Gardening with John Ladlow - professional gardener and Estate Manager for over 50 years In The Garden
I cannot say that I am particularly fond of spiders, but am fascinated by their webs. It is always a mystery to me as to how spiders can span large distances to create their webs, but it is done by sending a long thin line from their bodies in an up wards motion which will move in the slightest breeze to attach the other end to any stationary object. The spider can then traverse this line, add new anchor points, and then start creating a web. Most of the time we don’t see the webs in the garden, but when we get heavy dews or frosts then the webs can show up, sometimes quite spectacularly. Spiders are generally harmless in this country, and are largely beneficial in the garden. Other things in the garden also look so different with morning dews particularly seed heads.
Cobweb hanging under a Prunus tree
Clematis tangutica (shown) is such a plant in fact many of the
later flowering clematis have attractive seed heads, even the wild clematis Travellers Joy or ‘Old Man’s Beard’ look good in the hedgerows after morning dews or frosts. Talking about dew I came across a dew pond years ago sited on top of a chalk hill in Wiltshire. These ponds were created on hill tops for the watering of animals particularly sheep, and will often keep full in the summertime when other ponds dry out lower down.
I grew Acidanthera in the unheated greenhouse this year, along with geraniums, fuchsias and begonias. It was fortunate that I did as the greenhouse provided lots of colour when annuals struggled with the wet weather outside. Acidanthera is really a Gladiolus, but unlike most gladioli it does not have a spike of blooms but rather single blooms flowering intermittently.
Seed head of Clematis tangutica 28
easy enough to grow, and it is one of those groups of flowers that attract enthusiasts with their own
Most gladioli are
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32