Butterfly pea (Clitoria ternata)

I have just discovered this fabulous, fast-growing climbing plant from the pea family. We are probably going to have to grow it as an annual in the UK as it just doesn't do cold winters and you can buy seed easily enough. It will grow quickly and flower in the first year. It has oval mid-green leaves and large large, slightly funneled purple-blue flowers with white throats followed by long ornamental pea-pods. I have just planted it here in the garden in Turkey, so I will report on how it fares, as in our mountain top village, winters can be cold, ferociously windy, although thankfully frost free.  I've put it against a sheltered wall so, expect it to behave as a perennial - fingers crossed.

Still have the worst lemon tree on the planet. Something is ailing it - as nearly a year on I have one lousy, shrivelled lemon and  feeble foliage. Maybe a root problem? Or may be something boring into the bark?  The orange next door is positively blooming, so I really am at a bit of a loss why the old lemon is so dire and there is nothing more deeply unattractive than a meagre fruit tree. Any suggestions welcome.

Summer flowering bulbs

Ah - spring has sprung and that's official. I try to keep visits to garden centres to a minimum - all full of ghastly Easter eggs and useless bits of frippery, that you could almost forget that they really should be all about plants. Nurseries are my thing. However, I had need of some seeds ASAP for an overseas  friend and as I was wandering around the garden centre the other day I was surprised to see what a good selection of summer, autumn flowering bulbs they had. If you want to add more intricate layers to your garden planting, shoot out or go online and get some choice plants to enjoy later.

The huge Crinum powelli bulbs, available in both pale pink and white flowered varieties should set you back £2.00 -3.00 each, but will bulk up into a robust colony in three years or so provided they're planted a sun-baked hot spot, giving you lavish, exotic blooms for late summer to autumn. An old favourite Acidanthera 'Muriele' (Gladiolus callianthus) will give height (about 90cm/36in) to your borders with their graceful arching stems topped with exotic white, fragrant flowers with sooty-maroon centres.

Off you go then, spend, spend, spend!

THIEVING GOATS & GARDENERS

Just returned from a landscaping project in Turkey and my belief that Euphorbias are repellent to goats is irrevocably proven. The little blighters will graze on anything lush and green in the garden but all the euphorbia now in full florescent flower studded down the hillsides remain pristine and unmunched.

Leading us neatly to the small problem with the orange/lemon trees, recently planted in (what I consider to be) elegant avenues in a client's garden. In this case  it is not the goats doing the pilfering, but the gardeners. 

You may patiently explain to them, with multiple hand signals and full-blown interpreters that whilst it is perfectly OK to supplement their three squares a day with whatever fruit happens to be ripening that month, ultimately they are they are there to look after the garden whilst an owner is absent. 

So they take two or three oranges a day each to eat with their meals ... then at the end of the day they fill buckets with nine kilos or more of any ripe fruit to take home for the family, leaving me to account for the disappearing fruit phenomena to the owners. The garden owners (quite understandably are deeply suspicious) and believe that since they have never seen a fruit ripen in their garden, let alone ever tasted any of them, I must have somehow planted non-fruiting trees!

It is almost impossible to try to convey to the Turkish gardeners that we in Northern Europe like to grow plants for ornamental purposes. They seem amazed and staggered by this ethos. Why on earth would you grow something that ultimately won't bear fruit or supplement the daily diet in some way? Well, if you are a poor family working the land, understandably ornamental gardens just aren't that high up on the agenda. So when I stand there getting all arty-farty, trying to convey I would like the heads of the trees pruned to make large round lollipops, all they see is that I am removing potential fruit bearing limbs.

So you can see what we are up against. Still, I shall keep repeating my mantra in the hope that one day soon, they will understand our position. 

In the meantime, a kilo of apples, oranges, lemons, pomegranates etc a day, keep the owners at bay.

Gifts for Gardeners on Valentine Day

MY TOP SIX GIFTS FOR VALENTINE' S DAY

1. The biggest bunch of flowers your budget can afford - I never tire of being bought flowers

2. Subscription to their favourite  gardening magazine

3. Any of the PG Wodehouse novels; the Everyman series has wonderful cover illustrations too; not about gardening at all,  but guaranteed to bring an easy smile

4. A fragrant shrub; How about Lonicera fragrantisimma for winter perfume; Daphnes for winter/spring perfume and Philadelphus 'Virginal' for light orange scent in summer?

5. If money is no object - buy your beloved a hot tub to help soothe those gardening aches and pains
6. Sign them up to my blog- informative, FREE and fun.

SNOWBOUND - ESCAPE TO THE VILLAGE

Ah at last - the snow has gone. It took me two days to shovel my way to freedom and boy was I glad to see another human face. As I walked up to the village, after three days of increasing cabin fever I felt like I was on the set of one of those disaster films where you awake to find you are the only person left on the planet. Drama Queen - me? Surely not.

Anyway up. Now the snow has melted you can see what has become of your garden plants. Survived better than you expected? See, plants are tougher than they look. They certainly fare better than most of us. I forgot to strap up two cabbage palms, (Cordyline australis)  - they hate snow sitting in their crevices look sorely sorry  (sound like anyone you know?). Their leave are flattened, pasted to their stems forlornly hang-dog. One of them is a definite goner, with a mushy stem from freezing and thawing. The other will take a few months to brighten up but will be fine. See - it pays to dash around with the fleece. However, I was saving my energy for my snow escape and I knew this would be the likely consequence of my neglect. If I am to be honest, I really did not like the bronze one anyway, it's a sort of lack-lustre-dull-neither-here-no-there colour. I prefer the red and green cordylines so divine intervention has killed it off for me. Anyway, planted out a few new Hellebores, which I squeezed like sponges as I took them out of their pots, before planting. Very very wet. Still they will be happy in their new home. I always have a little chat with my plants, just to see how they like things and to reassure them how much they are going to like it in my garden. It's soothing. Whether they reciprocate I cannot tell, but they grow happily for me so they must appreciate my efforts.  

Roll on spring.

Happy New Year

It occurs to me as we look back over the triumphs and disappointing debris of the old year, that it is just as well none of us really knows what lies ahead in this fresh, pristine new year - a snowfall yet unblemished by our trials and tribulations.

We have every reason to remain optimistic at the beginning of 2010. For some of us it will be a better year and others of us it may prove to be even more difficult. But as none of us know what 2010 will bring let's try to embrace the new year with optimism and cheerfulness and see if we can't keep that going as a mantra for the months to come. Yes we are going to have a few pitfalls, but some unexpected good fortune may equally be on the cards.   Nature, being what it is, is really rather more dependable than the economic climate or the weather, and as it is comforting to know that our gardens will rarely disappoint us.

So wishing all of us, gardeners and non-greenfingers folk alike,  a bright and hopeful year,  I hope too that we shall see a growing number of followers this year and look forward to some lively chats as the gardening year gets underway.

BORDER FLOWERS COMING IN MARCH 2010 in all high street and online bookstores

IN March 2010 we launch  Border Flowers, the fourth in the Greenfingers Series designed to help gardeners the world over get the best from their gardens. This one's a cracker (even though I say so myself)  and will elevate your garden beds and borders to something quite magical. Remember stunning plant combinations don't just happen - you need to experiment and put some creative thought into it. Winter is as good a time as any to make that plant wish-list and plan a planting scheme that will have your neighbours sighing with admiration.