Latest news with #Agapanthus
Scottish Sun
5 days ago
- Climate
- Scottish Sun
I'm a gardening pro – this is exact amount of seconds to water plants for during a heatwave & the best time of day
Plus we reveal UK's best new plants on the market - and scroll down to win a Lawnscare flower bundle HOT STUFF I'm a gardening pro – this is exact amount of seconds to water plants for during a heatwave & the best time of day Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) It's been really hot this week and the plants are really feeling it. High temperatures can cause wilting, leaf scorch, stunted growth and a reduced ability to photosynthesis. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 Let your lawn go brown - if its healthy it should grow back 2 Check there's no hosepipe ban in your area - if there is use a watering can Credit: Getty There' s all sorts of way you can reduce the pressure on the plants to cope. If you've got plants in pots - move them into the shade - and group them together - so they give each other protection. Water early in the morning before it starts getting really hot - so it doesn't all evaporate - or if that's not an option - when the sun's gone down. However morning is the best option - as slugs move around at night and love the damp soil. It's best to give them a really good soaking once or twice a week rather than a light water daily. And experts reckon you should count to between 20 and 25 seconds as you water each plant - to make sure the water soaks down through the soil to the roots. It's not what we want - but there's no problem with letting your lawn go brown - if it's healthy it will cope - and the green will return when there's a bit of rain. Raise your mower's cutting level and let the cuttings fall as mulch on the lawn - to keep in moisture. Keep weeding - so they're not competing with the plants you want in your outside space. Save and store any rainwater to reuse in your garden. If you don't have room for a water butt - just leave a few brightly coloured buckets around to catch any rain. 6 ways to get rid of slugs and snails Or you could splash out on a dipping tank - which looks lovely and stories water. You could also set up an irrigation system - although these are costly - but a leaky hose can work just as well. Choose drought tolerant plants like Agapanthus, Lavender, Geums and hardy Geraniums.
The Irish Sun
5 days ago
- General
- The Irish Sun
I'm a gardening pro – this is exact amount of seconds to water plants for during a heatwave & the best time of day
It's been really hot this week and the plants are really feeling it. High temperatures can cause wilting, leaf scorch, stunted growth and a reduced ability to photosynthesis. 2 Let your lawn go brown - if its healthy it should grow back 2 Check there's no hosepipe ban in your area - if there is use a watering can Credit: Getty There' s all sorts of way you can reduce the pressure on the plants to cope. If you've got plants in pots - move them into the shade - and group them together - so they give each other protection. Water early in the morning before it starts getting really hot - so it doesn't all evaporate - or if that's not an option - when the sun's gone down. However morning is the best option - as slugs move around at night and love the damp soil. Read More Gardening It's best to give them a really good soaking once or twice a week rather than a light water daily. And experts reckon you should count to between 20 and 25 seconds as you water each plant - to make sure the water soaks down through the soil to the roots. It's not what we want - but there's no problem with letting your Raise your mower's cutting level and let the cuttings fall as Most read in Fabulous Keep Save and store any 6 ways to get rid of slugs and snails Or you could splash out on a You could also set up an irrigation system - although these are costly - but a leaky hose can work just as well. Choose drought tolerant plants like Agapanthus, Lavender, Geums and hardy Geraniums. Also in Veronica's Gardening Column this week... The best new plants on the market - plus a competition to win a Lawncare flower bundle A BRAND new cherry tree called Japanese Lantern has won the prestigious From growers The winners were… Annuals, Tender Perennials: LaBella Dahlia Grande Chocolate Rose - from Cacti & Succulents: Cotyledon Green Footprint - from Flowering Houseplants: Cyclamen persicum Super Serie Dragon Deep Blue - from Foliage Houseplants: Calathea 'Velvet Glory' - from Herbaceous Perennials : Hosta 'Silly String' - from Shrubs (including Conifers): Hydrangea Zeta Noir - from Trees Prunus Sumaura Fugenzo Japanese Lantern - from Frank P Mathews Ltd (BEST IN SHOW) WIN! Our friends at NEWS! Dragon's Den OG Theo Paphitus has launched a new online garden centre at JOB OF THE WEEK Pinch out the tips of fuchsia to encourage more flowers. Pick sweet peas to get more blooms. Stake tall perennials like Goura, deadhead spent geraniums, For more tips and news, follow me
BBC News
18-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
How a 'Barnsley lad' set his sights on Chelsea Flower Show gold
When seven-year-old Steven Hickman was given cacti to look after over the summer holidays, little did he know it would spark a life-long passion for plants, one that would eventually see him become a RHS master into a mining community in Barnsley, his route to the "haute-couture" of the international gardening scene, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, was perhaps not the most at Askham Bryan College in York and Cambridge University Botanic Garden, Mr Hickman spent years abroad in Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and Fiji to perfect his craft."I started it as a hobby and by accident found out you could make a decent living through growing plants," he said. African lily Now aged 68, he has been running Hoyland Plant Centre with his wife and children for nearly 40 years and holds National Collections of Clivia, Tulbaghia and the early days Mr Hickman had not yet turned his attention to the Amaryllidaceae family, focusing instead on cultivating conifers, shrubs and was when a friend gave him several agapanthus plants, commonly known as African lily, that he realised their potential."We started growing them and saw that Agapanthus sold really quickly, quicker than the other stuff we were growing," he said."We eventually packed in doing all the other varieties and just specialised in Agapanthus and that's what we've done ever since." Hoyland Plant Centre has since been specialising in cultivating Agapanthus, Clivia and Tulbaghis plants and produces over 50 of their treasured cultivars are Agapanthus Hoyland Blue, Hoyland Chelsea Blue, Margaret, Silver Anniversary and Yorkshire Rose."I love producing new varieties and to see plants flower for the first time ever and you know you are the only one in the world ever to see it - it gives you a buzz," he of their first, a large leaf variegated Agapanthus called "Yorkshire Dream", was displayed at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2007. "[Our] first ever Chelsea was very nerve-wracking," Mr Hickman recalled."I don't think we slept well for a few weeks before we went."Since then, Hoyland Plant Centre has won countless silver and gold medals and has firmly established itself at the very top of the horticultural world."I think we are the only exhibitors in Chelsea to get four double golds in a row," he said, hoping for similar success at this year's show, which opens to the public on displays have drawn royal interest in the past, with King Charles known to engage the growers in conversation. "What is really unusual, when you end a conversation with him, he remembers the following year exactly where you left off the year before," said Mr Hickman."For such a busy man who meets all the people in the world, it's unique."This year's display at Chelsea and the upcoming RHS Wentworth Flower Show will once again pay homage to miners such as his father, who worked at Elsecar Main Colliery for 45 and Agapanthus will bloom from the bells of brass instruments, previously used in the colliery band, which Mr Hickman fondly remembers playing in as a potted tomatoes and geraniums as a little boy alongside his father, he said being able to share his passion and business with his children Colin and Heather felt "special". Coincidentally, this year marks both the family's 40th year in business and Mr and Mrs Hickman's 40th wedding anniversary."It's a bit surreal," he said."When we first started, when it was just a field of nothing to what we have got today and where we are today."I wish my father and my mother were alive to see it, they'd be dead chuffed."When asked what became of the cacti he was looking after all these years ago, he laughed: "They never got took back to school - I kept them." Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
