Episode: #12 18/11/06
Presenter: Melissa King

If you want to bring life to shady settings it is hard to beat hostas, or Plantain Lily (Hosta Hybrid Cultivar).They grow beautifully on mass for foliage effect.

There would be no short of 3 or 400 hundred varieties of hostas available to us - the leaves come in lots of shapes, colours, sizes, and textures and they can be a solid colour or variegated and come in shades of blue, green, white, and gold. ?June? (Hosta Hybrid Cultivar, ?June?) is a popular choice for it stunning chartreuse leaves that are edged with blue green.

Here is one of those old gardening fables that just happen to work. If you grow them in old copper pots the snails won?t go near them. In fact even just tying some copper wire around a pot will help deter them.

You will still need to keep on top of weeds at the moment, particularly since you don?t want them competing with plants for precious water. The easy way is to spot spray them with Zero Glyphosate. You can use it on broadleaf weeds and grasses. It kills them, roots and all. In about a week you will start to see signs that they have been sprayed, like yellowing of the leaves, but leave them undisturbed for a couple of weeks then you can get in there and do what you need to.

Late spring is the height of early perennial colour and so many plants are gearing up to produce their summer flowers and fruit, and your plants will love you if you get out there now and give them a fruit and flower boosting fertiliser like Yates Thrive Flower and fruit. It is a soluble food, so plants get a quick sustained fix and it has got lots phosphorus and potassium to give you heaps of flowers and fruit.

Now for this week?s water saving tip.

From a design and maintenance point of view, it is a good idea to group plants that need a similar amount of water. That way you can fine tune your irrigation system to ensure you are not over watering plants that don?t need it.

The Tree Peony (Paeonia suffruticosa), aside from its incredible beauty, is the perfect plant for filling that gap in the garden between the spring bulbs and the early summer flowering perennials. They are tough, very drought tolerant and the only thing that kills them is wet feet. Most require a cool climate or cool position and full sun or semi-shade.

For more outstanding plants and great spring planting ideas, just log onto our on-line garden club.

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