Tag Archive: christmas


PicPost: Hi Polar

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28/12/2013

PicPost: Hi Polar

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Norfolk in Poetry: December Day

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21/12/2013

out-of-focus-christmas-lightsDecember Day

‘This shortest day of all the year was born

When fiery cloud-banks filled the eastern sky.

Concealed in grey since that belated dawn

The sun remains, and all around rise high

The latticed traceries of sleeping trees.

Beneath them now the woodland wanderer sees

So little living, little colour too,

For winter’s dull, damp blanket hides from view

The fallen glory of the year grown old,

And future beauty waiting to unfold.

And so to Christmas, festival of light,

When families in joy and hope unite,

To celebrate the birthday all remember,

Bringing a blaze of brightness to December.’

Jack (John) Kett

from ‘A Late Lark Singing’  (Minerva Press, 1997)

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GQT: The holly bears a berry- or not

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10/12/2013

holly with berriesSo it’s coming up to Christmas and those traditional displays of greenery in the house like Mistletoe, Ivy and of course Holly are being assembled as I write. But someone in Cumbria has a problem. George Alloway in Cockermouth asks:

‘My holly bush never seems to have any berries, but my neighbour’s has loads. What’s wrong?’

George, it sounds like a classic case of ‘not the right holly’, or rather that you probably have a male bush and your neighbours a female- only the female will produce fruit (berries) and this plant is probably being pollinated by yours!

Formally clipped Hollies at Kew Gardens

Formally clipped Hollies at Kew Gardens

Hollies (Ilex) mainly come in male and female varieties and so you need both to ensure that you have berries. Hollies, apart from their decorative value around the house at Christmas, are a wonderful small tree or shrub to have in your garden, especially in a border that runs into woodland (as is the case in Old School Garden) – they are a classic ‘understorey’ or edge of woodland plant.

So, if you want berries, make sure you have a mix of male and female plants or go for a self fertile variety like ‘J.C. van Tol’ which is a regular fruiter, has oval-elliptical leaves and grows into a conical shape up to 6m. It also can be grown as a standard tree (i.e. having a bare stem of at least 1 metre length).

Ilex ‘J.C. van Tol’
Ilex x altaclarensis ‘Golden King’
Ilex aquifolium ‘Silver Queen’

You could also buy a female variety to sit alongside your other, probably male, bush. A good variety is ‘Golden King’- despite the name, this is a female! Just to confuse matters further there’s a lovely male variety called ‘Silver Queen’ – variegated with broad and irregular white-yellowish margins and dark olive-green centres, this one grows to 4-6 metres high. It has the added feature of new leaves being tinged light pink.

I guess in these days of tolerance on sexual orientation, we shouldn’t get too het up about these naming confusions!

Old School Gardener

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Amaryllis on the Way!

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02/12/2013

You might recall that a month or two back one of my blog followers, Elena, asked what to do with a couple of Amaryllis bulbs she’d bought. I gave her (or rather a useful video did) the tried and tested advice of potting them up and putting them somewhere warm and dark until there were signs of growth aboove ground. I’m pleased to say that her two bulbs are coming on well- here’s the latest evidence, courtesy of Elena, who’s living in Bergamo, Italy.

Old School Gardener

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PicPost: Blickling at Christmas

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01/12/2013

PicPost: Blickling at Christmas

We’ve just returned from a seasonal trip to our local ‘stately home’ – Blickling Hall. The gardens are all wrapped up for the winter, but the Jacobean house and immediate grounds were magical- Christmas trees alight, beautiful flower arrangements, volunteers in period costume, crafts for sale and bands playing carols. December it is and the Christmas mood begins….

Old School Gardener

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PicPost: Thoughts of Christmas

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27/11/2013

PicPost: Memories of Christmas

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GQT: Amaryllis and Over Wintering

Filed under: Feature plants, Gardening techniques, GQT: your gardening queries answered — Leave a comment
19/10/2013

Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) 'Candy Floss'

Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) ‘Candy Floss’

This week’s question comes from a recent blog follower, Elena who lives in Bergamo, Italy:

“Yesterday I bought three big Amaryllis bulbs, any tips?! There was a Dutch flower stand in my city and I couldn’t resist!”

Elena, I can do no better than show this useful video of the way to pot these wonderful bulbs. After you’ve completed the potting up, place the pot in a warm, dark place and watch for signs of new leaves. Once these are showing, then place the pot in a bright, sunny, frost-free place indoors – a windowsill would do fine. Planted about now you should have some glorious colour at Christmas!

amaryllis christmasWhilst on the subject of keeping things frost-free over winter, there is one golden rule when trying to protect tender plants over the coldest months: don’t over water.

When temperatures are low, the great enemy of plants is dampness, as rot may set in. During very cold spells it is usually best to withhold water entirely. Plants that are dormant or resting should in any case be watered very rarely, perhaps just enough to prevent complete drying out. Plants with fleshy roots, and bulbs, corms, tubers, rhizomes and other storage organs must be kept quite dry and frost-free or they will rot. They should be stored in containers of clean, dry sand or gritty compost. If stored in a greenhouse, the atmosphere must also be kept on the dry side, and should be ventilated when the general temperature allows. If you have an extra cold spell and you can’t keep the air temperature up, you can protect your plants to some extent against frost damage by covering them with horticultural fleece, dry newspaper or ‘bubble wrap’ plastic anchored with stones.

dahlia tubers

Dahlia tubers are best lifted, cleaned off, dried and then stored in sand or gritty compost before significant frost

Old School Gardener

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