July Gardening Tips
July is a time of rapid growth. With high temperatures and dry spells, this is an important time to care for your gardens.
I love all these colourful plants, themes and planted pot recipes. The colours bring a real lift to your garden for the summer come rain or shine.
New Guinea Impatiens
A perennial but often grown as a summer annual. Unlike the classic impatiens which prefer a shady spot, this New Guinea variety will tolerate half a day of sun. Perfect for a shaded border.
Gazania
Easy to care for and tolerant of poor soil or salty winds. Often used as ornamental ground cover.
Fuchsia
Fuchsias look beautiful in a hanging basket or on the patio and prefer not to have too much sunlight. They will flower profusely in the right conditions; regular watering, feeding and deadheading.
Dahlia
Perfect for borders and patio containers, Dahlias are a very showy flower with many varieties, colours and flower types available. They need full sun and deep watering.
Canna Lily
A very dramatic, exotic-looking plant that looks amazing in a container on the patio. They don't need any intensive care other than watering, or removal of flower spikes as they die off to allow new heads to come through and feed during summer months.
Calla Lily
Another lily that looks quite dramatic in a container, and with similar summer care to the Canna. This also makes a great cut flower for your vases, if you can bring yourself to cut them!
Cosmos 'Chocolate'
Easy to grow and attract butterflies. It has the scent of white chocolate (but cannot be eaten). Often grown as a summer annual, but it can be grown as a perennial and overwintered in a container.
Ensete Ventricosum Maurellii
Tropical plants have become very popular recently for their large, exotic leaves. This variety is extremely fast growing and reaches up to 2m tall. It needs well-drained soil, in a sunny but sheltered spot.
Non-Stop Begonia
As the name suggests they will flower non-stop into autumn. It is a 'self-cleaning' plant, meaning it does not require deadheading! Fabulous in containers or borders, and is a half-hardy perennial
Patio Roses
Somewhere between a miniature and a floribunda, with a neat bushy growth most varieties have a rosette flower. When grown in a container, it can last for many years. Requiring only general care (watering/feeding/deadheading) and are hardy.
Other plants looking good in July are:
- Agapanthus with heads of blue or white lily-shaped flowers on long stalks
- Rhodanthemums are an excellent hardy replacement for Marguerite
- Hardy Gerberas are an excellent plant for the cutting garden with bright typical daisy flowers returning every year
- Leucanthemums have large white daisy flowers that bloom profusely and easily
- Lobelia Russian Princess is a tall perennial lobelia with dark foliage and striking pink flowers
- Penstemons are low maintenance and have brightly coloured flower spikes appearing all summer
- Gardenia Kliem’s Hardy is a recent introduction that is hardy down to -10C and has typical Gardenia blooms that are highly scented
Bedding Plants are coming into full bloom in July and are really taking off. Don’t forget to fill your baskets and pots with continuous colour and cheer all summer. Also don’t be afraid to fill any gaps in your displays, bed and borders with bedding. It’s a quick, colourful, instant and affordable way to correct any disasters, plug any gaps, disguise ugly spaces and cover any early flowering plants that have gone over before it’s too late.
Jobs to do in July
July is a time of rapid growth. Sweet peas need rings to keep them in place on the canes and pinch out the side shoots from the main stem to give exhibition blooms
Conifer hedges cut at this time of year will ensure a year free of further trimming
Wisterias, especially those that fail to flower; should have all of the new growth cut back to just 5 to 7 levels from the main stem
Perennial plants are growing tall now, so get support rings to help to keep them vertical against the prevailing winds
Hanging baskets will be filling out new and will benefit from a half dose of Miracle-Gro liquid feed every other day. Follow the guides 'Water they will survive, feed they will grow'
Roses will have finished the first flush of flowers. The books dictate that you do not feed roses after June for fear of soft growth. If you feed with Toomorite, the second flush of flowers will be better and the potash will help to give you the hardwood you need over winter.
Large-flowered begonias grown from tubers should have the female, smaller flowers removed to give large male blooms.
Plant of the Month
Hydrangea
A very popular garden shrub, well-known for its ability to change colour depending on soil conditions. The large blooms attract butterflies and will fill beds and borders with dramatic colour year after year. They require very little care, and well-drained soil but can be thirsty in dry conditions. Hardy and resistant to many pests, they like full to half-sun conditions.
Many Westcountry gardens are spring flowering gardens with rhododendrons, magnolias, camellias and azaleas blossoming us out of winter and filling our gardens with colour. When they have finished, hydrangeas fill the gap, with the blue variety being a particular favourite.
Whilst they are bee-friendly, most of the large bushy-head varieties are sterile and do not feed bees. However, there are varieties like the slow-growing climbing hydrangea or the flat-headed lacecap variety that will feed bees and other pollinators.
