Tend&Grow

On good ground rhubarb requires no attention, other than to harvest, on less good ground a beneficial autumn mulching seems advisable. Picks for a long season but best in spring when growth is young and stems are tender. Better still forced into growth early under a traditional terracotta cloche that excludes light, lengthens growth and maximises the desirable rhubarb red pink colouration, ultimately creating premium quality rhubarb. All this weeks before the stems are naturally available. A kitchen garden must have.

Sometimes referred to as the Gold dust plant, a supurb, easy and reliable evergreen foliage plant that hails from damp shade and partial sun environments.

Looks well if pruned with secateurs rather than as is often seen hedge cutting equipment which rather ruins the large leaves. Works as a specimen shrub in shade or as a backdrop to more glamorous and desirable individuals.

Fine red berries, somewhat curious but underwhelming flowers early season.

The so called Spanish dagger has a bad habit of holding on to old dead leaves and periodically these need removing. It’s a job that requires determination, perseverance, puncture proof long sleeves and goggles even for the least self conscious.

The overall look is improved with better air circulation and light penetration. And less cover for over wintering snails and aphids.

Edible flowers incidentally.

A reliable and floriferous clump forming semi-evergreen cultivar in white. Here with pictures before and after cleaning, that is to say removing foliage. Not a necessary action but one that benefits the visual display.

Native Blackthorne (Prunus spinosa) just beginning to flower prior to coming into leaf followed by English Ivy (Hedera helix), evergreen and looking great. Lastly Chinese hawthorn Pink Crispy (Photinia serratifolia Pink Crispy) incredibly colourful foliage which settles down to a tasteful green and white variegation once the weather warms up.

Nothing quite so comfortable with this time of year (mid February) than the Lenten Rose Helleborus orientalis. Seen here with old foliage recently cleared from around the base of the plant and photographed from low down and then with a worms eye view. The flowers naturally sit in a face down pose so to look them in the eye some crouching and bending is necessary.

Beware the Hellebore Black Death a recently arrived viral disease known to be here in the South East UK.

The autumn leaf colour of the Smoke Bush is reliably spectacular and for this alone the plant deserves however much space it takes up. The specimen pictured has had no real care or input, it was planted and there it exists. However, you can manipulate these shrubs quite easily through hard annual (winter) pruning to throw out long straight growths that tend to have a larger leaf size than if it were left alone or merely clipped over whenever you get round to it. The larger leaf is a bonus especially in the purple leaved variety for this is a shrub grown for foliage over flowers, so this action maximises its main attribute. In deploying this technique I lose the flowering and the ‘smoke’ effect, but no big deal, once November arrives my head is turned and still I can’t quite believe it. Like all things, it has its season.