Hello again! The continued warmth mixed with recent wetness is promoting a lot of growth that your plants may not be able to control. This means that they will need some help to be kept in shape by providing some extra plant supports.
Trimming will go a long way for any flowers that are still in full bloom. You will find that some of the flower heads are starting to fade and their foliage turning brown along with them. Cutting these fading flowers away is called deadheading, which encourages the plants to reprioritise how they spend their energy. While they still have those fading flowers the plants will look to start using their energy on seed formation, but after deadheading they will spend it on the growth of new flowers.
On that note, roses are still in their peak bloom right now and have their own way of deadheading that’s really easy. Rose stems are quite rigid, so you can simply snap the stem just below the flower head. This way, you can get the most out of your roses while they’re still in season.
This is also a good time to be removing any rose suckers that you can find. The rose suckers are bad for the rose, as they can quickly grow over the rose and block it from view. You can tell a rose sucker apart from the rose itself by the differences in their foliage. Your roses have small, dark leaves with smooth margins. The rose suckers on the other hand will have jagged (called serrate) margins and will generally be larger and lighter in colour.
Now onto the perennials. Early flowering perennials may start to look quite tired, with browned foliage. If you cut them back close to the ground, you can wait for regrowth and a new flush of flowers in a couple of months’ time. Remember to continue feeding and watering them as necessary, they’ll need it for the serious regrowing that they’ve got to do!
Willie the Worm
