Are you a member of the RHS - The Royal Horticulture Society? If you’re not, but are an avid gardener, you should think about becoming a member of this group. They are a gardening charity based in the UK, and their mission is to encourage people to learn about horticulture and generally become involved with everything to do with plants, mainly through their wonderful magazine, 'The Garden'.
We cannot make a winter garden like this in our climate, but we can use some of the items to add interest in the colder months of the year, such as Midwinter Fire Dogwood and yellow-leaved conifers, or even the dark green ones which stand out in the snow.
It’s not terribly expensive, somewhere around £60 for the year, but they have lots to offer, even for people who live outside of England. The cost of the magazine alone pays for your membership, and anything you do on top of that, such as visiting one of the garden shows they are involved with (such as the Chelsea flower show and the Hampton Court flower show) are a plus. There are special rates for members to attend these fantastic shows, the likes of which we no longer have here, and there are many smaller gardens to visit besides the two mentioned above.
The RHS magazine is a very good one to refer to no matter where you live. I am including here a very quick run through some of the interesting articles to be found in the magazines I show you in the pictures above. They range from how to wean your garden off of peat moss, to using bare root plants instead of potted plants, identifying certain insects especially if they are non-native and cause problems in their new environment, and often there is information about the plant hunters who found many of our common plants in the wild Tibet in China etc.
Everything you always wanted to know about growing potatoes!
And mistletoe…while we are not able to grow mistletoe in Ottawa, we can certainly find them in florists’ shops in the winter. And it is just interesting to know what they are and how they grow.
A winter walk in England at Hyde Hall, one of the five RHS display gardens. The willow is pollarded (the plant cut at the top, year after year to encourage tall shoots) which are then trained into interesting shapes.
Every few magazines, there is an article about insects. A good summary of how to tell what it is and whether or not it is invasive or native. Often they show the many stages, or instars, of each insect so you know whether an insect is ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
Just for inspiration … this one reminds us to use the sun to backlight stunning plant material to great effect.
Someone has been doing this out there for ages, but maybe you had not thought to grow bulbs in pots this way … new ideas each month!
The Magazine contains lots of information about the fascinating lives of the plant hunters and the plants they discovered. Here, Frank Kingdon Ward, who sent back the first viable seeds of Meconopsis betonicifolia — the Himalayan Blue Poppy — from Tibet.
Information about the Garden Shows put on by The Royal Horticultural Society. Who would not like to attend The Chelsea Flower Show? There are members’ rates for tickets as well as members’ days.
I would highly recommend thinking about becoming a member of the RHS, as it gives such a good range of ideas and information for our gardens even though they are on the other side of the Atlantic.
Happy gardening!!!