As a gardener, you’re always looking to the next season – and the one beyond that. So, September will see us preparing for spring and summer 2022.

The indoor team will start potting up spring bulbs in the nursery, which will be displayed in the Mediterranean House next spring. If you want to get gorgeous displays, likes ours, plant hyacinths in 13cm half pots, with three bulbs to a pot, each with their noses proud of the compost so they don’t rot.

Daffodils are planted in 18cm pots, seven bulbs to a pot. We plant them in two layers: three in the bottom layer, which is then covered with compost before a second layer of four bulbs is added to give a fuller display per pot. Once potted up, the hyacinths and narcissus will be placed outside in a north facing, dark, covered cold frame until late winter. The cold and dark is needed to initiate good root growth.

Outside, the team will start planting 4,000 winter polyanthus before moving on to planting spring bulbs in our bedding displays.

One thing we can enjoy doing while enjoying a cup of tea and a biscuit is planning and this month the gardening team will be selecting which bedding plants to order for summer 2022 up until into 2023. This is a bigger job than it sounds as we will be ordering between 10,000 and 12,000 plants!

In the more immediate future, we will also be planting new shrubs and perennials around the gardens. It’s a good idea to get them into the ground in September as the weather is cooler and damper, which means they will get off to a good start, and produce a good root system before the winter sets in.

We started cutting the hedges last month and we’ll finish this task in September. Cutting the hedges at this time of year means you only have to cut them once a year and the lines remain crisp for the winter and provide good structure to the garden.

If, like us, you love the majesty of dahlias and want to keep their blooms going for as long as possible, give them a high potassium feed this month to encourage flowering up to the first frosts of autumn.

It won’t be long before we start the hard physical work of clearing up the autumn leaves – we know visitors love to check the progress of the seasons and see which trees will be the first to produce autumnal leaf colour. Could it be the Cercidiphyllum japonicum or candy floss tree? This beauty has heart-shaped leaves in pink, orange and yellow and smells of candy floss or toffee apples. See it in the Rhododendron Garden now.

The gardening team love seeing social media posts of visitors’ trips to the Gardens. If you spot something you love, have a question about a specific plant or just want to highlight your trip, please tag us or post to our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages.

We hope to see you all soon.

There’s always something to look forward to in the Gardens and this July is no exception.

We’re launching the Urban Garden on July 1, now that it is fully planted for the summer. You may recall we built the Urban Garden to show those of you with small outdoor spaces (even balconies) how you can make the most of them.

We hope what we’ve done inspires you: our displays include a wide range of herbs, fruit, vegetables and edible flowers. Come and have a look to see how our lemon trees, eddoe, kiwi, Morello cherry, chillies and okra are doing.

If all goes to plan, and the government lifts the remaining restrictions, we’ll be reopening the Butterfly House on July 19, in time for the school summer holidays. It’s the only butterfly house in Birmingham and is home to hundreds of exotic species from as far away as Central America and Africa. If we are able to welcome visitors again, it will be open every day until early September.

You can expect to see lots of colours this month. The bedding schemes on the car park, bandstand and terrace are all settled in and they look fantastic, while the rose garden will be at its peak this month and will be a sight for sore eyes (and noses – the scent is intoxicating).

It’s at this time of the year when we gardeners reap the fruits of our labours and in the herbaceous border, opposite the playground, all of the dividing, staking, weeding and watering we’ve done is really paying off. 

We’ve had a few warm days so if the mercury rises once more, you can enjoy some respite in the cool tranquil fern garden, which has lots of lovely shaded spots.

If we get some dry spells, you can be sure our small team of gardeners will spend a lot of time watering the newly planted areas outside as well as the four display glasshouses and nursery.

The gardening team love seeing social media posts of visitors’ trips to the Gardens. If you spot something you love, have a question about a specific plant or just want to highlight your trip, please tag us or post to our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages. Here’s to another great month – we hope to see you all soon.

Someone got the memo at last – we’re definitely seeing some lovely weather now spring nudges into summer.

As all gardeners know, this is one busy season to ensure outdoor spaces look their colourful best for the (hopefully) warmest months of the year as we head to the longest day (summer solstice) on the 21st.

For us, this means finishing planting up the two Totally Tropical Beds on the Terrace. We’ll be adding Brahea armata palms and tropical foliage, including many houseplants, to provide that holiday vibe.

Summer bedding will be added to the Terrace and car park – this year, it will be a vibrant display that will include marigolds, salvia, canna, pennisetum and black-leaved sweet potatoes. And in the urban garden, we’ll be planting tender fruit, vegetables and herbs.

Finally, we’ll be planting cacti and other succulents on the Terrace, for the 50^th consecutive year. It’s definitely a great tradition to continue here.

June is traditionally the month when roses come into their own. However, over the last few years we’ve noticed they haven’t bloomed fully until July, so let’s see what happens this year. Head to the Rose Garden to find out how these beautifully scented shrubs are coming along.

The magnificent Rhododendrons and azaleas were also late this year by about three weeks. This means when you visit this month you still have a chance to catch them in the Rhododendron Garden and Azalea Walk – they’ve been particularly beautiful this year.

We’ll be cutting the lawns regularly this month, too, and will also be watering lots of the newly planted areas if this drier spell continues.

If the Government doesn’t change its plans to open up fully on June 21, we’ll also be looking forward to opening the Butterfly House.

We always enjoy seeing your photos of your trips to the Gardens on social media, so please keep them coming! Tag us or post to our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages and let us know what you have enjoyed in particular on your visit here. We look forward to seeing you all this month.

It’s been a great spring so far – sunshine, a bit of rain (OK, and snow!) – and the gardening team has been working flat out to prepare the Gardens for the renowned summer displays.

Although they’ve not been open to the public, we’ve been working in our four, historic glasshouses, making sure the specimens in the tropical, subtropical, Mediterranean and arid environments are ready for when we can finally welcome visitors back in. We’re hoping we’ll be able to do this on May 17, if government guidelines do not change.

May is certainly one of the busiest months for us here at the Gardens. As well as weeding (lots of weeding), we’ll also be making sure our plants in the nursery, glasshouses and in the borders get plenty to drink. We didn’t see as many April showers as normal, so watering the plants that are already outside has been an important task to make sure they thrive.

Summer is just around the corner, so the team will be planting seasonal bedding schemes in the car park, on the Terrace and in front of the newly refurbished Bandstand. And for the 50th consecutive year, the gardeners will also be planting cacti and other succulents on the Terrace, ready for a stunning summer display.

Replanting will also be taking place in the Totally Tropical Beds. These are the two beds on either side of the cacti bed on the Terrace. This should finish off the display nicely, so look out for this when you visit us this month.

May is the month when the rhododendrons and azaleas look particularly fantastic in the Rhododendron Garden and if you happen to wander down the Wilson Walk, near the Lawn Aviary, your eyes will be treated to the sight of the gorgeous Handkerchief tree in flower. Head over to the Fern Garden and you’ll see freshly unfurled fronds.

The last task for the team is the restocking of the Butterfly House – the only butterfly house in Birmingham. If government plans don’t change, this will reopen on June 21.

We love seeing your photos of the Gardens on social media, so please keep posting them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and let us know what you have enjoyed in particular on your visit here. We look forward to seeing you all this month.

It is that time of year again when it is getting cold and you don’t feel like leaving the house, but you must, the Christmas Lights are spectacular this year.  The ‘Fire Garden’ is a must see, as are the trees that are all lit up, showing the bark off to perfection.

Although the gardens are covered in lights and lots of people are passing through, work still has to continue.

We are still collecting leaves, the new machine is making short work of lifting the piles into the trailer and everyone seems very happy with it, so money well spent!  As the leaves are cut up quite small the compost next year should be wonderful.

We are busy taking our home made compost around the gardens and distributing on the shrub and flower beds, it always shows off the plants to great effect and gives them that important injection of nutrients to see them through the Winter.

We will be checking our winter protection on a regular basis to make sure it is doing what it is supposed to.  Make sure, as we have that your taps are protected.

Our ponds are being cleared of leaves so that pumps don’t get blocked up and the water stays sweet for the aquatic life in there.

We are also busy working out the next stage of the playground refurbishment, one thing we definitely need is more drainage and now is the time to put it in, no point in putting it in too early if you then have to dig it out for the next instalment.

Our tree reports have now been completed and we are asking permission from the Council to carry out the work, you may well see the tree gangs on site.

November is once again upon us, and our Fabulous Fireworks event is taking place on Saturday, November 4, the colours adding to the already colourful display on the trees.

We have had some high winds across the Gardens, but they have not managed to denude the trees of their leaves yet.  We are busy using our new leaf sucker to get up the huge piles of leaves.  It is a piece of machinery that is worth its weight in gold.  An added benefit is that it cuts the leaves up and so our leaf mould will be produced quite quickly: all of the cut edges make entry points for the bacteria and fungi that aid decomposition.  When you empty the trailer, the strata of leaves packed in there is very interesting – it also holds about four of our old hand-filled trailer lots in one load.  This equals more time to collect leaves and less time running back and forth to the compost bay!

Last year’s leaf mould is now a rich crumbly black and is ready to put into the Winter Border where it will form a perfect foil to the emerging spring bulbs next year. This is obviously not its main attribute: putting much-needed humus and nutrients back into the soil is its primary function.

Tender perennials are once again being lifted and placed in pots of free-draining compost in a cool, dry greenhouse.  The salvias, cannas and bananas from the Grass Garden have really made a good show this year and if we look after them now they will again next year.  We are constantly adding to our collection of salvias hoping to increase interest.

The dahlias have thrived in their new home on the Loudon Terrace, personally, I thought it would be too warm and dry for them, but they have performed well, eventually.  New varieties are being sourced so that we can add more flower types and colours.

Tender plants that cannot be brought in are being covered with hessian and straw, to help them cope with the cold weather.

The second section of the Herbaceous Border is ready to be covered in compost and dug over.  Now the students are back from half term, they will be doing this as part of their practical study, as well as digging over and planting the last of the winter bedding on the Terrace. Only another couple of thousand plants and bulbs to go…!

The plants for the Herbaceous Border are in the nursery and if the weather stays clement they may be planted this side of Christmas.

The Main Lawn has really grown well after having all that loving care and attention lavished on it in September, and it has coped very well with the huge numbers of families using it over the Halloween festivities.  It is now ready for its final cut of the year.

Most of the lawn will be fenced off later in the month to allow the installation of Christmas at the Botanical Gardens. We cannot wait to see the Gardens in a different light – we hope to see you there!

Welcome to October – the month of glorious colourful leaves.  We will be picking up leaves all month and well into November and beyond.  As always, the leaves will be composted in the Nursery Yard and returned to the soil next autumn/winter.  We have a large pile of leaf litter ready to bring out into the Gardens to help revitalise the beds that have been working so hard over the last growing season.

The vast majority of the bedding has been planted but the bulbs are still waiting to go in.  There will be thousands of tulips on the Terrace, and these will add grace and elegance to the beds in April and May.

The main lawn was scarified, aerated, top dressed, over- seeded and fertilised by a team from ALS who brought in three tractors and 7 tonnes of top dressing to do the job.  It rained just after the work was complete which was ideal as the water was able to penetrate the soil and helped wash the top dressing and fertiliser into the soil.  The peacocks had a great time pecking up the recently sown grass seed. By the middle of October, the grass should be looking very green and lush, all the ravages of the last season put to rest (that is if the peacocks have left any seed).

We will be aerating and over-seeding other areas of the lawns as necessary.  In particular, the Terrace grass will be spiked with a garden fork to allow water and air to get to the grass roots.  This time of the year is perfect for this as the soil will be quite soft – so the fork will penetrate with ease.  Remember if you are doing this yourself, place the fork prongs into the soil and then use your foot to push the fork into the ground.  Don’t try and stab the fork in using your arms and shoulders as this will hurt.

We received delivery of over 600 plants ready for planting in the second section of the Herbaceous Border.  These plants represent the ‘hot end’ of the colour spectrum, the reds, oranges and yellows.  The bed needs final removal of the let over plants, digging and composting, and then replanting, we hope to get Birmingham Metropolitan College horticultural students involved.  The Nursery Yard looks very colourful at the moment with all the plants in flower in the frames.

Towards the end on the month, the dahlias will be lifted as will all the other tender perennials.  Some of these empty blank spaces, in the Grass Garden in particular, will be filled with light installations for Christmas at the Botanical Gardens.  Other tender plants will be wrapped in hessian or covered with straw.

The Cacti bed on the Terrace will be stripped after the Cactus and Succulent Show which is here on the 1^st of October.  They will be moved to their winter home in the Butterfly House where they can be kept drier than outside in the Gardens.  The cacti could cope with our cold winter as normal temperature ranges in deserts are from minus 15°C to over 40°C in a single day, but they resent sitting with wet roots.

The indoor team have been busy replacing the interpretation labels for the educational plants in the Tropical House. Next time you walk through, be sure to read interesting facts on plants that we use in everyday life. Plants that we use for food, clothing, shelter, fuel, medicine and social reasons are interpreted. These include, chocolate, panama hat plant, screw pine, rubber, cardamom and peepul tree.

Now that we have passed the autumn equinox, the glasshouse team will reduce watering and stop feeding the plants in the glasshouses. Plant growth will now slow rapidly and with lower temperatures will not need so much food and water.

The Mediterranean House will have its floral display changed this month. The summer display of Begonias, Petunias and Cannas will be swapped for Plectranthus (Coleus), Chrysanthemums and Veltheimia.

Although it is only autumn, the indoor team are already thinking of spring blooms. Daffodils, tulips and Christmas flowering hyacinths will be planted in pots in the nursery this month to provide an early spring display in the Mediterranean House. These will be placed in a cool, dark cold frame outside to encourage a good root system before being brought into a bright and warm greenhouse in December, January and February for an early spring.