Peter Dowdall: What the September heatwave means for your garden

This month often has fine weather but rarely has the mercury reached close to 30C

The recent fine weather may mean that we will see some plants, like this magnolia, synonymous with spring, blooming out of season. Picture: iStock

FIVE or more continuous days where the temperature reaches over 25 degrees constitutes a heatwave in Ireland, to the best of my knowledge.

Last week we had a Yellow Warning for heat in Ireland. It’s September. Good weather during September isn’t unusual, in fact, (and I have no idea whether the statistics back me up or not) I tend to think of September as our best month in terms of sunshine. I remember well, being just back in school and enjoying the sunshine but perhaps, that’s more a case of having forgotten all the rainy Septembers and only remembering the good ones, who knows?