It is a difficult decision whether to cut or leave. Our gardens and plants have not experienced such a long hot and dry summer before. Gardens and plants are showing the distress they are continuing to experience from this unprecedented summer.
What to cut or leave?
It is tempting to cut plants back and to tidy up but this can create even more stress to a plant. Where possible try to leave plants alone. The main exceptions to this are to keep dead heading spent flowers, particularly on repeat flowering plants like roses, dahlias and summer bedding. Even though the prolonged heat and dry they have kept flowering for our enjoyment.
If you are concerned that a tree, large branch or large shrub has died during the summer, don’t delay contact Chopwell today! Our free initial consultation can check the health of these large plants and advise on whether they need managing or removing now or can wait until autumn.
Keep watering and feeding
The last few articles have stressed the importance of keeping watering and feeding plants in pots or recently planted. Even summer bedding plants which are coming to the end of their flowering period will benefit from feeding and watering to keep them going into September.
More established plants are more likely to have created new deeper roots to find moisture and food during the summer. Anything recently planted needs lots of care to help them establish, regular watering feeding and protection from the strong winds and sun.
Looking forward
The supermarkets and garden centres are starting to fill up with bulbs to plant in the autumn to flower next spring. Although many recommend to start planting soon, talking with an expert recently they said they are delaying planting as the winters are not cold enough and the plant starts growing and flowering sooner than they want.
This could work both ways, if you plant sooner you may get flowers sooner, or perhaps try planting bulbs over a number of weeks to get a longer flowering period.
