English gardens in August have only one equal - English Gardens in June. The blend of the colours and fragrances of leaves and flowers is nowhere excelled; their tranquility, beauty and splendour combine to make a scene found nowhere else and to which gardeners the world over return constantly for their inspiration. Plants of all sorts spill over with blossom, scent and foliage in August; shrubs come into flower thick and fast - kalmia, ceanothus, cytisus, berberis, escallonia, deutzia, weigela, genista, philadelphus, spiraea, lilac, viburnum and roses of all kinds. Jobs to do, if one must, are staking border plants, pruning mid-summer flowering shrubs, tying or ringing sweet peas, liquid feeding annuals and bedding plants, mowing the lawn, spraying for rose mildew, black spot, greenfly and caterpillars. The last of the bedding plants should be out at the beginning of the month, together with dahlias and chrysanthemums. The latter should be stopped this month, in the first two weeks, and again at the end for second crown flowering, but if they are to flower at Christmas, stopping should be left until September.