Plants of the month

Check out our planteria for plants that are looking good now for instant colour and interest in your garden. Good choices include camellias, Clematis armandii, forsythia, flowering currants, the Kilmarnock willow and Daphne mezereum. And we’ve got plenty of colourful azaleas and rhododendrons as well as new stocks of herbaceous perennials. Take a good look round for other gems that are in stock now or ask a member of staff for help.

Feeding plants

All garden plants will benefit from being fed now as they start to come into growth. For best results, use a general granular fertiliser – such as Growmore or blood, fish and bone – or a controlled-release fertiliser for a once-a-year feed.

Fruit

To ensure bumper crops of fruit this year, give trees and bushes a good feed with a balanced granular fertiliser, then add a good thick mulch of compost, composted bark or well-rotted manure. This is a great time to plant all fruit bushes and trees – check out our plantarea for a fabulous selection.

Plug plants & seedlings

Buy your bedding and patio plug plants and seedlings now for growing on – and you’ll have your biggest and best bedding displays ever. We have a wide range of varieties, including all your favourites, for potting up and planting out after the frosts in beds, borders and into containers and baskets. Remember to pick up everything you’ll need – including pots, seed trays, labels and compost.

Stem colour

Plants grown for their colourful stems – such as dogwoods, rubus and some bush willows – will produce more intense colours if the stems are cut back hard now. And if you want to add a selection of these colourful shrubs to your garden, take a look around our Planteria for those you can plant today.

Herbs

Herbs are not only good to grow for the kitchen – many also have colourful flowers and foliage, so plant some today. They can be planted in a herb bed, mixed in with other plants in beds and borders, or grown in pots on the patio where they’ll be handy to pick and provide excellent colour and scent.

Roses

Give your roses the perfect start. Hybrid tea, floribunda and climbing roses benefit from pruning during early March. You’ll need a pair of good secateurs and loppers, and thorn-proof gloves. After pruning, spray with an insecticide and fungicide to protect against future problems. Then feed with a granular rose fertiliser to ensure a mass of perfect blooms this summer, and mulch with composted bark or well-rotted manure.

Seed sowing

If you have a heated greenhouse or similar warm, light place, then you can get a lot of your bedding plants and vegetables off to a flying start by sowing them now. Take a good look through our seed display to see what can be sown now – and remember you’ll need a heated propagator, pots, trays, compost and labels.

Greenhouse

There’s plenty you can be getting on with in the greenhouse now. From sowing seeds of bedding and vegetable plants, to re-potting young plants and cuttings taken last year. Start canna, begonia and dahlia tubers into growth now for earlier blooms. Watch out for pests and fungal diseases and deal with them as early as possible. Remember to stock up with everything you’ll need for success this year – pots, trays, compost, labels, feeds and pest controls.

Pestwatch

As plants come into growth, pests and diseases will be on the increase. Ensure your plants grow strong and healthy this year and aren’t troubled by crippling pests. Start now, looking closely at your plants and dealing with any problems and you’ll prevent them from getting out of control. Slugs, aphids, whitefly, scale insects, red spider mite and numerous diseases may all be waiting to attack. We stock an excellent range of pest control products – including organic ones – one of which will be perfect for dealing with these problems. Just ask our friendly staff for more help and advice.

Rejuvenate houseplants

This is the perfect time to rejuvenate your houseplants. Start by re-potting those plants that need bigger pots. And this is the time to start giving all your houseplants a good feed. If you can’t remember to feed regularly, controlled-release fertilisers are a great way to simply feed and forget. Pests will be on the increase now so check regularly and deal with any you find. We’ve got everything you’ll need to give them a spring treat – from pots and compost to fertilisers and insecticide sprays. And if you’re looking to brighten up your home, take a look at the fabulous range of plants we have in our houseplant section.

Weed control

Sadly, weeds will start appearing in earnest this month. Keep them in check so they don’t get out of control and become a problem. The best way to control annuals and small weeds is to hoe them regularly with a sharp hoe blade. Or you can apply a thick mulch (5-7.5cm/2-3in deep) of bark chips or similar mulching material to prevent annual weed growth in the first place. Perennial weeds with long taproots, such as dandelions, are best dug up by using a hand fork or sprayed with a weedkiller containing glyphosate, which will kill the roots as well as the top growth. We have a wide range of weed control solutions. Just ask one of our friendly staff for any help or advice you need.