Gardening with Jackie French: Slash now for a show-stopping summer

Not all at once, of course, and not to throw them in the compost bin. But if you cut roses back severely now, and give them excellent feeding and watering, they will give you a stunning show all through the holiday season.

Not much blooms in mid-summer unless you work at it.

Roses aren't the only plants that respond magnificently to a spring haircut. Our salvias of varied kinds are just beginning to show blue, purple and red flowers, which means I will give myself a week to enjoy them, then get out the long-handled secateurs and cut them back.

The hydrangeas are putting out their first blooms. I can't quite harden my heart enough to dispose of the flowers, but as soon as the heads are just beginning to open, off they will come, to go into vases so more will grow in their place, just in time for holiday visitors.

Cutting back won't give the growth spurt by itself. Your garden will also need extra good feeding and even better watering (never put fertiliser on dry soil). The cutting back technique only works with repeat blooming flowers and shrubs - though I've had luck with spring-blooming bottle brush and banksia, cutting back the first blooms, and feeding and watering well. They can often give a second flush or a prolonged spring one into summer.

Pansies are putting out their spring display just now, but if you leave them alone except for admiring them in pots or garden beds they'll be a scraggly mess by mid-December. Instead cut back each small plant - perhaps do half the plants one week and the next half the second week, so you keep a good display now. Feed them generously, and in return you'll not only have pansies (or heartsease) for December but even through next winter if you keep up the care.

Our dahlias have been fed and pruned already, ready to produce a second lot of flowers for summer festivities. I did the feeding. The wallabies did the pruning, munching off the flower buds just as they were opening. We were away for a few days though, so hopefully a more forceful human presence in the garden will keep the wallabies off the next flush of flowers.

It took me years to realise that if just left my dahlias to grow themselves, I'd get flowers by mid-January. If I actually did some gardening i.e. feeding, water and weeding, the dahlias would bloom by early December, or even earlier in a sunny spring.

MORE GARDENING:

This is the time to plant and then really cosset your annuals - petunias, zinnias, everlasting daises in the modern gaudy or subtle range of colours, Californian poppies, alyssum ... if it's in a punnet at the garden centre, it will grow gloriously here.

Plant gently, water gently, wait a few days then feed gently while watering again - then feed lightly every week and water every two or three days, and you'll have strong, vigorous and early flowering garden beds, pots and rockeries. I'd also recommend planting carnations, but for some reason carnations seem to be the only flower the wombats here adore, so I have never actually had a crop. We do get lots of vigorous green carnation growth, but the flower heads are chomped off as soon as they begin to open and spread their scent.

Sunflowers also grow wonderfully here, from the Giant Russians to the fuzzy Teddy Bears to the fabulous ones in autumn oranges and golds as well as your classic yellow, either with one single head or branching. I'd put them in the vegie garden to give colour and variety if I thought it would rain regularly this year, or if I'd have the energy to weed and feed them, but this year I'm sticking to the most essential veg, not just to save work and water, but because hungry wildlife tend to regard our garden as their refuge restaurant in dry years. As we humans can actually buy our veg, it seems churlish to drive off the wallabies, bower birds, king parrots et al - though I'm not quite generous enough to make my knees and back ache just so they can have yet another delicacy like sunflowers. (If the wildlife are truly hungry, we do also provide lucerne and grain pellets ... and there will be carrot and sweet potato feasting come the holidays.)

But get in the slashing spirit now. Each time a burst of rose buds almost open, gather a bunch for your vases, or work colleagues, or any doctor, dentist or book store you happen to be visiting. You will be spreading happiness - and getting a heck of a lot more blooms mid to late summer in return.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: