Last updated 09:52, Thursday, 15 May 2008

Gardening with Toni Magean, head of Parks at Copeland Council

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Murial Brown: This variety boasts deep red double flowers

WHAT fabulous gardening weather over the last few days – and what an opportunity for catching up on all those outstanding gardening tasks. I even managed to complete the painting of the fence!

Last week was a very busy for me; I was invited to the Masonic Hall to be guest speaker at the Whitehaven Women’s Institute and Towns Guild monthly meeting. What a wonderful group of hard working ladies and I was amazed at the work they undertake.

I gave them a talk on the work that the parks department undertakes and it was gratifying to receive appreciation from the ladies for the quality of the gardens and parks in Whitehaven – they are particularly pleased with St Nicholas Garden.

I was also asked to judge two green spaces in Preston last week for the National Green Flag Award: the green spaces were Fishwick Bottoms Nature Reserve and Avenham & Miller Park.

It was like a busman’s holiday for me – I do enjoy the opportunity to visit parks, and it was clear that Preston residents are proud of their green spaces and it was pleasing to learn of the investment the city council are putting into their greens spaces.

Early this week the postman delivered more plug plants. Impatiens “New Guinea Divine” is a new type which is raised from seed. New Guinea Impatiens are raised by taking cuttings – I am very interested to see how they will perform, both as bedding and pot plants. I have put the plugs into 3ins pots.

Other plugs which have arrived are Ivy Geranium Balcony Trailing and Verbena Glory Days – the Geranium and Verbena are for baskets. These plugs were put into 24 cells per standard seed tray, they were all watered and placed my unheated four-tier grow house.

The lawn is growing at a tremendous rate. I’ve cut the grass on three occasions (composting the clippings) thanks to the effects of the lawn feed and the warm weather. Although it is backbreaking work, I manage to rake out the dead moss and overseed the bare areas.

I have dead-headed all my daffodils as they were forming seed head. This will divert the plants’ energy to form bigger bulbs for next year’s display. Tulips have been very colourful, but haven’t long lasting due to the warm weather. Like the daffodils, I have deadheaded the tulips.

Colour in my garden is being provided by one of my favourite plants Meconopsis Cambrica, a perennial plant of the family Papaveraceae. Commonly known as the “Welsh Poppy”, this plant can be seen flowering in the borders of St Nicholas Gardens.

The Welsh poppy is normally a bright yellow flower, though occasionally you may see orange flowers. It is very easy to grow from seed which you just scatter around the garden. In my garden I have a number of varieties of the Welsh Poppy: Meconopsis Cambrica Francis Perry (deep orange single flower) Meconopsis Cambrica Aurantaca (bright orange double flowers) and Meconopsis Cambrica Murial Brown (deep red double flowers). Although I find Welsh poppies attractive little plants, they do have a habit of self seeding around the garden and can become very dominant if you’re not careful.