Help & Advice

RHS Gardening Advice at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

2009-07-06T14:54:00Z

As usual the science and advice team will be manning the advice desk at the show. In addition the Wisley garden staff are presenting an exhibit in the Growing Tastes marquee and will join the advice team to give expert advice on growing fruit and veg.

It has been a great year for insects so far, with an influx of painted lady butterflies, blackfly and greenfly, gooseberry sawflies and many reports of harlequin ladybirds and their larvae, particularly on broad beans:

Chelsea Advice Desk

2009-05-21T11:38:00Z

One of the things we like most about Chelsea, and indeed all RHS flower shows, are the visitors who only rarely visit Wisley and take the opportunity while at the show to meet the advice team face-to-face.

Top Ten Chelsea Advice Questions

2009-05-20T08:19:00Z

As usual an amazing variety of questions were answered at Chelsea by the advice team – the top ten were:

1. Li ly beetles These conspicuous beetles are on the move in spring and promnpt action is needed to stop them devastating lilies
2. Growing asparagus
3. Viburnum beetles Holes begin to appear on viburnums now and the beetle grubs are present on the undersides of leaves
4. Citrus – caring for them after a stressful period indoors over-winter Repotting, feeding and placing outside in summer are the usual remedies, but we find inadvertant over-watering is the commonest cause of citrus death
5. Wisteria – sudden leaf browning. The casue of this is often hard to find, but we suspect that graft incompatibility may be to blame, particularly where suckers are arising from the base, but the main part of the climber has died back. Check the graft region for significant differences between the wood above and below the graft. Unfortunately replacement is usually called for.
6. Wisteria Scale - this pest has been in the news and our insect experts have sumarised the situation here
7. Failure of recently planted trees and shrubs The recent sun and wind has drawn mosture out of newly planted trees and shrubs taking many gardeners by surprise. Prompt watering or even lifting plants, soaking the rootball in a bucket of water and replanting, can save the plant
8. Getting rid of ground elder
9. Rose pruning
10. Caterpillars – why are there so many this year? Our insect experts point out that numbers of insects fluctuate naturally but possible bird mortality might have been higher this winter due to the colder than usual conditions. However plentiful caterpillars should mean well fed-fledglings. Winter moths have been especially noticeable this spring

Chelsea Gardening Advice

2009-05-17T17:50:00Z

Chelsea week is a busy one for the advice team as in addition to carrying on as usual with the Member’s Advisory Service we provide an advice desk to help all show visitors.

Two advisors have been busy today at the show site stocking the stand with all the equipment and materials the advice team will need to answer the expected 3000 questions from show visitors. The computers and printers have been tested, but because electricity at shows is subject to ‘outages’ back up in the form of printed material is ready.

Help Wanted by Help & Advice

2009-02-11T14:28:00Z

We would be most grateful for your opinions on our new advice information sheets.

Do they work for you/ Can you find what you want?

What’s Hot in RHS Help and Advice?

2009-02-10T17:24:00Z

In response to widespread reports in the media of snowdrops flowering very late this year, our Press Office have asked us to investigate.

RHS Help and Advice - Member's Question of the Week

2009-02-09T16:00:00Z

Mr J of Leicestershire, sent pictures of his Colorado spruce tree (Picea pungens), bought as a specimen in November 2006, which started suffering foliage damage in late summer in 2007 and again in late summer 2008, gradually affecting much of the tree.

Help and Advice Today

2009-02-03T12:53:00Z

Severe weather conditions mean that we are still only able to offer a reduced gardening advice service by phone. Many apologies for this, but we trust the service will return to normal soon.

Help and Advice - Snow

2009-02-02T09:58:00Z

Unfortunately the road conditions are too severe for all of our advisors to get to Wisley this morning (the gardens are closed) so the RHS Help and Advice Service is currently offering a reduced telephone advice service.

Many apologies for any inconvenience; normal service will, we hope, be resumed soon.

Help and Advice - Member's question of the week

2009-01-30T08:36:00Z

Pruning advice is always a top question for the RHS Members’ Advice Service. Few people have plants that look like those in books and if plants have been pruned heavily in the past or have been neglected or both, it is easy to understand why gardeners should be unsure what to do.

Before digital cameras, pruning advice was a tad frustrating. Describing both plants and pruning in words is difficult and informative pictures were harder to take. But now that members can easily take good pictures that can be emailed to the advice office, pruning advice is pleasure for us and, we hope, gardeners.

What's hot in the RHS Member's Help and Advice:

2009-01-28T17:37:00Z

We answered 371 questions from 233 people last week, by letter, email, phone and visitors to the Members’ Advisory Centre in the plant centre at Wisley. This a very quiet week by our standards, even for January, but we often find that better weather is needed to spark people's interest in gardening.

Top Ten Enquiries were:

Top Twenty Plants

2009-01-22T18:13:00Z

Although the Wisley-based RHS gardening advice service receives relatively few enquiries in January there is still much to do. By April we will be very busy indeed and to get ready for the rush we are updating and extending our advisory problem profiles and checking suppliers, particularly of pesticides as these tend to change frequently, and gardeners are unsure what insecticides, fungicides or weedkillers are available.