You may not know the name and few grow this sumptuously perfumed greenhouse plant, which is odd as it is so gorgeously scented. Polianthes tuberosa bulbs are commercially available though strangely seldom sell many. Though heirloom varieties are known the only named variety you will commonly find is an old favourite The Pearl. Most closely […]

Using a greenhouse to grow your own food will make your garden greener and help trim your ‘ecological footprint’ – but only if you tap into the right kind of sunshine. My garden has become important to me in ways I could never have imagined. Barely a week goes by without it providing me with […]

It’s such a spidery time of year now that I have had trouble finding spider-free pots for my cuttings. It doesn’t seem like the right time for cuttings, while everything is slowly but surely grinding to a halt. Perhaps it isn’t. I meant to do this in August. The idea is to keep my half […]

Greenhouse gardeners can be guilty of wishing the year away. No sooner than it’s autumn and we are wishing it was spring with barely a second thought to poor winter. And when it’s spring, well there’s so much to do, it’s summer before we know it. I’m as guilty as anyone, always looking ahead to […]

September is often the most settled month of the year and after this year’s erratic weather, wouldn’t it be wonderful to welcome an ‘Indian Summer’, this month, with a month of still, sunny, days? During the unsettled weather in August, I gambled on planting a mixed border, with the help of my friend, Paul, using […]

I have just visited the National Plant Collection of Passiflora cultivars at Tynings in North Somerset, and come away with my very own Passiflora edulis. A great number of the passion flowers produce edible fruits, so says Jane Lindsay, who holds the collection, but edulis is the sweetest and tastiest. It ain’t the prettiest, not […]

Now here is something very beautiful and somewhat unusual for a warm greenhouse. Exacum affine has blue flowers with a scent, indeed a gorgeous perfume while almost all other blue flowers are scentless. (Bees are the usual pollinators for blue flowers as they can see ultra-violet / blue colours which are seldom noticed by butterflies […]

I’ve been visiting my nana’s house, which contains the greenhouse of my youth. My granddad always kept up the greenhouse, which was very much an all-tomato affair. I don’t recall seeing another plant in there, perhaps the odd chrysanthemum, on its way to be lined out in the garden, for cutting. All good old-school stuff. […]

Keeping a good airflow through the greenhouse is essential for healthy plant growth. It is especially important at the height of summer when temperatures outdoors can reach into the seventies and eighties (if we are lucky). To keep the air moving and to prevent extreme heat building up in the greenhouse you need good ventilation. […]

For the economic gardener and for one who simply enjoys propagating and potting up there can be few plants better suited than the Dianthus family. These are all easy to multiply, and require this regularly as left to grow old they become straggly and dead in the middle. Dianthus comprises Carnations, their humble but pretty […]

Watering becomes increasingly important during drought, which often occurs at this time of year, so here are a few tips, so your plants flourish. Check hanging baskets and containers three times a day, if possible; push your fingers into the compost, if is moist, compost crumbs stick to your fingers; if they are clean, give the […]

Gardeners learn by experience, so everyone says, and if that is the case then I should be an expert on brassicas. I have had such calamitous experiences with brassicas that I have now reached the conclusion that they cannot even venture outside without the full set of belt and braces. They are the vegetable that […]