This Month in the Garden. Derek Cox

I must admit that when sowing my ‘Flyaway’ carrots in a 15 litre tub, during late March, they were sown liberally just to see, if when I thinned them out, they would become infested with carrot fly. I started to use them during mid July when they were young, and would you believe it! I could find no sign of carrot fly damage. During late June Helen Osborne of Church View Nursery and myself were invited to Cottesbrooke Hall to view the gardens and plant fair. The walled gardens are magnificent and contain many perennials and shrubs, which I find would not survive in my exposed garden. Many of the nurseries who were exhibiting at the plant fair were showing new or exotic introductions, consequently I purchased five plants and Helen had a car boot full. When you have a garden that is chock full of plants you finish moving many of your existing plants to make room for the new ones. One of my purchases was the tender shrubby Salvia x jamensis, which contained a label naming it ‘Hot Lips’. This has green salvia scented foliage and upright open spires of flowers with small red upper petals and a large, bright red lower petals. ‘Hot Lips’ has been potted into a Mexican pot and now stands on a sunny terrace. It will need to go into my greenhouse to survive the winter. July and early August is the time to take cuttings of perennials and many shrubs as this will give them time to form a root system before the onset of winter. The small, non-flowering side, or basal shoots are easier to root than large woody ones. Cuttings need only be 2/3 inches (50/75mm) long and have the bottom two thirds of the leaves taken off. Some leaves will pull off; others will need a sharp knife to remove them. You can dip the cuttings into a rooting hormone, but many such as Dianthus will root without a rooting hormone. I now use a six inch (15cm) half pots filled to within an inch (25mm) of the top with a rooting compost of half peat and half perlite. Water the rooting compost and then allow it to drain, so that it is moist, but not wet. A small pencil makes an ideal dibber to make holes into which to push the cuttings, and then water with a fine rose to firm the cuttings in. Always keep cuttings shaded from sunlight, they do not have roots to replace water and will soon die if they become dry. Despite being watered at regular intervals, the hot dry weather during June and early July is the cause of my Camellias and Rhododendrons producing only half the amount of new growth, compared with other years. A number of Rhododendrons did not start to shoot until the second week in July; this makes me wonder if they will have sufficient time to produce flower buds to flower next year. Late July and early August is the time when you should cut out the old fruited branches of raspberries and blackberries, this year’s new growth being tied out in place of the old ones. Espalier and cordon apples and pears should now have all the wispy side shoots cut back to within four leaf buds of the existing framework, this will help to reduce their vigour and encourage them to produce new flower spurs.

May I finish by saying how proud I am of my daughter Louise, who now lives in Colchester, Essex. She is a 4th Dan and world champion member of the Tae-Kwon-do association of Great Britain. Louise was invited to take part in the demonstrations held at the NEC Birmingham for the 100th anniversary of the Rotary Club International convention. Louise will be known by many when previously employed at local chemists.

Derek Cox.