EARLY SUMMER FLOWERS IN THE GARDEN
Flowers in the garden all have their own season, so provided
you grow a wide variety of plants the garden can be full of colour all year
round. The spring bulbs are now a distant memory followed on by the oriental
poppies and bearded iris. Some azaleas and rhododendrons are still in flower
but it is the roses that steal the show in June. The long dry spell brought on
some mildew then the rain gave the greenfly a boost, so a combined insecticide
and fungicide was sprayed to clean them up. To keep the plants flowering remove
all spent flowers to prevent them wasting energy producing rose hips. Oriental
poppies also need seed pods removed and even old foliage as in a good year they
can regrow with fresh leaves and produce a second burst of flowers.
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| Delosperma nubigenum |
Peonies have given a good display but now the show is over
cut back old flower heads.
Garden pinks are becoming very popular and are hard to beat
for a wonderful clove scent. They do not need rich soil but it must be well
drained and they flower best in a sunny position. Mine all
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| Delosperma cooperii |
Greenfly on my oriental lilies also got a spray well ahead
of flowering so now we just await the first huge scented blooms to come into
flower.
Dahlias, chrysanthemums and gladioli grown both for display
and cut flower are all growing strongly but it will be a few weeks before they
make an impact. Chrysanthemums are all supported with stakes and wires and the
plants have had the tops pinched out to encourage branching, except with the
spray types which branch naturally. Some of the dahlias have started to flower,
but need more sunshine after this wet spell of several weeks.
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| Erigeron |
Hardy fuchsia Mrs Popple survived well over winter as it was
quite mild, but for some unknown reason most of the top woody growth all died
back. However the old stems soon produced masses of new shoots, though the old
dead wood needed removing for appearance sake. Once they burst into growth they
can move fast so now there are plenty of flowers and these hardy fuchsias will
continue to bloom till late autumn.
Senecio greyii has started to produce its yellow flowers
which can be quite striking against the silvery gray foliage, and enhanced by a
drift of pink Erigerons also in flower around the bush. This planting
arrangement was a happy accident which just worked when
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| Fuchsia Mrs Popple |
Coming back to ground level my succulent Delosperma
nubigenum may only grow an inch tall but is a great ground cover plant which
smothers all weeds and in May is a mass of yellow scented daisy flowers. The
other Delosperma cooperi has purple flowers and grows two inches high. They are
both perfect for growing in the cracks of walls. Push a few shoots in a crevice
and just leave them. They will soon root and grow quite happily without any
soil.
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| Rose Mme Alfred Carriere |
Bare soil patches remaining after removal of spent tulip
leaves have been sown with calendula, candyfuft, larkspur and other fast
growing annuals to give a bit of colour later in the season.
Tubs and hanging baskets have done well with the warm but
wet May/June period covering the pots and baskets with foliage and beginning to
flower, but as they have a limited amount of soil feeding will be carried out
at least once a month.
Wee jobs to do this week
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| Five month old compost |
My allotment compost
heap was all used up last year so a new one was started in January. There
always seems to be plenty of material to use so it soon bulked up. I turned the
heap twice to help rotting down so now I have compost ready to use after just
six months. This will be used for mulching fruit bushes and trees, and
courgettes and pumpkins. Any left over will be used to get the next heap
started as there is plenty of spent rhubarb leaves, old tulip and other bulb
leaves and now I have potatoes to start lifting so the shaws (no sign of
blight) can be added to the heap.
END
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