Features

…good access and exit windows, most greenhouses don’t have bumblebees visiting. You can transfer pollen from flower to flower by rolling the centre of the flower between your thumb and…

…Geoff and Richard pictured at Driftwood in 2016. Image: Geoff Stonebanks The Flower Power Effect My first year of using Flower Power was 2017, back when the garden was very…

…Plants like the flowering currant Ribes sanguineum, with its drooping bunches of deep pink flowers, each one full of nectar. And when each cluster has 15 to 20+ flowers, and each shrub…

…of winter flowering pansies that will flower for weeks on end. Or plant some primulas, there’s such a fabulous choice of colours, you can opt for the soft buttery yellow…

…new, huge-flowered kinds with flowers like petunias. They are just too big and have lost the innocent elegance of the wild plant. In addition, some are just so big that…

Even though plastic flower pots are recyclable, few get a second life before disposal. Jean Vernon offers five alternatives to plastic flower pots…

…gardens. Grow things like wild carrot (also fab as a cut flower), corn poppies, teasels, tufted vetch and knapweeds. The flowers will provide nectar and pollen for the pollinators, and…

…enjoy them in-situ as the flower buds form, swell and explode into the most exquisite garden flowers. The lowdown on herbaceous peonies Herbaceous garden peonies die back to ground level…

…and RHS Chelsea Flower Show Judge, “When asked what my gateway plant was I thought I better call my mother to check that my memory has served me right. She…

…those that are flowering would benefit from fortnightly feeds of Flower Power Premium Plant Food. Deadheading to remove spent flowers when they go over will encourage further flowering, keep the plants…

…during the summer can produce cloud-like masses of soft pink flowers that can quite literally hide the foliage. While the summer flower colour will have faded by winter this grass…

…throw the plant out when it has finished flowering, with some careful pruning, your plant will grow fresh new flower spikes and flower several times each year. Step 1 While…

…good compost, such as Richard’s Flower Power Premium Peat-Free Compost, Flower Power Premium Multi Purpose Compost or Flower Power Ericaceous Compost for acid-loving/lime-hating plants. Adding Container Magic to the compost…

…leaves yellowing or dropping prematurely and a point-blank refusal to flower. Although the opposite can also be true; thinking that they’re about to die, some plants flower more profusely than…

…bees, collect pollen to feed their offspring. Growing open flowers with easy access to the nectaries makes feeding more efficient for insects. Long tubular flowers are only suitable for the…

…flower disk is packed tightly with tiny florets each filled with nectar and bearing pollen. These include the single flowered dahlias, the collarette dahlias and the peony flowered dahlias. The…

…facing flowers of Hepatica acutiloba and the long lasting, soft lavender blue flowers and extra sepals of Hepatica nobilis Multipetala. A vigorous and free-flowering hepatica that blooms during February and…

…feed, like Flower Power, as a “top up” feed. For a fast food fix for your plants, choose to apply Flower Power as a liquid feed. It gets to work…

…blimp like mullein moth caterpillars, the plants will recover. They will grow back stronger and flower a bit later and longer. It’s a bit like nature doing the Chelsea Chop….

There’s a huge diversity of gardens at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show from small balcony and container gardens to the magnificent show gardens. And everything in between. Some are…

…Chelsea Flower Show. There’s a hotly contested Floristry & Floral Design competition at every show, with the most fabulous displays of not just cut flowers, but dried flowers, art and…

…flower prolifically all summer long, producing flower heads packed with fabulous buds that burst to reveal soft, silky petalled flowers that will last for several days. The plants are well…

…Image: Geoff Stonebanks On a shopping trip to Columbia Road Flower Market in London a few years ago, I came upon this beautiful metal trug which is the perfect foil…

…soon after flowering to avoid removing dormant buds. Shrubs that fall into this camp include flowering currants, lilacs, flowering quinces, forsythias and deutzias. How to prune deciduous shrubs A key…

…everything always looks its best. These days I use Richard’s Flower Power.  Back in 2016, during a visit to see Driftwood, Richard offered me the chance to try his Flower…

…keeps it producing new flowers. Use free draining multi-purpose compost and make sure you feed your plants. A high potash formula such as Richard Jackson Flower Power will give your…

…flower to bulk out a posy of flowers. Things like Alchemilla mollis and Verbena bonariensis are great fillers for a vase of cut flowers and of course every posy needs…

Geoff Stonebanks has been opening his garden to the public for fifteen years, raising thousands of pounds for charity. Every January he starts to plan and prepare his garden at…

Houseplants are on trend and after its popular debut in 2021; the RHS Chelsea Flower Show sees the return of the Houseplant Studios to Ranelagh Gardens around the side of…

…Richard Jackson’s Premium Flower Power plant food – the results are absolutely amazing. Everyone who visits my garden comments on the size of my plants and the fabulous flowers. All…