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Rowden Gardens
Brentor
Tavistock
Devon
PL19 0NG

If you want to visit John and Galen Carter’s National Collection of Water Iris, they’ll be holding special open days in June. For further details, check out the website below nearer the time.

(www.nccpg.com)

The Peony Society was established in 2000 to promote peonies as garden plants and to bring together people who share a passion for them. Claire Austin, Chairman of The Peony Society, gives us her top 10 favourite peonies. Unless otherwise stated, all the varieties listed are herbaceous and won’t need staking.

Paeonia ‘B²¹°ù²ú²¹°ù²¹â€™ (Mid-season)  The deep-pink flowers form a tight ball that is surrounded by large guard petals. It has grey leaves and very strong stems. Great for cutting as it lasts for ages in water.

Paeonia ‘B²¹°ù³Ù³ú±ð±ô±ô²¹â€™ (Mid-season)  An excellent intersectional peony with large, lemon-scented, soft-yellow flowers. The petals form a perfect, frilly rosette around delicate, yellow stamens which have magenta flares at the base.

Paeonia ‘Bowl of Beauty’ (Mid-season)  This deservedly popular variety is also free flowering. Its bright-pink guard petals encircle a ball of pale-lemon, ribbon-like staminodes.

Paeonia ‘Buckeye Belle’ (Early)  This early-blooming plant has fabulous, cupped flowers with velvety, deep-red petals. These are tinged with brown and purple and open around a ring of stamens.

Paeonia ‘Claire De Lune’ (Early)  An absolutely beautiful plant. The single, sweetly scented, pale-lemon flowers have a central boss of delicate, yellow stamens. It has red stems and large, deep-green leaves.

Paeonia delayavii  Variable in flower, the small blossoms of this gorgeous tree peony can be single or semi-double and vary in colour from near black through orange and apricot to yellow. These sit in clusters just proud of the attractive deeply divided leaves on woody stems. June flowering.

Paeonia ‘Dinner Plate’ (Late)  Aptly named, the large soft-pink flowers open into flat rosettes, their soft, silky petals paler along the edges. Although they are carried on strong, thick stems with thick, leathery, dark green leaves, the flower heads may need staking.

Paeonia ‘Late Windflower’ (Early)  A cross of two species peonies, this is one of the easiest of its type to grow. The small, single, pure white bell-shaped flowers float above a mound of pretty deeply divided leaves. Very upright.

Paeonia ‘Red Charm’ (Early)  This excellent plant has double, glossy-red flowers that are long-lasting. Held on stiff stems, the blooms form a domed ball of serrated petals within large guard petals. Sometimes needs staking, but not always.

Paeonia ‘Shirley Temple’ (Mid-season)  A free-flowering plant with big, glamorous  balls of double, white flowers with pink-tinged guard petals. Long flower stems make this an excellent flower for cutting, but it will need staking.

(www.peonysoc.com)

Trudi and Paul Harrison will be opening their beautiful seaside garden for the NGS on Sunday 26 July if you fancy a visit. Visitors are also welcome by arrangement from May to September. For more details, go to the website below.

(www.ngs.org.uk)

Do you have a passion for gardens? Next week is National Gardening Week, giving you the chance to take part in horticultural events across the country. And on Friday 17 April, National Open Gardens Day, some of the country’s best-known gardens will be open for free. For more information, check out the website below.

(www.nationalgardeningweek.org.uk)

April is an excellent time to sow grass seed. Whether you are repairing a patch or creating a new lawn, the technique is the same. Make sure the soil is smooth and even, and sow half the seed over the whole area by working in parallel rows lengthways. Then, repeat the process with the remaining seed, working in parallel rows widthways. Lightly rake to cover the majority of the seeds with soil and, in dry weather, water gently with a fine spray of water.

(www.rhs.org.uk)

If you remove the growing tips of sweet pea seedlings, you will encourage them to branch and produce more flowers. Pinch out when they are about 10cm (4in) high or if they are too long and leggy.

(www.rhs.org.uk)

If you grow dogwood and willow for their colourful stems in winter, now is the time to cut them back. Pruning hard encourages vigorous new growth which, in turn, will produce a better stem colour.

(www.rhs.org.uk)