Tips for gardening flowers and bulbs in August

• Plan flowerbeds by height, colour, foliage texture, flowering season, and need for sun or shade.

• Prepare fertile soil for annuals and perennials. Perennials grow in one place for several years and need rich soil.

• Begin sowing summer annuals, and biennials under protection.

• Plant summer and autumn-flowering bulbs including gladioli.

 

• Plant out seedlings into prepared fertile soil, limed if needed.

• Lime around delphiniums, dianthus and gypsophila.

• Begin sowing summer flowers including African marigolds, alyssum, asters, Californian poppies, chrysanthemums, cosmos, honesty, sunflowers and zinnias.

• Divide agapanthus and daylilies.

 

• Pinch out young strawflowers to encourage bushy growth. Flowers are cut when three-quarters open for drying. Plant drifts of paper

daisies, golden everlasting daisies and Myriocephalus stuartii (poached egg daisies) in dry-area gardens.

•Water deeply, then mulch the soil so that roots go down deep.

• Plant and divide perennials.

 

• Prepare summer flowerbeds.

• Feed spring-flowering annuals and deadhead to prolong flowering.

•Water in dry windy periods.

• Sow amaranthus, bedding begonias, celosia, coleus, cosmos, dahlias, gaillardia, gazanias, gerberas, marigolds, petunias, phlox, portulaca, salvia, sunflowers, torenia and zinnias.

• Plant gingers and rudbeckia.