Gardeners' notes - what to do in September.
Order bulbs
There are several ways to purchase bulbs and I suspect like most gardeners we’ve done them all over the years. These are the options.
1. Take advice from the magazines and get your order in early. Speak to your local nursery or contact a reputable online supplier, they’ll have a great range to choose from. Do it early September! That’s now! This evening if you can! Y ou’ll get all the colours and varieties on your carefully chosen list and your garden will be the envy of all who visit.
2. Wander around the supermarket buying your weekly shop and chuck in a couple of bags as you pass the promotional stand.
3. Wait until December and grab the split bags and dregs at half price.
4. Use the bulbs you dug up and stored safely in the shed from last year.
5. Use the bulbs you forgot to plant last year and have just discovered in the garage.
Our advice of course is number one and a bit of number four. We also like a little bit of number two. We’re keen on a bargain too so number three often comes into play as a pre-Christmas treat and number five surely has to be worth a try?
There you have it. Expert advice for a wonderful spring display.
Prune stone fruit
Early September - your last chance to get your stone fruits pruned. That’s peaches, plums, apricots, and cherries. There’s less chance of the trees developing silver leaf disease due to the lack of spores in the air at this time of year. Any dead stems and branches can be removed (there may be a few this year after this very dry spring and summer) as well as this year’s new growth that can be reduced down to five or six leaves keeping the tree compact.
Take Cuttings
September is a great time to take cuttings of your favourite plants whether shrubs, perennials, or tender plants like pelargoniums or petunias. They’ll need the protection of a greenhouse over winter and some may even need some gentle heat to keep them from freezing. Most of the time a simple stem cutting taken at a ‘node’, the point where one or two leaves meet the stem is all that is required. With five or six of these pushed into compost in a one litre pot, roots will become evident after about a month or so. If you really want to guarantee success, a heated propagating unit that gives the cuttings warmth at their base in a humid environment is the best way to ensure you’ll have lots of new plants for next year.
