September Gardening: heucheras for dry shade, spring bulbs, autumn crops, summer pruning, pumpkins, dahlias, blackfly & collecting seeds.

In episode 20 of Step-by-Step Gardening with me, David Domoney, filmed at Blue Diamond’s Bridgemere Show Gardens, I explore heucheras, plant bulbs for spring, grow September crops, tackle late-summer pruning, check my pumpkins and dahlias, & collect seeds for free plants.

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Plant of the Month: Heucheras

I explore colourful heucheras for bringing year-round interest to difficult areas such as dry shade, with advice on care & combining contrasting foliage for strong border displays.

Plants featured: ‘Indian Summer Coralberry’, ‘Lime Marmalade’, ‘Obsidian’, Tiarella, Heucherella ‘Tapestry’, Festuca glauca, Geranium pratense ‘Boom Chocolatta’, & Hosta ‘Age of Gold’.

Step-by-Step Guide: Planting Spring Bulbs

I plant two spring bulb containers, sharing tips on planting depth, spacing, drainage, bulb quality & flowering time to create colourful displays.

Bulbs featured: Crocus chrysanthus ‘Ard Schenk’, Tulipa ‘Flaming Flag’, Muscari armeniacum, Narcissus ‘Tête à Tête’, Tulipa greigii ‘Trauttmansdorff’, Tulipa ‘Gudoshnik Double’, & Narcissus ‘Dutch Master’.

Job of the Month: Potatoes & Autumn Salad

September is still a great month for growing food. I plant potatoes in containers for a Christmas harvest & sow cut-and-come-again salad leaves for repeated crops into autumn.

Masterclass: Summer Pruning

I tidy late-summer plants after flowering, showing how to prune lavender, trim back catmint to encourage fresh growth & deadhead buddleja.

Growing Updates

I check the dahlias grown from tubers, see how my pumpkins have developed & share tips for even, healthy growth. I also tackle blackfly on gladioli without pesticides.

Step-by-Step Guide: Seed Collection

I show how to collect seeds from the garden, including when seedheads are ripe, how to dry & clean them, label envelopes & store seed correctly for future sowing.

00:00 Introduction
00:25 Plant of the Month: Heucheras
01:06 Heuchera colour & shade tolerance
02:00 How to care for heucheras
02:57 What is a heucherella?
03:41 Pairing with festuca glauca
04:17 Pairing with herbaceous geranium
04:45 Pairing with hosta
05:15 Step-by-Step Guide: Planting Spring Bulbs
06:17 Why use peat-free bulb fibre
06:28 Spring bulb planting depths
07:12 The secret when planting bulbs
08:19 Plant bulbs the right way up
08:44 How to tell if bulbs are healthy
09:28 Refreshing compost for planting
10:27 When your bulbs will flower
10:47 Feeding & covering with grit
12:02 Job of the Month: Potatoes & Autumn Salad
12:07 Planting potatoes for Christmas Dinner
12:30 Sowing lettuce in September
13:30 Growing in a young salad leaves in a trough
13:41 Cut-and-come again vs lettuce hearts
15:14 20% Discount at Blue Diamond Garden Centres
15:51 Summer Pruning Masterclass
15:55 How to prune lavender
18:29 How to cut back catmint
18:48 How to prune buddleja
20:05 Growing Updates
20:08 Dahlia update
20:23 Pumpkin update
20:56 Supporting pumpkins for even growth
22:09 When are pumpkins ripe?
22:21 Blackfly on Gladioli
23:00 Organically removing blackfly
23:36 Step-by-Step Guide: Seed Collection
24:08 When to harvest seeds
24:43 How to tell if seeds are ready
24:56 Do harvested seeds come true?
25:35 Leave seedheads for the birds
25:59 Warning: when to grow from bulbs
26:27 Extracting & storing poppy seeds
27:59 Extracting & storing love-in-a-mist seeds
28:55 How to store seeds
29:23 Credits

Location: Bridgemere Show Gardens, a destination for plant lovers.
Learn more: https://www.bridgemereshowgardens.co.uk/
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David Domoney Chartered Horticulturist C Hort. FCI Hort. F Wcg. F Cmc. FLS. Fellow of the Warwickshire College Group. Fellow of the London Colleges of Horticulture. Recipient of The Prince Edward Award for Excellence in Horticulture.

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