Pots of ideas

THE weather has remained relatively mild through November and many tender bedding plants have managed to hold on to their leaves and a few flowers.

However, now that we draw to the end of the month it is time to clear the decks and fill pots with a selection of plants to give some winter cheer to the garden.

Over the past few weeks, I have been gathering together plants to put into containers that will stand in the yard visible from our kitchen window.

The plants include two ferns, a couple of hardy cyclamen hederifolium, calluna vulgaris and some miniature ornamental kale.

To supplement the collection, I have added a bright-stemmed Swiss chard and some ophiopogon planiscarpus nigrescens that were already in the garden.

There are no ferns in our garden. For some reason they have been overlooked, despite the beauty of their foliage and their usefulness in cool, shady spots. The two I have were not chosen with particular care or knowledge, they were half price in a local garden centre and looked interesting.

Those with more knowledge would have realised straight away that the choice of one - cyrtomium falcatum, the holly or fishtail fern - was not the best of decisions since it isn't very hardy and won't survive temperatures much lower than 0C. It is a very attractive plant, though, with shiny dark green fronds that will eventually grow up to 60cm (two feet) with a spread of about half that.

The best way to deal with it is to keep it in a separate container and keep and eye on the weather, bringing it indoors when the temperature is set to drop.

The other fern, polystichum setiferum, the soft shield fern, was a much better choice, since it is fully hardy and able to withstand temperatures down to minus 15C. It is evergreen or semi-evergreen with long, finely divided fronds and prefers cool part shade and moist soil.

A mature specimen can grow up to 90cm (three feet) tall with a similar or greater spread making it much too big for a small winter collection but a young plant is ideal to give a temporary display of interesting foliage.

With the ferns is an early winter-flowering heather, calluna vulgaris 'Aphrodite', a new addition to this large family of plants; it spreads over five pages in the Plant Finder.

This variety has dark foliage and deep crimson buds that open out into long-lasting pink flowers. It should be said that this type of heather needs acid conditions, although I have found that a neutral soil to be all right for one season, so long as this is corrected after that.

A clump of small, ornamental kale complements the colour of the heather with their purplish pink central leaves that are surrounded by dark green ones. These plants come in a range of colours and are usually available at the end of the summer from garden centres and nurseries although they can also be grown from seed. Cabbage ornamental 'Tokyo mixed' F1 is available from Mr Fothergills costing £1.85 for 40 seeds, while Flowering Cabbage 'Northern Lights Mixed' F1 can be sought from Thompson and Morgans at £2.49 for 50 seeds.

In another pot, I have grouped together ornamental cabbage, cyclamen, ophiopogon and a red stemmed Swiss chard grown from seed in the spring.

This sowing was successful and produced several plants that are dotted about the garden and planted in pots.

The stems are glorious especially now that many other plants have died back and the light can shine through highlighting the reds, oranges pinks and yellows.

We had young leaves in salad and older leaves steamed and now they are getting a little tough they form a good part of the guinea pigs' diet. It will be interesting to see if they make it through the winter and grow again next year.

The black strappy leaves of the Ophiopogon planiscarpus look good against the red while the tiny white and pink flowers and marbled foliage of the cyclamen form a neat clump with their colours again highlighted by those of the cabbage.

Weekend catch-up

Tidy up the garden removing diseased leaves and cutting back dead stems. Sweep paths and patios, moving pots and containers to get behind them - it's surprising how much stuff gets trapped there over the summer. Leave ornamental flowerheads such as those on sedums, hydrangeas and grasses, as with luck they will remain attractive until next spring. It's surprising how much better the garden looks after a short time spent with a brush and pair of secateurs.

Gardening TV and radio

Tomorrow

9am, Radio Leeds, Weekend In The Garden. Presented by Joe Maiden and Tim Crowther.

Noon, Radio York, Down To Earth. William Jenkyns catches up with gardening ideas and features from around the region. (Repeated at 5pm).

2pm, R4, Gardeners' Question Time. From Devon with Bob Flowerdew, Anne Swithinbank, Matthew Biggs and chairman Eric Robson. Gardening Weather Forecast is at 2.25pm.

Tuesday

8pm, BBC2, Gardens Through Time. This week a look at the 1950s, which saw a mix of new and old in the garden with Mondrian-inspired, one-colour beds as well as more traditional ideas reassuring a population still recovering from the war.

Friday

8pm, BBC2, Hidden Gardens. Chris Beardshaw looks at the restoration of the Gibberd Garden in Essex.

8.30pm, BBC2, Gardeners' World. Monty Don looks back at a second busy year at Berryfields including the building of the fruit and cottage gardens.

Updated: 08:54 Saturday, November 27, 2004