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| Gloucestershire Orchard Group (GOG) aims to conserve,
promote and celebrate traditional orchards in Gloucestershire |
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PLANTING IDEAS
The
renowned 19th / early 20th Century plantswoman, Gertrude Jekyll, wrote that “every planting should paint a picture.”
Look
around you for inspiring combinations of plants growing in gardens or in the
wild, and use these to paint pictures in your own garden.
Plants for Spring
| Apples
and pears trained as espaliers make beautiful features in even the
smallest garden. They take up very little room, are
surprisingly easy to train, and are very productive. Come on
my Day Course on Growing and Training Fruit in Small Spaces on Saturday,
9th August and you too can have trees like these! |
February
- February is a good month for
pruning fruit trees. Apple trees should be goblet
shaped, open in the centre to allow good air circulation and to let
the sun ripen the fruiting wood. Cut leaders back by
two-thirds if growth is weak, and all side shoots to 4-5 buds/4
inches (10cm). On tip bearers, e.g. Blenheim, do not
remove shoot tips of older wood unless to keep the tree to size and
shape. Note that stone fruit should only be pruned in
the growing season.
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- This month the beautiful,
bashful, deep pink flowers of the winter cyclamen, Cyclamen coum, are a welcome
sign of new life stirring in the garden. Plant these bulbs
(corms) “in the green”, that is in full growth with their leaves. They flourish under
trees and will eventually play leapfrog as they naturalise in
surrounding areas of grass.
Snowdrops provide a good contrast.
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- Shrubs that bloom in winter
are often scented, with clouds of small, delicate flowers and are a
reminder that your garden does not have to hibernate in winter. The
winter honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima, has small, cream,
strongly scented flowers which last several weeks. This large
shrub is a good companion for the tiny Cyclamen coum interspersed
with snowdrops at its feet. Prune if necessary
immediately after flowering.
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- Cornus mas is another lovely
large winter shrub or small tree with a mass of tiny yellow flowers
in February-March. Arising from a lake of bright blue
Chionodoxa or Scilla bulbs at its feet, this will dispel any winter
blues. A late flowering, blue Clematis texensis trained
over it for summer interest can be cut hard back in January to about
18” (45cm).
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