June

The roses are early this year but should still peak in June. There are some wonderful new English roses bred by people such as David Austin which repeat bloom all summer, have good scent and a relaxed habit. These are good in mixed borders where they can be grown informally, although they still need pruning in late winter very little other attention is required except for deadheading to encourage repeat flowering. Cultivars such as ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ which has deep glowing pink flowers and a wonderful fragrance, and is around 4’ tall and 3’ across. For a different colour try ‘Tea Clipper’ with double, quartered flowers of rich apricot.

For a sunny wall the old favourite of ‘Albertine’ is still a good reliable strong growing rose with light salmon pink flowers, sweetly scented. A deep red alternative is ‘Climbing Etoile de Hollande’. A good tip is to also plant one or even two late flowering clematis, known as Group 3, with every rose. These will flower later in the year and usefully also need pruning at about the same time down to around 12” above ground level. Examples are Clematis ‘Polish Spirit’ with deep purple flowers, C. ‘Perle d’Azur’ with masses of small pale blue flowers or C. ‘Alba Luxurians’ with green tipped white flowers.

If you have a very large shed or other area to cover consider one of the vigorous rambling roses such as ‘Kiftsgate’ or ‘Rambling Rector’ but be prepared to control it when it outgrows the space. Both have clusters of creamy white, scented flowers with ‘Kiftsgate’ being the larger of the two.

June is a good time to take cuttings of early flowering plants such as Heliantheum or rock roses, which have been trimmed over after flowering and later in the month will have fresh new growth suitable for cuttings. Also 2-4” long cuttings of dianthus, lavender, honeysuckle, passionflower and many more should all root well at this time of year. Use a multi-purpose compost mixed with an equal volume of coarse grit, sharp sand or perlite and keep the cuttings covered until rooted.

Plants worth deadheading to encourage more flowers include lupins, delphiniums as well as roses, just removing the dead heads of roses has shown to be better than precise cutting back.

By the end of the month start to feed containers and hanging baskets that were planted in May. Any high potash feed will encourage flowers rather than foliage.