In partnership with Claire Jones Gardens
- Pick off any developing seedheads on daffodils and other spring bulbs, but leave the foliage to die back naturally.
- Tidy up borders, removing established and newly germinating weeds, then mulch generously with garden compost or well rotted manure. You can also work in a general-purpose fertiliser, such as pelleted chicken manure, or fish, blood and bone.
- Cut Dogwoods, Willows, Continus and Buddleja down to the base to promote vigorous new growth.
- If any of your garden plants need supporting this year, put the support in now, so plants can grow up through them. Adding supports afterwards is trickier and often looks unattractive
- Feed roses with a balanced or rose specific fertiliser, they are hungry plants!
- Tidy up alpines as they start to flower, removing dead foliage, then mulch with grit to keep the foliage off damp soil.
- Keep an eye out for slugs as the weather warms. Pay special attention to soft, new growth, which slugs love. Use nematodes for an effective organic control.
- Trim winterflowering heathers as the flowers disappear, to prevent the plants becoming leggy.
Plant of the season – Prunus incisa ‘Kojonomai’
This is a pretty, delicatelooking, very small deciduous tree with elegant layered branches if left unpruned. The unusual wiry twigs burst into life in late winter and early spring. From delicate crimson buds the abundant white, single blossom develops pink centres.
Young leaves are serrated (incised) and start pale green, growing darker with age, and turning glorious shades of red and orange in autumn, making it a fantastic plant for autumn too. It has a compact, rounded shape and a gently spreading habit, which makes it an excellent shrub for small gardens, or for a Japanesestyle garden. It will achieve an estimated height and spread of about 2 x 2 metres in 20 years. However, it does take well to a hard prune, allowing you to keep the shape smaller and neater if you wish. It thrives in full sun to partial shade, as long as the soil is welldrained.
It is also happy grown in a container using a soil based compost (John Innes 3). It is best to choose a container that is a similar size or slightly bigger than the container it has been purchased in, increasing the size in stages, repotting every couple of years as the plant grows. This approach also allows for the addition of some new compost for the roots to grow into. Potting from a 17cm to a 25cm-27cm pot is a good first step.
A very popular variety, ‘Kojo-no-mai’ deservedly holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit.
