Real World Gardener-Horticulture, Gardening, Learning to Grow

How to Get Longer Lasting Flowers on Real World Gardener

 TALKING FLOWERS

Tips For Longer Lasting Flowers in the Vase

Flowers are so uplifting and whilst they’re lovely in the garden, in the home, you’ve got them to enjoy for longer.
After all, you’re not watching your flowers that are in the garden for very long.

• 
  There are plenty of 'old wives tales', and just plain outright myths about  what to do to your flowers to make them last past 3 days in the vase. 
• Ever heard of putting a copper penny in the vase water? Well it's sounds like it could work but in reality, it doesn't do anything for the flowers.
• What about dissolving an aspirin in the water? That's sheer nonsense.

• So how can you make the most of your cut flowers?

I'm talking with Nadine Brown, florist, floral designer and educator of www.wildflorastudio.com.au

who shares her tried and true tips from over thirty years of experience in the flower business.

• Some of those tips you may have heard before on my Real World Gardener program and one of them is that flowers are ethylene sensitive.
• That means flower sellers on the roadside are not just selling your flowers, but a whole bunch of ethylene laden flowers that have been covered by exhaust fumes. 
• That also means that your fruit bowl of bananas, apples and pears are also emitting ethylene which hasten the demise of your precious flowers if they're nearby.

 

Nadine recommends that 

• The best place to buy your flowers is from the grower or from a florist.
• The next best tip is clean fresh water every couple of days is the next best thing for your flowers.  
  • If you recut the stems on an angle as you do that, then you're increasing the vase life of your flowers. Doing this under water prevents air bubbles from blocking any uptake or food or water too.
  • Filtered water isn't totally necessary.
• Coming second those first tips is a spoonful of vodka!!

Is scalding the stems a myth or fact?

You probably have heard of scalding hydrangea stems by placing those woody stems in boiling hot water for 30 seconds to a minute, then straight into cold water.?
Perhaps you thought that was a bit of fuss over nothing?

The truth is this works for woody stems such as hydrangeas and roses, plus a few others like lavender and poppies. Not all flowers though.

Using boiling water or scalding, expels air bubbles or trapped air from the stems, which as before, blocks uptake of water and nutrients.

For more tips listen to the podcast and watch the tutorial that Nadine has generously provided on 'Care and Condition for your flowers.

The link for the Care and Conditioning tutorial is just one of over 50 tutorials in Nadine’s membership library,

//vimeo.com/485281174/2ac20b9565

So let’s listen to the podcast.

If you have any questions you can email us Realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2rrr, PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675.

Mixed Shrub Borders are in again on Real World Gardener

 DESIGN ELEMENTS

This is a series about foliage colour and contrast and textural contrast  for year round interest. The focus is also on non-general lines instead of production grown planting. In other words, plants that may not necessarily be easy to find but so worth the effort. We kick off the series with mixed shrub borders.

1. MIXED SHRUB BORDER

 Are they a thing of the past or a living process that still has relevance for the modern smaller garden?

Hibiscus capitolia 'Apricot Sport'

This kind of design style has been used for hundreds of years because it has great garden appeal.  There is no reason for it be considered irrelevant or 'old hat,' simply because it is so adaptable. It can be either formal or informal, full of colour and contrast or not, annuals, perennials and shrubs.

Today though, it's all about the shrubs and is a start of the design series that covers everything from mixed shrub borders, sub-shrubs, climbers, hero trees to best garden bromeliads.

I have to say, Peter Nixon  and Real World Gardener's contributor for this series, focuses largely on what he calls cool sub-tropical garden or ‘cool sub-trops’ which he refers to often.

Don’t be put off if you live in a different climate because often plants adapt to a variety of climatic conditions and are worth a try.

Peter mentions the following shrubs as his 'best.'

Posoqueria longiflora

• Tibouchina multifida-not more than 1.5m in height.

• Hibiscus capitolio  'apricot sport'-double flowering hibiscus, slightly pendulous. 2.5m in height.

• Posoqueria longiflora-commonly called Japanese Needle flower. Has perfumed flowers with a long white tube, height to 3m in semi-shade.

• Brunsfelsia macrantha, 

• Acokanthera oblongifolia - Bushmans Poison, 

• Gardenia grandiflora ’Star’, 
  

•  Rosa sanguineus, 

• R. chinensis ’Ten Thousand Lights'

 

Let’s find out more, I'm talking with  Peter Nixon of Paradisus garden design. www.paradisusgl.peternixon.com.au,

Lemon Verbena in the Kitchen Garden

KITCHEN GARDEN  

LEMON VERBENA

Did you think that herbs were just for making tea?

Maybe not, but some herbs have endless uses, and this week I’m featuring the herb lemon verbena (Aloysia citriodora) that’s larger than you would expect to find in a herb garden so probably could fit into the back of a border but in a sunny location.

Lemon verbena photo M Cannon

• How would I describe the scent of lemon verbena?

I would say that lemon verbena has a bright, slightly sweet flavour with a strong hint of lemon.

The strong lemon scent of this herb is far less overpowering than the lemon flavor and fragrance of lemon balm, lemon thyme, lemon mint, and lemongrass.

What does it look like?

Lemon verbena is a vigorous growing deciduous shrub to 3 metres tall by 3 metres wide. 

The leaves are a lime green and lanceolate, and flowers appear in late spring until the end of summer almost. 

The flowers are white, quite small and appear in a panicle.

• My plant is quite an old plant that I prune each winter to about 1 metre off the ground.

How to use lemon verbena?

• As a flavouring in kombucha
• Add leaves to a sorbet or ice-cream when making
• Poach stone fruit in a sugar syrup with lemon verbena leaves
• Infuse lemon verbena leaves in olive oil or vinegar-250 ml of olive oil with 6 leaves or to taste
• Fish en papiotte with lemon verbena leaves

Corinne's Top Tip: 

Why not try  a gin and sonic with muddled lemon verbena. Made with half soda water and half tonic so less calories. 

Listen to the podcast.

Marianne is talking  Corinne Mossati, founder of  www.thegourmanticgarden.com

Gourmantic garden website. You can also follow Corinne for more delightful ideas on Instagram.