March in the Garden with Floral & Hardy

At last bulbs are beginning to show in our gardens - a sure sign that spring is just around the corner - and we can all look forward to the new season ahead.

Among those plants giving us some colour this month are these:

My top ten flowering plants for March

1. AUBRETIA – a commonly grown plant I know, but when you see sheets of it in full flower cascading over a sunny wall, it really does impress. There are lilac, purple, pink and red varieties, just cut them back after flowering to stop them getting untidy

2. BERGENIA – a really useful, ground cover perennial with large, leathery evergreen leaves and spikes of pink or white, bell-shaped flowers. It’ll grow almost anywhere and is very easy to look after.






3. CAMELLIA – there are many different varieties ranging in colour from purest white to deepest red. This is a large shrub with wonderful glossy evergreen leaves that make a wonderful foil for other plants later on in the year. Grow these if you have acid soil and some shade. (You can test your soil by buying an inexpensive kit from your local garden centre).




4. ERYTHRONIUM - a slightly more unusual March flowering plant commonly known as the ‘Dog’s Tooth Violet’ – so named because of the shape of its tubers. This is a really stunning flower and is available in various colours ranging from white to lilac to yellow. Plant in a shady spot and enjoy.




5. FORSYTHIA – a fairly common, grow anywhere plant, but along with the daffodil, nothing epitomises the coming of spring better to me than the sheer exuberance of its stunning show of bright yellow flowers.




6. HELLEBORUS ORIENTALIS – an evergreen perennial ranging in colour from white to plum-purple. Plant them in shade in a raised bed or on a bank to take advantage of their large, slightly downward facing flowers.






7. MAGNOLIA STELLATA – a medium sized shrub with pretty star shaped flowers in white or pale pink. Don’t try to grow this plant if you have very chalky soil, or if your garden is very exposed, otherwise it’s an easy shrub to grow.



8. NARCISSUS - nothing is more cheerful at this time of year than, in Wordsworth’s words – ‘a host of golden daffodils’. There are so many different varieties, ranging from the obvious bright yellow to whites, apricots, bi-colours and now even pinks. They are easy to grow – just make sure you plant them deep enough and that you leave the foliage on for at least six weeks after the flowers have faded, so that the goodness goes back into the bulb for next year.




9. PRIMULA VULGARIS – the common primrose – such a pretty wild flower with its pale yellow blooms, it has always been a cottage garden favourite. It will thrive best in partial shade.






10. PRUNUS I couldn’t end this list without mentioning Cherry blossom. There are so many varieties of flowering now, from those with delicate single blooms to those big, blousy, tutu-like confections. Some are scented, some have purple foliage, and some, of course, have the added advantage of producing fruit at the end of the season. All are very beautiful and guaranteed to raise the spirits after a long, cold winter.



MARCH TIPS AND ADVICE

1. Prune summer-flowering shrubs such as Buddleia, deciduous Ceanothus, Lavatera, summer-flowering Spiraea and Caryopteris if you didn’t do it in November. The same goes for roses.
2. Winter flowering jasmine can be pruned now, by cutting back all side shoots which have flowered and any old branches.
3. Prune summer flowering Clematis by cutting back to pairs of plump buds about 60cms from the ground.
4. Cut back coloured stemmed Cornus (Dogwood) to a few inches above the ground to ensure colour next winter. The same goes for Fuchsias.
5. Trim over winter flowering Heathers once the flowers have faded to prevent the plants becoming leggy.
6. Move any shrubs and perennials that need relocating, making sure you dig around the rootball carefully.
7. Dead-head daffodils as they fade (but leave the foliage in place for at least six weeks).
8. The dead heads of hydrangeas can be removed now, taking care not to damage the new shoots beneath.
9. Generally tidy up planting beds and remove any emerging weeds.
10. Give the whole garden a feed with a fertiliser such as blood, fish and bonemeal.
11. Mulch acid-loving plants such as Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Pieris and Camellias with ericaceous compost.
12. Sow hardy annual flowers straight into prepared ground outside where they are to flower.
13. If you have a greenhouse you can also sow vegetables such as cucumbers, melons and tomatoes now. You can also start off Canna, Begonia and Dahlia tubers now by placing them in shallow trays of compost with just their tops showing.
14. Prick out any seeds you may have sown earlier, following the instructions on the packet.
15. Your lawn may be treated now for moss following the instructions on the packet and, on a dry frost-free day, mown on a high blade setting.
16. Finally – watch out for slugs around your precious emerging perennials and take the necessary action!

So......... plenty to do!

For ideas and inspiration for any garden, visit our garden design portfolio to see how Floral & Hardy can add something special to your garden!

How to achieve the right lighting in your garden

Most people want their garden to be an extension of their home and, as with interiors, the right lighting can make all the difference when creating your outside room.

From just sitting outside enjoying the view, to entertaining friends, the lighting that you choose can really set the mood for the occasion. A garden that is admired during the day can be transformed into a multi-dimensional show garden at night. Let us also not forget that lighting the garden means that it can still be enjoyed from inside the house when the weather is not so good and in the winter months too.

Lighting offers designers the opportunity to ‘paint’ with light and to get the most out of it is a specialist task. Our professional designer can create an evening wonderland with illuminated waterfalls, up-lit sculptural features and dramatic structural planting for you to enjoy.

Well designed lighting can also increase safety by lighting up paths and driveways, including sensor lights that activate as you pass by. It can also add to the overall security of your property, acting as a deterrent to intruders.

Look at the difference lighting makes to these gardens designed by Floral and Hardy:

By day

By night

Maximise your space

It’s a missed opportunity not to treat our gardens as another room of the house. It’s also a missed opportunity if we can’t use that room or admire its contents just because it’s getting dark.

To those who work all day, a garden is a peaceful refuge from the never-ending round of meetings, deadlines and hard-edged technology.

Lighting your garden for ambiance and beauty deserves a design plan that will do your landscape justice, so why not let us design your garden to shine its brightest when you have the time to appreciate it – at dusk and beyond?

Visit our Garden Design Portfolio to get your ideas for a truly all-year-round garden.

Creating a small garden design with Floral and Hardy

Small gardens can be just as challenging as working with a larger plot, if not more so. There are so many demands on our outside spaces, whether for entertaining, play, or just for relaxing - the design has to be very carefully thought out.

The garden can be made to appear larger than it is with the clever use of multi-layered effects, with hard landscaping creating different levels and raised beds, as well as clever planting that also makes use of the vertical space to create visual depth.

The before

The design

Birds eye view

The end result: a beautiful garden

Depending on the way that you want to use your garden, which could be anything from a courtyard garden with a Mediterranean theme - to remind you of lovely holidays spent abroad, through to a garden with a clean contemporary design that is very grown up!

That doesn’t mean that the children will be left out. A well thought out design can incorporate a children’s play area in one corner of the garden that will grow with them. The play area can also include hidden storage so that outdoor toys can easily be tidied away at the end of the day. It can be concealed with clever screening of tall planting, or perhaps by incorporating some built-in seating.

Colour me beautiful

When thinking about colour schemes, less is usually more. Too much colour in a small space could make the garden feel cluttered and a bit claustrophobic. Different shades of one or two colours would give a far more impressive finish.

The use of too many varieties of plants would have a similar effect – better to stick to a more limited plant list. Ironically, larger, bold planting can work better in a small space than lots of tiny species.

You may not have room to grow all the plants that you love, so just pick out your very favourites, provided of course that they will grow well in your soil and conditions.

Don’t forget of course, it can also be an advantage to have a smaller garden as it is easy to keep on top of all those gardening jobs so freeing up more time to spend sitting and enjoying the view!

We have conceived lots of Small Garden Designs, all of them presenting their own unique requirements, challenges and results!

February in the Garden

February’s here and unfortunately the weather remains just as cold. There are exciting signs of spring starting to appear in the garden though.

Floral and Hardy's Top 10 Plants


1. Anemone blanda - Windflower – a really pretty little daisy-like flower best grown in full sun, on a rockery for example, or in large drifts, naturalised in grass.





2. Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’ – Corkscrew Hazel – highlighted last month for its curious twisted branches, this month it’s in bloom, although its flowers take the form of yellow catkins.









3. Chionodoxa – Glory of the Snow – delicate pale blue stars borne in dainty sprays above the strap-like foliage. Plant in sun or light shade, in large groups for best effect.






4. Crocus – everybody’s familiar with this little harbinger of spring – the smaller varieties start flowering now and are followed by the larger Dutch Hybrids in March.




5. Daphne mezereum – a deciduous shrub with stiff, upright stems bearing fragrant, purple-red flowers before the leaves appear. Not for you if you have children or pets though, as the whole plant is poisonous!



6. Daphne odora ‘Variegata’ – another shrub from the same family but this time evergreen, with yellow-splashed leaves and purplish, scented flowers.





7. Galanthus nivalis – Snowdrop – again another well-known bulb – for many people, the real indication that spring is coming – the dainty bells bravely pushing through the snow.




8. Helleborus niger – Christmas Rose – an evergreen perennial with large, saucer-like white flowers with prominent yellow stamens. Plant in a shady spot.





9. Iris reticulata – a good bulb for a sunny rockery or raised bed where its striking little scented blooms of blue and yellow can really be appreciated up close.






10.Viola odorata – Sweet Violet – a real old cottage garden favourite, so loved by the Victorians, tiny, fragrant, blue or violet flowers stand above heart-shaped leaves – giving the violet its other common name – ‘Hearts-Ease’. Grow at the front of the border in shade.





FEBRUARY TIPS AND ADVICE
1. The preparation for the gardening year ahead can begin now with the digging over of established flower beds – provided the ground is not frozen or waterlogged! Get rid of all the perennial weeds and sprinkle on a general fertiliser.
2. Try to keep your lawn free of worm casts by brushing off gently – you don’t want to tread them in as this will cause problems with bare patches and moss later.
3. Many perennial and annual seeds can be sown now, just follow the instructions on the packet. This is such a cheap way of stocking your garden and you may even have some plants left over that you can give to friends!
4. New Rose bushes can be planted out from the middle of the month. Prepare the soil by adding some bonemeal fertiliser and then carefully plant so that the swelling just above the roots (the graft) is just below soil level. Spread the roots out carefully and tread the soil gently around them so that there are no air pockets and the roots won’t dry out.
5. Climbing Roses (not ramblers) can be pruned this month. Keep five to seven strong new stems and cut out the older wood. Also cut back any side shoots to about three buds from their base to encourage flowering. Then tie everything in to the support to prevent wind damage later.
6. This is also the month for pruning some Clematis – not the spring flowering ones like ‘alpina’ or ‘montana’, but those that flower later, from May onwards. You will need to check which ‘group’ your Clematis is in (it will usually say on the label). Group 2 Clematis flower from May to July and any weak or dead stems should be cut out and the remainder back by about 30cms, to just above a pair of plump buds. Group 3 Clematis flower from July – October and should be cut back harder – to about 75cms from the ground.
7. If you didn’t prune your Buddleia in the autumn, now’s the time to do it – it will put on a lot of growth during the year, so, if you don’t want all the flowers so high up you can’t really see them, cut it back hard – it’s very hard to kill a Buddleia!
8. If you need any large trees cutting back, get it done before the end of the month, before the sap starts to rise and swelling buds can be damaged by falling branches. Always get a professional tree surgeon to do this – to prevent damage to the tree and to yourself!
9. Bare-rooted hedges can be planted this month (provided the soil is not frozen or too wet) – a much cheaper option than containerised.
10. If you’ve got any Heathers that have become straggly and a bit unsightly – fear not, you can revitalise them by digging up now and replanting in a hole big enough to take the whole plant with just the tips left showing. After a year all the tips will have rooted, enabling you to dig them up and replant as lots of separate little plants! Another great way to save money!

For ideas and inspiration for any garden, visit our garden design portfolio to see how Floral & Hardy can add something special to your garden!

In the news: snow is thawing but wildlife has suffered

As much as the majority of the UK is now beginning to thaw, there are still parts of North East England and Scotland that’s experiencing bitter weather conditions.

As covered in our last post, the “Big Freeze” has been hugely damaging to gardens across the country, but it’s the wildlife that has apparently suffered the most. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has stated this week that the UK’s wildlife is "on the brink of crisis" due to the freezing temperatures, and conservationists have noticed an alarming amount of garden birds have died over the last three to four weeks.

“The extremely hard winter spanning 1962 and 1963 was arguably the single event that had the greatest impact on Britain’s wildlife within living memory,” said Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB’s Conservation Director. “With the icy weather predicted to last at least another week, this winter could be the single greatest wildlife killer of the new millennium."

The Dartford warbler – one of several birds under threat

Although the climate has been the main culprit for this loss, other notable factors has been the widespread devastation to old trees – destroying the natural habit of thousands of animals such as foxes and badgers – and grit salt affecting ecosystems in water courses. The RSPB has also stated that rare species, like the bittern and Dartford warbler, are close to extinction if the thaw doesn’t happen in isolated regions of the country.

Floral & Hardy, along with the RSPB, are imploring you to leave out extra bird feed over the next few weeks to provide for our favourite garden birds, with sparrows and song thrushes requiring this food in order to breed leading up to spring.

Our gardening designing always has your surrounding wildlife and habitat in mind, as we care about what lives in your garden.

(image from surfbirds.com)

Coping with snow and ice in your garden

The “Big Freeze” has decimated gardens across the UK in recent weeks and the harsh weather appears to be unrelenting in its quest to frustrate gardeners alike.

Here are Floral & Hardy garden designers we acknowledge that this is the most critical time to look after your garden’s habitat, and more importantly, ensure that you won’t have to spend innumerable amounts of money in the coming months in order to restore lost plant life.

“By taking sensible precautions gardeners can protect their plants and produce from the worst of the winter weather. With a bit of care and attention during this inclement weather people can avoid having to replace valuable plants, trees and shrubs,” says Jenny Bowden, a Royal Horticultural Society Advisor.

The RHS has recently imparted some invaluable tips on how to cope with snow and ice in your garden and we now wanted to share them with you. If you act now, your garden will survive the Big Freeze and be ready for spring.

• Knock off snow from evergreens and conifer branches as there is a danger bent branches won’t rebound
• If boughs split, prune off the affected area ensuring the cut is tidy and snag-free
• Tender evergreens such as Pittosporum tobira, or Mock Orange, can be wrapped in horticultural fleece, although the damage may already be done. They should be moved to a sheltered position
• It’s too late to put bubble wrap around containers to help insulate plant roots, but you could move them next to a house wall or porch.
• It’s best to avoid watering or feeding plants in pots and containers, even if it’s windy, until the weather thaws.
• Acclimatise container grown Christmas trees to outdoor conditions gradually
• Large water features in gardens can be run. In smaller ones keep an ice-free area by resting a hot saucepan on the ice to let out any toxic gases and to allow oxygen to any fish
• To avoid bird baths freezing, insulate the bottom with bubble wrap or similar and replace water regularly.
• Defer pruning grasses until warmer weather. Not only do they give structure to the winter garden, they also provide protection for beneficial insects
• Many tender plants such as Mimosa and Phormium were badly affected by last winter’s snow. Wait until spring to prune out damage
• Unpruned foliage on shrubs such as Hydrangea protects lowers shoots and buds
• Fruit trees and other woody plants can be pruned in weather down to -5°C
• Avoid walking on snowy or frosty grass
• Mulching wet or frozen soil is best avoided
• Check the temperature in your greenhouse to maintain frost free conditions for plants such as citrus
• For indoor plants avoid overwatering and sudden drops in temperature
• Winter vegetables such as Brussels sprouts and parsnips should be fine but beware some might rot after prolonged freezes
• Take care that stored produce including fruit doesn’t freeze
• And finally – beware as voles, mice and rabbits can become very hungry and use snow to scale fences and reach higher up stems to do damage

Why not contact us to discuss your garden design requirements and see how our unique approach can create your dream garden, as well as ways to fight the cold weather!

For further information on this post visit www.rhs.org.uk

Family Gardens with Floral & Hardy garden designers

A well designed family garden can be a joy to both children and adults alike and before commencing any design, we consult with our client to ensure we know exactly how the garden is going to be used and who is going to use it. A family garden doesn't have to be either a space for the children or a space for the grown ups - it can be both, and it will provide a great living space for everyone.

In this day and age it is not unusual for both parents to work full time, so a garden that is low maintenance is often essential. Safety is also paramount, both in terms of non-toxic planting and finishing of hard landscaping.

So the garden also has to satisfy many criteria and fulfil many uses, and ideally should also be able to evolve as the children get older. One great idea we implemented was to create a sunken trampoline at the end of the garden. In time, as the children grow older, this can become a beautiful water feature:

Stage 0ne

Stage two

Stage three

Stage four

Have you ever thought of injecting some fun by incorporating a slide over a set of steps? Later on it can simply be removed. There are many options you can choose for children’s play equipment - they can be custom-made from natural materials such as timber from sustainable sources that blend into the rest of the garden. Or of course, you could choose something purpose made - all a great source of healthy, outdoor fun.

The surfaces in your family's garden needn't be dull either. Bark is a great way of finishing a kids' play area that not only looks good but prevents any mishaps should they fall. Another option is to use soft artificial turf that is hard wearing but still looks great and doesn’t get muddy either!

The grown ups' play area can then be surfaced with one of many contrasting materials - decking looks great, doesn't have to be angular - it can be laid in a circle for something different, or be given the “Wow” factor when teamed with slate, for example. Other finishes include Travertine Stone, with its elegant contemporary feel and Natural Sandstone for something more traditional.
All creatures – great and small

Children love to grow things too, so a small part of the garden reserved specially for them is a wonderful idea and could even encourage them to eat their five a day from what they have grown themselves! Our Outdoor Classroom has taken this idea and the kids have planted it out with great enthusiasm and success.

Learn the green way: a Floral & Hardy Outdoor Classroom in Slough

For the curious among them, there is also the possibility of encouraging wildlife into the garden – even a small patch of un-mown grass or nettles and a little log pile will bring in many varied species of insects, birds and animals and provide hours of fascination.

Water is also not out of the question, as many different styles of water feature can be created that are both safe, and beautiful to look at. Three of our gardens are lovely examples of this - Chic with kids, Forest Hill to Beverley Hills and Modern & Traditional Meet.

So you see, even if you have a small garden, it can still be fun for the children, but also a stylish area for when the grown ups want to play!

See more examples of our Family Garden Design that have created space, entertainment and joy for many families across the UK.