One flower bed suffered greatly in last year’s hot summer. GINA PARKINSON now reaps the benefits of starting over again.

EARLIER in the year I began the task of emptying and replanting the flower beds in our garden. The first to be cleared was one in a very sunny site, which suffered greatly in the hot summer we had last year.

The plants, mainly hardy geraniums and self-sown campanula, flowered beautifully in May but were over far too soon as the heat continued through the rest of the summer.

Everything was taken out of this bed, the soil dug over and compost was added to give a bit of body to the sandy earth. A few of the original plants were put back in, together with others from elsewhere in the garden.

These included a couple of iris which were cut into small sections and put in the driest spot under a tall Cercis tree. The iris have relished the warm winter and the sun we had earlier this month and a couple have even flowered.

A healthy fan of new leaves was all that had been expected of these plants this year so the two flower spikes are a bonus.

These particular members of the iris family are the rhizome bearded type. A rhizome is a thick underground stem which in the case of bearded iris spreads horizontally. The fans of pointed leaves grow from the rhizome and a mature clump can cover quite a large area.

They are especially good for well drained soil in a sunny spot where the rhizome can be baked in summer sunshine and won’t rot in cold winter wet.

The flowers of bearded iris are easy to identify from the fleshy hairs that appear on the three outer petals of the bloom. These are called ‘falls’ and usually hang downwards. The three inner petals are usually erect and are called ‘standards’.

There are many different varieties of this plant and May and June are a good time to buy them as many will be in flower at the nursery or garden centre.

When planting bearded iris is it important not to set them too deep. The rhizomes like to have some sun on them so make the planting hole just deep enough to accommodate the roots and a half or two thirds of the rhizome leaving the rest of it exposed.

The rhizomes can be divided every few years by lifting the clump and cutting it into smaller sections. Make sure each section has a fan of leaves and some roots and disgard the oldest or damaged sections. The new pieces should be replanted straight away as described above.

The best time to divide an old plant is just after flowering so the new plants have several months to settle before going into their winter dormancy.


In the veg garden

THIS weekend and next is very busy for vegetable gardeners as June is just about with us and it is safe to begin putting out all those tender veg which are filling the house and greenhouse.

Courgettes and tomatoes have been getting bigger by the day here but I have resisted putting them in the soil just in case of a sudden drop in temperature. They have however been hardening off outside for the past two or three weeks.

As usual far too many have germinated. It is odd how these plants are such good germinators when a couple of plants would easily be enough whilst French beans, sweet corn and broad beans seem to be rather more reluctant when we need so many more of them.

This year I haven’t bothered with sweetcorn at all, just put in an order with the chap who has a Wednesday stall on York market. Sometimes it is easier to get someone else to it for you.


Weekend catch-up

THERE is still time to plant large flowered gladioli bulbs. I grew them for the first time last year and had a wonderful crop. They like full sun and well drained soil so the summer was perfect for them. Some have survived the winter and have begun to pop up in the garden again but I have a number of fresh bulbs to go alongside them.

As it is getting a bit late for planting all the bulbs will have to go in at once, to have a succession of flowers the best idea is to plant them at fortnightly intervals from as early as March until the end of May.


Open gardens

Today

In aid of the National Gardens Scheme

Linden House, 16 Northgate, Cottingham, HU16 4HH, four miles north west of Hull. Interesting small garden with a curved lawn, numerous shrubs, pond and aviary plus homebrew demonstration and wine tasting. Open 11am-5pm, admission £2.50 (share to Hospice in Hull). Also open tomorrow.

Tomorrow

The Court, Humber Road, North Ferriby, HU14 3DW, seven miles west of Hull. Restful garden with hidden seating areas, roses and clematis climbing on walls and up trees, pond and waterfall, stumpery and a wisteria, clematis and laburnum tunnel. Open 1pm-5pm, admission £3.

Jackson’s Wold, Sherburn, YO17 8DQ, eleven miles east of Malton. Two-acre garden with views of the Vale of Pickering. A walled garden has mixed borders and old shrub roses and woodland paths lead to further shrub and perennial borders. There is also a lime avenue, wild flower meadow, vegetable garden with a Victorian greenhouse and a nursery. Open 1pm-5pm, admission £3.

Linden House, details above.


Gardening TV and Radio

Tomorrow

8am, BBC2, Gardeners’ World.

8.30am, The Beechgrove Garden.

8am, BBC Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors. With Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart.

9am, BBC Radio York, Jeremy Buxton. News and features from North Yorkshire’s gardens and countryside with Jeremy Buxton who is sitting in for Julia Lewis.

9am, BBC Radio Leeds, Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden.

2pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Bob Flowerdew, Bunny Guinness, Christine Walkden and chairman Eric Robson answer questions from the audience at the Whitehaven Festival in Cumbria.

Friday June 6.

3pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. This week the programme is from Somerset where panellists Anne Swithinbank, Christine Walkden, Bob Flowerdew and chairman Peter Gibbs answer questions from the gardening audience.

9pm, BBC2, Gardeners’ World. Carol Klein, right, visit a collection of peonies in Scotland and Joe Swift looks around the gardens at Glyndebourne in East Sussex.