Nurture the developing fruit by feeding every week with Yates Thrive Citrus Liquid Plant Food. It contains phosphorus, which helps promote quality fruit and prevent thickened rinds.
An apple a dayGrowing your own apples used to need a big backyard that had room for a large, spreading tree. Now there are varieties of apples that can grow in a sunny spot in tight spaces as well as pots, meaning that home grown apples can be a reality for many households.
The Ballerina range of apples are columnar, which means they have an upright habit, making them ideal for small and narrow spaces. Ballerina “Polka” has medium-sized round fruit, which have green skin that develops red areas where exposed to the sun.
The apples are crisp and juicy and are delicious when eaten straight from the tree, but can also be used for cooking and drying. A mature tree grows to 3.5m tall and 60cm wide, smaller if grown in a container.
In spring the tree is smothered in very pretty white and pink flowers, which bees adore, and produces fruit on spurs close to the main trunk. Polka will need a pollinator to ensure the best possible fruit set and other compact apples such as Ballerina Waltz and Bolero are ideal.
When planting apples in containers, choose a good quality potting mix like Yates Premium Potting Mix and a large pot with good drainage. Yates Tuscan Edge Pots are ideal as they are self watering, which means they have a reservoir of water at the base of the pot, which helps prevent plants from drying out and lengthens the time between watering. They are also lightweight, making them easy to transport and move around.
Spring flowering bulbsAs soon as bulb foliage pops up out of the soil, start feeding each week with Yates Thrive Flower & Fruit Soluble Plant Food. The fast- acting nutrients not only encourage foliage growth and lovely flowers but also help to promote healthy bulbs that will flower again next year.
Watch out for snails and slugs, which can damage the newly emerging bulb leaves. Control snails and slugs with a light scattering of Blitzem Snail & Slug Pellets.
Mother’s Day Gift IdeasA pretty container planted with Dianthus Memories would make a gorgeous Mother’s Day gift. Memories is a compact, richly-fragrant dianthus that is covered in masses of double white flowers from spring to late summer. It forms a compact 30cm high clump of attractive blue-green spiky foliage and creates a beautiful display at the front of a border or as a low massed planting.
Dianthus love a sunny spot in the garden, are quite dry tolerant once established and are also ideal for pots. Remove spent flower heads to keep the dianthus looking tidy and promote prolonged flowering and feed with Yates Acticote Pots, Planters & Garden Beds, which provides an instant release of nutrients as well as slow release feeding for 12 months.
Chrysanthemums are one of the most popular Mother’s Day gifts. They are a type of daisy that come in a wide variety of very pretty colours, from white and cream through almost every shade of pink and even light green. They can have open, simple flowers or have masses of petals. Chrysanthemums are often treated as a short lived plant, but with the right care they can grow for several years. Here’s some tips on how to keep your special chrysanthemum thriving:
• Keep the pot in a bright position indoors where you can admire the flowers.
• Water the pot regularly but not so that the saucer is full of water. It’s best to water the potting mix rather than over the foliage — this helps to minimise diseases.
• Trim any spent flower heads and leaves regularly to keep the chrysanthemum looking tidy and help promote more flowers.
• After a few weeks the plant can be moved outdoors and planted into a sunny garden bed or transplanted into a slightly larger pot, such as a Yates Tuscan Edge Pot, with good quality potting mix.
• Feed each week with Yates Thrive Roses & Flowers Liquid Plant Food in autumn to promote a flush of new foliage and flowers.
• Start feeding again in spring.
Floral frenzyAutumn is the perfect time to plan your late winter and spring flower show and sowing flowers from seed is an easy and economical way to achieve masses of colour. Here are some beautiful flowers that can be sown in autumn:
• Aquilegia Columbine — sometimes called Granny’s Bonnets are delightful cottage style plants with unusual and very attractive flowers in cream, pink, yellow and lavender combined with dainty fern-like foliage.
• Calendula Pacific Beauty — taking only 10 weeks to flower, calendulas put on a bright show of apricot, yellow and orange flowers. Calendula flowers can also be added to salads.
• Cornflower Mystic Blue — creating a beautiful cottage meadow feel, this is a hardy, easy-to-grow variety that produces an abundance of beautiful double flowers in rich shades of blue.
• Yates Cornflower Double Mixed — if you can’t decide which cornflower colour to grow, this mix of pinks, blues and whites creates a gorgeous display of flowers that also makes a great cut flower.
• Yates Dianthus Double Pinks — long- flowering with masses of scented fringed blooms in shades of pink, red and white. Also makes a lovely cut flower. — Courtesy of Yates
