Embrace the fickleness of spring

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This year, spring is quite fickle: warm to cold, which is ideal to continue the spring flowers longer than normal.

Often, when October arrives, azaleas and bulbs can be on the wane.

Spring-flowering annuals, stocks, poppies and primula can begin to look droopy, leaving just pansies to give colour until petunias begin to spread and bloom.

When spring bulbs have finished flowering, don’t cut them off; allow the foliage to die down as this process is essential for protein storage for the next season. Be sure to fertilise at this time.

Tropical shrubs such as hibiscus and Bougainvillea can be pruned and fertilised later this month when the weather is warmer.

Give daisies and diosma a light prune when they finish flowering. Never cut these shrubs – including lavender – back to hard wood and remember when pruning to always fertilise.

Grevillleas, bottlebrush and other native plants that have finished flowering can be pruned but remember to give them a boost with blood and bone.

Once Camellia japonicas finish flowering, apply cow manure and peat moss if ground grown. Those cultivated in containers should be fed with Bounceback.

When roses have finished their first flush of blooms, which I think will be later in October as mine are just budding now, cut spent blooms, then begin the monthly feeding regime.

This encourages good blooms and strong plants, remembering a healthy rose fights off fungal disease.

I treat my roses each month with something appropriate to weather conditions – for example, after rain, I apply dolomite to sweeten the soil.

Next month, if I am using blood and bone on the natives, the roses get a handful. The month after that, I use Sudden Impact for Roses and, just to vary their diet, the following month I hit them with Bounceback.

It is a little too early to plant annuals for a Christmas display. Save this for November when cow manure will be applied one week before planting (unless growing in pots, which will require a good potting medium).

It’s now time to give indoor plants and application of foliant fertiliser such as Flourish, which can be applied weekly.

Where soil levels have become hard and crusty, turn over the topsoil and apply peat moss or new potting mix to the surface.

Wipe hard-leaved plants over with white oil to clean off dust, to shine and prevent insect infestation.

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