Splash out on COLOUR
Many plants, from aloes to camellias, flower in abundance in the winter months
● Fertiliser: Go shopping for fertiliser to feed your winter veggies. Your garden centre will recommend the best one for you.
● Saving: Water retention products have become very important to gardeners. The latest products include lightweight expanded clay aggregates. Other products are in the form of granules or powder, which can be worked into the soil.
● Super soils: The latest range of commercial potting soils contain peat and aqua plus (water saver) and are specialised growth mediums for citrus, bonsai, herbs, hydrangea pink and white, hydrangea blue, fynbos, orchids, cactus and succulents, roses, plus acid and universal blends.
Buy the right formulation for your special container plants.
BEDDING BESTIES
Primroses (Primula polyantha) or “Fairy Primula” (Primula malacoides) are synonymous with winter and spring gardens.
These tough annuals grow quickly and easily in semi-shade. They are ideal for mass planting among spring-flowering bulbs, for edging or in containers.
Dainty stems with white, rose, pink, lavender or purple flowers appear above woolly bright green leaves. They reach a height of about 20cm – 25cm.
CHEERFUL AND TOP TREND
The winter-flowering Persian violet (Exacum “Princess”) won’t stick around forever, but while it is there, it will capture your heart.
It has a mounding growth habit and produces a cloud of purple, lavender blue or white flowers with a delightful fragrance.
Keep it in bright indoor light and ensure soil is always moist. To keep a humid atmosphere around it, place the plants on a tray filled with a little water and some pebbles for the pots to stand on.
It is prime time for pretty cyclamens, too. The silver-marbled foliage perfectly sets off the bright and cheerful blooms resembling dainty butterfly wings, available in a wide range of colours.
Cyclamens prefer bright indirect light. They are fussy about water – allow the plants to dry out between watering, but not to the wilting stage.
Water gently from the bottom, rather than dousing the whole plant, to prevent rot. Clean up old leaves and spent blooms.
TIME FOR BEAUTIFUL LILIES
The bulbs of all kinds of lily hybrids are for sale now and should be planted immediately after you have purchased them.
Plant them in bold clumps between winter annuals or small shrubs and groundcovers to keep their “feet” in the shade while allowing their “heads” to grow into full sun.
Hammer in some bamboo plant stakes next to the planting hole of each bulb to be able to stake them as they grow.
JUNE PRUNE
You can start pruning deciduous fruit trees, like peaches and apricots, shrubs and trees for quality fruit, neatness and shape at the end of the month.
Do not prune those that will flower in spring, like Cape May bush (Spiraea), “mock orange”, “ornamental prunus” and “bushveld bride” (Dombeya rotundifolia).
Regularly pinch back winter annuals like pansies, violas, and snapdragons to promote bushy growth and more flowers.
Conifers grow actively in winter and can be lightly sheared to encourage denser foliage. This is the time (May to end of August) when the conifer aphid is very active and it is best to drench the plants with a suitable insecticide which contains either imidach loprid or thiamethoxam as active ingredients.
Cut back ornamental veldtlike grasses such as pennisetum hybrids, muhly grass, Aristida juncea junciformis and zebra grasses.
THINK ABOUT THE BIRDS
Top up bird baths regularly with fresh water and hang a few pine cones filled with a mix of peanut butter and bird seed among the branches of your trees.
Also invest in a feeding table on which you can leave pieces of fruit for those feathered friends who love sweet stuff and might not find it from a natural source in the neighbourhood.
If you are not sure how to go about attracting birds to your garden, visit your nearest garden centre for advice. – www.lifeisagarden.co.za