Your fruit and vegetable trees or plants may keep you busy during September, but don’t neglect your flower garden or the chance to relax on your Outback reclining chairs.
Summer bedding
Summer pot and hanging basket plants may flower until the first frosts if you continue to water and feed them.
Annuals & Perennials
Carry on feeding and deadheading, as these may well flower again.
Herbaceous perennials
As the temperature drops, these can be divided, keeping new clumps well-watered.
Roses
Once they’ve finished flowering, prune back rambling or climbing roses – unless they are meant to flower again. You can also prune rock rose or other shrubs that flower in late summer.
Camellias & Rhododendrons
Water generously to ensure good bud growth next spring.
Seeds
Collect flower seeds, labelling and storing for spring, but leave sunflower seeds in place for the birds.
Cuttings
During early September, take stem cuttings. Locate a leaf joint, and remove the soft tip above. Cut below the joint, removing all leaves except the top three. Plant directly in soil, where it can be left to root and develop.
Spring flowers
In place of summer bedding, plant species that will flower in spring such as daisies, pansies, wallflowers, primroses or forget-me-nots. You may also like to plant crocus, daffodil, bluebell and hyacinth bulbs.
Hardy annuals
Outside, you can sow ammi, calendula, cerinthe, cornflower, feverfew, godetia, larkspur, poppy, nigella and scabious seeds, which should flower in early summer.
Sweet peas
Divinely scented sweet peas can be sown in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse for winter, ready for planting out in early spring.
Making these changes and ensuring your plants are well looked after will seem continue to bloom into September.
