In the last article we talked about summer pruning larger trees and bushes. There are small and medium sized plants that benefit from summer pruning too.
Lavender and Rosemary
You may have seen or visited the Warwickshire Lavender farm near Bubbenhall in the recent weeks. They closed to the public, at the end of their season, the start of August, so they can harvest and prune the lavender to keep the plants the right size to produce beautiful lavender again next year. If you have lavender, rosemary or similar hardy Mediterranean plant, now is the time to prune it back.
If you are happy with the current size of the plant, cut it back leaving a couple of cm of green current growth. Make sure you remove all flower heads too. If you want more of the same plant, look through what you have cut, choose stems without flower heads with strong growth. Strip off the bottom couple of sets of leaves and pop them into a small flower post with compost, keep them moist and in the light. Hopefully in a month these will root into little cuttings you can look after over the winter ready to plant next spring. We find we usually get about 50% take from this method.
To increase your success look at tips from RHS or TV gardeners about where to cut the stem, the type of compost to use, as well as the pros and cons of hormone rooting powder. Even if only a few cuttings root, you still get plants for free to plant or swap.
Deadheading or summer pruning
The recent cool weather had resulted in many flowers rotting on their stems. The strong winds have stripped petals from flowers and crushed many stems. If this has happened to you, encourage replacement flowers and growth by cutting back the rotten, broken and damaged flowers. Give the plants a feed and hopefully better weather soon will coax the plants back into flowering.
If you want a beautiful garden and have no time to achieve it, give Chopwell a call. Our friendly professional team are here to help!
