Gardening Calendar

Cuttings fall into three main groups, but whichever method you use it is essential that cuttings are taken from healthy plants:

•  hardwood
•  softwood
•  semi-ripe

HARDWOOD CUTTINGS

• Taking hardwood cuttings is one of the easiest ways to produce new plants of Salix (willow),
• Deutzia and many other woody shrubs, and only needs secateurs.
• From autumn to early spring, select shoots produced the pre-vious spring and summer. Only select strong growth and remove near its base or point of origin.
• These shoots – about the thick-ness of a pencil and 23–25cm long – should be cut square below a bud to form a base, at an angle of 35 degrees.

Rooting:

• Treat the bottom 3cm of each cutting with rooting hormone.
• Insert the prepared cuttings into a 12–15cm trench made in well dug garden soil with a 5cm layer of sharp sand for drainage.
• Alternatively plant three or four cuttings in a pot of multi-purpose or cutting compost and place in a cold frame or sheltered part of the garden. The following autumn the rooted cuttings can be carefully planted out in their final growing positions. 

SOFTWOOD CUTTINGS

• These are taken in early to late spring to grow many semi-ten-der plants such as pelargoniums and fuchsias, herbaceous plants and some alpines. Young growth on shrubs such as Rosmarinus (rosemary), Artemisia (worm-wood) and Lavandula (lavender) may also respond well.
• In spring, remove shoots from the parent plant once they are firm enough to handle and not too soft to lose their rigidity.
• Using a sharp knife or secateurs, prepare the cutting by making a cut at an angle of 35 degrees at the base of the chosen shoot.
• Cuttings should be 5–10cm long according to plant variety. If the leaves are alternate on the shoot, make the upper cut four leaf joints above the first cut.
• If the leaves are opposite, make the cut above the second pair of leaves. In both cases make cuts from the buds in the leaf joint.
• Gently remove the lower leaves. If the remaining leaves are more than 3cm long, halve them with a knife, to cut down moisture loss during the pre-rooting period.

Rooting:

• Dip the bottom 3cm of the pre-pared cutting into water. Shake off the surplus then roll the bottom 2.5cm in rooting hormone.
• Insert cuttings into seed trays or pots containing sharp sand.
• Place the tray or pot into a propagator – preferably one with a heating control.
• Close all vents and shade the cover with a newspaper. After 7–10 days, open the vents and remove the shading.
• Once the cuttings make new shoots at the leaf joints, this is a good indication that rooting has taken place. Remove the tray or pot from the propagator.
• When new growth on the rooted cuttings reaches more than 3cm long, pot them into individual pots of general potting compost.
• In four to six weeks they should be large enough to plant in their final growing positions, provided all risk of frost has passed. 

SEMI-RIPE CUTTINGS

• Semi-ripe cuttings of many shrubs and climbers can be taken in late spring to midsummer. Success is not guaranteed but it’s worth a try.
• The method or preparation is the same as for softwood cuttings, but use shoots from the current season’s growth that have begun to firm.
• The use of a propagator is more important and the availability of controllable heat will enhance the success rate. Rooting is slower than softwood cuttings but once new growth has reached 3cm the cuttings can be potted on into individual pots.
• Grow young plants on in a frost free light-protected environment such as a greenhouse or garden frame with no additional heat. Plant out in the garden or into larger pots the following spring or autumn. 

Thanks to the HTA

No garden should be without a tree: they add height, structure and a feeling of permanence and timelessness. But if your garden is small, it's hard to imagine shoehorning in a tree as well.

Well: that depends on what kind of tree it is. Of course if you plant large trees in small gardens they swamp the space and make it difficult to grow anything else – but there are dozens of smaller trees which never get much more than 7m (25ft) high and behave themselves perfectly.

You'll find a superb selection of smaller trees in our garden centre in Mullingar: to help you choose, here are our top ten favourites.

• Japanese maples are all fabulous choices. Acer griseum has curling cinnamon bark, A.  palmatum var. dissectum has filigree leaves that turn scarlet in autumn, and low-growing A. shirasawanum 'Aureum' has broad, graceful leaves in brilliant yellow.
   
• Silver birch (Betula utilis var jacquemontii) has pure white bark that shines out in a winter border: grow a multistemmed specimen for maximum impact.
   
• Crabapple (Malus x robusta) has the bonus of a heavy crop of edible fruit in autumn for making delicious crabapple jelly. 'Sentinel' is brilliant red, while M. x zumi 'Golden Hornet' has yellow fruit.
   
• Star magnolia (Magnolia stellata) is the one to choose if you don't have enough room for the big magnolias: it stays to a compact 1.5m tall and still has big, pure white whirligig flowers in spring.
   
• Strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) gets its name from the fat red fruits it produces in autumn. It's great value, with glossy evergreen foliage and small bell-like white or pink flowers in spring.
   
• Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) is an easy-to-grow small tree about 5m (16ft) tall. It looks good most of the year, with white blossom in spring, good autumn colour and vibrant red berries.
   
• Snowy mespilus (Amelanchier lamarckii) is another hard-working tree, with delicate white blossoms arriving at the same time as the coppery young foliage in spring, followed by spectacular autumn colour.

Please ask the staff in our Mullingar garden centre for more information and advice about choosing trees for small gardens.

A sheet of glimmering water, dancing with dragonflies and sparkling with lush, exotic flowers is an eyecatching centrepiece that's the perfect finishing touch to your garden. Water features create a restful space after the fireworks of your main borders, and they'll attract wildlife into your Mullingar garden like nothing else.

Ponds are surprisingly low-maintenance considering what a wonderful contribution they make to the garden, requiring just a little attention every few months to keep plants and wildlife in harmony. You'll find all the specialist equipment you need in our garden centre to keep your pond picture-perfect all year round.

Spring:

• stock up on new water plants once the water has warmed in mid to late spring, and plant them straight away making sure they're at the depth stated on the label.
• divide overgrown pond plants, cutting the rootballs into several clumps to replant into aquatic baskets filled with specialist aquatic compost.
• check pumps or filters are working ready for the season ahead and repair or replace if necessary.

Summer:

• pull out blanket weed by twirling a cane in the water to twist it round the end and pull it out.
• scoop duckweed from the pond surface regularly with a pond net.
• feed waterlilies with specialist fertiliser, available as pellets or tablets from our garden centre.
• top up the pond in dry weather as necessary, using saved rainwater if you can to avoid pollution.

Autumn:

• net your pond against falling autumn leaves, as if they're allowed to decay they'll pollute the water.
• pull away the foliage of your plants as they die down before they can rot into the water.
• now is a good time to clean your pond if the sludge is building up too much: only pull out half the sludge each year to avoid harming wildlife.

Winter:

• drain water from pipes and remove pumps from the pond to prevent them cracking in the frost.
• melt a hole in the ice regularly with a pan of hot water to let oxygen through for plants and fish.

Please ask the staff in our garden centre in Mullingar for more information and advice about looking after ponds.

Combining plants in containers to make a display that looks good all year round is something of an art. It's fairly easy to create a fabulous display in summer: simply choose from the vibrantly colourful bedding plants available in our garden centre in Mullingar from late spring.

But what if you want colour from the same container in March, as well as autumn fireworks and some winter colour too?

Here are some great combinations of plants you can find in our garden centre to put together in a roomy container, giving you a potted display that looks good from January to December.

Container 1: Green and gold for shade
Shopping list: Hosta 'Gold Standard' (or any green and gold variegated variety), Carex oshimensis 'Evergold', Saxifraga x urbium.
Central to the display in this container is a broad-leaved hosta with striking golden-edged leaves; filigree leaves of evergreen Carex make a contrasting fountain of gold. Underneath the small, frilly leaves of London Pride are topped with summer flowers.

Container 2: Red, red, red
Shopping list: Cordyline australis 'Torbay Red', scarlet pelargoniums, Oxalis triangularis, Tulipa praestans.
The evergreen purple spears of Cordyline erupt like a firework from a sea of scarlet in summer, with the deepest purple, clover-like leaves and pink flowers of the oxalis at their feet. Early-flowering tulips start the flaming reds from spring onwards.

Container 3: Fabulous foliage
Shopping list: Cryptomeria 'Compressa', Heuchera 'Amber Waves', Heuchera 'Plum Pudding', bronze chrysanthemum.
This container relies on colourful, evergreen heuchera leaves for its impact, though the star of the show in autumn is the low-growing conifer, Cryptomeria, which turns fabulous bronze. Choose a red-bronze variety of chrysanthemum to complement the other colours.

Container 4: Black and white
Shopping list: Phormium 'Platts Black', Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens', Galanthus nivalis, Tulipa 'Purissima', white chrysanthemum.
Find a super-modern container in matt black for this fabulous combination of white snowdrops and tulips against evergreen near-black foliage of New Zealand flax and black, grass-like lilyturf. A pure white chrysanthemum keeps the contrasts going into autumn.

Please ask the staff in our Mullingar garden centre for more information and advice about planting containers that look good all year.