Hydrangeas should get some thorough attention now. You’ll get plenty of new growth as a result and more and bigger flowers.
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First, cut out to the base all dead and spindly weak growth.
All dead flowers should come off and remove all remaining leaves, which can spread the downy mildew fungus. Rake up those that have already fallen.
If you have had any sign of downy mildew in the past, burn all this rather than putting it into the compost.
Now use the secateurs to take out all the old canes. You can tell these by their brown, barky appearance. Cut them to the base, or to where a sturdy new cane has appeared from it.
Hydrangeas flower on second-year wood, so the strongest of this is retained to give you flowers this year.
What you are doing is preparing for vigorous new growth that will give you next year’s flowers.
The plump buds are the flower buds and the narrow ones will produce leaves.
You can cut back last year’s strong stems a bit, if you like, to a plump bud and you might have to cut out criss-crossing branches.
Next season new canes will appear and these will bear flowers the following season.
The next step is to give your hydrangea bushes a good feed with a thick mulch, preferably of compost.
Alkaline soils produce pink hydrangeas, so if it is pink you want, add dolomite.
Aluminium sulphate is added to the soil to make them blue, or you can get special preparations at garden centres.
Raising Roses
When you plant new rose bushes it’s important to choose a spot where they will grow well. They need plenty of sun, so avoid any place that is shaded or draughty.
They like to be in bed by themselves, clear of trees and shrubs whose roots could invade the rose bed and rob it of plant food and moisture.
Roses won’t thrive in waterlogged soil so your bed must have good drainage. This can be helped by building up a raised bed.
Test the drainage first by digging a few holes about 45 centimetres deep. Fill them with water. If any remains after 24 hours you will need to put in some underground drainage pipes.
Good drainage is one of the most important factors in growing healthy roses. They will grow in almost any soil if it is enriched with plenty of organic material such as compost.
Light sandy or heavy clay soils will be improved with the addition of old manure, compost or vegetable rubbish. A dressing of gypsum will help to break down clay.
The bed should be deeply and thoroughly dug before planting and some blood and bone added.
Manure should have been dug in about six weeks before.
Climbing beauty
A lovely effect can be achieved in your winter garden by growing clematis napaulensis and pittosporum tenuifolium purpureum on a prominent wall or trellis.
The pittosporum should be placed so that strands of the clematis can twine through it. Clematis napaulensis is a hardy, fast-growing tendril climber. It needs the support of a trellis or wire or large tree.
Once it has covered its allotted space, long flowering strands will flow back down, making a lovely display. These should be removed in early spring. They will quickly grow again and will flower the following winter.
If this pruning is not done the clematis will quickly become a dense, tangled mass. Of course this could be appropriate in the right situation.
This clematis has soft, pale green leaves which become yellow and fall in late summer. The bareness doesn’t last long.
In autumn when other deciduous plants are losing their leaves, clematis napaulensis becomes covered again in soft new leaves and clusters of pale pink buds. In June these expand into lovely, greenish-cream bells with burgundy stamens.