Tie all shoots and disbud plants as required. Keep the watering going if at all dry and hoe if the surface is hardening up to prevent it "panning" otherwise water will run off rather than soak in.
Remove all dead flower heads as soon as possible, especially in the case of all types of bedding dahlias. This promotes new flowering shoots to keep your dahlias blooming well into the Autumn.
Keep the hygiene programme going, looking especially for caterpillars and earwigs, the evening is a good time to do this. Feed with a balance fertilizer in the early part of the month and change to a high potash content towards the end of the month to promote tuber growth and to retain and improve colour.
I have sent off a batch of postcards and a few dozen blooms to the Chicheley Hall Flower Festival as a proud sponsor of this event, occurring Friday 5th August until Sunday 7th see http://bit.ly/mZmeYn co-organised by
Judith Blacklock.
We have now begun our cut flower season, a little later than I expected as a result of slow growth through July. However, the blooms coming on now are very good colour and formation so I mustn't grumble!
