The icy droughts of early Spring have certainly come to an end in almost biblical fashion. However, on the upside all the rain is doing wonders for herbaceous growth and with a little bit of much needed warmth it is shaping up to be lush landscape once again. Hopefully a few of you have been encouraged to take a light hand with the mower for the ‘No mow May’ initiative, promoted by Plantlife. A few interesting statistics: a survey in 2019 found that the average lawn produced 12g of nectar sugar per day, enough to support 1088 honeybees. Flower and nectar sugar production was highest on lawns cut once every four weeks. This gives ’short-grass’ plants like daisies, selfheal and white clover a chance to flower boosting nectar production ten-fold. While most of us won’t want to live with a raggedy lawn, even leaving patches of it longer between mows is fantastic for all forms of wildlife.
The English garden reaches its zenith in June, and it is a busy time for border maintenance. Make sure any staking is performed early, so that the stakes can be hidden by the growing foliage and you don’t end up struggling with bamboo canes, string, and a very unwieldy plant. For later flower perennials, mid to late May is a good time to perform the ‘Chelsea chop’. This is merely a case of taking the secateurs to the new growth and cutting it back by a third to a half, or a mixture of both to spread the flowering of the plant. You can do this to a wide variety of perennials to stop them getting too tall and floppy: Sedums, Asters, Veronicastrums, Heleniums, Campanula, Phlox, Penstemons etc. Simply cut to just above a leaf axil.
Tulip displays and winter bedding will have finished by now. For tulips in borders, just leave the growth to die down naturally and then remove the brown leaves. Take care to make sure that any that came up ‘blind’, ie with no flowers, are removed. For tulips in pots, as they do not always come back completely reliably, it is better to remove them from the pot and either put into a border for next year or leave them to dry out naturally in a tray in a shed and replant in November, discarding any small or soft bulbs. This then leaves room for summer pot displays.
Pruning projects for this month focus on Box and Spring flowering shrubs. In an ideal world box should be pruned lightly twice a year, in early June and September. By the end of June, Shrubs like Deutzia, Philadelphus and Weigela will have flowered and can be cut back. This gives the plant time to form new flowering shoots for next year. Clematis montana can be tidied up and lightly trimmed after flowering, while later flowering clematis need to be regularly tied in.
Pricking out and planting out of cut flower and vegetable seeds continues. Now is the time to sow seeds of biennial flowers in the greenhouse, or on a windowsill, ready to plant out in September to flower next year. This includes Sweet Williams, Hollyhocks, Verbascums, Foxgloves, Honesty, Sweet Rocket, amongst others. If you want to take cuttings, the new soft growth on Salvias and penstemons, lavender and rosemary, root very well at this time of year.
Keep an eye out for aphids on young shoots, particularly on fruit trees and roses. Squish them by hand, or blast them off with a hose, or in dire infestations, pinch out the soft tips altogether. Keep deadheading herbaceous plants as they flower, but make sure you take time to sit down and smell the roses – literally.
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