This is a perfect time to be thinking about taking cuttings of some short lived or tender plants that might not over-winter such as some penstemons and salvias.
Select a vigorous shoot, preferably a shoot that hasn’t flowered, otherwise make sure all buds have been taken off, cut a 5cm length as near to a leaf joint as possible, strip off the lowest leaves and insert into compost. Keep in a cool, moist environment out of full sunlight.
Keep Camellias and Rhododendrons well watered to ensure good flower bud formation next spring. Blackspot is very common on roses at this time of year, and spraying will no longer be effective. Clear fallen leaves from around roses, and burn them to prevent spread. Prune wisterias now by cutting the wispy growth back to five or six buds from the main stem.
Now is the time to give lavenders a good hair cut to get them back into shape by reducing the section of green growth that exists between the wood and the bottom of the flower stem.
They cannot regenerate if pruned below the point where there isn’t any leaves, so if you have a ‘leggy’ lavender plant, in the Spring, you could lift and then replant it in to a deeper hole, feeding the soil back around the stems. These stems then root and give a cluster of new lavender plants.
Raise ripening pumpkins and squashes off the soil to prevent rotting. Plant new strawberries now, either as bought plants or detached runners. Cut down fruited canes of summer raspberries after they have fruited. Finish summer pruning of trained apple and pear trees. Shorten lateral stems to three leaves above the basal cluster.
Hello Wellie
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