Club Meetings - 14th July

Our July meeting on Tuesday 14th July from 8pm at Emmanuel Parish Centre will be a talk by a favourite of the Club - Mark Saunders who will be giving us some 'Garden Inspiration'.  Now is the perfect time, with the garden in full summer splendour, to take a critical look at what you have and how plants are performing, and to make some plans for any adjustments that may be needed come the autumn or next spring.  Mark will be giving us that inspiration.

Despite another scorching month, our gardens and outdoor spaces have been looking wonderful.  A collection of photographs from our members from last month is available on the June Photographs page of the website.  There is also a new Potting Shed page to enjoy.

Gardening Tips for July 

You can also see a bulleted list in the July Potting Shed

Another month where the monthly maximum temperature ever recorded was exceeded, and by some considerable margin.  Summers are certainly getting hotter, drier, and more extreme.  With that in mind, it is really important to be efficient when watering.  It’s been said a lot here, but watering in the in the evening or first thing in the morning, directing water at the base of each plant rather than a broad ‘sprinkle’, and drenching a plant every two, three, or more days is always better than giving a daily water.

All pots, containers, and hanging baskets should be watered more frequently so the compost in these containers does not dry out completely as it will become very difficult to re-wet, although a drop of washing-up liquid in the water can help to get water back into an over-dry rootball.  In addition to regular watering, feed all plants growing in tubs or containers fortnightly with a high potash/potassium (K) liquid fertiliser.  That same liquid feed should be used weekly on tomatoes and cucumbers growing in pots or growbags.  The lower leaves of tomato plants can be removed to allow more light to reach the ripening trusses. 

Plants that are under a bit of drought stress will often flower more and look spectacular but make sure you dead-head and perhaps give some additional water to ensure that they don’t just flower and die.  Perhaps carry some mini clippers with you when you are outside and snip off a few old flowers every time you’re passing; little and often makes the job of deadheading much more manageable.  Remember, it’s easier to ‘deadhead’ most hardy Geraniums by cutting off all the leaves and spent flowers then feeding and watering well to encourage a second flush of leaves and new flowers.

Sow seeds of biennials such as wallflowers (Erysimum), foxgloves (Digitalis), Bellis, and sweet rocket (Herperis), perennials such as primulas, pansies and violas, and hardy annuals such as Calendula, and in the vegetable garden, continue to succession sow lettuce, carrots, beetroot and radishes.

Pick fruit and vegetables regularly.  This is especially true for beans and peas that will reduce or stop flowering as mature pods ripen, and for courgettes that will become marrows if left too long.  Whilst the taste of home grown veg is best if picked and eaten straight away, picking when small and storing in the fridge for a few days while others mature on the plants is far better than waiting for a bigger crop directly from the plants.  The very dry weather has not been kind to peas and beans and the flowers may not be setting.  Increased watering, or some cooler weather and rain (ha, ha, ha!  If only…) should help the pods to form.

Garlic should be ready to harvest towards the end of July as the leaves start to go brown and drop, but try to harvest, dry, and store the bulbs before the tops are completely dead as it can be difficult to find them in the soil, and the usually tightly packed cloves will split open in the bulb if left too long in wet ground.  As the days shorten (depressing thought!), onions and shallots will begin to transfer nutrients from the leaves to the bulb and these will start to swell and mature.  Don’t harvest the bulbs until the leaves go brown and start to die back, usually in late summer.

Weeds in lawns always seem to grow better than the grass, especially in dry weather, but if you do need to mow, set blades one or two stops higher than normal.  Longer grass will be much more tolerant of dry weather and will stay green for longer.  Lawns should not be watered – they will recover once they get some rain.

This is the most wonderful time of the year when the garden is bursting with life and colour.  Make sure you do everything you can to enjoy it, for it will all be over far too soon.

Roses

Roses have been bred and treasured for millennia, yielding thousands of varieties and forming one of humanity’s most enduring ornamental crops.  From ancient Chinese and Persian gardens to Victorian florist shops, the rose’s biology, uses, and cultural roles have been shaped by history and science.   Genetic studies suggests that wild roses were independently cultivated in both China and Europe for over a thousand years, but it was the arrival of the repeat flowering Chinese “tea” rose into Europe in the mid-18th century that allowed the crossbreeding with local species to produce the first hybrid tea, ‘La France’, in 1867 and the subsequent explosion of the modern era of rose cultivars.

Cultivation of roses is quite straightforward.  They need full sun for at least 6 hours a day, and well drained fertile soil with regular watering until established.  Good air circulation helps prevent mildew and a potassium-rich fertiliser (typically with an NPK ratio of 1:1:3) or mulch (compost/manure) in spring and mid-summer promotes vigorous growth and flowering.  Roses are typically propagated by stem cuttings or grafting onto hardy rootstocks to preserve the characteristics of the of cultivar.

Global rose production is enormous.  In 2025 the rose market was estimated to be worth over 8 billion US dollars and they represent about one third of the global cut-flower trade, with Ecuador, Kenya and Colombia being the biggest exporters.  As well as rose plants and cut flowers, rose oil is produced from Rosa damascena and R. centifolia, with Bulgaria, Turkey and Saudi Arabia contributing ~70% of the supply, and rose hips (the fruit) are harvested for jams, teas, and health supplements as they are rich in vitamin C). 

Culturally the rose is rich in symbolism, with different colours of roses denoting different meanings.  Roses appear in religion and literature worldwide and have come to symbolise different traditions such as Valentine’s Day, in different cultures.

Roses can be surprisingly long-lived: the famed “Thousand Year Rose” at Hildesheim Cathedral, Germany (a wild Rosa canina shrub) is at least 700 years old.  The largest rose bush is a ‘Climbing Cecile Brunner’ in Tombstone, Arizona, and covers an area of 8,000 square feet.  Perhaps a reminder to us all to go out and prune our roses in late winter every year! 

Tim Bonnert, July 2026