Dividing
In last weeks article I mentioned division of rockery perennials that have finished flowering. In essence, you can also divide early-blooming plants that need dividing as well. Include in this list Dicentras (Bleeding Hearts), Anemone pulsatilla and nemerosa (Pasque Flower and Spring Anemone), spring oxalis and anything else that has finished blooming and whose leaves are on their way out.
Pinching
Generally, the point of pinching is to make a plant bushier. You can pinch out the tips of any perennial for more blooms, whether those plants flower in spikes, clusters or racemes. One good example of this is the foxglove, also known as Digitalis. Personally, I prefer the look of single spikes of foxgloves, especially when they are romantically situated on the edge of a woodland or in a dell. Pinching produces a slightly unnatural look but the upside is that there will be more flowers and they will bloom over a longer period.
Planting
Summer is not the best time in the world to be planting perennials. The heat causes them to flag and heavy blooming can take attention away from the rooting of your new plant. If you are planning on planting perennials this summer, be sure to do so on a cloudy or overcast day, water them very well and keep them well-watered, and pinch out flowers for the first month. This will help your new plants become truly perennial.
Watering
Watering is probably the most time-consuming task in the garden in summer, unless you are overrun with weeds or starting a new flower bed. I highly recommend getting yourself a comfortable watering outfit to make this time more pleasurable. By outfit I do not mean a new 3-peice set of co-ordinates. What I mean is a good hose, a wand of sorts and a good watering rose to go on the end of this.
What a shame I lost my patented watering wand when I moved 3 weeks ago.
I ran out of money a few weeks ago, and am stranded on an island where I couldn't purchase a watering outfit even if I tried, so I've had to improvise. The results of my experimentation have proved better than the original so I will share my new tool with you...
