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July and August

High summer and time to enjoy your garden, sit and relax while maybe thinking of some ideas for the coming season. Work in July and August includes watering (we hope), deadheading and of course the inevitable pruning depending on the type of shrubs and climbers you grow. Pots and hanging baskets should always need watering at this time of year and remember to feed regularly with a high potash feed.

Some plants will repay the effort of deadheading more than others, these include sweet peas, cosmos, pelargoniums, dahlias, marigolds, phlox and petunias as well as roses. Also cutting some plants completely down works for oriental poppies, some hardy geraniums and it can also stop prolific self seeding from plants such as Alchemilla mollis. The bonus is fresh young leaves within a few weeks and sometimes a few more flowers.

Dahlias are one of the stalwarts of high into late summer borders and they come in so many shapes, sizes and colours that everyone should find one that they like. The showy blooms of the cactus flowered type catch the eye and look good towards the back of the border. For a deep purple try D. ‘Hillcrest Royal’ or for a lighter shade that is also tall D. ‘Pink Pastelle’ and then there is D. ‘Lakeland Sunset’ for the wow factor in sunset colours. There is also the Bishop strain including an old favourite D. ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ with really dark foliage and bright red flowers, more delicate in growth than most dahlias and a real doer for any hot coloured border. Plan ahead for next year as choice varieties are sometimes only available mail order or via the internet.

Ornamental grasses look good in high and late summer. Stipa tenuissima and S. gigantea are both looking wonderful now and later on the Miscanthus come into there own. These semi-evergreen grasses need very little attention, normally look good in their dried form all winter and in many cases need little pruning or other attention. For example, just remove the seed heads from S. gigantea once the wind has battered them so much that it must be done, leaving the foliage completely alone. This is a large grass and takes a year or two to really start flowering while S. tenuissima is much smaller, can self seed but is very quick to establish.

CAF