Hello everyone, I need your help. I’m working on an article about variegated forms of the Mediterranean spurge, Euphorbia characias, as well as variegated varieties of the related Euphorbia amygdaloides and the hybrid between the two, Euphorbia x martini.

They can look very dramatic, but many gardeners have trouble keeping them for more than a year or two. So I’d appreciate it if you share your experiences. Which variegated varieties have you grown? Did they thrive or sulk? What conditions produced plants that grew well from year to year? Open ground, or containers? Which varieties did well, and which failed?

The varieties I have in mind include: ‘Ascot Rainbow’, ‘Burrow Silver’ (aka ‘Benger’s Silver’, ‘Silver Sunbeam’, ‘Honiton Lace’), ‘Emmer Green’, ‘Frosted Flame’, ‘Glacier Blue’, Helena's Blush ('Inneuphhel'), ‘Kestrel’ (above, click to enlarge), ‘Silver Shadow’, Silver Swan ('Wilcott'), ‘Tasmanian Tiger', ‘Vanilla Swirl’ and ‘Variegata’.

Please add your thoughts in the comment box below or, if you’d prefer, email me your thoughts.

Many thanks, in advance, for your help. The piece will be published in the RHS magazine The Plantsman in December. I’ll be sure to let you know when it’s available.

I’ve written quite a few pieces about old fashioned hardy chrysanthemums over the years. Three months ago I published a piece in Britain’s Amateur Gardening magazine while the first, I think, was for Horticulture magazine in the USA many years ago. Click the image to read the Amateur Gardening piece, click the link to read the Horticulture piece.

So why am I mentioning them now, in the middle of winter when there's snow on the ground? Because now’s the time to order plants for spring planting.

First, by way of a quick recap, what’s so good about them?

• They’re hardy – all over Britain and down to zone 5
• They’re easy to grow – in any sunny place where the soil is not soggy
• They increase well – so can be divided after a year or two
• They’re resilient - many have been found flowering happily in long neglected gardens
• They’re good cut flowers - and last longer if the lower leaves are removed, the stems frequently re-cut (not crushed) and with flower food in the water.
• They’re elegant – not like those footstool mums we see on sale in pots in September
• They come in a vast variety of flower forms, sizes, colors and styles.

Here are some good places to order old fashioned hardy chrysanths in Britain.
Halls of Heddon
Norwell Nurseries
Southview Nurseries
Woottens of Wenhaston
World’s End Garden Nursery

Here are some good places to order old fashioned hardy chrysanths in North America.
Niche Gardens
Natureworks

Anyone know of any other good sources?

And be sure to check out Britain’s National Collection of hardy chrysanthemums.

Just to let you know that I’ve started a new series for the British magazine Which? Gardening. It’s called Plant Partners, and on the back page of every issue of 2011 I’ll be recommending seasonal planting combinations to help you create attractive plantings right through the year. For the first issue, I’ve chosen white stemmed Rubus cockburnianus and the stinking hellebore, Helleborus foetidus.

Which? Gardening is one of a number of impressivelt impartial magazines, without advertising, produced by Which? (it was called the Consumers' Association when it began in 1957). Which? is a bit like the US magazine Consumer Reports and they also publish magazines on travel, money and computing as well as the more general Which? Magazine.

The January 2010 issue also includes tests on seed compost, shredders and whether it’s practical to grow peppers outside in Britain. My piece is not available online, so try a short trial subscription.

Here’s a quick guide to my work which has appeared online since my last update six weeks ago. Quite a variety, I hope you find something interesting.

The Plantsman magazine

My report on the first year of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Plant of The Year award can be found in The Plantsman magazine.

The Guardian newspaper

My choice of ten fragrant plants for winter gardens appeared in the gardening pages of The Guardian newspaper


Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit plants

Continuing my choices from plants awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:

Ten autumn colour garden trees which have received the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.

Ten variegated evergreen shrubs for winter which have received the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.

Be sure to take a look at all my selections of AGM plants

Continuing my choices of plants recently award the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.

Kniphofia ‘Bees Sunset’

Chrysanthemum ‘Perry’s Peach’

Be sure to take a look at all the latest AGM winners I've written up.


Royal Horticultural Society New Plants blog

Over on my my Royal Horticultural Society New Plants blog I’ve posted about these plants:

Echinacea ‘Magic Box’: New from Thompson & Morgan

Coreopsis ‘Unbelievable’: New from Mr Fothergill’s Seeds

Anemone Pretty Lady Series: new dwarf Japanese anemones

Zinnia ‘Zahara Double Fire’: New from Plants of Distinction

Potato ‘Sunrise’: New from D. T. Brown

Petunia ‘Black Velvet’: New for 2011

Petunia ‘Phantom’: New from Thompson & Morgan

Two new variegated hebes


Transatlantic Plantsman blog

And here on my Transatlantic Plantsman blog, these are my recent posts:

Guest post: judywhite goes nuts for nuts

Mad planting ideas for our country town

£40 (that’s more than $60) - for a fescue!!

Victory over the plant police – for now at least

Blueberries in fall color

Witch hazels at RareFind Nursery

 

My last post was prompted by an article from the latest issue of The American Gardener, the members' magazine of the American Horticultural Society.

What I saved for this separate post was the news that The American Gardener has gone digital. It's now available in a lovely digital turn-the-page-on-the-screen format - and it looks amazing (left, click to enlarge the first page). You can turn the pages, search it, zoom in to individual pages - scale it up to full screen size and it still looks great. There's even an interactive Osmocote ad. And, I might say, it's a step ahead of its venerable equivalent in Britain - no sign of the Royal Horticultural Society magazine The Garden going digital.

The first digital issue of The American Gardener is available free to anyone who cares to take a look - and you should. From the next issue it will only be available to AHS members - seems fair enough, they're the ones who pay their subscription after all. You can join the AHS here.

Time to update you on where some of my recent work has been appearing.

The Guardian newspaper
The first of a number of pieces for Britain’s finest national newspaper. I had a weekly column in its sister paper, The Observer, for a few years. It’s good to be back.
New Plants

Royal Horticultural Society website
I’ve started two new monthly series for the RHS website, both featuring plants with the prestigious RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM).
In one I highlight one of the latest plants to receive the AGM
The first features Dianthus Candy Floss ('Devon Flavia')
In the other I pick ten Award of Garden Merit plants of a particular type or for a particular use in the garden
The first is on plants for summer containers

Amateur Gardening magazine
I’m now writing occasionally for Amateur Gardening magazine.
My first piece is about the RHS Plant Finder. It’s not available online but you can subscribe to the magazine.

New Plants blog
My Royal Horticultural Society New Plants blog continues to thrive. In the last three weeks I’ve featured these new plants.
Coreopsis ‘Red Shift’
Golden rosemary – Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Wilma’s Gold’
Digitalis purpurea ‘Serendipity
Iris ‘Impressions de Jouy’ and ‘Rose de la Vallée’
Hosta ‘Sarah’s Sensation’
Chelsea Plant of the Year - winners
Chelsea Plant of the Year - finalists

The Plantsman
June issue
I have a piece on hardiness rating systems, it’s not yet online but I hope it will be soon.

The Garden
June issue
California poppies (Eschscholzia)

If you follow me on Twitter I'll let you know when new pieces are published.

Last month I published two articles on recent and upcoming developments in hellebore breeding. Both are now available online at the Royal Horticultural Society website.

In the December issue of the Royal Horticultural Society's membership magazine The Garden I wrote about hybrids between the Christmas rose, Helleborus niger, and other hellebore species. Read it here.

In the December issue of Royal Horticultural Society's subscription magazine The Plantsman I've focused on  hybrids between H. niger and the Lenten rose, H. x hybridus. Read it here.

 

My article on the Christmas rose, Helleborus niger, and its hybrids is in the December 2009 issue of the Royal Horticultural Society's magazine The Garden. And while, of course, I urge you to become an RHS member and benefit from your free members' copy of The Garden - you can also read the article online.

You can’t write if you don’t read. We’re both writers and famous for checking more books out of the local library at one time than anyone else. Put something in front of us – we’ll pick it up and read it. I’ll turn over a plate to read the backstamp and put on my specs to read the tiny copyright notes on a box of tissues.

By the side of the bed is a partially organised pile of reading matter, spilling out of its formerly organised piles… The bedside cabinet, of course, is full to bursting. Same as last time.

As I slipped on a copy of The Legislative Gazette (riveting stuff) that I picked up in the New York state capital, Albany, last week I thought perhaps it was time for a clear out and another look at what was actually there. Click here for a look at the bedside situation in April 2007. Here goes.

Books
The Book Stops Here (A Mobile Library Mystery) – Ian Sansom
A very strange mystery. 1) The author’s name does not appear on the cover or the spine. 2. Nothing happens for the fist 100 pages. 3. There is no corpse. Very sparky and strange. Excellent.
Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
Pity the type the type in this old paperback is so tiny – that always puts me off reading it again.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court – Mark Twain
Confession: I’ve never read this, that’s why it’s there waiting.
Birds of Pennsylvania – James S. Wakerley & Lilian D. Wakerley
From the local library sale, can’t pass books on our local birds.
Carp Fishing on Valium – Graham Parker
Great autobiographical short stories from the great rock ‘n’ roller. Turns out that when he was a kid he was fishing the same streams, at the same time, as I was. Bought on amazon.com for one cent.
The Sound of the City - Charlie Gillett
Classic history of rock ‘n’ roll. Superb.
Cinderella Sims – Laurence Block
One of the best mystery writers, this is a very old one disinterred.
Across the River – C. Solimini
Another mystery and not quite throw-it-at-the-wall-in-a-fury bad but unreadable. It might have helped if the text was not printed crooked on every page. Have they no respect?
Strange Brew: Eric Clapton and the British Blues Boom – Christopher Hjort
Boggling, day-by-day history of the British blues boom from 1965-1970. To be discussed on my radio show tomorrow.
Planthropology – Ken Druse
An uncorrected proof for review. Yes, they still create uncorrected proofs to send out. But the many pictures are only in black-and-white.
White Bicycles – Joe Boyd
Musical autobiography from the record producer who worked with Pink Floyd, Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake – and was Stage Manager of the Newport Folk Festival the year Dylan went electric. Fascinating, but low on insight and, oddly for those 60s days, almost completely devoid of sex.
Grow Your Own Veg Journal – Carol Klein
(No, not Grow Your Own Veg Journal – if you see what I mean) For review. One of those books with blank pages on which you’re suppose to add your own notes – which no one ever does because they can’t bear to deface a book.
Piece of My Heart - Peter Robinson
Excellent mystery sent to me by a listener to my radio show as it deals with a murder at a Sixties rock festival.

Magazines
Milford Magazine - Our excellent local monthly.
The Week (latest US edition) – Valuable digest of papers from around the world for those of us too busy to rad the Sydney Herald and the Irish Times.
New Yorker (three back issues) – Oh dear, getting behind…
Nutrition Now – the truth about what we eat. Excellent.
Hanburyana – Erudite botanical journal from the Royal Horticultural Society.
Journal of the Hardy Orchid Society – Enthusiasts only.
MacUser (UK edition) – The best UK Mac magazine.
Garden Media Guild News - trade journal for garden writers, photographers etc

Various
Black Bear Film Festival programme book – from last week’s local festival.
How to Write: Journalism – free with The Guardian newspaper in England and given by my mother. How long have I been doing this?!
Local newspapers – back issues of them all, too many to list! Front page main headline in a paper from a  nearby town: Hawley Approves Nail Salon. Oh, bursting with news, we are…
WJFF Volunteer Handbook – new edition from my radio station
Seed catalogs – they seem to arrive every day… moved into a file of their own.

And, like last time, no picture of the disorganised pile…

My article A new dawn for Echinacea features in the new issue of The Plantsman magazine from the Royal Horticultural Society. It's a survey of recent breeding in Echinacea hybrids with lots of pictures.

You can read the article online here.

There's more on echinaceas, including a link to a slide show of Thompson & Morgan's breeding-in-progress here.

Royal Horticultural Society members can subscribe to The Plantsman here (please do, it's an excellent magazine). Everyone else can subscribe here.

These are the rates for a one-year subscription:
RHS members
UK members and affiliates £25
Overseas members and affiliates £38

Non-RHS members
UK £32
Overseas standard mail £45