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After returning to our garden after three weeks away, it’s amazing how the weeds
grow so well in your absence. The house sitter watered well. Nothing died. Not even the
weeds and the blighters take advantage of it!
On returning all I saw were the weeds. All Annie saw, was ‘How lovely the roses
were and the bottlebrushes must have looked a treat’. It makes it all worth while
doesn’t it?
Our roses have had their first big flush of flowers and now to get a full flush for
Christmas they need to be dead-headed this week and fed, so that in 53 days they are in
full bloom again. That gives you just a few days to spare before Christmas.
Annuals to go in now that will be in full bloom for Christmas also, are Portulaca
‘Cocktail’, Cosmos, Miniature Marigolds and of course Petunias. If you water
overhead stick to the multiflora Petunia varieties, since the floribundas and doubles
collapse all too easily with overhead watering.
The Frangipani is breaking into leaf and needs a feed now of a balanced fertilizer to
foster flowering (one high in potassium) so they flower later in the summer. The Native
Frangipani is already in full flower and if you want to shape it, they are easily pruned,
even heavily lopped, after they finish flowering and they grow back quickly in warm
weather.
Our vines are all over the place and all need a heavy prune to see that the flowering
bunches are more exposed to the wind and fruit sets in the sun or at least partially
shaded. Too much foliage and the grapes makes them prone to mildew. Guess what we’re
doing every night this week? Thank goodness for daylight saving hey gardeners?
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