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- August
- The Flower Garden
The Flower Garden
August is a good month to cast an eye over plants around the garden. A little formative pruning with a pair of snips or secateurs can make for much better balanced plants that are bushier and more floriferous in future years. Wisterias should be summer- pruned this month if not already carried out. All side shoots that are not wanted for the framework should be pruned back to 15cm (6ins) long. The shortened shoots are further cut back in December / January to two buds. This process will quickly build up a flowering spur system.
Remove old rose blooms as they fade unless they are being grown for their ornamental rose hips, continue spraying against pests and diseases with Rose Clear but stop feeding with proprietary rose fertilisers. It is a good idea to give a single application of sulphate of potash to your roses to promote stronger healthier and more disease resistant grow for the winter months. As Rambling Roses finish flowering they should be pruned (rambling roses flower only once, usually in June and generally flower on the previous season’s growth). Untie all the stems and disentangle from the trellis cutting hard back (to ground level) a third or more of the oldest stems. Tie in the remainder taking them as horizontally as possible and shorten their side shoots by two-thirds. Note that Climbing Roses (these are generally repeat flowering and flower on the current season’s growth) are routinely pruned in late autumn or in winter.
Some early-season herbaceous will have already begun to look straggly and it is good practice to cut these back, as many will often manage a final flush of flowers if cut back early this month. Continue to deadhead and remove seed pods where seed is not required from plants in borders and beds as this promotes further flowering. Hardy annuals can be sown in nursery beds to over winter. Thin out Winter Pansies and Polyanthus if sown in nursery beds for transplanting in October or, if being grown in modules and trays, should be grown as cool as possible to avoid mildew and given a weak solution of Maxicrop Seaweed Extract. Cuttings of Violas can be taken and the parent plants then trimmed back and top dressed with a light dressing of general fertilizer such as Blood, Fish and Bone: work this in lightly and water in if necessary. Take semi-ripe cuttings of tender perennials such as Salvia, Argyranthemum, Pelargonium and Osteospermum as an insurance against winter losses.
Lower and retrain Sweet Peas as they reach the top of their canes. Continue to pick the flowers and never let seed pods form otherwise they stop flowering. Baskets, patio pots and window boxes should be kept well watered and feed regularly with high potash feed (Phostrogen) and just an occasional high nitrogen feed (Miracle Gro) to keep them flowering until the first frosts. Keep up with dead heading and removal of old faded leaves.
If you are troubled with slugs, there are now safe and organic products for controlling slugs, leaving no trace of unsightly slime secretion like most other slug pellets. The pellets can be used around edible and non-edible plants and, due to the mode of action it can be trusted for use around children and pets. Earwigs may be a problem on Chrysanthemums, Dahlias and Clematis. Make earwigs traps consisting of shredded newspaper pushed into an upturned small plant pot positioned on a garden cane close to the host plants. Alternatively, spray at dusk on mild evenings when earwigs are likely to be active with Bayer Sprayday Greenfly Killer. Chrysanthemum plants infected with white spots on the foliage should be destroyed as this is likely to be Chrysanthemum rust which is almost impossible for the amateur to control chemically.
The long days of August are the perfect time to treating serious perennial weeds with glyphosate-based products such as Roundup. Serious weeds such as Horses Tails, Convolvulus and Ground Elder can be treated this month by spraying early in the day, avoiding dry sunny or windy conditions and bear in mind that rain should not fall within six hours of applying. Keep this chemical away from the foliage of any plant that you intend to keep.
August is a peak month for plant pests and diseases. Pests such as lily beetle, whitefly, scale, greenfly, red spider mites, blackfly, mealy bug and thrips are easily controlled when first seen using in an appropriate pesticide such as Provado Bug Killer, but make sure the plant is well watered beforehand and don’t spray when bees are active or in sunny or windy conditions. Provado Vine Weevil Killer may be applied as a soil drench to plants in containers that are vulnerable to vine weevil grubs. The extra watering associated with higher temperatures sees a rapid increase in populations of fungus gnats in potted plants and these are feeding on the decomposing ingredients found in peat alternative composts. Chemicals are relatively ineffective so better water management (letting the top of the compost dry slightly between watering) is probably the best treatment. Otherwise switch to loam-based potting composts such as John Innes or Supergro as the fungus gnats fail to thrive in these.
During hot dry spells red spider mite can be one of the most troublesome pests of greenhouse plants, houseplants and garden plants. It is a tiny sap-sucking mite (not a spider at all!) that attacks the foliage of plants, causing a mottled appearance on the upper leaf surface while he underside of the leaves have many minute yellowish green mites and white cast skins and egg shells. In severe cases you may see fine silk webbing on the plants, and the leaves look bleached and dry up or fall off. Use Scotts Bug Clear Ultra Gun initially, but mites do build up resistance so vary the types of chemicals you use. To help deter red spider mite in greenhouses, adequate shading in bright sunny weather is essential along with sufficient watering and damping down as this pest cannot stand high humidity.
Diseases such as rust, black spot and mildew are very common especially on roses: these are very difficult to control once the plant is affected and fungicides are relatively ineffective. However if you apply a fungicide to prevent disease attacking, it will be 100% effective and I would recommend the regular application of systemic fungicides such as Fungus Fighter on any disease prone plants in your garden from Spring onwards. Once plants are infected, a good tip is to remove and burn all worst affected leaves, water thoroughly and give a regular liquid feed with Miracle-Gro. A weeding regime is important as many weeds act as alternatives hosts to common pests and diseases
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