On the nursery in July

Still, a busy month, selling the last of our summer bedding, grown in larger 13cm pots for instant impact, you can quickly make a hanging basket or planter.

New arrivals

Hard to believe but we’re already thinking about Christmas. Our poinsettias have arrived.

The first of our autumn violas are potted they will start flowering in august, giving colour through the winter and spring. Not all violas are the same, we like viola ice babies they have a semi-trailing habit.

Tips and tricks from the Nursery

Moving your plants outside can help

Our Autumn chrysanths or garden mums have started to grow, when they fill the pot they get moved outside the cooler conditions help them quickly grow into a ball shape with masses of mini flowers.

Remember to keep deadheading your plants

Removing dead flowers can prevent diseases and encourage new flowers to develop and open

Top up your planters and hanging baskets with some feed.

Planters and hanging baskets are an extreme environment open to all the elements, with restricted root space and regular watering, the feed levels quickly drop. Regular liquid feeding will help but it can be difficult to achieve. Slow releases granules are the answer, they gradually release feed and can last for 6 months.

It can get very hot so use some shading

The summer sun can be very powerful and the temperature of your greenhouse can quickly rise to dangerous levels. Applying shade to the outside of the greenhouse is perhaps the best way, a white spray or shade material is normally used, and both are fairly permanent solutions. However, the British summer can be difficult to predict so we use a screen inside that can be opened and closed.

Pest & disease

Time to watch out for caterpillars if you can catch them now you can prevent a massive outbreak later. Most gardeners think of cabbage white butterflies attacking you cabbages but there is also a wide range of moths that attack garden plants. You will need to think about stopping or slowing them down. You can use chemicals but there are physical barriers like fleece or mesh, we use biological pest controls but with limited success, so we may use some chemicals (there are some chemicals that only kill caterpillars) if the pests take over.

Pests are increasing in numbers, we monitor them with sticky traps. We introduce a steady supply of predators to keep on top of them.

Here we can see them working, some turn the mummified aphids silvery but this one called praon sets up shop under the aphid.

Mildews often appear during the summer, they like the dry weather and can quickly cover the leaves in a white coat (powdery mildew). This can be severe enough to stop the plant from growing and you might need to consider spraying your plants. Mildews have favourites and don’t normally spread, a pansy or viola mildew won’t spread to chrysanthemum for instance so only spray if you have to.
There are some safe mildew chemicals the secret is to use them quickly at the first sign of disease. Powdery mildew likes warm dry weather and a spell of rain can stop it from spreading.

Aphids, Whiteflies and Red spider mites love warm summer weather, so treating them early is important, to reduce the numbers, sticky traps are a good early warning system

Time for some weeding

Now is a good time to tackle some weeds, you need to stop them from spreading, and the secret is to stop them from flowering. During July we often find weeds germinating on the benches and plant pots, they blow in from outside. The answer is to get outside and stop them from flowering with weedkillers, mowing or strimming.
Weeds can act as hosts for pests and diseases, they can spread onto your plants.