Flowers

Oriental poppies, Aubrieta, Shasta daisies, lupins, delphiniums, pyrethrums, leopard’s bane (Doronicum) and other early flowering herbaceous plants should be trimmed now. Doing it immediately after flowering will encourage some plants, particularly delphiniums, to flower again in a few weeks. Roses, dahlias and sweet peas can also be encouraged to flower longer by regularly removing faded blooms. Summer chrysanthemums should be selectively disbudded to provide goodsized blooms. Leave only one flower per stem on varieties grown for exhibition. Dahlias benefit from liquid manure as well as conventional watering. Horse, cow, sheep or poultry manure — a third of a 10litre bucket of manure topped up with water — is fermented for two or three weeks, then diluted to the colour of pale tea and watered on to the ground around the plants. Green material can also be used. Comfrey makes the best green mix, as it is high in nitrogen and potash, but any green weeds and lawn clippings can be used. This is also a good way to destroy convolvulus, docks, dandelions and other perennial weeds that do not rot readily in the compost bin.