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There are some beautiful blooms seen in gardens around the UK every year, and more and more people are getting into gardening, front gardens can of course sometimes be an eye-sore, cluttered with old prams, bicycles and such, but the more discerning gardener will only want beauty in his or her garden. Some gardeners will struggle on what to plant in their gardens that will give a wonderful show, the begonia for example is not everyone’s favourite flower, their heads are big with little bodies, and sometimes are hard to love. They can be loved just as much as the rose, geranium, or any other plant in a garden, there are some that hardly look like the average begonia, and you can plant for late summer shade, and there are one or two almost hardy types that would definitely be worth a try. Begonia sutherlandii is a tuberous-rooted and arrived here from Natal in the 1860s, it is a graceful plant which carries small bunches of clear orange single flowers at the ends of pale-red stems, the leaves with jagged edges, look fresh and the flowers appear for weeks. It can come through harsh winters and often seeds itself in gravel on the North side of our houses, The ‘Papaya’ may not be quite so hardy, it has larger flowers, but if you did have to take it indoors, it would make a pretty pot plant for a shady windowsill. There are several species of begonia and a good garden centre or nursery will soon sort you out. Another favourite that offers beautiful blooms, is the geranium, they are one of the easier plants to propagate from stem cuttings. At the end of the summer you can take cuttings from the plants that have been in your garden over the summer and produce plants for use next year. The best way to do this is remove a cutting with about 2 or 3 leaf joints from the top, cut the stem just below a leaf joint and remove the lowest leaves to produce a bare stem that can be inserted into the cutting compost. The cuttings should root in about 10 to 20 days, once rooted they will need to be transferred into their own pots 75mm to 100mm using standard potting compost, remember once the cutting has rooted you will need to pinch out the top to encourage the new plant to produce side shoots. An English garden would not be complete without the lavender plant, of course there are many plants in the lavender family, but the type most commonly used medicinally is English lavender. Traditionally the essential oil of lavender was applied externally to treat joint pain, muscle aches, and a variety of skin conditions, including insect stings, acne, eczema and burns, also lavender essential oil was inhaled to relieve headaches, anxiety, and stress, how great to be able to grow such a useful plant in our gardens. A spokesman for Blooming Direct a nursery and online shopping facility based on the island of Jersey said “there are many favourite species of garden plants that the UK gardener will opt to plant year after year, we supply absolutely every plant you can imagine and if we do not stock what you are after we will go out of your way to source it from somewhere else”. For further information visit: www.bloomingdirect.com or you can visit their Facebook page to discover more offers.
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