Phil McCann from the RHS answers your gardening questions

[RachelMumsnet]

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is the UK's leading gardening charity. As a charity the RHS helps to bring gardening into people's lives and support gardeners of all levels and abilities; whether they are expert horticulturists or children who are planting seeds for the very first time.

Phil McCann, PR Manager for RHS Gardens, with support from gardeners at the four RHS Gardens, will be answering questions from Mumsnetters throughout this week. Whatever your query - from carrot fly to container vegetable growing, wisteria pruning to water-free gardening - Phil and the RHS team are on hand to give you advice and information.

Phil, who was previously Assistant Producer on BBC's Gardeners' World, is a trained horticulturist, a keen and knowledgeable gardener and allotment holder, a member of the RHS Vegetable Trials Committee and garden writer. Phil will be checking this thread each day and answering your questions on this thread along with his colleagues at the RHS. Final day for questions is Monday 5th July.

In return for posting a gardening question we will automatically enter you into a prize draw to win a pair of tickets to the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show next week. Each ticket will allow an adult and two children under the age of 16 into the show free of charge. Tickets will be valid on any day from Thursday 8 July to Sunday 11 July. For more information about the show visit www.rhs.org.uk/hamptoncourt.

Dear prettybird,
Have a great holiday and hopefully it will rain over here to keep everything watered.

Dear kisamama,
Pruning now allows the pruning cuts to 'bleed' which keeps out diseases. Prune later and silver leaf disease gets in and can kill the tree. V common when winter pruning damsons etc.
Only prune a few and you'll stil get a crop

Dear ArrietyClock,
Hopeless optimism - you can't beat it.
Yep, roses are good and go for Rosa rugosa. It's tough, white or red flowers and tolerates a bit of cutting.
Lonicera nitida is good if you want something more formal and easily clipped, and laurel, much maligned but tough.
Or what about a mixed hedge of hawthorn, roses, blackthorn? It will look great.

Dear mustrunmore,
I think it's there now!

Dear deepdarkwood,
I've just worked out iykwim!
Holiday in the tropics and plant yourself a banana. Musa basjoo is the toughest and will grow quite happily - protect if we start to get a winter like last, even with you SEasterners!
I would put lots of exotic climbers up your walls - grow them from seed, put some wires up and let them go. All the Cobaea, Eccremeocarpus are great.
Or what about an exotic passion flower - or bourganvillea might be Ok if we get mild winters ( not freezing!)
I do like your rosemary, lavender, olive combo - iykwim!

I like this guy! If I weren't happily married, I'd fancy him!

BTW Phil - my raspberries have just started ripening - and this year, that means for timing.

I have an admission to make: I don't ever net my raspberries but get away with it' cos I don't train/tie them at all and our inner city very fat well fed wood pigeons can't get at them! It does make for awkward picking though as I have to bend down to see all the rasps as they get hidden by the leaves. And this year the crop seems to be so good that some of the cans have bent over so far that they are nearly touching the ground.

Dear Ingles2
Apple Blossom is a rambler so should, once happy, go berserk over your apples. Give it a helping hand by wiring the rose to the apple to start with. It isn't usually that thorny so needs a start.
I wouldn't mind if you gave it a good watering, a dusting of rose fertiliser and a good mulch with well rotted muck.
If that doesn't help - help!

Dear nigglewiggle
They're too expensive to keep killing!

New question: I have some broad beans (giant exhibitoin long pod) planted in my potato bed. The plants are quite tall (taller than the shaws) and have at least partially set (better than last year at least ).

a) Should I nip off the growing tip? There's no sign of black fly (although I've seen one or two ants which I found out last year to my cost can be an inidication of an imminent infestation)

b) although there's no sign of blackfly, a number of the tips have small black marks on them and they are a bit curled. Is that a sign of some sort of virus/fungus attack?

Dear fruitshootsandheaves,
They are fantastic at identfying bits and pieces down at Wisley - worth the membership money alone!
www.rhs.org.uk/join

Dear LadyBiscuit,
I'd try both cuttings and moving the plants- just to play safe. Moving any plant is a risk but September is getting close to autumn when things are fine for moving.
Crocosmia are fine now - but in full flower?Keep any new plants well watered.
When moving any plant get as much of the rootball out in one piece - that way it has a higher chance of survival.

Dear Pannacotta
I am lucky to have a old wisteria growing on .....an east facing wall. My neighbour has the same - wouldn't fancy its chances on a north facing. However, I would choose a climbing hydrangea ( I have a smallish plant on a north wall) and once happy ( they sulk for a year after planting) they grow quickly and have the most beautiful creamy white flowers in April and June. I'd also grow an ivy in amongst it for that evergreen look.
Hope that helps.

Dear aJumpedUpPantryBoy,
I love rhubarb and once established is a beast of a plant. Dig out the crowns in autumn, leave them on the soil surface until a frost or two has nipped them and then divide and replant. But I'll bet you now, you'll still get leaves pushing up the base of your shed - there's always a bit left in the ground!

Dear maverick,
UK climate change? That's a big question! I must say it didn't feel warmer over winter, but we all have to look at a bigger picture. And planting exotic plants is fine if we expect the occasional cold snap and the occasional loss.
Olearia is lovely, olives survive quite happily now and alongwith leptospermum, lindera and the increasing longevity of lavender and rosemary means ... an interesting gardening time ahead.
So...plant what ever you like but watch the weather.
Our four gardens are reflecting differnt climates across the UK so get along to one ( or all!) and see what they are growing.

www.rhs.org.uk

Dear ohemgee,
Quick question, quick answer: yes.
The plants can switch off if pods form so keep it trying hard by nipping off old flowers. Unless you want to save your own seed.

Dear WhoDunnitInnit
Looks like a Trachelospermum jasminioides - need more pix for 100% certainty.
Maybe go to www.rhs.org.uk type in the name and see what pix come up.
But it looks like it.

Dear VintageGardenia
Sounds like the the sycamore is to blame to me - especially as the other bay is fine. It couldn't be wind damage from one direction could it? Often happens to bay trees. Make sure the damaged one isn't sitting in waterlogged compost. If it is, repot into fresh , cut out the damaged branches and let it start again!

Dear Jux,
Sounds like weeks of neglect - and the compost they were growing in was starved.
You have done the right thing by planting them.
I'd get rid of the lower leaves ( the really bad ones) and make sure watering is regular -check every night. I'd even bury a plastic drinks bottle, with it's bottom cut out, next to the plants and water into that. It gets water straight to the roots.
Feeding should only be done once the fruits are forming - might be worth a try to green up the leaves. Try a feed you put onto the leaves, a foliar feed, to get nutrients quickly into the plant. Garden centres have loads.
Good luck - and get to one of our GYOwn weekend, tomorrow and Sunday at www.rhs.org.uk

Dear Boisbach,
I know how you feel- I have both bindweed and ground elder and you turn your back and whoosh, the bindweed is all over the place.
You've tried most of the tricks - but one more is to put wigwams of bamboo canes (or anything) in amongst your borders and let the bindweed grow up them (and they surely do!)
Then you can bag the whole lot and spray glyphosate into the bag. It concentrates the weedkiller and can kill it off.
It's worth a try.

Dear fatarse,
Frangipani plants are gorgeous - we had one growing in our garden that reached 25 feet high and flowered almost every week of the year ( we were living in Colombo, Sri Lanka at the time!)
It has to be sunny, it has to be warm, they can't be frozen - think Sri Lanka and you'll get the picture.
They can go outside in summer - keep watered and who knows - maybe a flower! Put a few drops of tomato fertiliser in the water every fortnight throughout summer to give them a fighting chance.

Dear Ingles2
I'd thin it out a bit ( non flowering shoots) and tie it in.
Looks like it needs water, fertiliser and a mulch ( as suspected beforehand!)
Good luck - it looks great.

Dear secondtimer1
Figs are usually Ok - I'd take a gamble and take away any restrictions you have in place and let the roots roam free. Maybe in autumn dig it up and check the roots have expanded from their potted position ( tease them out to encourage growth) Then be prepared to restrict them again by sinking concrete slabs around the rootball to ensure fruiting.
Watering is key - don't let it go dry as the fruit swells.

Dear sybilvimes,
Are you watering them too much? Plants die in waterlogged compost and soil. There's an outside chance the canes have a virus which would be seen by yellowy leaves before they turn brown. I suspect overwatering.
Knock them out of the pot and have a look - cut the dead stuff out as they won't green up again.

Dear Phil McCann,

We have a happy old apple espaulier (around 120 years old) that we have been told to move it.

How best to do this and is there anywhere we can have it identified? We are in Tayside.

Thank you.

Dear mummylin,
Clematis have different pruning regimes - depends on the type. I daren't suggest anything until I see a pic or get the variety - post one up and I'll try and have a look.
You wouldn't thank me for getting it wrong would you?!