Plant questions with pictures

I was doing some gardening at the weekend, and I took a long hard look at some of the plants I have planted since we moved in 3 years ago. They are now established, but not necessarily growing as I'd like, so I need to know how maintain them to optimise their good looks. All tips gratefully received!

1.



Dog pee - in your opinion, is it easier to reseed yellow patches or to cut out the afected area and to patch it up with ready-made turf?

2.



A jasmine. It has climbed across the trellis nicely, but all new growth seems to be at the top. How do I encourage it to grow new shoots & to flower further down?

3.



A honeysuckle. Same problem as above.

4.





An ancient climbing rose. This was here when we moved in. I have struggled to get it to perform well. Every year, it is strongly affected by disease and loses a lot of its leaves. I take all the new shoots and take them off to the side to encourage flowering, and it gets pruned every autumn, but it still looks rubbish, as you can see. It is also naked near the bottom. Sometimes I wonder whether I should cut it right down to the ground or something.

5.



This plant used to look lovely, but it's now all staggly and naked. Should I replace it with a new one, and if so, what is it called?

6.



This is a lavatera. it seems not to have enjoyed the winter we've had. It DOES have some new shoots, but not very many, and they are TINY. Is it worth keeping it in the ground or should it go?

7.



A buddleja. The same problem as No 7. I have another buddleja which has lots of new growth, this one is looking pathetic. Should I give it the benefit of the doubt?

 

The climbers - Jasmine and Honeysuckle look like they need cutting back, but AFTER flowering this year, otherwise you won't get flowers on them until next year. Sadly, that's what they do, head for sunlight leaving them bare at the bottom. Or, if you're really unlucky, they head ovver your fence, into your neighbours garden and flower on that side! Jasmine can take being cut back hard, not sure about honeysuckle...

Can't help with the rose...

The purple flowering plant is a perennial Wallflower, Erysimium. But a short lived perennial. It looks like it wants to continue flowering and will do so, but you can cut it back in autumn and it might return, or might not.

The Lavatera is another short lived perennial and it looks like it's had it. Winter can be hard on them, I lost one as well.

The Buddleia should bounce back, tough as old boots they are.

 

Hi there RosieMongrel

Yes, that picture of your inherited climbing rose illustrates exactly why I have mixed feelings about them. Flowers lovely, habit pug-ugly. Despite your best efforts to train the new shoots, all you have are bare thorny stems shooting skywards and then a rather pathetic pom-pom of leaves on top. I'd be tempted to get rid of it and start again with something else. If you want to keep it, grow something in front which is tall enough to disguise its bare legs. And invest in a good rose spray which will keep the diseases under control.

 

Thanks for the replies so far. As for pruning the jasmine and the honeysuckle after they have flowered - that makes sense. But how do you do it? Do I just lob everything off about 30 cms off the ground or what? That would make for a very empty trellis. :(

Also, I never feed any of the plants in my garden, apart from the roses. Should I be mulching the climbers with horse manure like I do the roses? Or do they not need or want that kind of thing?

I had not realised that there are some plants that are perennials but just not as perennial as others! Looks like I'll be buying quite a few new plants then.

Finally, I had meant to ask: I need something that I can use as low maintenance, easy ground cover (not too tall). I have some yellow marjoram which does a good job of covering empty soil and proving a sort of backdrop for some of the shrubs, but I don't know of any other possibilities that would work in a similar sort of a way. Any suggestions?

 

I would only like to comment on the lawn.

I have the same problem for at least 30yrs, and the only way to stop it is to get rid of the dog, which I guess your not going to do.:thumb:.

So just put up with it, I do.

 

Maybe you could take the jasmine and honeysuckle down in stages, so it isn't such a shock to them and to you?

Yes, there are some perennials that are definitely short lived!

 

May I just point out that Jasmine IS NOT a climber, it is what is classed as a wall shrub. And should be treated like a shrub.:gnthb:

 

There are plenty of ground cover plants to use - the choice could be influenced by the degree of shade/sunlight. I like to use Hostas and Epimedium but there are plenty of others like Periwinkle/Pachysandra?, etc..
Have had the same problem with the climbers and wall shrubs, currently my climbing roses are ready to flower in the gutters!!

 

Hello Rosiemongrel

I suspect this isn't telling you anything you don't know already, but here are a few hints on pruning and training climbing roses, cribbed from my trusty gardening book:-



Training rose stems as horizontally as possible helps to thwart their natural tendency to form long bare leafless canes which just shoot straight upwards.

Since you are dealing with an old, neglected rose which looks as though it never had any obedience training in its youth, you should also (it says in my book) cut one or two of the old main stems back to about 30 cm from ground level to encourage new shoots to grow - nice bendy ones which you can train properly. Chopping all the old stems back at once might be too much for your rose. I have done this myself and the rose did survive, but it threw a major sulk for a while.

 

Hardy geraniums look good, both leaves and flowers. Hack 'em back when they have flowered once, and you should get a decent second flush. Also not too invasive. Some even retain their leaves over winter, although most of them die back. Brunnera varieties do well in shady / semi-shady spots - I have several 'Jack Frost' in my garden and they are pretty good. Heucheras also work, and many of the newer types are evergreen, if a bit less flashy in the Winter season. Wish I could grow them - I have honey-fungus in my soil, and they seem rather susceptible to that,

Helen.