Summer shows its true colours
IT’S THE SEASON FOR RICH, WARM AND DAZZLING REDS, PINKS AND ORANGES
It’s harvest time for loads of crops, so catch fruit and veg at its best, either for eating now or storing for the winter.
Onions are ready when the foliage starts drooping over. You can tell if sweetcorn is ripe by squeezing a kernel and milky juices come out.
Finish pruning fan, cordon or espalier apple trees, left. will brighten up summer day.
Reaching around 3-4ft, it will mingle in the borders, and flower freely until October. It also makes a good cut flower. Sow from seed in mid-spring.
Cannas really only come into their own in later summer, but they are worth the wait. Even before the tropical flowers emerge, the large jungle leaves provide bold form, and I love the bronzeleaved ones. Unless you are in a mild sheltered climate, the tubers need to be over-wintered somewhere frost-free. Planting in the ground allows them the room they need to grow, so if planting in a pot, make sure it’s a big one.
Lobelia tupa is also known as Devil’s tobacco and has very unusual rich red tubular flowers. It has handsome foliage as well – long elegant grey-green leaves – and stands tall at around 4ft. It likes a moist soil in a sunny garden where it will grow into a dramatic specimen each year. Cleome Violet Queen is an easy half-hardy annual that delivers plenty of colthe dullest
Watering and feeding remains top priority, especially for pots, troughs, hanging baskets and containers.
Look after pond life – keep water levels topped up, remove blanket weed and cut back yellow foliage on pond plants
Plant autumn-flowering bulbs. Colchicum autumnale, also our – wonderful bright violet globes of dramatic, spidery flowers. Growing to around 4-5ft tall, planted en masse they can look like a really unusual shrub!
Deadhead regularly to encourage more flowers. The stems are a little sticky and spiny, so wear gloves when handling.
Alstroemeria Indian summer is a hardworking perennial that flowers profusely without being overdemanding as to its care. Yellow and orange flowers combined with purple-green foliage give it an exotic appearance, but it’s quite hardy in all but the coldest places – cover with a blanket of mulch to keep cosy for winter.
Crocosmia ‘Firebird’ is a superb variety with big red flowers. From South Africa, crocosmia love sunny, well-drained sites. That said, they will tolerate some shade and are giving me fantastic bright colour underneath the birch trees at the moment. I leave them in the ground over winter and they are multiplying well – but lift or protect in colder areas.
Osteospermums, or African daisies, are perky perennials, and I love the apricot-yellow-violet blossoms of ‘Purple Sun’. It’s compact and perfect for paving edging, front of borders, patio pots or rockeries in well-drained soil. It doesn’t like to dry out, so keep an eye on watering in the summer. It’s borderline hardy, so take cuttings now – cut a non-flowering shoot – to make sure you have some for next year. known as ‘naked ladies’, is a lovely crocus-type bulb that will flower on bare stems in September.
Collect seed in brown paper bags and store for later sowing.
Winter greens, spring cabbage, turnips and quick-growing crops such as salads and radishes can all be sown now.