Shirley Brohan’s gardening tips: Keeping your summer flowers in tip-top shape

Blossoms on the Go owner Shirley Brohan has the inside expertise on keeping your blooms looking their best in the summer heat. 

It’s June, and we are halfway through the year. Time seems to be flying by. Hopefully, at this stage, your baskets and pots are in full bloom and thriving.

This week, I thought I would remind people how to care for them and hopefully give you some ideas to get the blooms to last longer.

For me, I start by deadheading pots and baskets. This can be done throughout the flowering season on a weekly or even daily basis. You are essentially removing the dead flowers.

With hanging baskets, especially with petunias and trailing plants, the petunias can feel sticky, so wear gloves and lift the petunias to clean away dead leaves as well as removing the crinkled-up flowers.

Some plants may need a little snip to cut the flowers as they may not come away easily, like the daisy plants, Bidens, and some Bacopa stems, which can snap and die and need to be snipped. The baskets will benefit from a feed every two weeks, and if the weather changes and we get a lot of rain, consider taking the baskets down and giving them shelter in a shed.

Window boxes are similar to baskets and need a weekly check to remove any dead flowers. Some of the bedding plants, like Salvia and marigolds, sometimes don’t fall away easily and need snipping. Again, if you have trailing plants, lift them up and clean under them, as this will help prevent mildew from forming.
In the garden, the perennial beds and borders are thriving.

The Lupins are giving a lovely show, so once the stem has finished flowering, you can snip it down to the first leaf on that stem, and new growth will continue. They are great for staying in bloom all summer, and by removing old stems, you encourage more flower growth.

The wallflower (Erysimum) is another beautiful perennial with loads of flowers. Check the stems and cut back the ones that have finished flowering. Nepeta, also known as catmint, is another long-flowering perennial. Cut it back once the flowers are finished, and it will reflower again in the summer.

Lavender has such a beautiful aromatic scent that most people will have somewhere in the garden. Again, cut the flowers back, and they will bloom again this summer. Dahlias will flower all summer with a variety of blossoms and will benefit from repeated deadheading.

They will need to be snipped as the stems are strong. All flowers benefit from feeding over the summer. The more you tend to them, the longer the blooms will last. Enjoy!