Things to Do in Your Garden This Month

My choice for Plant of the Week is Winter Jasmine (Jasminum Nudiflorum). This colorful, reliable shrub is so easy to grow and an excellent plant for shady walls. They grow to around 10ft (3m), and produced a profusion of bright yellow flowers during the depts of winter against bright green stems. It is not a true climber, although its branches can be trained up against a wall, trellis or can be left to trail over a bank. This plant will thrive in almost any garden soil, but don't plant it against an east-facing wall. In spring, cut back all side shoots which have flowered and thin out some of the old hard branches.

TIME SAVING TIPS:

To save time on supports, select tall herbaceous plants that require no staking. These can include Kniphofia (red hot pokers), Rudbeckia (Coneflower, Digitalis) Foxglove, Echinops (verbascum and globe thistle).

THINGS TO DO THIS MONTH:

- Check that ties on climbing plants are secure, to minimize windrock damage.

- Examine stored dahlia tubers and discard any that show signs of disease or rotting.

- Check that fuchsias remaining leafless and dormant in pots do not dry out. Spray with tepid water.

- Spray fruit trees with a winter wash if pests were a problem last year.

- If the weather is suitable, continue to plant deciduous shrubs and trees in containers.

- Continue to order new plants for spring planting.

- Sow seeds of lillies under glass, not more than 1cm deep in pots or boxes

- In the greenhouse, remove any leaves showing signs of grey mold (botrytis) and get rid of the cuttings with diseased stems.

- Gently firm down and heathers planted last fall which have been lifted by frost

- Indoors, water orchids sparingly unless they are in active growth and don't let them dry out completely.