To most of us January is the start of the year but for plants it is still cold and not a great time to start growing again. Underground is a warmer place so the bulbs you planted from august last year will just be starting to grow. Winter Aconites start to open early in the month if they aren't already open. Snowdrops will start to appear very soon, and if the weather is mild, the first primroses will also begin to peak out and herald in spring.
There will bee plenty of daisies about too as not many people have cut their grass yet.
Just joining the Communitree?? Winter Aconites and Snowdrop bulbs 'In the Green' will be available in late January, along with many other native bulbs like Wild Daffodils, Lesser Celandines, Bluebells, Ramsons, Snakeshead Fritillaries, Star of Bethlehem, Snowflakes and Wood Anemones
* ‘In the Green’ means that the bulb has already started to grow - so meaning, in the stages of becoming green = in the green. You can order bulbs online or a good garden center will be able to sort you out.
Wild Flower Seeds which need a period of cold to break dormancy (Unlock the seed and tell it to grow.) can still be sown this month e.g Primrose, Cowslip, Oxlip, Columbine, Welsh Poppy, Cow Parsley and Yellow Flag.
January is probably the month when garden birds will benefit most from putting out bird food as insects are hibernating, the ground may be frozen solid, many natural food sources have been used up and there may be competition with visitors from the Arctic. The birds will come to rely on the food supply, so keep it up until the worst of the winter is over communitree branches are just as good to hang bird food from and are nicely exposed away from predators too.
Winter Aconites and Snowdrops will be finishing their show this month. Daisies will continue to flower, and the Wild Daffodil and Primroses make their appearance.
Meadow mixes for creating a Wild Flower Meadow can be sown later this month and can give you a great communitree that needs little to no maintenance. They can be sown in the autumn but it is be best to sow in spring as waterlogging over a rainy uk winter may cause some seed/seedlings to rot.
Wild flower seeds which are best sown in Spring can be sown. Some wild flower seeds will germinate easily - others can take longer and it creates a nice wait/staggering of blooms. This is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to provide flowering nectar plants for the garden and the bees.
If your going all out with your communitree It is a good time to put up nesting boxes which garden birds will use during the Spring.
Are you a bit of a pro? If you have any larger perennial wild flower plants, they can be divided this month eg Greater Knapweed, Oxeye Daisies, Yarrow, Echenacia.
Echinacea is not just a medicinal herb with a cool name! sow the seed in early spring. The plants will often flower in their first season and usually repeatedly flower into late summer. It is also possible to divide plants or to take root cuttings in spring.
Crocuses will start to sprout in feb to march depending on the temperature and will stand like hula dancers in the winter soil. Always a fun bulb to have in any communitree.
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Names to remember –or google.
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Germander Speedwell
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Dandelion
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Germander Speedwell
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Wood Anemone
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Lesser Celandine
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Coltsfoot
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Meadow Buttercup
March is your last chance to plant up lilly of the valley 'pips' or divide existing plants. If you’re a fan it is a beautiful plant that would look great on a large comunitree
Wild Daffodils, Winter Aconites, Wood Anemones will start to grow in march and are great ‘happy flowers’ for the contemporary and the traditional communitree.
Tulips will start to bloom around now – they are not truly English flowers but even the hardened eco warrior will be agreeable to planting tulips.
Wild flower seeds (which are best sown in Spring) can be sown in march too – its not too late. Some wild flower seeds will germinate easily and some will take a little longer staggering the time of bloom.
*This is one of the most economic and easiest ways to establish wild flowers in your communitree.
You might be a bird lover but its really important to reduce feeding garden birds and encourage them to forage for themselves. Nesting should begin this month too so remember to look up in your communitree too.
Primroses and Daisies should still be flower and now many more wild flowers are beginning to come into bloom.
Wild Daffodils, Lesser Celandines, Bluebells, Ramsons, Snakeshead Fritillaries, Star of Bethlehem, Snowflakes and Wood Anemones will be coming into bloom now too – if there not in bloom already, it will depend on the weather.
Tulips will continue to bloom around now – they are not truly English flowers but even the hardened eco warrior will be agreeable to planting tulips. Tulips grow best in fertile, well-drained soil in full sun, sheltered from strong winds. All dislike excessively wet conditions
You can still sow your wild flower or meadow mixes if you like too, its not too late. Poppys are my plant me in april flower as they can be sown pretty much anytime, and the seeds will wait in the soil for the ideal conditions and then grow.
New wild flower meadows sown the previous Autumn, should have their first cut when the grass reaches 10-15cms in height in april. This will keep the wild flower communitree healthy.
Sunflowers!! You can plant the sunshine now that the frosts have gone and get ready for the summer sun.
Pot-Sunflower (Helianthus annuus 'Pacino') we think is the best low-branching sunflower for planting on your communitree. It might not be the tallest sunflower but were not dealing with the biggest of gardens and we all know that great things come in small packages. Get your seeds in the ground now and you’ll enjoy them flowering from late July all the way to September.
So many wild flowers start to flower this month that it would be impossible to list them all! The Cornfield Annuals (Field Poppy, Cornflower, Corncockle, Corn Chamomile & Corn Marigold) begin and will continue to flower all summer long with many other wild flowers in fields, hedgerows and woods. Great for all creepy crawlys, birds bees and butterflys.
Most of the flowers from last month will continue this month although Primroses, Oxlips, Bluebells, Cuckoo Pint and Snakeshead Fritillaries will be finishing as the month draws on.
Perennial Wild Flower Seeds which are best sown in Spring can be still be sown early this month.
The hardy ice plant or coopers ice plant that you will find in almost every garden center is a great year rounder for any Communitree. Great for kids as every evening they fold up their blossoms, and then open again when the sun is high. It begins with a few flowers in May, then by June it is thickly covered with blossoms. These don't let up even a little until October!
Many new wild flowers start to flower this month and most of the flowers from last month will continue - some of them all summer long. Primroses, Oxlips, Bluebells, Cuckoo Pint, Snowflakes, Star of Bethlehem and Snakeshead Fritillaries will probably have finished by now.
Cow parsley will give a lovely ethereal look to your Communitree and if you are really going for a contemporary look a cluster of alliums will look great. Do be aware though, the more expensive the plating scheme you use – the more attractive it will become to thieves who see it as free land.
Biennial Wild Flower Seeds to flower next year can be sown now, but ensure that the seeds/seedlings are not allowed to dry out over the Summer eg Evening Primrose, Foxglove, Teasel.
Yellow Rattle is a useful plant to introduce when creating a wild flower meadow. It is semi-parasitic on the roots of plants, especially grasses, & once established will reduce the vigour of the original grass by up to 50%. As a seed it can be planted from late june and will really boost the amount of flowers you get in your communitree meadow.
Your sunflowers should be well on their way and starting to produce their bigger leaves, ready for the flower to bloom and its sun to shine.
Many of the flowers from last month will continue - some of them all summer long. Here are some July Wild Flowers that we currently stock seeds for - and depending on the time of year, plugs and bulbs. Click on the photograph to buy seeds and where plugs are also available they will be indicated on the seed catalogue pages.
Dry Bulbs will be available from late August onwards and 'in the green' Bulbs from January next year, but there is a facility to pre-order them on our web pages under Native Bulbs.
Biennial Wild Flower Seeds to flower next year can be sown now, but ensure that the seeds/seedlings are not allowed to dry out over the summer eg Evening Primrose, Foxglove, Teasel.
Put on your clogs and dance like its spring. August to September is when I would usually start to plant my Tulips and Daffodils. Your communitree will be starting to loose its summer blooms so you can really see the areas of clear soil that would accommodate a spring bloom and still allow the summer plants to break through.
Most of the flowers from last month will continue flowering - Your sunflowers should be announcing that summer is here, and many flowers will bloom for the rest of the summer. Dusty miller will be in its prime this time of year. Plant it now to give a great light color to your communitree, I like it because it looks like coral on the land and will nestle happily underneath the foliage of many other summer giants.
Hyacinths are one of my personal favorites as they are structurally stunning. They are a popular spring bulb usually grown for their showy, colorful and highly fragrant flowers. Hyacinth bulbs can be planted in your communitree and usually look most impressive when planted in groups. They naturally flower in the spring but they can also be forced indoors for a Christmas display!
(If you want a Christmas display then you have to buy the special bulbs called ‘prepared bulbs’.)
Many flowers are dying back now depending on the temperature, but there are some wild flowers which will still be flowering in September like Echinacea.
Now is the time to start planting Native Wild Flower Bulbs to flower next spring. Wild Daffodils, Tenby Daffodils, Snowdrops, Bluebells, Snakeshead Fritillary, Summer Snowflake, Lily of the Valley, Wood Anemone, Round Headed Leek, Ramsons, Lesser Celandine, Solomon's Seal, Meadow Saffron, Squills, Monk's Hood and Herb Paris.
Green bulbs are ones that have already started growing and must be planted immediately – you can plant these later and order them online.
Dry Bulbs (or corms, tubers or rhizomes – words hardened gardeners will use.) are dormant. They are without roots and leaves although some may begin to sprout. They are much more the type of bulb that we will all be used to using. I like to imagine them as nature grenades, when you put them in the soil your pulling out the pin so its only a matter of time before you get an explosion of beautiful flowers.
There are loads of bulbs that you can plant out in September, some you may recognize and usually love to see are;
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Bluebell
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Christmas Rose
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Crocus
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Daffodill
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Iris
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Allium
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Spring Star Flower
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Star Of Bethlehem
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Tulip
And don’t forget to go out and buy a bag of our favorite penny sweets so you can put all your sunflower seeds in the bag to dry out over winter.
Yellow Rattle is a useful plant to introduce when creating a wild flower meadow. It is semi-parasitic on the roots of plants, especially grasses, & once established will reduce the vigour of the original grass by up to 50%.
There are loads less wild flowers during October and as the month progresses more continue to disappear depending on the temperature. A splash of colour is provided by berries and attractive seed heads (Teasels and Wild Clematis in particular), but there are also some wild flowers which will still be in flower in October.
Grape Hyacinths are a great choice for beginners and look like clusters of tiny white diamonds and blue pearls, grape hyacinths are ideally suited for decorating the edges of communitree’s. They are small and dainty and some older folk will call then Faberge flowers due to each bloom looking just like the famed eggs.
Now is the time to plant Native Wild Flower Bulbs to flower next spring. These include Wild Daffodils, Tenby Daffodils, Snowdrops, Bluebells, Snakeshead Fritillary, Summer Snowflake, Lily of the Valley, Wood Anemone, Round Headed Leek, Ramsons, Lesser Celandine, Solomon's Seal, Squills, Monk's Hood and Herb Paris.
Apart from a few stragglers, there are few wild flowers in evidence during November and as the month progresses these too disappear depending on the temperature. A splash of colour is provided by berries and attractive seed heads (Teasels and Wild Clematis in particular).
We are now reaching the end of the dry bulb planting season, so you will need to hurry up if you want to plant any Native Wild Flower Bulbs to flower next spring - Wild Daffodils, Tenby Daffodils, Snowdrops, Bluebells, Snakeshead Fritillary, Winter Aconites, Summer Snowflake, Lily of the Valley, Wood Anemone, Round Headed Leek, Ramsons, Lesser Celandine, Solomon's Seal, Squills, Monk's Hood and Herb Paris.
If you have a larger than usual communitree and would like to get some winter foliage, Plan to plant fragrant winter-flowering shrubs in parts of the garden which are dull in winter. Good choices include: Viburnum farreri AGM, Daphne bholua, Lonicera x purpusii, Osmanthus heterophyllus, Hamamelis, Sarcococca, Stachyurus and Mahonia.
The hardy ice plant or coopers ice plant is a great year rounder for any Communitree . great for kids as every evening they fold up their blossoms, then open again when the sun is high. It begins with a few flowers in May, then by June it is thickly covered with blossoms. These don't let up even a little until October! Then by the end of Autumn when there are no more flowers, it is not even then finished showing off. The succulent leaves put on an autumn show of color, as the fat green fingers turn golden yellow with flushes of pink at their tips. A little winter wonder.
With Christmas in the air there are all sorts of things you can do you beautify your comminitree. You can make craft projects with the kids like putting bauballs on kebab skewers – take the hanging attachment off the bauball leaving a hole that you can insirt the stick through. It’s a great bit of fun and you can remove them after the holiday season.
Of course I would recommend to the Communitree gardner that is in the loop to make sure a you always have a rosemary and a lavender in your communitree. They will stay green al year round and always keep that communitree smile on your face.
Apart from a few stragglers, there are few wild flowers in evidence during December. If the winter is exceptionally mild, then Snowdrops and Winter Aconites may be in flower towards the end of the month.
We have reached the end of the dry bulb planting season, but many of the wild flower bulbs will also be available 'In the Green' from late January/early February eg Bluebells, Snowdrops, Wild Daffodils, Tenby Daffodils, Snakeshead Fritillary, Summer Snowflakes, Lily of the Valley, Winter Aconites, Wood Anemones, Round Headed Leeks, Ramsons, Lesser Celandine, Solomon's Seal, Monk's Hood.
‘In the Green' bulbs are lifted in late winter when the bulb is actively growing and has roots and leaves. They are sent out as soon as they are lifted and need to be re-planted immediately. 'In the green' planting is considered by some authorities as the most successful way of establishing Snowdrops in particular.
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