Frit article

[mark smyth]

In this months Garden Heaven magazine http://www.gardenheaven.ie/index.html Paul Christian has an article on his favourite Frits

[David Nicholson]

Only available to buy in Eire (and Northern Ireland) it seems, but there is an overseas subscription option. Is it worth it Mark? I have had a quick look through the Website but the magazine browse option is a bit small to read comfortably.

Which brings me on to one of my favourite moans ('tis a well known fact that I could moan for England!) that there is an absence of good (and I mean 'good') gardening magazines in the UK. The Gardener's World magazine is as bad as the programme. Garden Answers is a dead loss. The RHS magazine (I forget it's title) is sometimes a bit over my head. I have subscribed for many years to Amateur Gardening but have recently cancelled my subscription as of recent times this has got to be like the gardening equivalent to the Sun newspaper (for those friends who are not aware the Sun newspaper is written for those unfortunates who have the attention span of a gnat and the brain of an amoeba-no doubt Anthony will now tell me that gnats and amoebas have more intelligence in each neutron than the rest of us put together!).

Surely there is a golden opportunity out there for gardening orientated entrepreneur to publish a GOOD gardening magazine.

Moan over. Sorry

[mark smyth]

yes it's worth it. My photos appeared in it last month and this month!

So you are calling me a gnat!

For a fiver I'll get you one and mail it to you

[mark smyth]

I cant read it either! I'll email them now and tell them but it's a nice page turning idea

[Paul T]

David,

Be thankful for the UK gardening magazines...... they're a darn sight better than ours here in Australia.  I've given up buying ours and tend to buy the UK ones instead.  Almost always BBC Gardener's World, which puts all of ours to shame.  Maybe it is just that we all tend not to like what we have locally (unless we're in there of course!  )

[Lesley Cox]

Likewise here Paul. We have a newsprint mag called "Weekend Gardener" which could be worse and has some nice plants written about but the one glossy, "The NZ Gardener" while it used to be very good years ago, it now all about lifestyle, posh pots, makeovers, rich people's gardens (lavender and roses) and almost nothing to encourage regular gardeners to look for plants that are different and rewarding. The articles are about plants introduced by the big chains - what can be bought in the garden centres right through the country, and precious little else. I hate the chains as their plants are so uniform and unimaginative. The garden centres in the south are supplied with the same stuff as those in the north, regardless of climate and a lot of stuff is lost as a result, by gullible people who buy according to the pic on the label, and not with any knowledge of the plant.

Like you, I don't buy the local mags any more. Would rather spend my time here.

[Lesley Cox]

Part of the problem of course, may be our Biosecurity situation. Because we're not allowed to have new species, no-one can write about them or if they can, what's the point when we can't get them? We have new plants but only hybrids within what's already here. Masses and masses of more of the same old same old. Boring, boring, boring!

[Michael]

Mark, that article is amazing. Nice pictures too! Do they talk about temperatures there?

[mark smyth]

I honestly dont know because I didnt read the article. I'll have a look when I get home but I'm sure Ian can tell you about the conditions that Frits need

[Michael]

Thanks Mark

I hope to hear Ians instructions soon 

[Maggi Young]

Mike, there are some articles by Ian Young in "The Rock Garden" which is the twice-yearly Journal of the Scottish Rock Garden Club, which give advice about growing Fritillaria. Also, with your interest in hardy bulbs, you should read Ian Young's BULB LOG on the main SRGC Website: this has been running for some years now and is a weekly report of what is growing and how we are growing it, in our glass houses (unheated) and garden in Aberdeen, North East Scotland. Most of the bulbs described in the Bulb Logs are those that enjoy a Mediterranean climate, so most should do pretty well for you in Madeira. Many will be hardy to many degrees of freezing but lots will not NEED this cold a spell, they merely tolerate it andso should be perfectly happy to live with you!
See the list of Bulb Logs here:  http://www.srgc.org.uk/bulblog/bulblog.html

Similarly dated weeks from the various years will show you how the usual seasons progress and to search the Bulb Logs, via Google, type....

site:http://www.srgc.org.uk/bulblog snowdrop

this will let you use Google to search just the bulblog for e.g. snowdrop just change that to whatever you want.
There will soon be an Index for the Bulb Log on the site.

[Michael]

Hello Maggi!

Thank you for that precious information. I will have a look at that website  Yes i like many hardy bulbs, and i want to give them a try... This year i am starting with F. imperialis and F. meleagris that a friend in Germany is going to send... I don't know if this is the best choice to start with, but i will see how do they grow... I have red somewhere that imperialis is quite difficult to grow, i just hope that its culture is not impossible