The past three winters have severely tested plants in Scotland.
Only the toughest specimens could survive the icy winters of 2009 and 2010, and growth this year has been painfully slow. Fortunately, the country's annual horticultural bonanza, Gardening Scotland, takes place at the Royal Highland Centre next weekend and will be full of growers who can recommend species to withstand extremely low temperatures.
A run of mild winters before 2009 had lulled Brian Young, of Holmes Farm Plants in Ayrshire, into a false sense of security. "There is quite a list of plants I have loved and lost, mostly because I was pushing the borders of hardiness," he tells me. "The biggest collection of plants I lost were the agapanthus. There were around 96 mature cultivars in large tree pots in the polytunnels. All perished despite my best attempts."
Young now demands his plants be "tough and garden worthy". Helen Knowles, of Tinnisburn Plants near Canonbie – 200m above sea level – shares his outlook. "I grow the plants as naturally as possible, which means no grow lamps," she says. "In terms of criteria for hardiness, I try a lot of plants in the garden and if they do well I can be confident they will thrive in most locations. Over the years I have tried to grow many different crocosmia, including Star Of The East. Sadly, having lost all apart from Lucifer, it is the only crocosmia I sell."
Gavin MacNaughton, of Macplants in East Lothian, has an excellent selection of species to meet the needs of Scottish gardeners. He reckons hardy geraniums are ideal. "Early-flowering cultivars including Geranium sylvaticum Album and G phaeum forms are tough and easy plants which withstand poor weather. Cultivars and hybrids, including Kashmir Blue, also make a good choice."
In addition, Macplants carries a variety of plant families and is held in high regard for its collection of meconopsis. "There are all sorts with a long flowering time," says MacNaughton. "At Gardening Scotland we will be exhibiting the clonal-raised big blue poppies. They require a fertile, humus-rich soil in an open situation but out of direct wind. There is a large range of these plants with different flowering heights and times and flower shapes and colours."
Knowles also hopes the clear, pale-blue flowers of Meconopsis Lingholm will be ready in time for the show. She's casting her net further afield too. "I've got a batch of Symphyandra cretica, a low-growing, upright perennial," she says. "The plants are covered with pale, silvery-blue bells – very similar to a campanula flower. I've never grown it before so it's exciting to finally see them in flower. I'm also hoping the perennial cornflower Centaurea montana Violetta will be in bloom. I had some at Gardening Scotland last year and they were a real hit."
Drawing on their experience, Scotland's best growers will be delighted to advise on plants for your garden. If you can't make it next weekend, head along to Brian Young's garden at Drybridge, by Irvine, which he is opening for Scotland's Garden Scheme on June 9 and 10 from noon until 5pm. n
Gardening Scotland is at the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, from Friday until next Sunday. Visit www.gardening scotland.com.
Visit www.askorganic.co.uk. Email your gardening queries to da@askorganic.co.uk
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article