Last year we had some of the hottest \u2018summer\u2019 weather in September, although, seasonally speaking, we have now entered \u2018autumn\u2019. September keeps you guessing as so much depends on the weather and how benign it turns out to be.<\/p>\n
It is popular to start muttering about an \u2018Indian Summer\u2019 whenever it turns particularly warm at this stage of the year. When I hear this term I automatically see images of our lost Empire, colonial types luxuriating in the \u2018last days of the Raj\u2019 and generally \u2018It Ain\u2019t Half Hot Mum\u2019 scenes of khaki and elephants.<\/p>\n
Aside from being potentially \u2018Non-PC\u2019, these images are most likely to be entirely misplaced. Apparently, the term was first used by our North American cousins, notably on a completely different continent, and the \u2018Indians\u2019 referred to are actually the, \u2018PC rectified\u2019, original inhabitants of that colonised land mass\u2014\u2018Native Americans\u2019 (although I may be out of date with that term too; I find it hard to keep up these days!).<\/p>\n
Anyway, back on safer ground, in the \u2018cutting garden\u2019 rows of dahlias, available in every shape, colour, form and stature, provide reliable blooms and vibrant hues to suit every room of the house. There\u2019s so much shrub foliage around, at this pre-leafdrop stage, that a simple vase of leafy exuberance, teamed with dazzling dahlia heads, is all that\u2019s required. If only dahlias were scented (bring on some much-needed genetic modification) then they\u2019d truly \u2018have it all\u2019.<\/p>\n
For scented cut flowers, a succession of summer flowering bulbs, such as Acidanthera murielae<\/em>, may be planted over the spring \/ summer, even up to a late planting in June. Also, experiment with late planting scented lily bulbs and you could be rewarded with these, typically \u2018summer\u2019, blooms managing to hold on into September. Plunging pots at different soil depths, or against the \u2018cold\u2019 side of walls, may also delay flowering long enough to ensure scented florist\u2019s lilies well into September.<\/p>\n Whatever the weather, autumn flowering bulbs can invigorate areas of the garden which might otherwise appear dull; you can\u2019t beat sheets of ivy leaved cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium<\/em>). Their pretty white \/ pink flowers emerge well before the marbled foliage which, in turn, persists after herbaceous plants have died down. It\u2019s cool, wet, weather, after the \u2018heat\u2019 of summer, which encourages autumn cyclamen to flower. Therefore, in most years, individuals will bloom well before now but it\u2019s the \u2018dramatic sheets\u2019 of colour which I hold out for.<\/p>\n What else is coming into its own now? The late flowering, \u2018orange peel\u2019, clematis, such as \u2018Bill MacKenzie\u2019, is a joy. Jaunty little nodding flowers, like pixie bells, smother an established plant and stay blooming for many weeks. Being a \u2018late flowering\u2019 clematis (one which flowers after midsummer\u2019s day) pruning is a cinch as they can be chopped right back, to just a framework of stems, in spring. They flower on the shoots which grow during the current year\u2014so even a drastic chop back will not stop them from flowering. For this reason they are great planted where they can scramble through a big old shrub, festooning it with flowers when otherwise the space would be dead.<\/p>\n For soils with that rare combination of constant moisture and full sun we return to the realm of bulbs and, in this case, corms, in the guise of Hesperantha coccinea<\/em> (formerly Schizostylis coccinea<\/em>). \u2018Kaffir Lilies\u2019 come in many named forms with colours from deepest red, palest pink through to pure white. Stunning when they are given the conditions they enjoy (see above) but \u2018all leaves and no flowers\u2019 when they are either too shady or too dry. Looking for recommended \u2018newer\u2019 introductions I came across \u2018Sunrise\u2019 (pale pink flowers of increased size) but, to add to the already confusing \u2018updated\u2019 Latin nomenclature, this offering is synonymous with the variety \u2018Sunset\u2019!!!<\/p>\n Bringing it back to bulbs reminds me that it\u2019s now that I really should be starting to plant spring flowering bulbs. Start planting them in the order that they flower in the spring so that the earliest flowering ones, early crocus come to mind, have enough time to get some roots down before producing the flower stems. Tulips are famously planted late, in November, to reduce the likelihood of \u2018tulip fire\u2019 (a debilitating infection) so don\u2019t worry about those yet.<\/p>\n Moist, warm, soil means that it is a good time to move evergreens and conifers which need to be able to produce new roots and recover from the shock of transplanting before the ground is so cold that it stops growth. By the same token, it\u2019s a good time to prepare new areas of ground for future planting or to clean up an area that has become weed-infested. To clear it using a non-persistent, \u2018glyphosate\u2019, weed-killer, September is the last month in which chemical herbicides reliably work. If you\u2019re clearing it manually then this needs to be done in good time so that any weed regrowth can be removed before it dies down completely over the winter.<\/p>\n Areas that have been cleared of weeds are best covered up again to suppress further weed growth because even the most thorough \u2018clean up\u2019 will only remove the visible miscreants, there will still be thousands of weed seeds, or viable sections of established weed, waiting to sprout again. A physical mulch, such as \u2018weed suppressing fabric\u2019, is ideal for larger areas, requiring long term control, but this is a bit too \u2018industrial\u2019 for the average garden.<\/p>\n A thick application of sterile, bagged, \u2018mulch and mix\u2019 type compost is easier to handle and less likely to introduce new weeds than your typical \u2018farmyard manure\u2019 alternative. The \u2018belt and braces\u2019 approach is to use weed suppressing fabric with a layer of organic mulch (finely graded bark chippings look acceptable) on top. Of course, if you\u2019ve applied a fabric type mulch future planting will be more problematical as cutting holes in the sheeting to plant through is a bit of a chore. For this reason physical weed barriers work best for planting schemes which are predominantly shrubs or trees. Daintier herbaceous perennials and their ilk are better suited to mulching with organic substrates alone.<\/p>\n I think I\u2019ll end on the positive note of making plans and looking forward to new areas of planting. After all, autumn is historically the real beginning of the gardening year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last year we had some of the hottest \u2018summer\u2019 weather in September, although, seasonally speaking, we have now entered \u2018autumn\u2019. September keeps you guessing as so much depends on the weather and how benign it turns out to be. It is popular to start muttering about an \u2018Indian Summer\u2019 whenever it turns particularly warm at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-3386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-gardening","tag-russell-jordan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}