FLOWER GARDENER'S DIARY - APRIL

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Make the most of the autumn plant sales, most garden centres have a massive sale at this time of year to make way for new season's plants.

Autumn is nature's planting time as the soils are warm and moist. Plants have the winter to settle their roots into the soil ready to bloom beautifully in the spring.

PICK:

• Scabious, Peruvian lily, poppies, marguerite daisy, statice, Japanese anemones, roses, coreopsis, echinacea, strawflowers, dahlias, lilies, sweet peas, gypsophila, cosmos, zinnia, pineapple lily, agapanthus, hydrangeas.

SOW:

• Bellis, polyanthus, violas, primula, pansies, flowering kale, poppies, wildflowers, gazania, dianthus.

PLANT:

• Bulbs: It's not too late to plant bulbs for spring flowering. Fertilise existing ones with Tui Bulb Food. Watch the Tui Time Bulb Growing Guide for more information.
• Plant autumn hanging baskets with: bellis, lobelia, polyanthus, flowering kale, primula, violas, snapdragons, wildflowers, sweet william, cineraria.

JOBS TO DO:

• Prune back summer flowering perennials and bulbs that have finished for the season, to tidy up garden borders and beds.
• Lift and divide over-grown perennials.
• Save and dry seeds of summer flowers for sowing in the spring.

NOURISH:

• Apply Tui Bulb Food to bulbs already in the ground.
• Apply a side dressing of Novatec to shrub borders and flower gardens.

PROTECT:

• Add thick layers of Tui Mulch & Feed or Tui Pea Straw Mulch to garden beds and pots to conserve water, reduce weeds and add valuable nutrients back to the soil. Mulching also keeps your garden looking tidy and cared for!
• Aphids and whitefly are all still moving about now, particularly if the weather is still very warm. Be vigilant and spray with Tui Insect Control for Flowers as soon as they appear and again a few days later to kill eggs that hatch.
• Lay Quash every few weeks to keep slugs and snails at bay.