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JOHN'S GARDEN, 'ONE OF THE FINEST GARDENS IN THE UK', IS OPEN EVERY SATURDAY more
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- September
- The Flower Garden
The Flower Garden
Buy your Spring bulbs
Purchase Spring bulbs and store in a cool, dark place prior to planting. Crocus, snowdrops, scillas and narcissi are best planted as soon as possible but tulip bulbs benefit from later planting, typically October to November. Late September is a good time to plant lily bulbs: plant on a bed of grit or sand if your soil is poorly drained but on light, sandy soils incorporate leaf mould or any other organic matter. Plant prepared hyacinth bulbs for Christmas flowering without delay, as they will need 8‑10 weeks in the cold and dark before flowering. These are best grown outside in pots or bowls and plunged into a frame, box or container from which all light is excluded and which provides as cold a temperature as possible. Bring indoors after 8-10 weeks when the shoots are about 3 to 4cm long.
The Herbaceous Border
Continue dead-heading plants to promote further flowering well into the Autumn, especially on herbaceous plants, salvias, dahlias and chrysanthemums. Check ties on dahlias and feed fortnightly to produce good-sized blooms and build up the tubers. Ensure they are correctly labelled if they are to be saved, marking any plants that show non-characteristic features such as virus or colour breaking. Protect late flowering Chrysanthemums against the wet and damp with covers or bloom bags. Any 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. Install and regularly refill earwig traps around susceptible plants such as dahlias, chrysanthemums and clematis. Give taller of varieties of Michaelmas daisies and other heavy flowers some form of support. Begin division of herbaceous plants, particularly those that flower early in spring.
Plant your Spring bedding plants
Towards the middle of the month, empty patio pots, preparing them for their Spring displays. Pansies and Violas are available to purchase for bedding out or in patio pots, Panolas are a cross between pansies and violas and they are our preferred choice for autumn bedding, out-performing all other pansies. They are long flowering, of compact habit and have good disease resistance. It’s good practice with pansies and violas to remove any early flowers and apply a precautionary spray against mildew and greenfly with a proprietary brand.
Clear old summer bedding and annuals. Wallflowers, polyanthus and other Spring bedding plants will be available to purchase towards the end of the month. Sweet peas can be sown in the open this month covering with a cloche. Protection from slugs and mice may be necessary. They can also be sown in pots over the next two months or so and kept in the cold frame during winter. Sow in the open, hardy annuals such as Calendula, Cornflowers, Flax, Love-in-a-Mist, Larkspur, Poppies and Amni majus to overwinter outside, remembering to thin them out before they get too leggy.
Towards the end of the month all tender subjects, Fuchsias, Geraniums etc. should be safely in the greenhouse. Trim off top growth of geraniums to about half their length, trim the roots and box up covering the roots with 2 inches of soil. Keep fairly dry throughout winter. Remove any half-hardy perennials from containers and pot up individually, giving them time to establish before winter. Use small pots, place in the greenhouse and do not over-water
Rose Care
Remove old rose blooms as they fade unless they are being grown for their ornamental rose hips, continue spraying against pests and diseases with a proprietary brand although spraying this late will make little difference to Black Spot: the best approach now is to gather up all infected leaves and cut back severely affected foliage as part of the Autumn pruning programme. Stop feeding with proprietary rose fertilisers but 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, using a good pair of secateurs. 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.
Ericaceous Plants
To ensure a good crop of flowers on camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas continue to keep the root balls of plants moist (but not waterlogged) through September and the atmosphere around them damp and, towards the end of the month. Stop using ericaceous plant foods.
Pests and Diseases
Heuchera rust is a relatively new disease affecting Heucheras, Heucherallas and Tiarellas and seems to be spread by rain splashes. Introduced to the UK on new cultivars, this does not seem to attack some of our old cultivars and the best treatment is to remove infected foliage and spray with a proprietary fungicide, remembering in future years to spray throughout the growing season. Plants in pots are susceptible to vine weevil larvae root damage this month: these should be treated with Bug Clear Ultra Vine Weevil Killer applied as a compost drench to pots only. Many shrubs and herbaceous plants in the border are also vulnerable to root damage by vine weevil larvae but there is no legal control for use in the open ground.
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