June garden planner - Telegraph Take softwood cuttings of shrubs, short-lived perennials, woody herbs and conservatory exotics. Cut off 4in (10cm) of non-flowering shoot below a leaf bud. Remove the tip and bottom leaves. Dip into hormone rooting powder, push into cuttings compost and cover with a plastic bag. Layer clematis and honeysuckle. Make a short nick through a leafbud a foot (30cm) from a tendril tip. Dab the bare surface with rooting powder, push into moist soil and hold down with pebbles. Exterminate, exterminate... Tackle small invasions of ground elder by stripping off the leaves until it gives up the ghost. Dig up plants from badly affected areas, wash the roots to clear fragments of elder rhizome that will regrow, and replant elsewhere. Then smother the ground with black plastic. Or, on a dry evening, spray with glyphosate. In borders, try more controllable Roundup gel. Repeat-treat regrowth. Snap on rubber gloves and massage glyphosate into bindweed tendrils before they flower and set seed. Bundle up into a plastic bag, cinched at ground level, until the plant withers. Jump up and down on deep-rooted marestail before spraying to improve the glyphosate uptake. Renovate the rose garden Deadhead repeat-flowering roses, unless you want decorative hips later. To make rose water (see Plot to Plate), sacrifice some flowers when still fresh and plump. Remove suckers - gallicas are particularly wayward - at the root of the original plant. Tie in new growth of ramblers and climbers horizontally to encourage more flower-bearing side shoots. Prune out black spot and burn, don't compost, then disinfect cutting tools. Dose plants with Sulphur Rose or a chemical remedy. Potassium-rich banana skins make excellent rose snacks. Lay flat around the plant and bury under an inch of soil. Underplant roses with lavender-blue Aster x frikartii, species salvias or aromatic herbs to disguise bare stems, or against a backdrop of tall purple fountain grass or 'Elijah Blue" fescue. David Austin's new deep pink shrub rose 'Royal Jubilee" is a much more tasteful souvenir than the Queen's face on a mug (01902 376300; davidaustin roses.com). 5 of the best 1 HARVEST delicious first potatoes, overwintering onions, radishes, calabrese, lettuce, rhubarb and strawberries. Add carrot thinnings to salad. 2 SOW French beans, peas, beetroot, carrots, kohlrabi and endive, and more lettuce and radishes, in batches. Also, runner beans, swedes, turnips and courgettes. Seed trays of winter and early spring bedding should go in the cold frame. 3 HOE to quash annual weeds. Also, water soaks in better, and stays put longer, when soil is crumbly. 4 DEADHEAD rhododendrons and camellias; cut out flowered euphorbia stems. 5 LIFT AND SEPARATE overcrowded hostas, spring bulbs and forget-me-not. 1 JUNE GAP The dearth of flowers and bad news for bees. The lofty biennial, 'Echium vulgare" (viper's bugloss), fills the gap. Order seeds now. 2 JUNE DROP Orchard fruit self-thins, but not enough. Reduce clusters to single apples and pears; leave four inches (10cm) between plums. 3 JUNE BUG Chafer grub larvae lurk under grass, munching the roots and inspiring predators to excavate. Apply Provado Lawn Grub Killer. 4 JUNEBERRY Amelanchier, valued for scented flowers, summer fruit that tastes like blueberries and bright autumn foliage. Plant in hedges or as specimen trees. 5 A DRIPPING JUNE sets all in tune, except container plants suffering from a wet May. Cut away damaged roots, repot and feed. 1 SUBVERSIVE INSIDER RHS judge and garden designer James Alexander-Sinclair muses on ranivores, cacodoxies and plants (blackpitts.co.uk/blog). 2 FRONT GARDEN ALLOTMENTEER Naomi Schillinger and her neighbours cultivate an often neglected spot (outofmyshed.co.uk). 3 COMPULSIVE GARDEN VISITOR Photojournalist Charlotte Weychan travels so we can be armchair horticultural tourists (thegallopinggardener.blogspot.co.uk) 4 INSPIRING AMATEUR Helen Johnstone joined a Chelsea show garden's planting team (patientgardener.wordpress.com). 5 IT COULD BE YOU Send in photographs and hone your blogging skills on fennelandfern.co.uk. In my garden ANN-MARIE POWELL Garden designer, writer and TV presenter This seemingly ferocious but beneficial pruning is carried out after the RHS Chelsea Flower Show on a limited list of herbaceous perennials. Candidates in my garden include Sedum 'Herbstfreude," echinacea, helenium and rudbeckia. I cut the top growth by half to produce non-flop, well-branched, floriferous plants. My children are delighting in sowing seed. I'm encouraging the horticultural gene and have ordered varieties new to me so I can share in their excitement; towering Reseda luteola, delicate fuzzy Phacelia tanacetifolia and deep pink Dianthus barbatus 'oeschberg. My other half is a gardener but after long working days he leaves our garden to me, with one exception - the box balls. It's traditional to cut back the fresh growth on Derby Day, the first Saturday of June. He considers my box pruning second rate, so I'll leave him to do it - probably after the Jubilee celebrations - resulting in crisp, even balls I can never hope to achieve. I'll apply Nemaslug, the biological control perfect for the squeamish, every six weeks until the autumn. Ann-Marie Powell's new book 'Landscaping Solutions for Small Spaces: 10 Smart Plans for Designing and Planting Small Gardens" is out now (RRP £9.36, Creative Homeowner) Jubilee rosewater and pistachio meringues Makes 12 to 14 8 fresh rose petals 4 large egg whites Large pinch cream of tartar 4½oz/125g caster sugar 3½oz /100g icing sugar 3 tbsp chopped pistachios Drop of pink food colouring 7floz/200ml double cream Seeds from ½ vanilla pod 7oz/200g strawberries Steep the rose petals in 7floz/200ml of just-boiled water for an hour. Preheat the oven to 280F/140C/130C fan/Gas 1. Whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar to soft peaks. Slowly whisk in the caster sugar. Spoon a third of the mixture into another bowl and beat in 2 tsp of rosewater, 2 tbsp of pistachios and the colouring. Fold this back into the original bowl. Sift and fold in the icing sugar. Spoon the meringues onto two baking trays and sprinkle with the leftover pistachios. Place in the oven, lower the temperature to 250F/120C/110C fan/Gas ½ and bake for 45 minutes. Leave in the oven to cool overnight. Serve with the double cream, whisked to soft peaks with the vanilla seeds, and strawberries. With thanks to Driscoll Jubilee Strawberries (jubileestrawberries.co.uk) Philip Eden's weather advice Late-May heatwaves are often followed by rather changeable Junes, with frequent showers and occasional thunderstorms. Even so, one or two brief warm spells can be expected, most likely during the second half of the month. On average, June is the sunniest month of the year, not just in total sunshine hours, but in relative day length too. Bunny Guinness's top tips GROWN YOUR OWN SAFFRON Crocus Sativa will give you the highest value and most exotic-flavoured crop you are likely to grow. Jacques Amand (020 8420 7110; jacquesamand.com) has 10 top-size bulbs for £4.50 and will be lifting in early July, so order now. A sunny, rabbit-proof site is essential. Plant 150mm (6in) apart, cover with 150mm (6in) of soil, and you could well be collecting the stigmas - the three-pronged, brilliant flame-coloured female part ending in frilly bits - in October. One mature corm may produce several flowers. Harvest successionally. You can then use decent quantities in your cooking without breaking the bank. Events June 9 and 10 Themed "Best of British," with attractions including a brass band and vintage tea in the rose garden, at RHS Wisley, Surrey. Garden entry: adults £11.55; children £4.95; and members free (0845 260 9000; rhs.org.uk). June 8 to 10 Lord and Lady Cavendish host a flower show with extras at Holker Hall, Cumbria. Entry: £15; under-16s go free (0845 260 9000; holkerfestival.co.uk). June 13 to 17 Display gardens, shopping and TV gardeners, at "BBC Gardeners" World Live," NEC Birmingham. Entry: £24 adults; £22 children; discounts for advance booking (0844 581 1340; bbcgardenersworldlive.com). June 23 and 24 Indulge yourself in all things rosy at the Peter Beales Rose Festival, Norwich. Entry free (01953 454707; classicroses.co.uk).