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KEEP FRAGILE PERENNIALS SAFE OVER THE WINTER SO THEY CAN ADD JOY TO SUMMER

The sun is shining and with luck Jack Frost won’t be back any time soon, so we gardeners can once again enjoy some tropical fantasies with tender perennial plants.

Many, such as marguerites, pelargoniums, fuchsias and osteospermums, are instantly recognisable favourites. They flower year on year but need to be taken indoors to escape winter extremes.

While this involves more attention and planning than using reliable hardy perennials such as lupins and delphiniums, their beautiful flowers can often last the entire summer and into autumn which makes them worth that extra bit of effort.

The easiest method of growing is to plant in pots so you can place them outdoors on the patio, or tuck them in between other plants to fill the gaps in your border.

However, you can also plant tender perennials in the ground and dig them up in autumn, or take cuttings. These plants are good candidates for propagation via cuttings.

Start by taking softwood cuttings of pelargoniums, petunias, bidens and fuchsias now. Then during the summer and towards the arrival of autumn gather your semi-ripe cuttings of penstemon, salvias and marguerites.

This week I am giving you a rundown of some of my favourites.

I’m hoping they will inspire you to produce some floral creativity in your gardens. ■ Brugmansia, or datura as they used to be called, are quite spectacular with their bold trumpetshaped flowers, giving rise to their common name angel’s trumpets.

The flowers come in white, red, yellow and orange, can be up to eight inches in height and are often deliciously night-scented.

Beware, they are prone to red spider mite, a common pest of warm, ■ Dead-head roses and feed fortnightly. Keep an eye out for aphids, and remove.

■ Bluebell leaves are yellowing so now’s the time to lift and divide if you want to.

■ In the veg patch, you can plant out anything sown indoors and continue sowing seeds outdoors. Pinch out tomato side shoots, tie growing peas and beans to supports, and cover fruit with netting to keep birds away. dry greenhouses – this causes speckling on the leaves and sometimes the leaves dry up completely.

Biological controls which involve releasing predatory spider mites are very effective, or you can use organic sprays.

Hard prune at the end of the growing season and water sparingly when you winter indoors. Take note – all parts of the plant are poisonous so please handle with care. ■ Tender herbs, such as basil, can be planted out now in your herb garden or windowboxes.

■ Thin out sowings of hardy annuals planted earlier – 10- 20cm apart.

■ Evergreen hedges can be trimmed.

■ Protect your crops – encourage black fly predators such as ladybirds by leaving a patch of nettles to grow in the garden or plant some calendula. Marguerite daisies, also known as Argyranthemums, are one of the most cheerful plants – a bit like oversized lawn daisies.

Now also available in zingy pinks and yellows, they will brighten up bedding schemes or can look very elegant when trained as a standard with a spherical head of flowers.

But don’t throw them away at the end of summer.

Overwinter indoors, and if you pop them in a garage, the temperature mustn’t go below 5°C.

They can get leggy over time so it’s worth trimming them back at the end of summer.

Alternatively, take cuttings and maintain them at 7°C.

Plants grown in containers can be moved into the warmth over winter, ready to give a burst of colour as the next begins to warm up You can have as much colour as you like in the garden now so plant out tender summer bedding in your containers, baskets...

Keep dead-heading roses and checking for pests

Trim evergreen hedges to keep them smart for summer