In article ,
says...

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
T...
In article ,
says...

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2009-07-14 18:24:09 +0100, "Ivan" said:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2009-07-14 18:02:14 +0100, "Ivan" said:


As I am a relative newcomer to gardening I hope someone here may be
to
help me with a couple of problems.
My young grand daughter has been telling me that 'the honey bees are
in
trouble', therefore we have to do our bit to try and encourage as
many
of them into our gardens as we can.
Fair enough I saw on the telly that bees are particularly attracted
to
honeysuckle and lavender plants, so I went to our local garden
centre
and purchased a 'Lonicera americana' honeysuckle which I was
informed
was particularly good, at the time I did notice that a couple of the
leaves looked a little suspect (as in photo) but thought that once I
got it into some decent soil with a couple of handfuls of bonemeal
(as
seen on TV) everything would be OK, however whilst it still
continues
to grow apace the leaves still look far from healthy, whilst the
stems
in places appear to have a greyish coating.
|
Also a lavender that I purchased at the same time started off
wonderfully but that too now appears to be on the wane with some of
the
heads now beginning to turn a brownish colour.. Any help will be
greatly appreciated, below is a link to a couple of photos of both
the
honeysuckle and the lavender plant.
|
TIA Ivan
|
Quote from Denis Bradshaw (one time national honeysuckle collection
holder)
"Most forms will benefit from cutting back immediatly after flowering or
in the autumn after the birds have had the berries. During winter twiggy
or diseased stems can be cut out and any over vigorous growth can be
shortened by one third."

If you follow the instructions on the label it will reduce the amount of
flower considerably!
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea