England's Gardens

Clematis 'Josephine' Great article from Garden Forum on pruning Clematis. Pruning is one garden job that confuses many gardeners. And pruning clematis/how to prune clematis is certainly one area that has heads scratching all over the world. You don't have to prune clematis. Pruning can be restricted to: 1) the plants are out-growing their allotted space; 2) the flowers are produced too high up to enjoy. Pruning in the latter case can even be avoided by retraining and tying shoots lower down on the support - say just above ground level. These shoots produce their flowers much lower down. Training shoots horizontally not only keeps the flowers within eye level, but provides better coverage of the support, and the reduced flow of sap encourages even more flowers. Clematis can be divided into three groups when it comes to the subject of pruning, depending on when they flower. Group 1 Early-flowering species clematis (such as Clematis montana, C. macropetala and C. alpina), Th...

I've seen this shrub around Brighton and it has really grown on me. Not literally, of course. It is called Ribes sanguineum, known as Red Flowering Current. Looks great at this time of year and sweet fragrance. Here is the Wikipedia info ... 'It is a deciduous shrub growing to 4m tall. The bark is dark brownish-grey with prominent paler brown lenticels. The leaves are 2-7 cm long and broad, palmately lobed with five lobes; when young in spring, they have a strong resinous scent. The flowers are produced in early spring at the same time as the leaves emerge, on racemes 3-7 cm long of 5-30 flowers; each flower is 5-10 mm diameter, with five red or pink petals. The fruit is dark purple oval berry 1 cm long, edible but with an insipid taste. It is a very popular garden shrub, grown for its brightly colored and scented flowers in early spring. Numerous cultivars have been selected with flowers ranging from white to dark red. It was introduced into cultivation by David Douglas. Na...