Don’t let red bugs eat your blooms

TACKLE LILY BEETLES

Lilies and fritillaries are vulnerable to attack by lily beetles, shiny scarlet pests with black heads that can defoliate plants, giving them a tatty appearance. Check plants daily and pick off adult beetles, clusters of their red eggs and larvae, which are encased in their own black, jelly-like excrement.

FEED FRUITING VEG

Give tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and other fruiting veg a boost by feeding every seven days with a liquid or granular fertiliser that’s high in potash, such as Vitax

Tomato Feed or Chempak No4.

The nutrients will encourage more flowers, help fruits to swell and ripen, and improve their flavour.

PRUNE EARLY-FLOWERING CLEMATIS

Trim varieties of clematis that flower before early summer on old wood. Start by removing dead and damaged stems, then cut back stems to keep plants within their allotted space. Finish by securing new shoots to supports. Plants to tackle include Clematis montana, C. macropetala and C. armandii.

IMPROVE ROSES

Ensure roses produce strong, healthy growth rather than lush, lanky shoots that are prone to diseases, by spraying with Uncle Tom’s Rose Tonic. A go-to product with commercial rose-growers, it’s high in potassium and phosphorous. Spritz the foliage of plants every seven to 14 days in the growing season.

SECOND FLUSH OF FLOWERS

Remove fading flower spikes from lupins, foxgloves, delphiniums and verbascums. Rather than putting all their energy into setting seed, plants will respond by producing a second flush of flowers later in the summer. Depending on the species, either cut the spike right off at the base or above the nearest set of leaves.