Prune now

Rhododendrons finished flowering

To guarantee profuse flowering next year, it is best to ‘dead head’ (pinch out the dead flowers). Pull them off with a little bit of stem: the flower buds for next years are directly underneath. Most varieties have finished flowering by June. If you pull off the dead flowers now, this will prevent seeds from forming and the plant will invest even more energy in producing new flower buds for next year.

June is the month for pruning cherries, but never remove heavy branches because of diseases like silverleaf and gumming.

From 21 June hedge plants go into a second period of rapid growth. They will rapidly recover after pruning and form many young shoots. Prune taxus and buxus hedges when it is cloudy.

If you cut delphiniums back after the first flowering, they will flower again in the autumn.

You can still prune the spring-flowering shrubs which have finished flowering now. If you wait too long with this, there is a risk that the new flowering branches for next year will not ripen sufficiently and will not be winter-hardy.

Mowing or mulch mowing

You can mow the grass and remove the cuttings, compost them or scatter them between the ornamental plants, or you can ‘mulch mow’. A special set of cutters on the mower chops the cuttings up so fine that they can remain on the lawn as mulch and thereby act as a direct fertiliser.

Cut a play lawn to three centimetres and an ornamental lawn to two centimetres, but set the mower a bit higher during dry spells.