Adam's Garden

This has been a particularly irksome spring for hardening off young plants raised in the greenhouse, mainly on account of the cold during the latter part of May, which was preceded by several very warm days, but we have also had a lot of rain and indeed some very blustery weather which has battered, amongst others, a number of overcrowded geraniums I was forced to move outside. In the middle of the the month we experienced our warmest May night since 1945. This gave me false hope for an early summer and in response I started hardening off some plants too early . As a consequence my rather limited cold frame resources became overstretched and when the weather deteriorated those plant that had been stood outside started to suffer.

Late frosts are usually the culprit for damaged plants in May but we have had none of those this year. In any case, if there is any danger of a frost I ensure that any plants at risk are safely moved into the shed. Because the daytime in May is never frosty (I have no doubt that history will prove me wrong on this!) it is my practice to leave outside any plants that have reached this stage of the hardening off process, regardless of the prevailing weather conditions. This has proved a bad move because all of those that went out early have quite clearly suffered from the combination of cold, wet and wind. The only exception appears to have been my Cosmos. A couple of my favourite annual varieties, white 'Purity' and pink 'Daydream', relished the tempestuous conditions, responding with vigorous, healthy growth. Everything else has fared less well. My old dependable Ursinias are looking very bedraggled and have put on zero growth since their move out of the cold frame three weeks ago. In a similar state are a number of annual Chrysanthemum 'German Flag' and it looks as if my Mimulus have a touch of collar rot, a condition usually caused by damp and manifesting itself in a reduction in the diameter of the stems of the plants at soil level. Winds can then finish off the job by snapping the base of weakened plant. Mimulus will recover if there is warm weather but they need to be treated with some care and kept out of the wind.

In short the weather has been up to its usual tricks. The more common afflictions of scorch during the day and frosts by night have been replaced with damp, cold and gusting winds. My hardy vine, which was planted to grow over a pergola the year before last, has excelled itself by producing dozens of flowers despite the raw weather. It goes to show what the absence of frost at the crucial period can lead to. Last year only two flower clusters were formed, and these appeared much later which minds me to believe that those that formed earlier were frosted before they had a chance to attain any noticeable size. I have another vine, which I have hitherto kept in a pot because it is only semi hardy. This year I left it outside all winter and it is only now showing a few small shoots from the apparently dead stems. As it survived temperatures down to minus eight degrees Celsius I have now planted it on the other side of the pergola, which is in a very sheltered position, and will keep it fairly well cut back and trained over a small part of the timber framework. That way if we have a severe winter in the future I will be able to wrap the main stem to keep it alive. The roots will be well protected in any case by paving and a mulch of large ornamental cobbles and it will be interesting to have a contrast between the small red grapes of the hardy vine and the larger seedless ones on the tender vine. Grape vines are a joy to train over a pergola because they are so rampant that they can be trained easily and quickly in the right direction, pinching out unwanted shoots and allowing the preferred ones to clamber in the right direction.

Another plant that has benefited from the lack of late frosts this year is the Wisteria covering one side of the house. Most years it loses at least half of the early flower buds but this year it has excelled itself. I don't know if it is possible for exhaustion to set in, because if that is the case it will surely do so. It is slightly weird because not only has it produced huge quantities of blossom but there is ever more appearing and close inspection reveals very few leaf buds at all. I can only think that the current cool daytime temperatures are holding the plant in a flowering mode and the absence of frost is permitting all the blossom to survive. The scent is even more overpowering than usual and the garden is strewn with hundreds of thousands of fading pink petals. A bit of a nuisance to clear up but nevertheless an interesting sight.

Sadly my container grown Norfolk Island Pine is suffering from being kept inside too long. It comes out in spring to acclimatise and if a heavy frost is forecast it is put back in for the night. All this wind and rain made me leave it indoors and the combination of this, uneven watering and a need for repotting have conspired to leave the poor plant looking anaemic with dead patches. I have put it in a sheltered spot outside in the hope it recovers but the cold wind and rain are doing their best to claim it. It may end up on the compost heap or shredded but it is an old friend I will do my best to revive.

Early summer is always a time for cutting your losses in some respect. Sickly overwintered plants like the Norfolk Island Pine can peg out, young greenhouse raised plants can die at the hands of any number of pests and diseases, and herbaceous perennials can just not appear this time around. But at the end of the day we gardeners simply have to take it in our stride and look forward to all those that make it, which, let's face it, are in the vast majority. Happy gardening!

You can find more articles in the archive under Soiled Hands.

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