Switch on to your bulbs this April
Hyacinths are easy to grow and provide weeks of heavenly scent and many different shades of usually pink or blue.
The Bleeding Hearts, otherwise known as Dutchman’s trousers, commonly grow in a medium shade of pink, although many different varieties are available. Some have white or deeper pink flowers and ferny, feathery foliage. These leaves combine well with the tight blue ‘bunches of grapes’ provided by Muscari.
Pieris open up their flowers which both look and smell like lily of the valley. These chains of florets combine with the delicate rosy new growth of many varieties or with the brilliant pinkish-red of Forest Flame or Mountain Fire.
Ranunculus unfurl their exotic double flowers which resemble those of a peony and these gems are superb for right outside the cottage door.
This busy month is ideal for sorting out through the summer borders and filling gaps with drifts of bulbs and clumps of new perennials.
Not as vulgar as they sound
IN FEBRUARY we discovered Primula Wanda which is a well-known hybrid. At the other end of the Primrose colour spectrum are the most delicate colours, comprising of washed pale pink, but more usually pale creamy yellow – the one associated with the native or wild variety.
‘Vulgaris’ naturalises freely, by means of self-seeding in a woodland or hedgerow environment. The seedlings only take around a year or two to flower, and come true to form.
Semi-shade and moist soil are their prime requirements, but they are otherwise generally unfussy. They can easily be divided and moved to increase your stock, in autumn, winter or early spring.
Come and have a sow if you think they’re hardy enough
THIS MONTH is the month for sowing the majority of hardy annuals. They nearly all need full sun and well-drained soil.
Sow them in bold drifts or groups which overlap or alternatively, you can mix the whole lot together or buy an annual cottage seed mixture and simply broadcast them over the border.
I guess you could call them Chair-momile
A SMALL raised bed can be used as a Chamomile seat – simply fill the bed with compost and set young plants around 6 to 8ins apart. Then, mulch over the top with fine grit and water the plants in gently.
Over the next few months, the plants will spread and knit together, although this seat can be sat on beforehand.
MULTI-holed pots are excellent for growing strawberries as they help keep the fruit off the ground, away from nibbling slugs, snails and caterpillars. Plant them in a rich compost such as John Innes no. three.
CUT BACK Caryopteris to around 3 to 4ins from ground level. The resulting growth will be much stronger with brighter silvery stems and leaves and will cover itself with that misty blue blossom in September, better than ever before.
LAWN weeds will need to be dealt with this month. But as most weed-killers are rather ineffective and environmentally damaging, the best thing to do is use a long bladed weeding tool and simply dig them out. Many weeds respond well to this, particularly daisies.
All we are saying is give Pieris a chance
PIERIS are extremely versatile shrubs suited to a shady cottage border which may be planted with other shrubs, along with ferns and hostas.
Their vibrant pink or red growths contrast finely with the sprays of small white flowers which have all the scented charm and appearance of Lily-of-the-Valley. Give them an acid, leafy soil which retains moisture in dappled shade.
Three of a kind for your cottage garden:
WILD CHERRY bears its almost pure white blossom all over its naked branches, usually during March, but the late start to spring this year has meant most of them bursting into bloom in early to mid-April.
This tree is twiggy and free-branching with no dominant trunk and is also very vigorous, growing at the rate of around 3ft to 4ft each year.
It makes an excellent addition to a mixed native and wildlife-friendly hedge.
PHOTINIA ‘Red Robin’ produces lush bright red shoots during April. It adds a touch of flare to the borders, which are otherwise filled with other colours of the spectrum. These shoots gradually fade to dark green during the summer, but these, in turn, change to a dullish purple as the winter frosts set in. This evergreen shrub will grow in sun or shade in any reasonably moist soil.
GRAPE HYACINTHS are typically seen in that lovely shade of blue which is so complimentary to gold Narcissi. However, other varieties are available which have paler blooms, even in a shade of creamy yellow. They are easy to grow and can be left to form clumps and drifts in sun or partial shade. The common blue type will even self-seed readily and pop up everywhere.
How many kinds of sweet flowers grow?
THIS MONTH brings the feast day of England’s patron saint – Saint George.
And with it, attention turns to the traditional rose which has graced our gardens for centuries. Even the early Roman gardeners introduced roses into their formal plots.
Roses are also to be seen growing in much-warmer climbs and are popular in India, Japan, Australia and South Africa.
But viewed in a traditional English garden, roses are the queen of all blooms, dominating any one – whether cottage or formal.
They are most likely to be seen in bloom from around June to November, and so are in short supply during April. But, don’t let this put you off donning your rose on April 23rd. Because of the publicity about St George’s Day over the last few years, roses are freely available in many shops and some supermarkets as cut flowers.
Even though you will more than likely not be able to wear a red rose from your own garden, April is still a good time of year to consider the shrub and its future for this season.
It is too late to plant bare roots, but pot grown specimens can be planted at any time of year and April is a great month to do so as you will see rapid growth straight away.
Soil preparation is essential – dig in lashings of manure or compost, or both and plant with the graft union around an inch below ground level. This prevents suckering.
Give them a good dressing of both bonemeal and chicken manure pellets at the surface and a really good soak.
If the stems look somewhat weak in any way, don’t be afraid to prune them back to around an inch above ground level – the results from this really are amazing.
Keep watering and feeding throughout the growing and flowering season and be sure to dead-head them, except in autumn when they can be left to produce hips which will provide a feast for the birds.
A month of two halves
April is likely to be a month of two halves. The first half tending to struggle, with rather mixed conditions and fairly suppressed temperatures leading to some night frosts and the odd wintry shower. The second half may fare much better for warm and sunny periods, with plenty of dry days – ideal for enjoying the garden.
Be strong when you have to get rid of the weedies...
LAWN weedkillers are generally environmentally unfriendly and, as a matter of fact, frequently don’t work.
Hand-weeding is not an alternative option, it is ‘the option’. Although it sounds like hard work, it can be done little and often throughout the year.
If you haven’t hand-weeded your lawn for a while, the first time will be tough, but make sure you persist with it.
The benefits of doing this more frequently in spring are:
Perennial weeds make slower root growth and more top growth, making themselves more obvious to the eye and easier to remove.
Many perennials tend to flower early in summer and so removing them prevents them setting seed.
If weeds are accidentally snapped at the root and further growth occurs, regular summer mowing will deplete those roots of feeding top growth and, thus, weaken the plants.
Removing weeds in spring allows strong growing grasses to have more room and this tends to eliminate weed seedlings becoming established or broken sub-soil roots sending up new shoots.
