ABSOLUTELY FEB-ULOUS!
However, there are usually at least a couple of days of spring like sunshine and these seem to enthuse everyone to step outside and absorb the changes taking place in the garden.
Drifts of Snowdrops look excellent under the bare trees and are soon accompanied by the richer fresh crisp colours of Crocuses. If it is mild enough, the first Narcissi will open giving you that feeling that spring is almost here.
Lenten roses unfurl and open their blooms facing groundwards for you to admire if you are prepared to bow or even lie down.
Shrubs continue to play an important part in the winter garden as the fragrant blooms of Daphnes fill the air. Corylus catkins hang gracefully from their corkscrew stems and look spectacular when the strengthening morning sunlight shines upon their frosted ‘icicles’.
This is a good month to walk around and assess the garden, thinking about what you would like to add to your borders during spring. It is also a good time to clear out and prepare new areas of the garden for fruit or vegetable planting or even for ornamental use.
(Paul Tovey)
They need plenty of Hell-ter shelter
HELLEBORES have gained an immense popularity over just the last two or three years and in my opinion it is certainly not hard to see why. Their delicate clusters of cup shaped flowers can melt the hearts of anybody fortunate enough to walk past a bank of these beauties in late winter and early spring.
They certainly deserve a place in every garden and are particularly suitable to a moist shaded position - preferably under trees or shrubs where they will look at home in a natural environment. Surprisingly, they will self seed during the summer and the resulting seedlings quite often don’t come true to type. This means that unusual and interesting colours may result a couple of years down the line. These woodland plants are pretty undemanding, requiring just a fish blood and bone feed in spring and an application of bonemeal in autumn and regular watering during summer.
A mulch of composted bark or spent mushroom compost in spring will do them the world of good.
1. Prepare beds and borders for sowing vegetable and flower seeds by eradicating any signs of perennial weeds.
2. To prevent Hellebore flowers from getting mud splashed, dress with bark chippings.
3. Continue to remove winter debris from the lawns and rake vigorously to remove the season’s growth of moss. The more you keep at it, the more the problem will be relieved.
4. It’s a good time to whizz over conifer hedges to remove the soft late summer and autumn growth of last year.
5. Start Begonia corms into growth by planting in moist compost in a warm room or propagator. Gloxinia corms can be started in the same way.
It’s time for a spot of fine pruning
Something to do if you have a head for heights
Their final positions can already be prepared now by digging in plenty of organic matter as most annual climbers need a rich moisture retentive soil for their summer growth and display.
The ground can be prepared in the same way for the April sowing of runner beans.
From the plant’s point of view, these have even more advantages such as providing higher humidity and giving you more bonuses too - like less watering. Occasional feeding is nessasary, the same as is required by many houseplants which have all the space in your house to grow until they reach the ceiling!
But bottle garden plants must be chosen with care, as ideally these will need to remain in this environment for at least a year or two. Otherwise they would become overgrown and demanding. The compost used for these plants should ideally be sweetened with charcoal, as no drainage is readily available. Here are a few plants you could use.....
1. Hypoestes ‘Pink Splash’ - This slow growing plant has in effect green leaves heavily splashed with pink spots and blotches.
2. Selaginella - This rather mossy leaf plant is available in various shades of green - some very light in colour.
3. Chamaedorea Elegans ‘Parlour Palm’ - It may seem strange to include a palm in a bottle garden, but if a three or four inch high specimen is purchased it should last for a couple of years.
Honeysuckles should be cut back to strong pencil-thickness growth against their support.
Wistiria growth needs reducing to two new buds.Cut out the weak growth of climbing roses and shape rambling ones as required to a strong framework.
Solanums can be trimmed lightly and tied back. Remove weak and dead stems from your Ceanothus and tie back the strong stems accordingly.
Mid and late season summer flowering Clematis should be cut back fairly hard to a few new buds.
Correct pruning of the above will ensure the best possible displays in your vertical garden.
Most will germinate within two to four weeks and although most will have no chance of bearing fruit, they will give you a very ornate houseplant.
See you next month!
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