26


I CUTHEROEADVERTISER&TIMES


www.clitheraeadvortiser.co.uk Thursday, December 10,2015


Thursday,DecemberlO,2015 www.clitheraeadvertiser.co.uk VALLEY GARDENING MORETOSEE © CL ITH ADV ERT IS ER 0 0 ' •’ FA CEBO OK .COM /AD V ER T IS ERT IM ES , MEETINGS Everyone can enjoy dogwoods


lot of people will associate dogwoods with seeing them


.planted en mass


in supermarket car parks, or on the embankment of a . motorway or roundabout. You may have the odd one


@ inyourgardenandtendto think that they are nothing special.- “It looked great when it was young but now its tall and woody what can we


t _ do to make it look better?” ' is sometimes the thought. However with the correct placement and pruningyou can’t go wrong with dog­ woods for giving electric win­ ter colour.


• Botanically known as Cornus they are a group given the common name of Dogwood. Their bright red, orange or yellow stems are what makes them distinguishable throughout the winter.


S p o t l ig h t


Ifyou have an especially wet garden then these are foryou. They lose their leaves in the autumn and not all varie­ ties arejust green through the summer either. Cornus Elegantissima has fiery red • stems bearing white variegat­ ed foliage so great for summer colour, and Cornus Gouchaltii again has red stems topped . with golden variegated leaves throughout summer. Both of these varieties will naturally ; grow tojust below sue feet, but what’s the trick to stop­ ping dogwoods getting thick and woody and keeping their colour? The answer is simple; hard pruning every two years. The best time to prune them is at the end of March bi-annu- ally. This way in the first year most varieties will grow back to two to three feet then up to four or six feet in the second year depending on variety. Now don’t be shy when you prune them either. Take them down to sue inches, even if they are old plants with stems three inches in diameter. The stems are full of dormant buds and they will burst into life in May


Q&A


HERE YOU CAN SEND IN AND FIND OUTTHE ANSWERS TO ANY GARDENING PROBLEMS


HOWHARDCANIPRUNE CROCOSMIAS? Cut them back down to one inch from the ground. You don't have tocutthembacknowthough;if leftthey'regreatforoverwinter- ing insects and then in the spring the old leaves will simply pull off and you can then stick them on the compost heap.


Owl’s about that then! M & “ ?sB™e o


Clitheroe Naturalists cele­ brated a special evening at St Mary’s Centre, marking the 41st visit of Gordon Yates and unfortunately his last. The subject was “Snowy Owl - King ofthe Arctic”. This superb bird is to be -


found in many parts of the Arctic, but finding nests is most difficult as some years nothing happens because of the non-appearance of Lem­ mings, the source of food. Spitzbergen, North East Greenland, Hudsons Bay, and Alaska, were all covered in the search,all very costlybecause of the remoteness. At Long Yearbyen.in Spitzbergen, a coal mining town, the little auk could be counted in mil­ lions and the ptarmigan was the only bird which could exist there all winter. Gordon stayed in a trap­


ensuring you have given them a feed at the same time helping to give them the energy. The key to success with dog­ woods is partly the pruning but the other half is position­ ing. They love wet, and I mean wet! They will succeed in ar­ eas that become waterlogged in the winter. Give them some


Jobs to do....


CHECKGREENHOUSE Keep an eye on any plants that


you may be overwintering in the greenhouse for pest damage or dry­ ing out. When mice get hungry it's amazing what they will eat! TOPUPBIRDFEEDERS With a lack of berries on most


trees this year, make sure to keep your bird feeders topped up as birds will enjoy coming to your garden and help fight your slug population this coming year. FEEDBEDDING Top up your bedding with tomato


feed as the recent heavy rains will have washed lots of nutrients out of the compost to help produce lots of flowers ready for Christmas


IT’S TIME TO GET


OUT IN THEGARDEN ANDGETCRACKING WITH THOSE


MUST-DO JO B S ...


BUT WHICH ONES? HERE JOHN FOLEY SETS OUT WHAT


NEEDS DOING AND WHEN, AND HOW TO GO ABOUT IT


CLEANOLDPOTS Use Jeyes fluid to clean old plant pots and seed trays ready for germi­


nating vegetables and other seeds


' in this Spring. Cleaning them helps get rid of weed seeds and keeps your young plants weed-free. HARDWOOD CUTTINGS Take hardwood cuttings eight


inches long off plants such as Cor­ nus and Sambucus, stick them into the soil and watch them sprout next . spring and it will give you lots of free plants! FINALCLEAROFLEAVES Now all leaves have'fallen, get out


there and gather up the last remain­ ing few. I f you have gravel, look at getting a leaf blower to blow them off the gravel rather than trying to rake them off and raking them into the gravel.


- .


sunshine however. Half a day of sim is fine and they always looksgood when you plant them in a group. Cornus Midwinter Fire is a cracking short variety with fiery orange stems and Cornus flaviramea has bright yellow stems. These two with the ones mentioned above would look stunning. So


I there you have it; they’re not


just a bog standard plant only meant for roundabouts. Get them planted around the gar­ den and lighten up the borders through the winter months. Make sure not to miss out on the next column on Christmas Eve as were looking at the Do’s and Don’ts of Garden Design!


WHERESHOULDIPLANTA WINTER JASMINE? Winter Jasmines are an easy climber suited to a sunny or par- ' dally shaded site. As long as it gets some sun it produces slender green leaves throughout the sea­ son then covered with trumpet like scented yellow flowers throughout the winter months. Many are in flower now as we speak. Don't forget to plant it against a trellis or some wires so it has something to climb up


Pinus ‘Winter Gold’


This is a fantastic form i -*,of pine with many spiky


turning gold once autumn starts. Plant in sun for best


golden needles throughout results, and it isn't too tall the winter months; green . either, growing to three through the summer then . feet in 10 years.


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HOWDOISTOPMY CHRISTMAS TREE DROP­ PING NEEDLES? The common Christmas trees can be bad for needle drop. Non-drop varieties are more expensive and generally betterfor holding their needles. However follow these three tips and all trees will last much longer into the newyear 1- Cut off the bottom inch before putting it inside 2 - Place the tree in a proper stand that allows the bottom to be stood in water(imagine it's a giant cut flower; it needs waterjust the same, every week Ideally) 3-Keepthetree away from heat sources such as the fire and ra­ diators.


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pers hut. polar bears were always a threat and his party had a terrifying encounter on one visit. Close proximity to walrus was not recommended because ofthe ghastly smell! The search for the snowy


owl moved to North East Greenland, so remote that all necessities had to be flown in. The fierce male musk ox had to be avoided with tempers unpredictable. Again lemmings were at


the route of the food chain for all. The wonderful plum­ age ofthe great gorthern giver could have been a pattern for abstract artists and the sea ea- gle had its habitat there in the short summer light. Brightly coloured flowers


covered the lower areas and their intensity doubled in the summer light. The 150 plants included


the saxifrage, eyebright, gen­ tians and red Arctic campions. Again, no lemmings and no snowy owls were to be found. A remote town, Barrow in Alaska, provided huge snow buggies for viewing polar bears. Here, there were few­ er flowers, but included the arctic poppy, and the woolly lousewort. Butatlasttheobjectivewas


achieved - a breeding pair of snowy owls. The adults were


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massive with a wingspan of five feet. Scientists working there were attacked, sustain­ ing head injuries and their


jackets were ripped to pieces. In the nest were two chicks and two infertile eggs, the mother giving her attention to these instead of her chicks. Food was difficult, and the male appeared once with a phalerope, which was swal­ lowed whole.


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The climax of the evening


was the shot of this beautiful, fierce bird, which was out­ standing and taken from a safe distance. Chairman Muriel Carru-


thers thanked Gordon Yat­ es, who had previously been made an honorary member, saying that his annual appear­ ance would be missed and ex­ pressing best wishes for the future.


CLITHER0EADVERT1SER&T1MES I


27


“Badgers and Bovine Tuber­ culosis” may not suggest a detective story with clues, dead ends, successes, fail­ ures and frustration. But in the hands of Mr


Phil Dykes, the speaker at Clitheroe Probus meeting, the audience found the sub­


ject extremely educational and surprisingly interesting. Phil has been with the


Lancashire Wildlife Trust for 10 years and aimed to make his presentation of this contentious subject as neutral as possible. On the side of the cattle? They originate the disease


and infect the badgers. On thesideofthe badgers? They are carriers and infect more cattle. And so, the situation was


revealed as a complicated tangle of geography, climate, animals, scientists and med- © ication, awaiting perhaps, a mqjor breakthrough. Question time produced


many questions, demon­ strating the interest which had been engendered in tKdr*-' audience. The vote of thanks was


given by the vice-chairman Jeff Baldwin, to warm ap­ plause from the audience.


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