High winds and the onset of high summer have left many a flower bed in need of a good trim
Gardening with Patricia Jordan
WITH all the wind this year already and the huge thunderstorm some of us had in mid June, lots of the early flowerers are looking past their best so it’s time to give them a trim.
I always start with the herbs: mints, sages, marjorams and lavenders. Once the flowers have gone then the bees and butterflies are no longer interested in them and you won’t deprive them of sustenance. Some years the mints don’t need much attention at all, but because of the prolonged dry period we have had this year, mine are looking rather tired so they have been chopped down. I stopped growing them in tubs as they really do need to draw their water from deep down, and if they look like they are going to take over the garden, I just pull up the new runners. Anyway I like to brush past the leaves on my way through the garden and release their cooling perfume, which always reminds me of my mother cooking new potatoes and garden peas. The sage flowers look untidy with all their spent blooms now so cut them back right to the start of the stem and prune any long wispy growths as well.
If you look along the stems of marjoram you will see new leaf buds just waiting to come into growth, so out with the secateurs and cut them back to just one or two. Lavenders are in flower now and need regular attention so as not to get too woody. Once the flowers have gone over then cut off the stems and shorten the plants growth to about half. I have some lavender bushes that flower all year round but they put on such growth that if I don’t prune them at least twice a year, they would just smother anything growing alongside. Remember to give the plants a good watering after pruning.
This year I am enjoying a Buddleia davidii, which I grew from seed a couple of years ago. There were only two or three flowers then but this year there has been so much growth that I am wondering just which sort of butterflies will be attracted to the wonderful purple flower heads.
I have been collecting achillea heads as they keep their brilliant colour for such a long time and brighten up many a dried flower arrangement. This year I had some lovely pink and lilac ones for the first time, as well as the normal gold. The Coreopsis ‘Plains’ and Rudbeckia hirta (Black eyed Susan) that I grew from seed this year, shot up very fast and as a result were bashed down in the winds. However, I have cut them down to just above the first leaf nodes on the stem and they are sending out new flower stems from there.
It’s also time to cut down the enormous stems of Hollyhocks and save some of the seeds from them and other favourite plants. Keep them in envelopes with their names clearly written on them. Plants will no doubt have dropped seeds where they have been growing and if you don’t want them there next year just weed them out when they start to germinate.
If you would like some Hollyhocks seeds, just send a stamped addressed envelope to Patricia Jordan, 3 Andreas Miaoulis, 7647 Mosfiloti (colours available white, fuchsia, deep red, and pink)
Plant of the Month – Bougainvillea
THE FIRST Bougainvillea was collected in Brazil and given its name by the French Botanist Philibert Commerson, in honour of his friend, Baron Louis de Bougainville, while the two of them were circumnavigating the world in the mid 1700s. Bougainvillea belongs to the Nyctaginaceae family and it is commonly called the ‘Paper Flower’ or the 4 o’clock plant.
Bougainvillea can be found growing throughout the Mediterranean region as well as other hot and humid parts of the world and it is used extensively as roadside hedging or for clothing house and garden walls. In it’s natural habitat it clambers up through trees and if you have ever tried to prune a bougainvillea, you will probably have been covered in scratches from the very sharp thorns along its stems, which are there to help it do that.
The bright colours that you see are just the bracts that protect the tiny flowers deep inside, which are white or cream. A bract is really a very small leaf and quite why they appear on some plants and not others is a wonder of nature. Another example of plants with bracts is the Poinsetta, which has red, pink or creamy-white bracts and tiny yellow flowers inside.
A Bougainvillea will put on enormous growth each season and can reach 15m in height eventually. If you want to use it as a covering on a wall then you must provide some support in the form of wires, or use tree ties to hold it against a wooden support nailed to the wall. The top growth can be dense and will buffet about in the wind unless well supported. This climber doesn’t like cold conditions or frosts, so is better not grown in the mountains.
However once established it is very hardy and can also withstand drought situations.
Bougainvillea glabra is widely grown for its purple bracts but there are many coloured hybrids available in the garden centres nowadays in shades of orange, peach or brilliant cerise. White Bougainvillea is very robust and can dominate lesser varieties but looks good mixed in amongst coloureds.
Nowadays there are plants with variegated foliage but these are slightly tender so unless you are able to cover them up with hessian or something similar, they are best not grown where winter temperatures are low. They tend to be almost bug free and that is a great bonus.
Bougainvilleas flower towards the end of the stems. The double varieties, which are stunning, make huge flower heads. These are the best type to grow near a swimming pool, as the dead heads have to be pruned off. Single bougainvillea heads are always being blown off in the wind and need constant clearing up and should they fall into the water, they make a real mess. So you have to make your choice – prune or brush!
Feed and water well during the summer months but limit feeding during the rest of the year. Cut back previous season’s lateral growth to about 3 or 4 cm in the spring.
Westfield Nurseries of Wiltshire, England are hoping to release 50 new cultivars over the next two years. Maybe some of them will find their way to Cyprus.
Questions and Answers
A FRIEND gave me the last of the grapefruit from her tree. When I cut into them I found some little white maggots. What could they be?
Evelyn Brown, Larnaca
THESE are most likely the larva of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly or Med fly, as they are known in other parts of the world. They gorge themselves on the innards of citrus and other fruit such as apricots and then drop to the ground below from a 2mm hole they have made in the skin, where they pupate in the soil. The adult female fly hatches and then lays 1-10 eggs in the fruit and the whole things starts over again. Several flies may use the same hole, resulting in many larvae. The whole cycle from egg to egg, takes about 20 days. If you look closely at the fruit you will see that there is usually a blemish or small stain, which is where the fly penetrated the outer skin in order to lay its eggs. At this time of year they seem only to attack mature fruit, as the skin of the new fruit is too hard. However, it is best to protect all your fruits by spraying once every 10 days with a special spray. It’s also possible to use ‘baits’ which attract the flies so that they fall into them and drown. Ask at your local ‘Poison Shop’ for whatever is suitable for your area. A positive way of not promoting Med flies is to gather up all the fallen fruits and destroy them. Do not bury them as the Med flies can recover from being buried.
I AM just about to move from a flat to a house with a small garden. What garden tools should I invest in?
John Petrides, Larnaca
ASSUMING that you are not going to need a lawn mower or a hedge trimmer, I would suggest a good garden fork and spade and if you can run to it, a large shovel as well. My favourite tool is called a ‘daisy grubber’. It is a hand tool and has a ‘forked tongue’ that can get behind the head of any weed and raise it from the soil. It is also fine enough to weed between flagstones and pebbles, without the need to raise them. I also have a hand trowel and fork and a long handled fork, which is super for weeding among flowerbeds without the need to bend over. A good sharp pair of secateurs is essential and if you have space to keep one, I suggest a wheelbarrow or some of those big green bags available in DIY stores for your prunings and garden rubbish and a Cyprus garden brush with which to sweep them up. You may also need a watering can – a 10-litre size is about right. Try not to buy tools with wooden handles as they can dry out in the heat and break.
Soak wooden handles in water for a while if they become loose.
WE ARE having a house built and expecting to take possession at the end of August. We will have a very large garden and want to put down grass seed. Seed is very expensive here and we can buy it more cheaply in UK.
Can you give us information as to the import rules regarding grass seed and how we go about getting the necessary paperwork?
Terry and Laraine White, Paphos
WHILSE the grass seed most used in Cyprus is expensive, it is very suitable for this climate. The seed is called Kikuyu and comes from Australia. It is very difficult to collect and even more so this year as heavy rains have spoilt the crop and harvesting, so it is likely to become more expensive.
You could bring in some grass seed from UK, about 2-3 kilos, but do check that it is suitable for use in a hot climate and make sure that your irrigation system is able to cope with a large area of grass. Since Cyprus entered the EU some of the old rules have been dropped regarding plant/seed/bulb importation and you are now able to bring in small amounts of plant material for your own personal use. This is certainly good news.
