We all hear and read words of wisdom on gardening and though most are spot-on, some may simply not suit your situation. With a few exceptions, these words will come from southern parts and may not apply to Scottish gardens.
Conditions here are varied enough, north to south, east to west and at different altitudes and exposures; even at the most local level, growing conditions in your neighbour’s garden could be quite different to yours. So you always need to tailor planting according to your own garden, not necessarily what the experts recommend.
Microclimates of weather, exposure to wind, rain and snow, sun or shade all play a part.
On a broader scale, hours of daylight and light intensity also make a massive difference. Living in Inverness today, you’ll have seven hours 24 minutes of daylight, while in Brighton you’d get eight hours 31 minutes.
READ MORE: Gardening: What climate change means for our apple trees
Generalisations are always dangerous, but Scottish winters used to be much colder for longer than further south. However, thanks to climate change, ours are milder, wetter and windier than previously. Though in the RHS Garden magazine I often come across flowers and shrubs which, for various reasons, couldn’t cope even with these new Scottish winters.
We are urged to create “interest” in our gardens throughout the year by planting for colour and form in autumn and winter. But our Scottish weather torpedoes that by brusquely whipping away the magnificently coloured leaves and blackening the architectural seed heads. Also, early frosts still happen here and kill off tender salvias and dahlias which further south will give colour into November. A few of summer’s beauties can struggle on: this year my hardy geraniums and many of my roses still have a few blooms. But sadly the petals look sodden and dull and the stems droop under the weight of the rain.
For good environmental reasons, I delay cutting back herbaceous perennials for as long as possible. As a bonus I might see my sedums, eryngiums and fennel all stunningly rimmed with frost, as portrayed in the glossy magazines. But I’d need to photograph them immediately as high winds and driving rain will quickly make a dark, tatty mess of this fine display.
But there are shrubby plants like hawthorns and cotoneasters that really will have vibrant red berries for weeks on end and the coloured stems of willows and Cornus always look beautiful until spring.
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Warmer conditions and more daylight hours can have dramatic effects: rosemary plants often become large bushes in Devon, while mine, in a pot, reach 45-50cm if they’re lucky. Even in shelter mine were killed off last winter. And you can sow seeds well into September and even October in the south of England while anything later than early September would be pointless here. I’m also disappointed with late winter crops: yummy tasting late sprouts don’t get much bigger than outsized peas because they don’t keep growing as they will further south. So again, some catalogue advice and recommendations may not suit your growing conditions.
Plant of the week
Hare’s foot fern, Humata tyermanii ‘Bunny’ is a pretty little fern that, like most indoor ferns, needs bright, slightly humid conditions out of direct sunlight and away from radiators. The foliage is rich green and individual fronds unfurl from softly hairy rhizomes that creep along the top of the compost and eventually dangle over the sides of the pot. The plant stays neat, only growing to about 30cm.
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