Ask DanQ I am moving and would love to take cuttings of a variegated variegated adjective Multifaceted; with many colors, aspects, features, etc version of my Trachelospermum jasminoides, as I can't source another one from anywhere. Is this the right time? Wendy A Wendy, I fear it is too late to take cuttings at this point in the year as they will rot before they have had the chance to form roots. Warmth and light are necessary and I'd advise waiting until April. The RHS RHS Royal Horticultural Society RHS Right Hand Side RHS Rural Housing Service RHS Rickards High School (Tallahassee, FL) RHS Red Hat Society RHS Ridgewood High School (New Jersey) Plantfinder is always a good way to find the rarities: rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder/plantfinder.asp Q Dear Dan, I have just renovated a cottage in the west of Ireland and now have to tackle the garden. The soil is heavy clay and site is very exposed. I want to plant native species. Any suggestions for trees to create a windbreak windbreak a physical obstruction to the passage of the wind, usually in the form of a line or copse of tall bushes or low trees or a porous fence. Of very great importance in temperate climates and periods of cold, wet, windy weather. and an area of woodland and hedging? Mary Lynch A Mary, going native is always the best option as the plants will suit the conditions and fit well aesthetically. Blackthorn blackthorn or sloe, low, spreading, thorny bush or small tree (Prunus spinosa) of the plum genus of the family Rosaceae (rose family), having black bark, white flowers, and deep blue fruits, usually rather acrid and not much larger than , hawthorn, hazel and gorse gorse: see furze. gorse Any of several related plants of the genera Ulex and Genista. Common gorse (U. europaeus) is a spiny, yellow-flowered leguminous shrub native to Europe and naturalized in the Middle Atlantic states and on Vancouver Island. will make a good first line of defence and hornbeam hornbeam or ironwood, name in North America for two groups of trees of the family Betulaceae (birch family), native to the eastern half of the continent. Carpinus caroliniana, also called blue beech and water beech, has smooth gray bark. , birch and field maple are rapid growers that will cope with the wet and the heavy soil. Start small with young, bare root plants (known as whips). Plant 5/row in the hedge and space your trees at 2m intervals so they can form protection for each other and be thinned in future years. ? If you have a gardening question for Dan, email ask.dan@observer.co.uk Apology: Eagle-eyed readers noticed that the picture captions for autumn trees in the 2 November issue were in the wrong order. Apologies for the mistake 
|
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion