It’s been warm and dry for weekPete Gavan Senior Editor and SWNSlaura (Laura Elvin)
09:37, 16 May 2025
Shaun Shroeder
A gardening expert’s has revealed his top tip to keep your plants alive ahead of the blistering dry weekend – a £4 product available from most garden centres.
Shaun Schroeder, 60, plants around 140 hanging baskets and fence planters each year.
The grandfather-of-nine, from Whitchurch, Bristol, said making sure plants get enough water in hot climes can become a “full-time job” and costly.
The demolition supervisor, said his top tip is putting water retention gel in the bottom of the baskets during planting.
They can be purchased for just a few pounds in garden centres or online and make a world of difference for plants, he said.
But Shaun added that other gardening pals of his take a more ingenious approach – using unworn NAPPIES.
He said: “I think they soak up the water when you first water the basket, then slowly releases it over the day.
“It’s not something I do myself – but I know a lot of people who swear it works for them!”
Another water-saving technique is to do all your watering – at NIGHT.
Shaun explained watering while the sun it hot will mean more of the water evaporates from the soil before soaking in – so you need to do it more often.
So you should do it last thing at night, when the sun has gone down, so the water has more time to soak into the soil overnight, before the sun comes back up.
He said: “Most people in the gardening community do it at night.”
He also said you should utilise your shady spots and plant flowers that prefer not to be in direct sunlight.
This way they won’t need as much watering – and your garden will still be on top form.
Shade-loving plants Shaun recommends include impatiens, fuchsias and hostas.
He also suggested begonias, as they don’t need watering as regularly as some other plants, he said.
Shaun’s final tip is to remember to take cuttings of plants so you can propagate them – saving you money on buying them from a nursery.
He said: “Every plant I buy, I know I can do eight cuttings. This year I got 350 new plants from cuttings.
“Last year, I got 500!”
He says he grows them over winter in a heated shed, so come spring, he can take new cuttings from those, and then he’ll have a full set of new plants to flower the following summer.
The gardening enthusiast, well known across Bristol for his displays, said: “I love gardening – it’s a great place to de-stress from work.
“I just love it.”