Gardening Tips and Advice Week 5

Throughout lockdown it's important to get outdoors, and keep the mind occupied, a great way to combine the two is by doing some gardening.

This week Horticulture lecturer Joanna Loane has provided us with some helpful advice on hellebores and also sewing sweet peas.

Tips and Advice on Hellebores

Hellebores are beautiful perennials that are making their appearance in our gardens right now. With large nectaries, they are an important early food source for insects and some early bees. Cut off the old or damaged leaves to reveal the new flowers coming to life on their elegant stems. Traditional varieties have flowers that face downwards, in fact, in Medieval times they were associated with melancholy, because of their downward facing habit! To be able to really appreciate the beautiful varieties that we have in our gardens, a good tip is to pick some of the flower heads and float them in a bowl of water to create an attractive table display. 

Tips and Advice on Sewing Sweet Peas

Sweet peas are a must for every garden. With their climbing habit they add colour and fragrance throughout the summer, all they need is some support to climb up, and a nice sunny position.  They are brilliant as cut flowers, in fact, it is best to pick the flowers regularly so that they keep producing them! Then, later in the summer, flowers can be left to ripen and form pods, the seed contained can be collected and stored, ready to use next year. 

This video shows a technique of sowing the sweet pea seeds in cardboard tubes to germinate indoors. As an alternative, the seeds can be planted directly into the ground or a pot outdoors. They don’t mind cold, but they need warm soil to germinate, so you will wait longer for them to grow and flower.