202933 Gallica roses, forgotten gems

Posted on June 9, 2018 by thomashort — 25 Comments

Six on Saturday, 9th of June 2018

I love this time of year more than any other time, I think it maybe just because I have a deep deep love of roses, wild flowers and Hardy Geraniums, for those plants, it’s the time of the year that the both of them are at their peaks during this month. But that said, I think this time of the year is when the gardens have really come to life, the range of greens from the new foliage looks green and fresh, so many flowers are just hitting their first peak and it’s not only the garden this is happening. A drive around the hedgerows in the country, they will be filled with the soft white of cow parsley, the odd bit of blue of geranium pratense and if you are really lucky, a area of orchids. These native plants are also just coming to their best now.

Not doing too much in my garden at the moment apart from enjoying the flowering plants and the scent my roses are filling the air with, nothing nicer than relaxing in the garden with a cuppa or beer and enjoying the garden, well that’s until I spot a weed or a spent bloom I missed a few minutes before. That said my six below may disagree with me! Now I will say that there maybe one or two roses below, that’s my little warning for this week but tough it’s my six and I love them!

d371e551 b65a 4e0b aa34 ebacc8ee642b 24716 00000615a177d9a7 file Six on Saturday, 9th of June 2018

Well that’s torn it! My forsythia needed pruning and after months of mental turmoil about whether it should stay or go now, if it’s goes there will be trouble but if it’s it could be trouble, so darling let me know, should it stay or should it go, well sorry The Clash, it’s gone, now what the hell do I do with this space!!

img 2957 Six on Saturday, 9th of June 2018

The first rose this week, Rosa Magna Carta is a Heritage rose and it repeat flowers thoughout the summer, smells stunning and looks gorgeous, great rose

img 2962 Six on Saturday, 9th of June 2018

Even with my next plant I have got roses sneaking in, Geranium Patricia is a stunning hybrid that is one of my favourites and works so well with my roses. Flowers all summer long and I planted this as memory plant for my partners Nan who sadly pasted away a few years ago, a lovely lady called Patricia

img 2964 Six on Saturday, 9th of June 2018

Souvenir de Jeanne Balandeau is again a highly scented repeat flowering heritage rose, just look at the beauty of this plant

img 2967 Six on Saturday, 9th of June 2018

Linaria Lucy’s Pink is another new plant for me, brought from a small nursery last year, I love the pink flowers that seem a little larger and wider spaced than other linarias,

img 2970 Six on Saturday, 9th of June 2018

I always feel that the flowers of sempervivums look very much like the alien bursting out of the person in the film alien, but that said they also look very beautiful. Also once the individual rosette flowers, it then sadly dies but with so many new rosettes coming up, the plant is never lost.

Well that’s my six done, I hope you enjoyed them and look forward to seeing you next week, I may of started planting up the font space caused by hurricane Tom or started another project…..

until then, happy gardening and don’t forget to pop over to the host of the Meme mr propagator https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com Just be careful he doesn’t try and propagate parts of you

Posted on June 8, 2018 June 8, 2018 by thomashort — 4 Comments

RHS Chelsea flower show, delights of the trades

Of course Chelsea isn’t just about the show gardens, they do make up a huge and important part of the show but there’s so many other parts to it, like the trade stands. These displays all focused around their products, can hold not only great products but also great plants and ideas.

Niwaki not only had great Japanese pruning tools but an even better way to find a lost loved one in the crowds. Think They missed a trick and should of charged for each person found!

Griffin glasshouses stand made you think that could well be your greenhouse in your garden, although wouldn’t be mine as there was no dead plants in corners, compost everywhere and far too tidy, at least I could dream

I am a sucker for clay pots and these are stunning, love the box in there as well

Now I just loved these sculptured flower buds or seed heads, really gave great contrast next to the box balls and alliums, great looking product.

Got to say give the Hartley Botonical’s stand a mechion brilliantly designed by the Garden Ninja aka Lee who have only been a designer for 3yrs, first time at a show and wins the best trade stand for the design, top bloke as well. welldone fella!

A no frame glasshouse looked amazing but how practical would it be?

Sorry had to add this sign and how true is it!

Lastly there was the Great Pavillon and this was filled with plant delights and stands that took your breathe away, it is wonderful to met and talk to the growers and the people you spent ages building the stands. I really enjoy wondering around taking in the sites and smells that came from them all. I was there on the last day of the show and yet the stands were still looking great. Only one small negative point for me was the tickets added to the plants as people brought them, seeing cloakroom tickets scattered all over a stand really makes them look ugly and takes away from the otherwise beauty of the stand, these starting appearing from mid day and it did spoil my enjoyment of some of them. That was a small negative and I know Nurseries want to sell of the plants but there must be a slightly better way of doing it. Other wise some of the stands where stunning

Have to say the Hillier Nurseries gold winning stand was in my top 3 for all the gardens I saw, expertly designed and built, I loved the plants and planting, so well thought out

Burncoose is one of my favourite Nurseries and with so many stunning plants unavailable from anywhere else, it’s no wonder why

As are Hardys cottage plants, always great range and quality of plants from them, with stands that are just so beautiful as well thought out

And let’s not forget DownDerrys excellent stand full of lavender, again a real eye catcher

The Eucalyptus stand I though was also excellent, showing their wide range of uses and well as the range of plants that can be grown, a much under rated plant

David Austin roses never fail to excite, not only with a mix of new roses but also some great classics shining though

And the same with Peter Beales roses, love the old ruin effect filled with one of my favourite plants

As for this clematis stand by Raymond Evison Just blew me away, so well thought out and just full of colour

And this stand highlighting the British cutflower industry summed the whole show up for me, full of colour, excellent use of plants, many being used in a skillful way, to highlight different causes while entertaining you and delighting the eyes.

I throughly enjoyed the day, seeing the hard work and pride so many parts or our industry take on putting on what is a showing off the best of our industry. A big thank you goes to Griffin Glasshouses for the tickets