What to do THIS WEEK In your flower garden
It’s best to give them more room so they can develop into well-branched plants
Tender perennials such as fuchsias, pelargoniums and penstemons can be bought fresh every year but you can save a substantial amount of money by taking cuttings in late summer.
These root quickly but need to be kept free from frost over winter. If kept fairly dry, they can be kept cool once rooted and just ‘tick over’ during winter.
If left on a house windowsill, they should be watered more because of the warmth, but will become spindly. It’s tempting to pot them into large pots but that will encourage growth and, with low light levels, it’s difficult to keep them compact.
Now spring is just around the corner, it’s time to pot them ready for new growth so they will be strong plants to add to containers or the garden for summer. Before potting, give plants a good soak and check for pests. Greenfly (aphids) are the most likely offenders and you will probably find them on the shoot tips. It’s a good idea to pinch out the growing tips anyway or, if they’ve made straggly growth, carefully cut them back to a leaf, in order to encourage bushy growth. In addition, you should pick off dead leaves, too.
Use slightly bigger pots filled with fresh, multi-purpose compost, which will contain enough fertiliser for a month’s growth, and slightly bigger pots. Water carefully at first, especially if the weather is cold, until the plants are well rooted.
STEP BY STEP
1 Pick over rooted cuttings and prune off straggly growth and dead parts and pull off dead leaves, which may harbour grey mould.
2 Snip off or pinch out the tips of cuttings to encourage bushy growth. And try using these as cuttings to root more plants.
3 Water rooted cuttings carefully so the rootball is soaked before repotting them. Ideally, do this afew hours before potting.
4 Choose new pots up to 5cm wider than the original. Pot them so cuttings are planted at the same depth as before, then water in.
Plant lilies
Lilies are hardy bulbs that bloom in summer. Unlike many other bulbs, they don’t have a protective skin that stops the bulb from drying out. In addition, they are never fully dormant and usually have live roots at the base. Most are fully hardy and can be planted, when dormant, from autumn until spring. They grow best in full sun or light shade in any well-drained soil. Fragrant Oriental lilies need lime-free soil and the common Asiatic hybrids prefer some lime in the soil, but the rest are not fussy. They form roots on the stems as they grow from the bulbs so should be planted 10-15cm deep in pots or borders.
Transplant foxgloves
Foxgloves are prolific self-seeders producing hundreds of t
