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Your support makes all the difference.In hot, dry weather, remember your camellias, especially if they are growing in pots. Flower buds are being initiated now for next spring's display. If the plant is too dry, it will not have the strength to produce these buds.
Weeds can be brought to heel with a dose of Tumbleweed, but use total weed killers, such as this, on the calmest of days when there is no danger of spray drifting on to other plants. If you are fighting horsetail, trample it lightly underfoot before spraying. Bruising increases the rate at which the plants absorb the herbicide.
Well-established hedges of beech, hornbeam, privet and yew should be clipped this month. Box, holly, laurel and Leyland cypress should also be tackled if necessary. If you leave the clipping of these much later, new growth will be cut back by frost.
Herbaceous geraniums should have been cut hard back by now. They will produce fresh mounds of leaves, which will look rather better than the floppy specimens lolling about now. If you are lucky, they may even flower again.
Remove the old foliage from strawberry plants when they have finished fruiting and weed around plants. Raspberry canes also need sorting out. Cut out all those that have fruited and thin out the new canes, getting rid of any spindly ones. Tie in the new canes to wires.
Cut out old, flowered growths of rambler roses as soon as the blooms have faded. Tie in the new sappy growths, fanning out the stems as much as possible if the rose is trained on a wall.
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