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Q. Why do white hydrangeas go brown after a few days while pink and blue stay perfect for a couple of weeks?

Anne – This is the curse of white flowered cultivars in general.Ìý Camellias, Lilacs, Buddlejas – quite a lot of white plants don’t die gracefully.Ìý What you want is a variety where the petals are going to shatter rather than stay on the plant.Ìý Hydrangea paniculata would be better than the macrophylla varieties that you’ve got.Ìý

Bunny – There are hundreds of different white hydrangeas – I think you’ve got one that dies disgustingly!Ìý I grow ‘Madame Moulliere’ and that fades gracefully. Also, Hydrangea arborescens ‘A²Ô²Ô²¹²ú±ð±ô±ô±ð’.

Ìý

Q. How can I stop my cat destroying my Catmint?

Anne – I would get more plants! It can only destroy so many plants in one go!

Matthew – Some cats don’t like Catmint – so you could get a new cat?!

Eric – I heard of one owner who concealed within the Catnip holly leaves and twigs to deter the cat

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Q. I love Sea Holly but have failed in my attempts to grow it from seed or rear it from a plant – how can I succeed?

Matthew – There are a wide range of Sea Hollies – the native one Eryngium maritimum requires 20-30ft (6m-9m) of pure sand to grow in.Ìý There are some more garden-tolerant varieties like Yuccifolium or Tripartitum which will seed around.Ìý Or ones like alpinum but that is a bit harder to grow.Ìý It’ll depend on your soil condition as to which one you can grow.

Bunny – I’ve found it difficult too – two that have worked though are agavifolium and pandanifolium

Anne – There is one called Pecos amethyst which I’d recommend – will grow in wet, heavy clay soil. This would be bought as a plant not grown from seed.Ìý If you are attempting to grow from seed then I’d guess you were trying to get something like the biennial Eryngium giganteum, often referred to as ‘Mrs Wilmott’s Ghost’

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Q. Could the panel please advise on the care of a chilli pepper that was grown from seed – it’s in a 9inch pot (22.8cm), approx.. 18inches (45cm) high and is bearing 30-40 small fruits which are green and range from pea-sized to two inches… will they ripen?

Bunny – I tend to pick them when I need them – I’d wait for them and they should turn red if you’ve got them in a nice sunny greenhouse

Matthew – Get a really nice pot for it and treat it as something edible and as a table ornament – looks great as a table centrepiece – and then you can spice your food as you go

Anne – Keep it in a pot on a saucer so you can see when it needs watering and then put it in something decorative when you put it on the table.Ìý This way you’ll avoid over-watering the plant.

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Q. We have an area of 3m x 3m (9.8ft x 9.8ft) on the north-side of a 2m (6.5ft) wall, it’s in deep shade from mid-May and is also subject to salt-laden gales, what can I grow?

Anne – It’s not dry which is good – dry shade is more difficult than damp.Ìý A lot of hardy Fuschia would be good, I’ve just got magellanica which is the ordinary kind, and that gets pruned hard in the early spring.Ìý And then with it is an Actaea (used to be called Cimicifugas) and they like shady, moist soil. They have white flowers and some have purple leaves. You could also mix in DicentrisÌýand Primroses.