ASK MONTY
Q My lemon tree hasn’t flowered or fruited for 2 years, regardless of having the proper plant meals every spring. Might you advise?
Michael Ward, Doncaster
A Plant meals will not assist if situations aren’t proper. Lemons want a number of mild from April to September to flower.
In addition they want a superb soak as soon as per week or so in summer season, drying utterly between watering, and needs to be left virtually completely dry in winter.
They like excessive humidity, so publicity to wind will dry them out an excessive amount of. Give a excessive potash feed like liquid seaweed weekly from April-September.
Don’t feed in winter and place them someplace frost-free however cool for no less than a few months.
Q Yearly I attempt to develop fennel but it surely bolts and by no means produces a bulb. I’ve tried completely different varieties, and sown direct within the soil and within the greenhouse.
Lawrence Whiteley, Thirsk
A Fennel is hard to get proper however the secret is to offer it a gradual, plentiful provide of water, feed, mild and warmth.
If it will get dry or too sizzling or too chilly it will bolt. I sow mine in plugs in June after which transplant in July prepared for harvest in September and October.
However this yr most of mine have bolted too.
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Mahonias usually are not glamorous, and by no means the star of a backyard, however they’re very good for lifting winter gloom with their blazing yellow flowers, which might odor nearly as good as lily of the valley and can brighten darkish, dry areas the place little else will develop.
Once I was rising up in Hampshire they grew within the deep shade of the home and had been, to be trustworthy, not much-loved.
I didn’t think about planting any mahonias in my first London backyard, however after I moved to the nation within the Eighties, we inherited a dozen massive shrubs, planted between large redwoods, which lit the winter like mild, aromatic lamps.
A lot of mahonias will begin to flower in late autumn and the weeks main as much as Christmas however ‘Winter Solar’ is my favorite – it’s not too intimidatingly huge, and pretty upright so it matches right into a restricted house, with fabulous butter yellow flowers and a scrumptious perfume. If that weren’t sufficient, it grows very fortunately in dry shade, but additionally thrives in full solar.
The flowers are adopted by putting black berries, that are edible when stewed.
It’s hardy all the way down to about -15°C and prefers moderately well-drained soil.
It may be saved to dimension by pruning straight after flowering, and can flower on the earlier yr’s shoots.
Mahonias get their identify from an Irishman, Bernard McMahon, who emigrated to Philadelphia within the 1790s and arrange a nursery that grew to become a well-known horticultural assembly place.
He additionally wrote the primary traditional American gardening guide, The American Gardener’s Calendar.
The primary to flower is Mahonia x media ‘Lionel Fortescue’, which can draw all of the bees to its upright lemon flowers.
M. x media ‘Charity’ might be the best-known mahonia and can develop to a considerable (and really prickly) shrub, as much as 4m excessive and broad given house and time.
The primrose-yellow flowers are strongly scented of lily of the valley.
M. x media is the results of a cross between M. lomariifolia and M. japonica.
The latter may be very hardy and tolerates deep shade though it will possibly grow to be lanky and gaunt in previous age and wishes pruning to carry a fine condition.
Nevertheless it’s a sturdy plant and has splendidly aromatic flowers.
M. lomariifolia comes from Burma and Yunnan in China, the place it will possibly attain 12m tall.
Its flowers are carried in a tuft and it has actually good foliage, but it surely’s far more tender than M. japonica, being not hardy beneath -10°C and sad in uncovered spots.
Certainly one of my plant-hunting forebears, George Don, introduced again M. napaulensis – which might additionally attain 12m – from Sikkim in India.
I suppose I must develop it out of household loyalty, however it’s relatively tender.
A greater-known plant-hunter was David Douglas, who added greater than 200 species to our gardens.
In 1824 he launched into a plant-hunting expedition to the north-west coast of America, which concerned an eight-and-a-half-month sea journey spherical Cape Horn.
Early on in his adventure-packed journey, he found M. aquifolium, or the Oregon grape.
Pictured: Mahonia x media ‘Charity’. A lot of mahonias will begin to flower in late autumn and the weeks main as much as Christmas
Pictured: ‘Winter Solar’. Monty Don says: ‘It’s not too intimidatingly huge, and pretty upright so it matches right into a restricted house, with fabulous butter yellow flowers and a scrumptious perfume’
American mahonias are usually shorter, extra spreading and do higher in sunny websites with well-drained soil than the Asiatic ones, which like some shade and cope fortunately with heavy soil.
However do not let this put you off trying to develop any mahonia wherever – most will adapt completely effectively to wherever you place them.
MONTY’S JOB OF THE WEEK
Now’s the time to plant tulips. Leaving them late into autumn – they are often planted any time till Christmas – means they go into chilly soil, which reduces the danger of fungal issues.
Tulips thrive in sunny spots with superb drainage, so add grit in case your soil is heavy and plant them no less than 10cm deep.
In case you’re planting into grass and the soil is heavy, put a handful of grit into every planting gap earlier than dropping within the bulb. Lastly, when shopping for tulips, do not forget that the larger the bulb, the extra likelihood it will have a superb flower.
Tulips thrive in sunny spots with superb drainage, so add grit in case your soil is heavy and plant them no less than 10cm deep
Now’s the time to plant tulips. Leaving them late into autumn – they are often planted any time till Christmas – means they go into chilly soil, which reduces the danger of fungal issues
