Read Online We Made a Garden by Margery Fish - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Margery Fish
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out new sprays of filmy blue flowers. The only time when one should not be drastic with nepeta is in the late autumn. When the final trimming takes place it is important to leave an inch or two of stalk above the crown. If you cut right down to ground level corpses and not plants will greet your sorrowing eyes in the spring.
Irises should be trimmed after they have finished flowering. Some people seem to think that this is a mistake. The experts agree that the right procedure is to cut the leaves to about six inches after flowering. Later on there will be dead outer leaves to be pulled off so that no dead vegetation lies about on the ground to harbour slugs and snails and other creatures.
Iris stylosa needs drastic grooming. Not only should the foliage be drastically trimmed after flowering but all the brown leaves should be pulled out. I get no pleasure from seeing the flowers peering at me through a tangle of dead leaves, like an old man’s blue eyes twinkling through eyebrows as thick as thatch. Iris stylosa gets very thick, and very untidy, if it is happy. It doesn’t like being lifted and divided, in fact it sulks for a couple of years after such treat ment, but if all the dead stuff is pulled away quite a bit of the plant comes too and in this way it can be kept to reasonable proportions, and will flower better too. Some of the best Iris stylosa I know grow in a Devonshire garden where the foliage receives very firm handling, so firm, in fact, that the flowers always grow well above what is left of their foliage, and look extremely attractive that way.
Some people are unnecessarily sentimental when cutting down their plants. Everything about the plant may be dead except for perhaps one bloom, which isn’t quite. They will leave that one bloom, lonely and depressed, goodness knows why because it doesn’t look at all nice. It is far better to sacrifice the flower and make a proper job of cutting down the plant.
When dealing with delphiniums and lupins it depends on how cleverly planting has been done whether they are cut right down or only half way. If something else is growing up in front and will soon be in flower the best thing is to cut them down to the ground. In this way a second lot of growth and another crop of flowers will usually be produced. But if there is nothing in front to hide the massacre the best thing is to cut off the flower spikes but leave the foliage for a time to make a nice green bush, but there will be no second blooming.
Like everything else in the garden, deadheading can be done well or badly. With things such as Shasta daisies and heleniums it will be observed that there are side shoots, which will in time produce more flowers, so the stem should be cut off just above the new shoot. Some plants throw up fresh shoots if the old ones are removed from the base directly they have finished flowering. Most erigerons have this happy habit, particularly Mesa Grande, Quakeress and Azureus, so instead of just snipping off the dead blooms get down on your knees and make a proper job of it.
Roses can be pruned at the same time as the flowers are cut. Whether cutting for the house or removing dead heads the procedure is the same, make a sharp, slanting cut just above the first new shoot. There are two very definite schools of thought about rose pruning. The hard school prunes very drastically and there isn’t much left of the bushes after they have been pruned in the spring, but it does produce wonderful new growth. The other idea is not to prune at all in the ordinary sense, merely trimming off dead wood. The roses do not make so much new growth, but that will not matter if you have got your bushes the size you want.
Judicious cutting can make quite a difference to the look of a border. With a very large group of, say, Michaelmas daisies, it is not at all a bad idea to cut half the group down to six inches in May. This will mean two flowerings, because the cutting will delay flowering several
Irises should be trimmed after they have finished flowering. Some people seem to think that this is a mistake. The experts agree that the right procedure is to cut the leaves to about six inches after flowering. Later on there will be dead outer leaves to be pulled off so that no dead vegetation lies about on the ground to harbour slugs and snails and other creatures.
Iris stylosa needs drastic grooming. Not only should the foliage be drastically trimmed after flowering but all the brown leaves should be pulled out. I get no pleasure from seeing the flowers peering at me through a tangle of dead leaves, like an old man’s blue eyes twinkling through eyebrows as thick as thatch. Iris stylosa gets very thick, and very untidy, if it is happy. It doesn’t like being lifted and divided, in fact it sulks for a couple of years after such treat ment, but if all the dead stuff is pulled away quite a bit of the plant comes too and in this way it can be kept to reasonable proportions, and will flower better too. Some of the best Iris stylosa I know grow in a Devonshire garden where the foliage receives very firm handling, so firm, in fact, that the flowers always grow well above what is left of their foliage, and look extremely attractive that way.
Some people are unnecessarily sentimental when cutting down their plants. Everything about the plant may be dead except for perhaps one bloom, which isn’t quite. They will leave that one bloom, lonely and depressed, goodness knows why because it doesn’t look at all nice. It is far better to sacrifice the flower and make a proper job of cutting down the plant.
When dealing with delphiniums and lupins it depends on how cleverly planting has been done whether they are cut right down or only half way. If something else is growing up in front and will soon be in flower the best thing is to cut them down to the ground. In this way a second lot of growth and another crop of flowers will usually be produced. But if there is nothing in front to hide the massacre the best thing is to cut off the flower spikes but leave the foliage for a time to make a nice green bush, but there will be no second blooming.
Like everything else in the garden, deadheading can be done well or badly. With things such as Shasta daisies and heleniums it will be observed that there are side shoots, which will in time produce more flowers, so the stem should be cut off just above the new shoot. Some plants throw up fresh shoots if the old ones are removed from the base directly they have finished flowering. Most erigerons have this happy habit, particularly Mesa Grande, Quakeress and Azureus, so instead of just snipping off the dead blooms get down on your knees and make a proper job of it.
Roses can be pruned at the same time as the flowers are cut. Whether cutting for the house or removing dead heads the procedure is the same, make a sharp, slanting cut just above the first new shoot. There are two very definite schools of thought about rose pruning. The hard school prunes very drastically and there isn’t much left of the bushes after they have been pruned in the spring, but it does produce wonderful new growth. The other idea is not to prune at all in the ordinary sense, merely trimming off dead wood. The roses do not make so much new growth, but that will not matter if you have got your bushes the size you want.
Judicious cutting can make quite a difference to the look of a border. With a very large group of, say, Michaelmas daisies, it is not at all a bad idea to cut half the group down to six inches in May. This will mean two flowerings, because the cutting will delay flowering several
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