Gardening: What to do this week | Brian Kidd

• The hardy type of amaryllis is in garden centres. They are £2.99 each. Buy three bulbs, plant them in a sunny spot and you will be rewarded with flowers in the autumn for ever.

• Enjoy visiting garden centres? See if you can find autumn-flowering crocus corms. These flowers are usually pink and give a good show of flowers when the weather starts to feel colder.

• Cuttings of bedding geraniums will root very easily if taken now. Simply cut off non-flowering shoots, cut below a node and pop them in alongside the parent plant and they root like weeds!

• Orchids, bird of paradise plants and any tender indoor plants which were put out into the garden for summer should be brought back indoors now.

• Think about getting hold of some manure. Keep it in the bags until you are ready to dig it in during the autumn.

• If mildew spoils the fruits on grapes, blow sulphur dust in through the berries.

• Take cuttings of expensive basket plants such as Japanese petunias. If they aren’t producing enough new growth for cuttings, give the plants a high nitrogen feed or a teaspoon of sulphate of ammonia in one gallon of water.

• Did you remember to plant freesia corms in pots in the greenhouse? Remember the perfume…

• Have you stopped watering indoor amaryllis? I hope so. The pot needs to be put on its side somewhere sunny and not watered at all. The leaves should all die back by October. Then repot in DRY John Innes No3 compost and don’t water again until February or once the fat flower bud emerges.