plantality.com global blog

Update: Improved Finder Results

solent — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 22:11:51 +0000

Up and till now we've been using a temporary form of search results from the plant finder. As of today we have unveiled a few changes to massively improve them.

Firstly, similar (i.e. closely related plants) are now grouped together in the results. Rather than listing a number of similar plants in the results, you will now see text such as: '3 similar plants found show...'. Click the show link and you will see listing of these plants along with what makes them different.

Second we have added more search results per page and added 'pagination' to the bottom of the page (in other words links to further search results).

Third we have changed the search algorithm so it should be much faster. The old version was a very quick and dirty solution and was taking up to a second to return results, even with the small database we have at present. We will be monitoring performance of the new code closely.

And finally we have removed the number beside each category in the search part of the finder. Whilst this was an interesting feature it resulted in heavy usage of the database. This change will both improve page load times and clean up the page somewhat.

Share your Gardening Knowledge on our New Wiki

solent — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:58:00 +0000

You are a gardener. You are an expert. You may only have a small garden, or even just a pot plant on the windowsill, but you are the most knowledgeable person about that plant or that garden.

And, just like, any expert, you have acquired a wealth of knowledge in your sphere of expertise. Wouldn't it be great if there was some way to share that knowledge with other gardeners? To raise every gardeners knowledge levels and skills?

Plantality.com is now home to a gardening and plant wiki. We aim to fill the wiki with detailed information on how to grow everything which is garden worthy, to give details on every pest and disease and to share gardening tips and how-tos.

And this is where you, the experts, come in. We encourage you to write about your favourite species and to share your tips.

You're probably wondering why we need to create a new wiki when wikipedia is already available. Okay, so wikipedia lists a huge number of plants but it is full of technical terms, aimed at botanists but flying over the heads of the average gardener, and it totally fails to deliver basic gardening information such as how to plant, when to prune and how to treat disease.

And Wikipedia also fails to help you find plants - unless you knwo their names. If you haven't tried it yet, visit our unique plant finder. Every variety is sorted into over 200 categories, such as when it flowers, it's prefered soil type and whet wildlife it attracts. Click on your preferred categories and get a list out of matching plants. There really is nothing like it on the internet.

So, please, help us to build a unique, detailed and useful resource for any gardener, wherever they are in the world. Visit the wiki today.

New Plant Finder

solent — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:18:24 +0000

We have just added an extra feature to the site - a plant finder. For the plant finder we categorise each plant into up to 200 categories to make it easy for you to search for plants which exactly fit your needs.

Categories include things like:

plant type (annual, perennial etc),
uses (borders, baskets etc),
soil type (acid, dry),
situation (exposed or sheltered),
flower season,
foliage colour,
and wildlife interest.

In the plant finder click on a category which interest you so see plants in it, then select a second category to see only plants which fulfil both conditions. You can keep drilling down as much as you like, and it's easy to deselect a category to widen your search.

Each plants page includes a detailed description, a complete list of the categories it is filed under (including size and hardiness), usually one or more photos and links to closely related plants.

We will later be adding links to places where you can buy each plant and a section which lists similar plants which you may be interested in.

At present we are in the process of adding content to the database and within a few months we will have a listing of every common garden and house plant as well as a few more exotic species.

To check out the finder visit http://plantality.com/finder

Spiraea nipponica 'Snowmound'

solent — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 07:22:55 +0000

Snowmound is a beautiful shrub in the late spring and early summer. The top sides of it's arching branches are covered in small white flowers, making it look like a bush covered in snow.

This shrub has an average growth rate, eventually reaching a height of six to eight feet (about 2m). Hardy to zone 4, Snowmound is easy to look after, not needing any pruning, other than removing dead or diseased wood after flowering.

As with other Spiraeas it will tolerate most soils, including poor ones with the exception of thin chalk or very dry soils. It is happy growing in full sun or light shade.
nnnn

Photo by swimboy1

Why Your Bedding Plants Might Not Grow

solent — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:51:59 +0000

Have you ever had the experience of getting a pack of bedding plants from the garden centre and planting them out only to find that a month or two later they have barely grown any bigger? You probably blamed yourself for using poor quality compost, or the wrong fertiliser. Well, it's probably not something you did at all.

When a garden centre sells bedding plants it's important that the plants are nice and compact. Too small and customers will feel they're recently pricked out, and too big and they'll reject them for being too leggy.

But bedding plants grow quickly and, with the vagaries of the weather, sowing seeds at just the right time so they are at the right size for selling just as the customers appear is an impossible task. So growers need a way to control the plants so that they stay compact until they can be sold.

There are two ways of doing this. One way is really easy, the other is really hard.

The hard way is to control the plant size by controlling the watering. Basically the more water you give a plant, within reason, and the faster it will grow. Restrict the amount of water, even going so far as leaving the plant slightly limp, and the plant will almost stop growing completely.

A side benefit of doing this is that, whilst dry, the plant will concentrate it's energies into root growth in the hopes of finding extra water supplies. On our nursery we keep most bedding types dry in our growing on house, then, when the time comes to sell them we water them up to make a compact, presentable plant for sale.

But keeping plants limp, without being so limp that they die or suffer permanent damage such as scorched leaves requires lots of skill on the part of the grower. You need to weigh up the weather conditions, how dry the plant is at the time you are watering, what variety you are watering, and even if you want to give a particular variety more water because it is selling fast.

So most growers choose the easy way. The easy way is to spray them with one of a group of chemicals called 'growth regulators'. These effectively stunt the growth of the plant, usually shortening the stem length between each set of leaves. Spraying is quick and the plants can then be easily watered by junior staff members.

And it works well. The growers get to supply beautifully compact plants to the garden centres. But, when you get the plants home and plant them up, what happens?

Well, for a plant which has been grown the hard way all those extra roots start sucking up the extra moisture you give them and soon grow into big, healthy, bushy plants. The plants which have been sprayed? If you're lucky they will have only been sprayed with a low level of chemical and may also get off to a good start. If you're unlucky they will still be full of chemical and they will stay as small, dwarfed plants for the next month or two.

So, the next time you are buying bedding plants, ask the nurseryman if the plants have had growth regulants applied to them, and if you so may want to consider shopping somewhere else.

The Secrets of Effective Watering

solent — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 17:21:20 +0000

Of all the skills a gardener needs to acquire, probably the single most important one is watering. It's also the skill that new gardeners often find the hardest time to acquire.

Many new gardeners know (of course) that a plant needs water to survive and water them every day, only to end up 'killing them with kindness'. But plant roots also need a good supply of air, if a pot is too full of water it pushes the air out and the roots start to rot.

Watering will to a large extent depend on the plant. For the vast majority of plants on the nursery we use a technique called 'wet/dry cycles'. What this means is that we leave the plant to dry out to a certain extent, then give it a thorough watering and leave it to dry again before repeating.

The toughest part of this strategy is judging when a plant is dry. You could, of course, wait until the plant goes limp, but it's best to give the plant water before it reaches this extreme stage. Other than this there arfe basically two techniques you can use: compost colour or the weight of the container.

With many brands of compost you will notice that the compost changes colour when dry. When wet the compost will be very dark brown, if not black in colour. As the plant dries the media will fade to light grey. You will probably also notice the compost becoming dustier as it dries out, though this may not be the case when a plant has been in it's pot more than a few months. You do need to bear in mind, though, that with a newly potted plant in hot weather the top surface of the compost may dry out through evaporation whilst the rest of the compost is still wet. I always recommend extra caution with newly potted plants.

If you've ever picked up a bucket full of water you will know that water is heavy. A plant pot which is full of water will, therefore, weight more than an a dry one. Using weight to assess dryness takes a bit more skill than looking at compost colour, but it can be an effective technique with hanging baskets and well filled pots where it's not possible to see the compost. The skill comes from the fact that different sized containers will naturally have different weights anyway, and different composts may also vary in weight (a soil based compost such as a John Innes type will weight more than a peat based compost). You will need to learn this technique by experience.

There's one more factor that can help you determine when a plant is dry: time. Get to know your plants and how frequently they need watering. A hanging basket in summer will probably need watering daily, the same basket in winter only once a week. The more you practice watering the more you will learn each plants requirements.

So, when you've established that your plants are dry, how much water should you give them? Here's in interesting little experiment you can do: fill an empty plant pot with compost fresh from the bag. Leave the compost level a little below the rim of the pot, as you would when planting a plant. With a watering can or hosepipe, fill the top of the pot with water until it starts to overflow the side of the pot. Leave the water to soak in for half an hour, then tip pot out. You will probably see that the water has barely soaking on more than an inch.

What this teaches us is that a dry pot will need a considerable amount of water to thoroughly soak it. This is somthing to bear in mind when watering a newly potted plant, or one which has dried out to the state of goung limp. For watering in on the nursery I usually recommend filling the compost to the rim at least three times, letting the water soak in between fills.

So, if that's what I recommend for a thoroughly dry plant, what about one which is dry enough to benefit from watering, but is not completely dry? For this case I would simply fill once to the rim of the pot as a starting measure.

From here you can modify the exact amount as you get used to your individual plants requirements. And I'll repeat myself: get to know your individual plants and what their requirements are. Like children all plants are unique and have different requirements, learn what they are and they will flourish for you.

Erysimum "Bowles Mauve"

solent — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:47:05 +0000

Most of us are aware of the annual wallflowers which we buy as bare root plants in autumn. But not everyone is aware of their perennial cousins. Perennial wallfowers, also known as Erysimums are hardy (to zone 3) evergreen perennials growing to about three feet (1m) high and three feet (1m) across.

Bowles Mauve has scented deep purple flowers borne above the plants in early to late spring. Other varieties are usually shades of orange and yellow. One particularly interesting variety is "Pastel Patchwork" with both pale orange and pink flowers on the same head. Erysimums are good for attracting early wildlife into a garden, attracting lacewings, ladybirds and hoverflies. The long and thin and usually dark green with a greyer underside, but can turn slightly purplish in cold weather.

They like to grow in poor soil which is well drained and slightly alkaline. Give them a sunny sight for the best results.

Care is easy, just prune back lightly after flowering to remove dead heads and tidy the bushes up.

Photo by nautical2k

Has Spring Finally Spring?

solent — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:12:41 +0000

January and February have been very quiet on the nursery. They are our quietest months every year, but with the record low temperatures this year things have been even worse that usual. So, it was nice to feel some warmth in the air early this week.

Sadly the mercury levels have gone down again since then, but it's still sunny and that's started to bring the customers in. We specialise in Fuchsias, growing over 400 varieties and many of our early customers are fuchsia enthusiasts stocking their greenhouses and conservatories for the season ahead.

After these come the people who are stocking up on compost, usually our horse manure compost, to mulch their borders. And then are those who have taken their first steps into their spring gardens, noticed any gaps or dead plants and are wanting something to add a little colour into their lives.

As with any small business owner we like to keep a close eye on sales, in our case we tend to compare then with the previous year. March 2009 was our best March ever, buy a reasonable margin. Last March was bright, sunny and warm through almost the entire month. That gives us quite a target to live up to, and something we are unlikely to match with this years climate.

Running a nursery is not a job you want if you like a nice, steady and assured income!

Polyanthus "Crescendo Mixed"

solent — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:46:30 +0000

It's not easy finding different plants to provide winter colour. You're basically restricted to winter pansies, violas and polyanthus. Of the three I find that pansies and violas can be knocked out by a wet winter and they also don't grow too well in my mostly shady garden. Hence why I plant polyanthus every year for my winter colour.

Maybe describing them as winter colour is a bit too much. They tend to stop flowering during the coldest, darkest days, but they will flower reliably from early spring and, if you plant them early enough they will also give some colour in the autumn.

Polyanthus are similar to a primrose with a rosette of dark green ridged leaves. But, whereas primrose flowers are held tightly in the center of the plant, a polyanthus holds it's flowers at the top of a 6-8in (15-18cm) stem. They also tend to be hardier than primroses.

Flowers are available in white, blue, red, yellow and orange. You can often buy each colour separately but prefer to go for maximum impact and plant a mixture. Plant them 6-8in (15-18cm) apart for good coverage and maximum colour.

They are not overly fussy about soil conditions, as long as it is not overly dry (hardy a problem in an English winter). I like to mix in a little composted horse manure or similar when I'm planting them. Aftercare simply consists of removing the fading flower heads to prolong flowering.

Photo by Gitaz Vlogg

Logging in and Comments

solent — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:37:36 +0000

This weeks additions:

If you log in via the form at the top of the page you will now stay on the current page instead of being redirected to your homepage.
A comments tab has now been added to your personal pages. This lists recent comments on your blog postings and photos.

Mike

Why You Should Garden Organically

solent — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:44:24 +0000

Most gardeners divide the animals in their garden into two basic categories.

First there are the pretty, fluffy and furry ones that we like to encourage: birds, butterflies, bees and mammals such as foxes and hedgehogs. The second group is basically anything which eats our plants: caterpillars, aphids, slugs and snails etc.

We do what we can to encourage the former, even leaving out food and building shelters for them. We reach for our chemical arsenal to destroy the latter. But here's the rub: most of the good guys couldn't even exist without the bad guys. Birds eat aphids; foxes and hedgehogs consume the slugs and snails; and I hope I don't need to explain the connection between caterpillars and butterflies.

The simple fact is that the best way to get a healthy number of the nice guys in your garden is to learn to turn a blind eye to a few holes in your leaves. Realise that every little bit of damage is helping a bird or fox to thrive.

Of course, there are certain plants which will be decimated by the bad guys. For instance, if I plant marigolds or dahlias they will disappear overnight due to the number of slugs and snails in my well-shaded garden. My solution is simply not to grow such plants. Learn to experiment to find what will grow successfully for you, and if it fails, remember that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of other plants which you could grow in their place.

But you want to be careful about growing insect resistant plants: there are many plants which come from foreign parts of the world and which no native insect will touch. These plants may well stay healthy, but they are not doing any good for the wildlife we are trying to encourage. Try and grow a selection of native plants and these will provide a habitat for native wildlife. I'm not saying that everything you plant has to be native or plant food. You need to aim for balance between the plants which you share with nature and those which are purely for you to enjoy.

Plants which produce nectar for bees and butterflies are another group of plants which are great for a wildlife garden. They also have the benefit that they usually give an impressive display of flower colour. When selecting nectar plants again you can go for native species, but there is also a wide selection of non-natives which are great nectar providers.

When searching for nectar plants it's best to avoid plants which have been highly selectively bred, especially those bred for flower size. Roses and dahlias may be beautiful garden plants but their breeding means they put all their energies into flower production and not into making nectar.

Above all, remember that we, as humans, are merely another part of nature. We need to learn to live in harmony with it and not try and hold our gardens to the same standards of neatness and cleanliness we hold our houses to. Learn to enjoy a bit of naturalised clutter in your garden and the local wildlife will greatly thank you for it.

This weeks update

solent — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:41:32 +0000

This weeks update brings the following changes to the site:

Added:

Non users can now post comments.

Fixed:

Photos under different categories no longer overwrite each other.
Long comments are no longer being cut short.

This is a blog post

rkwest — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:09:55 +0000

The font in the field for the title of the blog post is so pale that it appears to be intentionally greyed out, almost invisible. The font in the body of the post (right here right now) looks normal, although tiny. As I'm typing this, down below I see a message that says "Path: p". I have no idea what that means.

Urbinati Vertical Bale Breaking Machine

solent — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:56:13 +0000

Last week saw the delivery of our latest piece of machinery to the nursery.

We have long since used a compost mixing machine on the nursery. We had compost delivered on a tipper lorry. We would then shovel the compost into our compost mixing machine, add in long term fertilizer as necessary and fill trays through the output of the machine.

But the compost was delivered from a long distance away and this, combined with the fact that we only had space for a delivery of 25m3 at a time (a small lorry load) meant that the compost was expensive to buy. It was also a lot of work to shovel it all into the compost mixing machine.

So, enter our new machine. We now have compost delivered in 'pro bales'. This is a pallet load of compressed compost wrapped in plastic. We take one of these pallets and load it into the front of the machine using a fork lift truck, removing the wrapping as we go.

Once the machines doors are shut, the machine uses powerful motors to lift the pallet and a set of strong metal 'scrapers' scrape the compost from the top of the pallet as it is lifted. The compost falls through a chute and into our existing compost mixing machine.

Then bale breaker is computer controller, and is worked by simple push button switches.

Filling a load of compost used to take a few minutes and a lot of elbow grease, now takes the push of a button and fifty seconds.

plantality Offically in Beta Testing

solent — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:15:16 +0000

I'm not sure I'm ready for it. I'm not sure I'll ever be ready for it. But the time has now come to state that plantality.com is officially in beta testing, with the following provisos:

Search isn't yet working.
Receiving emails doesn't yet work (if you send a private message, and the reply comes via email, you should be hit the reply button and email a reply back). This doesn't affect outgoing email (for sign ups etc).
While the code is in beta testing, much of the website is still in alpha (or less than alpha) state: my web designer is still working on it.
My units tests are showing a few error, but they are either cosmetic or only affect admin areas of the site.
Clicking the 'use for profile' option for one of your uploaded images causes a failure. I know where the problem is, but not (yet) how to fix it.

Feel free to play away and try your best to break things.

Mike

Potentilla "Primrose Beauty"

solent — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:27:24 +0000

Potentilla is a deciduous shrub hardy to zone 7. It's close relationship to the strawberry is shown in the similarly shaped flowers, being 5-petalled flat discs about an inch(3cm) across. Unlike some shrubs which are a mass of flower for a short period, Potentillas tend to bear less flowers at one time, but for a much longer period. You can expect a Potentilla to be in flower for most of the summer, but it may take some short breaks while it catches it's breath. In "Primrose Beauty" they are coloured a delicate primrose-yellow. Other varieties are available in colours from white to orange, yellow and (rarely) red.

Potentilla "Primrose Beauty" is a compact shrub growing to a height and width of 2-3 feet (70-100cm). Leaves are about an inch (2cm) across, mid-green and deeply lobed. Care is fairly simple, trim back by about half in early spring, and the flowers are too small to be worthwhile deadheading. As with other shrubs a mulch or bark or composted horse-manure in spring will help with flowering. Grow Potentillas in any reasonable garden soil with average moisture levels and fairly neutral acidity.

Photo by seeks2dream

First Delivery of the Year

solent — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:29:09 +0000

It's not every Monday morning that is interrupted by a large lorry covered in massive pictures of pansies backs into our yard. Nor, indeed, every Monday that the a burly, muscular northern driver descends from his cab and, after a little conversation, is clearly unhappy with driving a lorry covered in massive pictures of pansies.

At least our suppliers have been spending they're budgets prettying things up over the quiet winter season (a second lorry arrive half an hour later, from a different supplier, and it's driver told me his lorry was shortly due to be covered in giant pictures. Let me know if you see these lorries out and about).

So kicked off week six (or the sixth week of the year for those not in the trade). This was the first week that a most suppliers have a large range of varieties available to send out, and so it's our first big delivery week of the year.

Delivered this week we have geraniums (zonal, ivy, scented leaved and fancy leaved), fuchsias, penstemon, ostoespermum, argryanthemum and a few other bits besides.

A grand total of over 10,000 plant. Yikes, that's a lot.

A Little About Me

solent — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:59:49 +0000

I grew up (and still live) in southern England. My parents ran a market garden growing tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and lettuce for the local wholesale market, so I've always been around and interested in plants.

After university I returned to the family business which by this time had moved site and mutated into a retail plant nursery growing mainly bedding plants and plants for hanging baskets and patio containers plus a small range of hardy shrubs and perennials. My parents and I still run the business to this day.

I also grew up with computers, starting with a Sinclair ZX80. I learnt to program and always wanted to write and sell my own software. I achieved that dream when the internet made selling software easy in the late nineties, and I've run a side-line selling my software ever since.

For the last year or so I've been mulling over the idea of creating an online community of some sort. My first idea was for something related to model railways, another interest of mine, but looking at a list of popular hobbies one day I noticed gardening up in the top ten. Well, I know far more about gardening than I do about model railways, so a gardening website it would be.

And now it's ready for the world. As with every piece of software, there will be bugs to be fixed. If you notice anything amiss don't hesitate to use the 'Contact Us' link at the bottom of every page.

Welcome to plantality.com

solent — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:05:37 +0000

Hello, and welcome to plantality.com. My name is Mike and I'm the owner of this site. If you've found your way here you're probably wondering what this place is all about.

Well, it's my idea for a website where gardeners can kick off their boots and gloves, settle down in a comfy chair and talk gardens. Something for those days when it's too cold or wet to get outside, if you like (unless you're of the hard core who go outside whatever the weather).

Once you've signed up here (for free, of course) you can post a profile describing yourself and you interests, make friends with other gardeners, post status updates about what's going on in your gardening life, upload photos of your garden and plants, and write blog posts about anything gardening related.

We welcome all ability levels newbies to green fingered experts, and all types and sizes of garden from a few houseplants on the windowsill to great rolling country estates. You can talk about anything from flowers to vegetables, fruit to the wildlife that eats it (or preferably the food you leave out for them). As long as it's related to gardens or plants (and suitable for a family audience) it's welcome.

Here's raising a glass to a long and healthy future.