Putting on the potash

EVERY spring as we are enjoying the blooms of Camellias, Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Magnolias, Pieris and many of the other early flowering ericaceous plants, I am asked the same question: My Camellia isn’t flowering what should I feed it with to promote some buds?

Well, the answer to that question brings us directly to this month of August. These plants all produce their flower buds for next spring during this period so it is important to take action now if your plant didn’t flower successfully this season.

Feed now with a high potassium feed, something like Sulphate of Potash or a good quality tomato food. Repeat this application a few times over the next few weeks. Like everything in the garden, patience is the order of the day and results will not be seen instantly, but your plants will repay you with rich dividends for any effort you make now.

* I hope your secateurs is well sharpened at the moment because you will need it for a number of jobs this month. Your summer crop from Rubus idaeus should be finished by now and the plant will need some thinning out. In other words your summer raspberry plants will need to be pruned about now to ensure a bountiful harvest next year.

This is quite a straightforward job. The foxy red-coloured, woody stems which fruited this year will need to be removed to ground level and the green pliant stems are to be kept and supported and these will produce your crop of fresh raspberries next year.

* Pruning Wisterias is another job for this time of the year. Identify the twining, stringy growth which flowered this year, reduce these stems to about five or six pairs of leaves which will stop the plant from climbing too far and becoming a nuisance.

It will also have the effect of encouraging the Wisteria to produce flower buds instead of more green shoots and maybe a second flush of flowers later this year.