5 February 2025
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It’s time to give cherries and plums a trim, says Ruth
I ’m afraid that this egress my pageboy are lead to be rather disease - arduous because an inescapable side force of this year ’s topsy - turvy conditions has been the mountain of many flora skin to bide healthy and reach their full potential .
The mild , wet atmospheric condition have made our garden a thoroughgoing breeding terra firma for fungous problems and disease – and that ’s before we get anywhere close to utter about the out-and-out jamboree it ’s given the slugs and snails !
So on this page and the next I take a aspect at some of the most uncouth diseases you may blob around your plot of land and allotment and show you how to beat them and avoid them in future seasons .
Prevention is always better than cure and knowing your opponents weak tip ( and not just in a gardening sense ! ) can keep you one step forward in the game .
This is why I ’ve been rationalise greengage and ‘ Victoria ’ plum tree trees and our tears ornamental cherry this hebdomad .
These are just some of the varieties that are susceptible to smooth-spoken leaf disease , a fungous condition that is at its most active between the autumn and belated spring .
Its symptoms let in a silvery finishing on leaves and morose stains inside the Sir Henry Joseph Wood , which can only be fancy when pruned . Old , dead wood may also give rise violet bracket fungus .
The easiest style to keep safe the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree it affects , which also let in apricot trees , rhododendron and Laburnum , is to prune them in midsummer when the disease spores are n’t so rife .
clip now , the cuts have time to heal and are less likely to behave as an entry point for the disease .
Our weeping cherry was in dire need of cutting back as it has get well since last summertime and some branches are flow over the lawn , which has made pout a trifle tricky .
As with all pruning , start by removing dead , morbid and discredited branches , as well as spindly ones that look untidy and are unproductive . Aim to create an attractive open shape , or less engorged framework on weeping trees .
If you recover symptoms of silverish foliage on a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree during pruning , absent the moved wood back to sizeable material , dispose of it immediately and disinfect your pruning peter afterwards .
If you have n’t yet lop bush that flower in other summer , such as weigela and philadelphus , do so now to give them sentence to create unexampled growth for next year ’s flush .
Pest tribute
Keep your houseplant dependable
1 . Dust and pests accumulate on plant life when they blow in through open windows in summer , so transfer them with a damp , soft cloth .
2 . A bottleful cap filled with sweet almond oil attracts annoying fungus gnat for sluttish remotion .
3 . stand up houseplant pots on a bed of dampish crushed rock . It raises humidness storey slight , but enough to deter destructive glasshouse red wanderer mites .
4 . A plant enhancer such as Vitax 2 - in-1 Invigorator feeds plants through their leaves and help them withstand pests and disease .
