Full bloom

Picking the flowers in your garden now will keep them blossoming well into autumn.

- By Mike Booth

AImost everyone loves a home filled with freshly cut flowers, particularly when they have been grown in your own backyard. I always used to get so mad with my partner, Steve, when he would take my favourite roses, dahlias and summer flowers from the garden, particularly when they looked so spectacular on the plant. But the truth is that cutting most types of flowers from the garden actually promotes the growth of even more flowers. Particularly when done early in the new year, cutting flowers will ensure your roses, dahlias, zinnias and hydrangeas continue flowering well into autumn.

Having said that, I still love a garden full of colour, scent and life, and prefer to keep most flowers blooming on bushes and shrubs. And the best way to keep them powering along in seasons to come is to 'deadhead' as they begin to wilt.