Gardening: Your jobs for the weekend of Sept 19/20 | Brian Kidd
Our horticultural hotshot sets you to work.
• Daffodil bulbs can be planted at any time between now and the end of November – five inches deep for best results.
• The hardy amaryllis is in the garden centres. Buy three bulbs, plant them in a sunny spot and you will be rewarded with flowers in the autumn virtually forever.
• Do you enjoy visiting garden centres? See if you can find some autumn-flowering crocus corms, you may be able to find them in the colour picture packs. These flowers are usually pink and give a good show of flowers when the weather starts to feel colder.
• Cuttings of bedding geraniums will root very easily if taken now. Simply cut off non-flowering shoots below a node and pop them in alongside the parent plant and they will root like weeds.
• Orchids, bird of paradise plants and any tender indoor plants which were put out into the garden for summer should be brought back indoors now.
• Think about getting hold of some manure. Keep it in its bags until you are ready to dig it in during the autumn.
• If mildew spoils the fruits on grapes, blow in some sulphur dust through the berries.
• Take cuttings of expensive basket plants such as Japanese petunias. If they aren’t producing enough new growth for cuttings, give the plants a high nitrogen feed or a teaspoon of sulphate of ammonia in one gallon of water.