While many Brits get their gardening fix in the early spring, June remains an important month for gardening.
June, once the danger of frost has passed, is the perfect time to get heat-loving flowers into the soil.
The Royal Horticultural Society says the best flowers for displays this month are cannas and dahlias.
Native to Mexico, dahlias are heat-loving plants and are very sensitive to frost.
June is a good month to take your dahlias outside.
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Cannas, on the other hand, are vibrant, gentle perennials that produce showy flowers in shades of red, orange, yellow and pink.
Cannas are also heat-loving flowers and grow best when planted in the ground in June for vibrant color.
The Royal Horticultural Society confirms that “June is the perfect month to consider planting your summer flower beds or plants grown from seed.”
The book adds: “During dry weather, keep plants moist by watering thoroughly. Once danger of frost has passed, plant cannas and dahlias.”
“At this stage of the season, it's best to fill in any gaps in your herbaceous borders with annuals.”
Deadheading
Deadheading is very important for flowers once they have finished blooming, as it redirects the plant's energy towards growing new petals instead of seeds.
The RHS's advice for growing healthy dahlias is to remove the dead flowers as soon as they start to wilt.
“If you are growing giant flowers or cut flowers, pinch off the smaller flower buds behind the larger central bud,” the RHS points out.
“This will result in larger, better quality flowers, but if you're simply growing dahlias for border displays, this isn't necessary.”
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Deadheading your canna plants will help them bloom for as long as possible.
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Gardeners should remove canna flower stalks during the flowering season to encourage new blooms to continue.
Guy Barter, RHS chief horticulture adviser, points out that new plants planted in vegetable patches and flower beds would also benefit from a June fertiliser.
“New plants planted in vegetable gardens, flower beds and containers need to grow best in June, when light levels are highest and temperature constraints are lowest,” the experts explained.
“By fertilizing, you can make the most of this light and get better results later in the summer.”
