Tag: garden plant of the month

Festive Pines: December Garden Plants of the Month

Not just for the festive season, but beautiful all year round: the spruce and fir tree help create a variety-filled patio and garden.
Spruce (Picea) and fir tree (Abies) are the real stars in December, but don’t overlook what they can offer during the rest of the year in terms of greenery and interesting points of focus in the garden.

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Garden plant of the month: Fragrant Showstoppers

Broom (Cytisus), lilac (Syringa), Lantana, garden rose (Rosa) and Mexican orange blossom (Choisya) not only have fabulous flowers, but all bring a further experience to a garden or terrace with their remarkable fragrance. All five are woody plants that are easy to care for, and can be planted both in beds and in pots, containers and tubs. The scent and colour attract bumblebees, honeybees and butterflies, so these fragrant feature plants also liven things up a little more, and contribute to a healthy biotope in their environment. 

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Garden plants of the month: Spring Surprises

Spring Surprises like hazel (Corylus avellana Concorta’), rock cress (Arabis), primula (Primula aucalis) and Aubrieta are perfect for those who can’t wait to bring their garden to life. Not only do they bloom early, but the latter two provide a second round of flowering later in the year. And hazel offers an attractive green backdrop that changes colour in autumn and reveals the decorative twisting branches in winter. So these garden plants don’t just surprise in the spring, but all year round. 

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Sleeping Beauties: January Garden Plants of the Month

When the whole garden is still sleeping, dogwood (Cornus), Viburnum and redvein enkianthus (Enkiathus) with their attractive, sometimes coloured branches and eye-catching lines still put on a good show in winter, particularly with a coating of rime or snow.
And although these sleeping beauties appear to be resting, there’s lots going on inside these plants that manifests themselves faster than you think: they’re early bloomers that offer beauty during all four seasons. 

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December Garden Plant of the Month: Helleborus

Helleborus flowers in the middle of winter, and it’s always spectacular – a plant that blooms, even when most garden plants are hibernating.
Helleborus (also known as the Christmas rose) treats you to large white flowers with a fantastic crown of stamens at their heart from November to March. The plant can cope with snow or frost: branches might droop a bit, but as soon as the temperatures climb again, Helleborus will straighten up.

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Garden Palms: September plant of the month

Enjoy an Indian summer with garden palms
Sizeable, lusciously green, and with an exotic look the keeps that summer feeling going for longer: Garden palms bring the right vibe to September to help you carry on enjoying the outdoor life a little longer. The selection includes a True Date Palm (Phoenix caneriensis) with green feathered leaves and a distinctive trunk. The Chinese Windmill Palm (Trachicarpus) with its typical fan-shaped leaves.

The other stars of September are not officially palm trees, but look a lot like them, so they can blend perfectly. The Yucca and the Cabbage Palm (Cordyline australis) have an exotic look with attractive rosettes of leaves. With the Yucca the leaves can be green, yellow or white variegated, and green or russet on the Cordyline. Perfect for a seamless transition from summer to Indian summer.

Range
The Date Palm is available in two species: P. canariensis with rugged, upward-pointing feathered leaves, and P. roebelenii with softer, more elegant curved leaves. They’re available in various sizes with slender trunks, sometimes with several in a single pot.

The best-known species of the Cabbage Palm is Cordyline australis. The plant offers a fabulous rosette of leaves, and is available in both small sizes for planting as bedding plants, and larger sizes that look lovely on a balcony or patio. The most common varieties are ‘Red Star’ (red leaves) and ‘Verde’ (green leaves).

The Yucca is available as the hardy species Yucca flaccida, Y. gloriosa, and Y. filamentosa. All three have rugged leaf rosettes on which the leaves are always different. In the summer they flower with an elegant spike of flowers. Yucca elephantipes prefers to overwinter in frost-free conditions. It’s primarily a container plant, but also works very well as a houseplant.
The Chinese Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus) is characterized by its fan-shaped leaves. This species is available in substantial sizes, which makes it extremely suitable for dressing patios and driveways, and it can even cope with frost.

August garden plant of the month: Hebe

A late summer party in the garden: Hebe
Hebe (Speedwell Shrub) is the ideal plant for giving your garden and patio boost in the late summer. White, purple, pink, or lilac flowers instantly lend a fresh energy, and Hebe’s foliage varies in colour from pale green to dark green, and very pale grey. In the winter and spring some varieties even have claret leaves. Thanks to the somewhat random structure, the plant has a loose, natural look, and the clusters of flowers are very popular with butterflies and bees. Because Hebe is so versatile, it’s often used in beds and borders, rockeries or as pond planting, but it also works well as a container plant on the balcony or patio. Hebe is evergreen, bringing life to the garden throughout the year. 
Range
The Hebe range can be divided into two groups:
– The largest consists of generally hardy evergreen species with decorative foliage. The best-known are H. ‘Emerald Gem’ syn. Green Globe’, H. ochracea ‘James Sterling’, H. ‘Autumn Glory’, H. pimeloides, H. buxifolia, and H. pinguifolia.
– Completely different but also utterly Hebe is the H. andersonii group, also known as shrubby veronica. This flowers in late summer and autumn, and is particularly popular around 1 and 2 November (All Hallows – All Souls Day).
Hebe trivia
• Hebe travelled to Europe from New Zealand in 1835. The resultant cultivars are able to cope well with European winters thanks to crossbreeding.
• In Greek mythology Hebe, the goddess of youth, was the daughter of Zeus and Hera. She was given as a bride to Hercules.
• Hebe can cope relatively well with salty air, making it an ideal plant for seaside gardens and balconies.
Origin 
Hebe grows wild in the southern hemisphere, particularly in New Zealand, but also in French Polynesia, the Falkland Islands and South America. There are around 30 species that are fairly tough: the plant grows both along the coast and in mountainous regions at considerable heights, although they do have smaller leaves there.
What to look for when buying
• Check the balance between pot size, plant diameter and number of buds, and ensure that the plant is free of pests and diseases.
• The plants are cultivated both outdoors and in greenhouses, depending on the species. Good growers ensure that a Hebe grown outdoors is also supplied in a clean pot.
• The larger the plant, the greater the decorative value and the easier Hebe is to look after.
• There should be no dry or dead parts on the plant at the time of purchase.
Care tips
• Hebe likes a sunny spot, and can even tolerate full sun, but will also thrive in partial shade.
• The plant prefers airy, humus-rich soil.
• Water must always be able to drain. The soil can be left to dry out a little between waterings.
• Give some plant food once a fortnight during flowering. Remove wilted flowers.
• Hebe is fairly hardy, but if there’s a hard frost it’s better to wrap the plant, particularly if it’s a container plant. Shrubby veronica prefers to overwinter in frost-free conditions.
• Cutting back after the winter keeps the Hebe attractive and strong.