STRAWBERRY SEASON IS HERE
During Championships fortnight, Hugh Lowe Farms in Kent delivers 40 tons of strawberries to Wimbledon. That’s between 1.5m and 2m berries.
When choosing strawberry plants to grow at home, Marion Regan, managing director of Hugh Lowe, recommends June bearers, which crop early over a short season, or ever-bearers, which crop in July.
Select for flavour and disease resistance, particularly from crown rot or red core. This is important if you want to keep your strawberry bed for more than one season, laying in new runners each year.
You can also grow plants in containers using a good coir mix and liquid fertiliser when you water. Hold back on fertiliser at fruiting, as it can cause the berries to become soft and rot.
Make sure to pick fruit as soon as it is ripe and encourage beneficial insects such as ladybirds, hoverflies, and lacewings to help control pests.
Clear away dying leaves this month and remove any runners you don’t want to root in next to the ‘mother’ plant.
Protect from severe weather when they go dormant, making sure they receive enough winter chill to grow flowers next year.
FUCHSIA CUTTINGS
There are two types of fuchsias: hardy and tender. Both can be propagated now from softwood cuttings.
Collect healthy nonflowering shoots in the morning. Reduce the size to a few centimetres, cutting the stem below a leaf node and trimming excess leaves.
Insert into a pot of peat-free compost, placing several cuttings around the edge. Water, cover with a plastic bag and wait for them to root.
HOLIDAY CARE
If you are going away and don’t want to come home to shrivelled houseplants, there are measures you can take such as moving pots out of direct sunlight, grouping them together and watering well.
You can also use capillary matting, soaking it and placing it next to a sink or tray of water.
Use a wick to take water from the reservoir, then place your plants on top of the mat, making sure the soil is already watered. If you are on holiday for more than a few days, ask a friend to top up the reservoir.
PLANT OF THE WEEK
Berkheya Purpurea
This pale lilac beauty from South Africa featured in The B-Lines Garden at RHS Hampton Court and looks like a giant daisy crossed with a thistle.
Its large flowers with light purple florets come off bristly blue centres and grow from low rosettes of long spiny leaves.
Great for pollinators and suitable for a drought-tolerant garden, it prefers full sun and well-drained soil.
Hardy throughout most of the UK, but best grown in a sheltered south or west-facing spot. Also known as the African thistle, it dies over winter to reappear the following spring.
READER’S QUESTION
How can I persuade my roses to bloom a second time?
Anna Wright, Godalming, Surrey.
We think of June as peak rose season, but many repeat flowerers enjoy a second flush in September.
To give your rose the best chance of blooming again, deadhead it as soon as the first flowers go over. New flowers should appear six to eight weeks after deadheading.
Lady of Shalott is a reliable repeat flowering rose with golden peachy blooms. Fragrant pink Gertrude Jekyll also blooms into autumn. Climbing roses such as crisp white Iceberg are also good for repeat flowering.