Lavender: the importance of buying named cultivars

I love lavender: I'm perfectly happy to dig out self-set seedlings and grow them on, or move them to better positions around the garden: they are usually fairly similar to the parent plants, and if they have managed to germinate and grow in the beds, borders and shingle paths of that particular garden, then they are obviously quite happy with the local growing conditions.

But when planning a new lavender hedge, or a semi-formal edging to a bed, perhaps, then it is important to buy all the plants at the same time.

They don't have to be any particular cultivar, as long as they are all the same, and I say that because I've always been a bit sceptical when people present me with a dozen plants to plant (a phrase which always look wrong: I do wish there was another generic name for "things which will grow in the garden" other than "plants") and proudly say, for example, "Oh, yes, I bought Lavendula "Hidcote" of course," as though that meant something.

I mean, there's nothing that special about the cultivar 'Hidcot' and - cynically - in my experience, plants from nurseries are often wrongly labelled anyway: I can't tell you how often the expensive white Agapanthus has come up blue... especially that time when a rather posh woman (whose name was not, but really ought to have been, Karen) had bought in two dozen of them, had her gardener plant them out for her,  then - some time later -  sacked the gardener and called me in to "fix" the mess he'd made of her design, because half the darned things turned out to be blue. I found the pots... with the labels... they were all labelled "white" so it wasn't the poor man's fault that half of them turned out to be the common blue ones.

But I digress. (No surprise to regular readers!)

So what am I saying?  Lavender is lavender, they're all lovely, and by all means pick one with a "famous name" if you wish, although personally I'd spend more time reading the small print on the label to see if the cultivar in question fits my needs: is it described as "compact" or "early flowering" or "late flowering", or "white", for that matter... although who would want white lavender? It's not white, it's more of a dirty off-white, but that's just my opinion.

Where was I? Oh yes,

When "one" is planting out a hedge, or a long border of lavender, it really is quite important to get plants that match.

Here's why: Exhibit A, m'lud:

What's wrong with that, I hear you ask.

It's a lovely lavender hedge, I hear you say.

And indeed, most of it is flowering, and looks wonderful.

Ah, but look more closely...firstly, at the particular lavender plant which is closest to us:

 Hmmm.

These flowers have finished: they have turned grey, as all the petals have shrivelled up, and are about to drop off.

The bees are no longer interested, they no longer smell as lovely (although I have to say that, in my opinion, the foliage smells just as much as the flowers do...), so this plant is pretty much "over" for the season.

Next in line is this one, which is one of the ones in full, glorious bloom.

Flowers all over, bees and other pollinating flying insects all over it - fabulous!

And the next one...

...is still in bud,

Not a flower to be seen. Just buds.

Now, why is this a problem? 

At present, as your eye travels along the line of this hedge, you get a general impression of "oh look at the lovely lavender hedge" which is fine.

But the one that has finished now needs to be cut back, to slow down the whole "going woody and falling open" phase. So next week, there is going to be a sudden gap in the hedge, where I've cut that particular plant right back.

Then, in a few more weeks, the rest of them will all have finished flowering, except for that one, very late, one. Which will be in full flowers.

At that point, I will cut back the bulk of the hedge, leaving that one plant to flower in solitary splendour, looking odd and out of place. 

So for the rest of this year, this is not going to be a nice, balanced, even, hedge. It's going to be lumpy and bumpy.

Does it matter?

Well, it does, if the Client has planted a row of lavender specifically to be a "hedge", or to edge a border. If symmetry was the aim, then consistency is important.

If you just have a number of lavender plants dotted around in the borders, then it really doesn't matter if they match: in fact, it would be better to have a variety, because then some will flower early, some will flower late, and thus you will have lavender in flower for a longer time.

But if it's a formal or semi-formal hedge or edge... then it's worth paying for a named cultivar.  And - "Top Tip", as one of my former Trainees used to say - it's worth buying a couple of extra plants at the same time, and putting them elsewhere in the garden, in case you later need to fill in a gap. At least you can be sure it will match!

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Conservation Areas: how small is "too small"?

I was visiting friends the other day, and I noticed that they had missed a patch, when they mowed their lawn:

"You missed a bit!" I said, gleefully.

"What?!" said the husband, "I don't miss bits!"

I pointed to this patch of daisies.

They looked at each other, then looked at me, grinning.

"That's our conservation area!" they chorused.

I gave them a "Look", as you do, but I had to laugh - this is definitely the smallest Conservation Area I have ever seen!

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Salix Kilmarnock - What to do if you think it's dead.

I've been writing about Salix Kilmarnock for almost a decade now, and I am still getting new questions on the subject!

In the past month I've had two separate enquiries from people whose Salix 'Kilmarnock' is either apparently, or mostly, dead.

Firstly we have this one:

Small, but cute, in a nice pot: and apparently rather dead.

The owner ("Hi, Begona!") says that this one started to put out new leaves in spring, as normal, but then they went yellow and dropped off.

Here's a closer look - right - and the bad news is that all those branches are reddish-brown or grey, instead of being green: this coupled with the total lack of leaves, means that, unfortunately, they are probably quite dead.

This is seriously bad news, obviously. 

Begona read my various articles on Kilmarnock, in particular the one about One Last Chance, where I detailed my experience with a medium-sized Kilmarnock which had been neglected for several years, and which I returned to health and full weeping-ness by a regime of brutal pruning (*laughs*).

She asked if there was hope for this little fellow, and I advised her to follow the suggestions in the article, and to remove everything which was clearly and absolutely dead, even though it would leave her with not much more than a pollarded "knuckle" at the top of the stem.

As her tree was in a pot at the front of her house, I also suggested moving it out of sight, round the back of the house,  until it either recovered or died: this was for two reasons. 

Firstly and most obviously, no-one wants to look at an apparently dead tree for weeks on end! Being on the front of the house, it was a bit visible. 

Secondly, and this is a slightly cunning ploy on my part, by moving the pot to the back of the house, it gives the tree a different set of living conditions.  My reasoning is thus: in the front garden, it died. Maybe it was too hot, too cold, too windy, too dry: maybe local cats kept peeing on it: who knows. But by moving it to the back of the house, it will experience a different environment: it may be warmer/cooler/wetter/more sheltered, so maybe it will stand a better chance of recovery, in a different position.

The second one belongs to Linda (*waves*) who says that her smallish Kilmarnock was getting completely out of hand, so last year she cut it back to an umbrella shape, and all the leaves immediately curled up and died.

Disaster! Why did this happen? I have no idea. There are many reasons why trees suddenly die, and it might have had nothing to do with the pruning.

Then, recently, Linda saw my articles on the subject, and followed the suggestions: she cut back all the dead material, watered it well, and lo! and behold, it started to sprout.

This is very good sign - there is life in the little lady yet! 

So Linda's first question was about the few remaining stumpy branches - should they be cut off, as they are not sprouting?

Yes.

They aren't producing leaves, so there is no point keeping them, and they might as well be cut back sooner rather than later, while you can still see what you are doing, before those new shoots obscure them.

But then, a couple of weeks later, Linda updated me on progress: the new leaves were covered with blackfly, there were ants all over the place, and some of the new leaves had big holes in them, which looked like snail damage.

Oh no!

She whipped out the systemic bug spray, and gave the plant a lot of watering, and wondered if there was anything else she could do to help it.

Well, the black fly are just a fact of nature, they fly in whenever they spot tender fresh new leaves and they have clearly zoomed in this one, and Linda has done exactly the right thing by spraying with systemic bug spray. Once the but spray has dried, or before spraying, you can also jet-blast the aphids with the hosepipe on its narrowest setting, to physically remove the bulk of them.

Ants are there because they are feeding on the aphids (the black fly) so getting rid of one will help to get rid of the other: I suggest puffing ant powder up the stem, so that they track through it as they trundle up and down. Obviously, wait until the stem is dry after the jet-blasting....

All Willows are very receptive to watering, and I would certainly suggest giving any distressed Kilmarnock a good soaking once a day for a couple of weeks. To avoid the snails (which are attracted by the nice damp soil, annoyingly), water first thing in the morning if you can: that way, the tree gets the benefit while actively growing during the day, and the water is all absorbed within a couple of hours, so you are not creating a damp environment overnight, which would otherwise delight the snails. 

I'm not sure if Linda's Kilmarnock is in the ground, or in a pot: but a lot of them are grown in pots, so I'll add this comment:

Pots are a very unnatural environment for a tree: they are cut off from the soil, isolated in a tiny mini world of their own, dependant on us for water, and are generally more likely to struggle, than if they were in the ground. But there are things we can do to help them - so if your Kilmarnock is in a pot, check out this article Cruelty to Trees: Pots  and see if you can improve the situation for it. 

In both of these cases, I would think that the recent weather is responsible: we have had a couple of bad winters in succession, and this one (2022/23) was particularly bad for plants - in fact, I don't know anyone who has not lost plants this year. Not a single person. 

We had mild weather, then hard frosts, then a hot spell, then more and yet more frosts: last year we had drought through much of the summer, after a horrendously wet winter: all these extremes are very difficult for plants. They don't get time to adjust, before the conditions change again. It's very hard on them.

Hopefully both of these Kilmarnocks will recover: and hopefully, if you have one that looks a bit like these guys, well, this article might give you some pointers as to how to deal with them - and some hope!

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Buzzy Bee at work

The other day, I was working in one of "my" gardens when I heard a lot of intermittent buzzing.

"What's going on?" I wondered. 

Bees  - along with hover-flies, wasps, and many other pollinating insects - usually buzz continuously, not in short bursts. Or so I thought!

Moving closer, I found the culprit on one of the many Poppies, which are making a terrific show this year.  It was a bee - and I shall call it a Bumble Bee because it was Bumbling its way around the stamens - hard at work.

 

 

 Can you see it?

Not the best of photos, but then, I am a gardener, not a photographer: and when I do take photos, they are hasty snaps with my camera-phone. 

I was so intrigued by what he was up to, that I tilted the flower up towards the light (so that I could see it better) and to my surprise, he continued bumbling, at high speed, taking no notice of me, whatsoever.

I wanted to share this activity with the garden owner, who loves bees: so I thought I'd try taking a video of it.

This was moderately successful: it wanders in and out of focus a bit, because it's only a phone, and you can see where, a few seconds in, I took hold of the petals to steady the flower. 

Here's the result, what do you think?

Active little fellows, aren't they?

So next time you hear sporadic buzzing, from inside a large flower, this is probably what's going on!

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