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Roses are beloved in gardens across the UK, admired for their timeless beauty and variety. To ensure your roses flourish with abundant blooms next spring, it’s vital to provide...
Alternative Christmas Décor: 10 Festive Holiday Plants for UK GardenersIf you’re tired of the usual Poinsettias, Mistletoe, Christmas Roses (Hellebores), and Holly arrangements, why not explore something fresh this year? These 10 stunning plants will bring festive cheer with their classic Christmas colours—red, green, and white—while offering a unique touch to your home or garden. Whether grown indoors, on a balcony, or used as a striking centrepiece for your Christmas table, these plants are sure to impress.
1. AnthuriumWith glossy green leaves and bright scarlet flowers, Anthuriums are a hardy houseplant perfect for December. Their long-lasting blooms and elegant form make them a sophisticated choice for holiday décor.
2. Ardisia crenataAlso called the "coral plant," Ardisia produces clusters of vivid red berries in winter, alongside starry white and pink flowers in summer. Its compact size and festive colours make it ideal for indoor displays.
3. BouvardiaThis charming indoor plant blooms from October to December with fragrant tubular flowers. Available in white, pink, or red, Bouvardia is an excellent choice for creating a delicate yet festive vibe.
4. Callicarpa bodinieriKnown as the Beautyberry, this plant is perfect for balcony displays or as a temporary indoor showpiece. Its shiny, metallic purple berries and orange-tinged leaves bring a unique twist to traditional holiday colours.
5. EcheveriaA rosette-shaped succulent, Echeveria adds elegance with its fleshy green leaves that develop red tips in bright sunlight. This subtle red-green colour pairing makes it a modern alternative for Christmas decorations.
6. KokedamaA Japanese planting style, Kokedama involves growing plants in a moss-covered ball of soil. This creative display method works well for small ferns, ivy, or flowering...
Winter Blooms: 10 Plants to Brighten Your Terrace During the Cold Months
Though winter bloomers are fewer, they bring vibrant colours that can rival summer plants. Here’s a selection of hardy plants that flourish during the UK's coldest months:
Snowdrops are well-suited to the British winter, often flowering even in snow from December to February with their iconic white blooms. Varieties like Galanthus alpinus, Galanthus nivalis, and Galanthus elwesii are all striking.
Calycanthus...
When and How to Plant Daffodils: Autumn Bulb Planting Guide (UK)
One of the best reasons to plant daffodils is that they’re among the first flowers to brighten up your garden next year, blooming from March through to June. Daffodils (Narcissus) are autumn bulbs that should be planted between October and December, ready to bloom the following spring.
Daffodils are easy to grow both in pots and directly in the garden, and they’re hardier than many other bulbs, able to withstand the colder British weather. Unlike some other bulb plants, daffodil bulbs don’t need to be dug up and stored over winter. Left in the ground, they’ll produce additional bulbils, increasing the number of flowers you’ll enjoy year after year.
Daffodils come in more colours than just white – there are many hybrid varieties, offering a range of shapes and shades. The more delicate botanical varieties have smaller flowers, while large-cupped daffodils can grow up to 45 cm tall.
Planting Daffodils in Pots and Gardens
Before planting daffodil bulbs, it’s important to prepare the soil. In the garden, loosen the soil with a spade to ensure it’s soft and well-draining, as bulbs dislike sitting in waterlogged conditions. Incorporating a granular fertiliser designed for flowering plants at this stage will help give your bulbs a nutrient boost. After about a week, plant the bulbs with the pointed end facing upwards, at a depth twice their diameter.
For planting daffodils in pots, use compost suitable for flowering plants and place a layer of expanded clay pellets or gravel at the bottom of the pot to improve drainage. The nutrients in potting compost can deplete over time, so to keep your daffodils blooming beautifully, use a liquid fertiliser for flowering plants, mixed with water, every 15 days from February to April.
Daffodils thrive in sunny locations but can also do well in partial shade.
Water regularly, especially...
The range of vegetables you can grow in autumn is expanding, partly due to warmer temperatures. If the weather stays mild, especially in the south of the UK, you can continue harvesting crops like Tomatoes, Peppers, and Aubergines into October! Some summer vegetables, such as Swiss Chard, Green Beans, Pumpkins, and Courgettes, will also keep producing if the conditions are right.
If you can protect your garden with a greenhouse or polytunnel, your growing season can be extended even further. With these, you can create a more controlled and warmer climate, allowing you to grow a wider variety of crops, even those not typically suited for autumn in the UK.
For a productive autumn garden, it’s a great idea to focus on winter-cycle vegetables. Here are 10 vegetable varieties perfect for autumn planting in the UK!
1. Autumn Cabbage
Cabbages, Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli, and Savoy Cabbage can be harvested right into late winter, provided they were sown during the summer. Autumn Cabbage (Brassica oleracea capitata) can withstand cold temperatures down to 8°C. Early varieties are sown from August to October for harvests between March and June.
2. Onion Sets
In autumn, you can also plant onion sets for harvesting from March onwards. There are plenty of onion varieties to choose from, with some planted in spring for summer harvests and others in autumn for spring harvest. For example, planting autumn onion sets in September ensures a spring harvest.
3. Broad Beans
Broad Beans are an easy-to-grow, highly productive legume. They can be sown at different times depending on your location. In southern parts of the UK, they can be sown outdoors until October, while further north, it’s better to wait until February or March.
During the summer, lawns endure greater stress and wear. By utilizing advanced products and following some simple practices, we can maintain the health and appearance of our grass while promoting its resilience.
The range of new variegations and sizes is continuously expanding, offering the right variety for every situation. For example:
Ivy is also known for its medicinal properties. The leaves and young branches are used in herbal remedies for coughs and bronchitis, often combined with thyme to help thin mucus.
Growing Tips for IvyIvy requires low maintenance and tolerates shade but prefers bright positions without direct sunlight. In low light, the leaves may lose their variegation. It withstands cold down to -2°C but suffers in excessive heat, so in summer, it needs ample watering once or twice a week, while in winter, watering every 15 days is sufficient.
Resilient and hardy, ivy adapts to any soil as long as it is fertile, well-drained, and always slightly moist. From April to September, it is recommended to add a liquid fertilizer for green plants to the watering every 15 days.
Ivy grown on walls should be pruned in February-March and again in summer to shorten branches that have grown too long. It is easy to transplant and propagates...
Scabiosa plants, known for their colourful blooms, are perfect for creating a garden space that attracts bees and butterflies, which are drawn to the plant's pollen and nectar. Scabiosa is a perennial herbaceous plant celebrated for its long flowering period, which extends from June to October.
Varieties and Appearance
Scabiosa stems can reach a height of 40-50 cm, making them excellent for brightening up flower beds and borders. They also serve well as cut flowers
Ideal Growing ConditionsScabiosa plants are sensitive to frost below -5°C and may lose their leaves and aerial parts...
Climbing Hydrangea (Hydrangea petiolaris)The Climbing Hydrangea (Hydrangea petiolaris) is a robust and vigorous climbing plant, ideal for adding autumn charm to your garden. It thrives in shaded areas and can withstand temperatures as low as -20°C without special care.
In June, its stunning cream-colored flowers bloom in flat corymbs about 20 cm wide. The plant's deep green, heart-shaped leaves turn a brilliant yellow in autumn, contrasting beautifully with its dark red branches.
Cultivation Tips for Climbing HydrangeaThis plant excels on walls, tree trunks, and trellises, forming a lush, ornamental curtain of foliage that can reach up to 10 meters in height. It also serves as an effective ground cover for large trees. Thanks to its aerial roots, which securely grip any surface, it doesn't require additional supports, making it an excellent alternative to ivy for quickly covering shaded walls.
Climbing Hydrangea can be grown in large pots on a terrace or directly in the garden. It prefers locations shielded from direct sunlight to prevent soil from drying out and leaves from getting damaged. This plant is resilient to both cold and intense heat and thrives in slightly acidic, well-drained soil.
During spring and summer, keep the substrate consistently moist with regular watering. In winter, reduce watering to prevent waterlogging. Regular pruning of spent flowers and spring fertilization with organic fertilizer, repeated in autumn, will promote prolonged blooming.
An interesting aspect of Climbing Hydrangea is its ease of propagation by cuttings. At the end of summer, take a 7 cm cutting from the lateral shoots, root it in a mixture of peat and sand, and then plant it in a new pot.
