Best to have a rest

IT is time to give indoor varieties of cyclamen a rest now they have finished their main flowering season. Remove any leaves or flowering stems by sharply tugging them away from the corm and then place the pots outside. Although they will inevitably get s

IT is time to give indoor varieties of cyclamen a rest now they have finished their main flowering season.

Remove any leaves or flowering stems by sharply tugging them away from the corm and then place the pots outside.

Although they will inevitably get some rain, do not water them since they need a dormant period during the summer months.

When the autumn arrives they will start to put on leaves and at this point take them to a cool but light position indoors, water from the bottom of the pot, and they should develop flowers in time for the winter period.

Garden centres and nurseries are full of tender summer plants suitable for containers and baskets.

But May can bring night frosts so don't get caught out.

Make sure these flowers are kept in a greenhouse or on a window sill at night until this danger has passed.

Greenhouse owners can start to plant up baskets in readiness for the first week of June when warmer conditions should prevail.

If poor germination for vegetable seeds has left rows of seedlings with large gaps in your vegetable plot you can, for example, sow more lettuces to fill the gaps, since they will provide a succession.

But it is worth trying a different method for beetroot and parsnips.

Carefully lift patches of seedlings where they need to be thinned and, without disturbing the soil round their roots, and re-plant to fill the gaps.

May is the best month for giving a first trim to box grown as hedging or as clipped standard specimens since the new growth is still quite young and easy to cut.

Other hedging should be trimmed towards the end of May once the birds have finished nesting.