Prepare to crush the red menace
FIVE important jobs for you to tackle in the garden this week:
1 Keep rhododendrons and azaleas looking tidy by removing dying flowers, a technique known as disbudding. To do this, use thumb and forefingers to snap the heads off above a set of leaves. Avoid pruning unless branches are dead, diseased, damaged or are growing beyond their allotted space.
2 Hellebores are magical in winter, but look tired in late spring. Cut back spent stems of Helleborus foetidus and H. argutifolius to ground level. Tidy up Lenten rose by removing faded blooms, along with tatty leaves. Scatter some general-purpose fertiliser around plants, water and mulch.
3 Boost blackberries, raspberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries, and other types of cane and bush fruits, by removing weeds from around the base of plants. Apply a 3in-deep layer of compost, leaf mould or bark chippings across the surface to prevent moisture loss.
4 As deciduous shrubs come into leaf, you may notice that the tips of some branches or even entire shoots fail to grow. Often the result of plants being hit by frost, unsightly dieback is easy to rectify. Prune out dead branches in their entirety. If tips are damaged, trace back to healthy growth and snip off affected parts.
5 Lily beetles eat the stems, leaves and petals of lilies and fritillaries, giving plants a tatty appearance and impacting on their vigour. Check plants daily for the shiny scarlet pests, pictured, along with their red eggs and larvae. Squash on sight.