Garden in June

The most frequently asked question this year is "why hasn't my bearded iris flowered this year?" The short answer is that bearded iris need as much sun as possible on their rhizomes in summer to flower well. Last summer was wet and at times sunless so this baking didn't really occur. The top tips to promote good flowering are:

	Plant bearded iris with the rhizome (knobbly bit from which the leaves grow) with its top half exposed
	Plant in a very sunny spot
	Don't allow other plants to shadow it or flop over it
	Don't use nitrogen rich fertilisers
	Lift and divide rhizomes in August, discarding old worn out rhizomes.

Iris Stepping Out

Iris sibirica Fourfold Lavender with Centaurea montana Purple Form

Centaurea montana now need deadheading and as the month progresses they will benefit from cutting back hard leaving the fresh new growth now pushing through the soil. This will grow quickly and be in flower by July.

The meadow Centaurea species, like the native Centaurea nigra are now starting to flower. Below are 3 new types we are trialing in our stock beds:

(top down they are: Carnina, uniflora v. nervosa, and woronowii)

We have just replanted the narrow beds alongside our drive. Its useful to remember that newly planted plants are living on the water in the pot root ball for some time until the roots get out into the soil - so they need watering as often as a small pot would in summer - often twice a day even if it does rain.

Well established plantings need less water even in dry spells and Achillea like Moonshine above centre and Salvia May Night (Mai Nacht) (top) thrive once established.

Cirsium rivulare Atropurpureum (right foreground) is attractive to bees but is sterile so cannot be grown from seed. The plants are easily divided but wear gloves as the hairy spines on the leaves are very irritant.

Salvia patens is well known for it vivid blue flowers. Less well known are the softer coloured cultivars such as Chilcombe, below. The plants are tuberous and can be propagated by division (in spring), cuttings in early summer or by seed sown in early spring in some heat. We were told that all apart from the white cultivar, Alba, come true from the seed, but a several offspring from Chilcombe are proving to be different from their parent. We are currently evaluating a beautiful pink-flushed white seedling.

Our runner ducks spend a lot of time sitting in the shade at the moment!

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