Autumn in the garden
It’s the time of year for the last fling of summer and the start of autumn colour. Go on, add some more colour to the garden borders, pots and troughs with a choice of super plants!
Plants for colour:
We have a wide choice of great plants for pots & troughs… including varieties of Leucothoe ‘Burning Love’, ‘Zeblid’, ‘Little Flames’ and ‘Curly Red’ which mixed with lovely grasses give a good show; A great range of Skimmia including ‘Rubella’, ‘Fragrant Cloud’ and ‘Kew White’. Viola come in a range of mixed or straight colours and added to Cyclamen enhance any border or container in autumn. Heathers are great for autumn / winter flower and come in a range of colours. The lovely autumn colour can be enhanced with a carpet of Euonymus ‘Emerald n Gold’ or a bed of Cyclamen or Calocephalus ‘Barbed Wire Plant’.
Autumn is also the time to re-pot your existing shrubs at leaf fall. New compost and a dressing of bone meal (not for Ericaceous plants) will aid root growth and give your plant a good start next spring.
Containers: There are lots of containers to choose from! Use them on your patio or any hard landscape area. Select a good sized pot for large plants and shrubs. Get a little gravel for the bottom to help drainage. Use Ericaceous compost for the Rhododendrons and Azalea.
Now is a good time to select container-grown shrubs and trees for planting in your garden. This will allow them to be established before winter, and ready for the growing season next year. Add extra compost to the planting hole and mix well in with the surrounding soil. Adding bone meal when planting will aid root growth for trees, herbaceous plants, bulbs and shrubs. An ericaceous feed will be needed for Rhododendron, Heathers & Azalea. Choose some shrubs that will flower next spring, we have a fantastic range of Azaleas – ‘Pleasant White’, ‘Silver Sword ‘ and ‘Geisha Purple’ and Camellias just in including ‘Mary Williams’ and ‘Brushfield’s Yellow’.
Bulbs: Autumn is the time to plant spring flowering bulbs and now for container bulbs for December and Christmas flowering. Plant Hyacinth bulbs with their noses just above the compost. Dress over with decorative chips or moss. Narcissi Tete-a-Tete, Grand Soleil and Paper White may be treated in the same way.
Lawn Care: Autumn renovation: On good days scarify to remove moss and thatch, give an autumn fertilizer to strengthen grass and if the ground is compacted a spiking will help. To make life easy, use Miracle-Gro EverGreen Autumn Lawn Care which helps to protect your lawn from harsh winter weather, giving your lawn a good start next spring! While killing moss, it toughens the grass without surge Use now when the weather is warm and there is still growth in the grass.
