Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’

by Kate van Heel

One of my favourite gardening books is Christopher Lloyd’s ‘Succession Planting for Adventurous Gardeners’. I love the photos of his garden showing the same border at different times of the year. How wonderful to be able to have borders that look fabulous all through the year! However, for mere mortals such as myself it is not so easy to achieve, which is why I look for perennials that keep on flowering for a long period of time. Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’ is one such plant. With streaked orange petals opening from bronze-red buds finally maturing to yellow, it produces a colourful and endless display from midsummer through autumn.

‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’ was awarded an AGM in the 1999-2001 trial despite being very new.It was found growing in Kaas Sahin’s (a Dutch nurseryman) trial garden and came to notice because it flowered for a much longer period than the other seedlings; it had begun in June and was still going into November when it was given to Bob Brown of Cotswold Garden Flowers, who began to sell it the following year.

Helenium is a genus of about 40 species of annuals and deciduous herbaceous perennials in the Asteraceae family native to the Americas. They bear yellow, red, or orange daisy-like flowers. A number of these species have the common name sneezeweed, based on the former use of their dried leaves in making snuff, inhaled to cause sneezing that would supposedly rid the body of evil spirits. The name possibly means Helen-Flower after Helen of Troy, and legend has it these plants sprang from her tears.

Like most plants in the daisy family, Heleniums prefer full sun but will be fine in part shade. Also, like many daisies, Heleniums still look great when the petals fall because the seed heads are like little globe structures on the end of stems.

Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’ is called “The best and earliest Helenium for garden use” by Val Bourne. She suggests planting it alongside other vibrant coloured flowers such as Crocosmias or Dahlias, or with dark blue flowers such as navy blue Aconitum ‘Spark’s Variety’.

In my garden I have it planted with Crocosmia ‘Walcroy’ (sold as Walberton Yellow) and Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Dikke Floskes’. In another section it was planted alongside the tall Crocosmia masoniorum but it was time for a change so, with plenty of time on my hands this spring, out came the crocosmia and in its place has been planted Monarda ‘Saxon Purple’. The monarda has yet to flower but Sahin’s Early is starting its long run, popping up between Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ and Veronicastrum ‘Lavendelturm’. I just love it!

Images courtesy of the Hardy Plant Society Image Library

This video examines mutually beneficial relationships between ants and plants

This is a video made of Pat’s garden in June 2018

Thalictrums

by Sue Gray

Thalictrums are a genus in the ranunculaceae family, with approaching 70 species, plus varieties, listed in the Plant Finder.  Crug Farm is particularly noted for them, with many listed in Plant Finder bearing the detail ‘B&SWJ…’ indicating that the plants originate from seed collected by the Wynn-Jones.  I have to admit that I have had one or two such, but have had great difficulty distinguishing them from the more usual varieties of T. delavayi, but that might just be me!  They are such useful plants for the summer garden, with varieties ranging in size from the diminutive T. kiusianum, just a few cms tall but which many people, including me, find very hard to keep, to the statuesque ‘Elin’ or its descendant ‘Anne’, both of which can reach about 2.5m, but do not normally need staking.  Most have flowers of mauve or white, but there are the forms such as T. flavum which bear creamy yellow flowers above grey/green foliage.

Usually the foliage is green or grey/green and, whilst there is a particular species ‘aquilegiifolium’, in general the leaves are aquilegia-like and can be very dainty, resembling Maidenhair Fern, as seen on T. isopyroides or ‘minus’ where there is a variety named ‘Adiantifolium’.

However, some varieties have slightly larger, and in the case of T. ichangense, distinctively marked, more heart shaped leaves, which sets off the delicate, fluffy flowers.

One of the most often seen species is T. delavayi AGM.  We are familiar with the species name ‘delavayi’ being attached to a number of different plants.  It is derived from Fr Jean Marie Delavay; he was a 19^th century French missionary and botanist who spent a lot of time in China from 1867 until his death in 1893.  In 1881 he met Fr Armand David – from whom we get ‘davidii’ – who had made his last plant collecting trip to China in the 1870’s, and who encouraged Fr Delavay to continue collecting plants for the Paris Museum of Natural History.  This he did and he is credited with the introduction of around 1500 new species.

Usually seen in the familiar mauve form, there is a white form, and a number of forms introduced by the Wynn-Jones, also the double form ‘Hewitt’s Double’ with smaller, daintier, flowers.

I find T. delavayi can seed a little in the garden, but is always welcome.

Another species that can self-seed a bit is T. aquilegiifolium.  It can grow to anything from 1m-2m or above and is wonderful for summer colour in shades of mauve and white and, as the name suggests, has the most aquilegia-like foliage.

Many of the recent named forms of thalictrums are varieties of this species, such as ‘Thundercloud’ AGM.  I remember seeing a spectacular plant of ‘Thundercloud’, with wonderfully vibrant flower heads, on one of our garden holidays, but attempts to source and grow said plant have had mixed results! A ‘Small Thundercloud’ has been introduced and the distinction is not always made on plant labels, so, buyer beware!                         

When asking about ‘Thundercloud’ at Dove Cottage, I was told that they felt that ‘Black Stockings’ was actually a better option, and it has certainly become very popular with its black stems.  Sadly mine has suffered a terrible attack of aphids & blackfly this year, which has never happened before, so I have cut it down and am hoping for the best.  Should it not recover, I will definitely want to replace it, as I agree with our friends at Dove Cottage.

Another relatively new form of T. aquilegiifolium is ‘Nimbus’.  Again, the almost black stems contrast beautifully with the mop of white flowerheads, which are loved by bees.  In his RHS blog, Graham Rice speaks of it as follows: ‘Thalictrums have never belonged to the bestselling rank of hardy perennials, but Thalictrum ‘Nimbus White’ might just change that.’

From the internet I see that there is also a pink form that I will want to seek out, and should it be as good as the white form, will hope to add to the collection!

There are so many species of thalictrum but just to mention two other forms that are rather special.  I have, in the garden, the usual form of T. tuberosum, standing to about 35cms topped with small white flowers.  However, there are some very special forms with much larger flowers.  Those with good memories may remember the plant loaned to us by Bob Brown for our Chelsea display in 2010, which he had bred and named ‘Rosy Hardy’.  He has tried, unsuccessfully, to propagate this plant – if he could do so there would be a long queue of customers, and I would be at the head of it.  It has appeared in his catalogue on occasions, and I have tried to buy it, but the young plants have never survived at the nursery.

Another absolute beauty, which I have had twice, but alas no longer, is T. diffusiflorum.  Only growing, in my experience, to about 45cms, the large, intensely blue flowers can almost seem too heavy for the wiry stems.  Elizabeth MacGregor, who sells it from her nursery, recommends keeping it in a pot rather than the open ground; I think the longest I have ever had one is 3 years but, it was beautiful while it lasted!

So, just a small selection of the many forms of this most wonderful and versatile genus, which I hope you will enjoy in your garden.

by Catherine Horwood

A personal review by Judith Ladley

On looking through the April edition of the RHS magazine recently I noticed two book reviews by Fergus Garrett which looked particularly interesting.  The first was a book about Jimi Blake, a recent lecturer at our last Conference, and the second was Catherine Horwood’s biography of Beth Chatto and her life with plants.  This proved the more tempting and having just had a win on the premium bonds (£25!) I treated myself via e-bay.

It is an extremely comprehensive coverage of Beth’s life, telling of her  childhood love of gardening, her education, early marriage to Andrew Chatto and later the many and varied personalities in the world of horticulture who became her friends.   I was particularly interested in Beth’s friendship with Cedric Morris and, later, her association with Christopher Lloyd.

I first learned about Beth Chatto and her nursery through flower arranging classes in the 1970s and by the early 80s decided it was time to take a trip down to Colchester.  Along with three flower arranging/gardening friends the visit was arranged and we decided to call at Bressingham Gardens, then in its heyday, to break our journey.  After a night spent in Diss we progressed on to Colchester and Elmstead Market and after a picnic in the car park (now the gravel garden) we toured Beth’s beautiful garden before progressing into the nursery area (bliss). 

  In her book Catherine tells of Mrs Desmond Underwood’s great friendship with Beth.  I do know we visited Mrs Underwood’s nursery, where she specialized in silver plants, but I did not realise she had such a great influence in starting the nursery.

After a night spent in Colchester we set out for home.  My Austin Metro was crammed full: four ladies and over 60 plants.   It was a long hard drive, but well worth the effort.

I am reading this delightful book slowly – something to look forward to each day, it could not have come at a better time.

Judith Ladley

Publication details

Beth Chatto: a life with plants

by Catherine Horwood

Hardcover: 288 pages

Publisher: Pimpernel Press Ltd; (5 Sept. 2019)

ISBN-10: 1910258822

In common with many horticultural periodicals and websites, we like to highlight a ‘Plant of the Month’.  However, with our climate changing so rapidly as witnessed by the past few mild, wet winters, how do you chose such a plant; should it be one that we would usually expect to flower in the month in question, or one that is actually flowering that month, even though we would not normally associate it with that month?

A few years ago, at another HPS Group’s Day Conference I listened to a fascinating talk entitled ‘When will it flower?’.  After an hour, our very erudite lecturer’s conclusion was basically ‘we don’t know’!  I was reminded of this when recently, at the request of his son and daughter, I have been removing plants from our senior member, David Barnes’, garden.  As many of you know he has recently moved to live with his son, and as the fate of the garden is not known, they were keen that some of David’s plants should be rescued.  On March 2^nd, the friend who was helping me, came bearing a huge clump of Paeonia mlokosewitschii – ‘Molly the Witch’ to you & me – about 15’’ tall, in full leaf, and covered with buds!  It must have been in a very sheltered spot, as my clump at home – an earlier gift from David – was only just peeping through the ground.

In other years, when we have been preparing to create an exhibit at Harrogate Spring Flower Show, there has always been the agonising problem, what will be in flower for the Show?  As you know, we aim to use as many plants as possible that belong to members, but as amateur gardeners we do not have the facilities of the professional exhibitors who can put their plants into cold storage and then on a pre-planned day, bring them out into a controlled temperature to ensure that the plants flower just in time for the Show.  Not that this always works.

In 2009, I was absolutely thrilled when, for the first time, one of my plants was used on our stand at Harrogate.  It was Epimedium ‘Lilafee’ (fig.1) and was completely smothered with dainty mauve flowers.  Being shallow rooted it had transplanted very easily, without disturbance, only a day or two before the Show.  It was a bit of a squeeze to fit it in to the top of a 3lt pot, and I rather begrudged all the compost that I had to use to fill the pot, but no matter, it looked stunning on the stand and created a lot of interest and admiring comments.

As we were doing Chelsea the following year, it was decided that it would be sent, along with various other plants that wouldn’t normally flower towards the end of May, to a nursery in Norfolk who had agreed to look after them, holding them back or bringing them on, as appropriate, so that they would flower for Chelsea.  However, not even the professionals get it right, and by the time we   got to Chelsea, ‘Lilafee’ was well past her best and never made it onto the stand.

Although not not for use at the Show, each year at this time, I hope that my Amelanchier lamarckii (fig.2) will be in flower to use as part of the Easter flowers at church.  Of course this is not helped by Easter being such a ‘movable feast’, but I think in the more than 10 years that I have had it in the garden, I have managed to use it just once, possibly twice at the most.  It really could do with pruning, but I am reluctant to do so as I am always confident that next year will be the one, and I will be able to cut lovely long branches of the delicate white flowers.  This year with, as I write this, just over a week to go to Easter, it looks as if it may be just about right, but of course, thanks to Coronavirus, there will not be an Easter service at church.  C’est la vie!  However, if I were asked to make a choice, it would still be a contender, in my mind, for ‘Plant of the Month’ for April.

How often have we said, when walking round our gardens with friends, ‘you should have seen it last week’ or ‘in a day or two that will be lovely’?  No matter how we try to control nature, in the end plants will do what they want, but surely it is one of the great pleasures of gardening that there is always something to look forward to.

Sue Gray.

Images courtesy of HPS Image Library

Erythroniums

by Eileen Shone

I don’t know when I became aware of these bulbs but certainly for the last 20 years I have had some in the garden. The first were a Mother’s Day gift and they were ‘Pagoda’, a nice green leaf with some light white marbling and sunny yellow flowers that are still going strong under the beech tree in the back garden. Currently I have about 5 clumps all with buds promising flowers in early April.

Searching around plant fairs and our visiting speakers stalls I have found others such as ‘Joanna’ which has yellow flowers that age to an apricot colour. Curious as to their parentage I discovered that ‘Joanna’ is a cross between Erythronium tuolumnense and Erythronium revolutum. Pagoda is also a cross with E.tuolumnense but the other parent is E californicum ‘White beauty’.  I have E tuolumnense and its flowers are smaller and more delicate looking than ‘Pagoda’ and I like its simple beauty. Buds are forming in that one too. I think they appreciated the damp autumn.  Like many genera the plant breeders are busy raising new hybrids.

Then I noticed the leaf form of others like E. dens canis, mottled and spotted making them very attractive.  One of the common names for Erthronium is dog toothed violet and this comes from the shape of the bulb which resembles a dog’s canine tooth. They are also called trout lilies due to the markings on the leaf that look like the markings on the side of a trout. But I digress, soon I was on the lookout for different ones. One of my favourites is ‘Purple King’, which despite having a bearded iris growing on top of it, has come up and is flowering well in the middle of March. 

by Maggie Sugden

Like most gardeners spring is my favourite time of year, although I love all the seasons. Iris reticulata is one of the sweetest spring flowers and if grown in pots outside can flower very early. I dry the bulbs over the summer just in a pot in the greenhouse and in the autumn plant them out in pots. I keep trying new ones and sometimes have failures in fact I don’t seem to be able to grow Katharine Hodgkin at all.

Hellebore orientalis is propagated in great numbers nowadays and we are able to buy a wide variety of different colours. They are beautiful planted on a bank so you can see the centre of the flower but there are a lot being developed now with the flower facing upwards. I love them and have quite a few even though I have a small garden. While they are in flower I have a bowl full of their heads on display inside and it never fails to cheer me up through the bad weather. Happy gardening

Maggie

by Pat Hunter

When I moved to my present garden, snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis, were growing in one large patch under the beech hedge. Over the years I moved them first to the shrubbery, but then decided to move them to the lane side.

I have, over the following years, bought elwesii and woronowii, but no named hybrids, other than Sam Arnott which has now bulked up well, grows in good clumps, is allowed the privilege of a good garden border and smells wonderful early in the year.

Last November, I thought I would like to learn more about a plant that can spread so rapidly around my garden, obviously happy with my conditions. I decided to book for 2 snowdrop days in 2020. My thoughts ran along the lines of, if I book 2, maybe I won’t lose both to bad weather. I booked for the Alpine Garden Society Snowdrop Day at Lilleshall and the Hardy Plant Society Galanthus Day at Tuxford Academy near Retford.

The first event started with snowdrop sales from nurseries specialising in snowdrops before 3 lectures and a hot lunch. The snowdrop sales, as a non Galanthophile were an eye opener, the numbers of varieties (can you tell the differences, really?), the prices, and the number of sales. The most expensive I saw was £500, one was sold as I stood looking at £200! There are people around with deep pockets.

The lectures were good and I definitely came away with increased knowledge. The first talk was from Ian Young who writes a brilliant Bulb Log on a weekly basis about his 900sq.m garden in Scotland which is stocked with many woodlanders and bulbs, but he was not keen to know every snowdrop by name! The second talk was on Poculiform(cup shaped)snowdrops, this is where the inner segments are the same as the outers, so a 6 petal snowdrop? The third talk was “Snowdrop Potential” what is to come, pink snowdrops? The breeders are onto it!

As we have had such a mild Winter I have had no problem attending both events. The second event was the day after storm “Dennis” hit, but as this impacted more on South Wales and Herefordshire travelling East was no problem.

This day also started with snowdrop sales from private member sellers, the costs I thought were comparable to the nurseries, members received payment less a percentage to subsidise the day. I bought a snowdrop!

There were 2 lectures before eating your sandwich, then 2 gardens to visit nearby in the afternoon.

The first lecture was about snowdrops in France and some specials that have been found in the wild. The second was from a lady who gardens near Heidelberg in Germany. She gave a talk on 6 months of snowdrops. This was my favourite of all the lectures as I try to make my plantings span the year, so anything that can cover 6 months in different varieties is worth noting. I made a note of a few names here to spread to either end of the season. From the superb photography here it was also obvious she has some good companion planting in her garden.

I must mention here that there is a large free raffle during the day and I won a snowdrop. It is marked at £50! I now have the pressure of keeping it alive. I hope my theory/reason for attending the day is proved right and snowdrops like my conditions.

The 2 gardens in the afternoon were brilliant early Spring  gardens. The Beeches had a snowdrop collection along a wall top, brilliant for viewing these little gems and Church Farm had plenty of snowdrops, many were named clumps around the garden.

So……last weekend I decided to visit a Yorkshire snowdrop garden.  Bridge Farm House at Great Heck, apparently has 150 varieties of snowdrop. A great mix of Spring plantings, Hellebores, Corydalis, Cyclamen coum along with named Galanthus clumps.

Am I a Galanthophile?  Well, we are now well into Hellebore season, I LOVE them………..

Ypsilandra thibetica. Ticks a lot of boxes!

I know this isn’t the most obscure of plants to be talking about in February but I love it. First of all it comes out in February when there is very little else in flower in the garden (alright there are loads of snowdrops and they are great to see but I don’t find them quite as exciting as some).

Secondly they are just gorgeous to look at. Delicate, detailed and lightly shaded. A flower like this has no business flaunting itself at this time of year, but it does.

And nothing eats it! It looks just ripe to be lunch for something – OK maybe not the slugs and snails at this time of year, but not even pigeons, pheasants or any of those indiscriminate gobblers that spend so much time hanging around in our garden.

Generally it seems pretty bombproof. Once all the plants around it get into gear, frankly we just forget about it, as it becomes lost and neglected under a mass of other leaves. I’m thinking that’s why I’ve never propagated it – division is the way to do it, but first I have to remember it’s there.

We grow it on a raised bank, which suits the plant, because it likes to be moist but well drained, plus it suits us because at that time of year we don’t care to get down to the ground level to admire it. I believe it’s scented too, but I’ve never got close enough to confirm that.

If it were only a little bigger, I’d say it’s a candidate for the perfect early spring plant.