Signs of life (From York Press)

Signs of life

8:20am Saturday 27th February 2010 in

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We are at the end of February and gardens are emerging from their winter sleep with fingers of green stretching out from the soil and tiny buds breaking along stems and branches. Early birds will have seen that it is properly light by seven o’clock and for many of us we are no longer coming home from work in the dark. It is an optimistic time as gardeners look forward to the spring, seeing the tiniest sign of life in the garden as an indicator that the long winter is at last ending.

The close of February is a good time for clearing the garden of last year’s clutter. It’s funny how attractive bleached strands of ornamental grasses looked in the border in November and how lovely frosted hydrangea flower heads were in December. Now they look tired and dull and it is time to be rid of them to make way for the march of the new.

Hydrangeas can be cut hard back, especially the popular mop head and lace cap species. Once established, these grow into sizable shrubs and look magnificent, filling a big space with colour for months. Depending on variety and acidity of the soil the blooms are pink, blue or sometimes white, the vivid hues of summer slowly changing to more subtle shades in autumn. Flowers picked just as this change is complete will retain these shades if they are hung upside down to dry for a while. Those left on the shrub will fade to light brown and decorate the shrub over the winter.

Not all hydrangeas have to be cut back to the ground. Climbing hydrangea for example just need tidying with only the old flowers taking off together with any dead or broken stems. Unlike many of its relatives, this member of the family flowers on wood made last year, fragrant white blooms covering a wall in June. Taking too much growth away now will severely reduce flowering. Decorative grasses can be cut back now too, like hydrangeas they have provided a focal point in the border for the past few months but now look weary compared to all the new growth appearing around them. This is a fiddly job as new growth is pushing through the mass of spent leaves at the foot of the plant. It is worth braving the cold for an hour or so and spending time cutting out all of the dead growth since the task gets increasingly difficult as the new shoots gets taller and more numerous.

Buddleia davidii, pictured, is covered in new growth, small felted grey leaves clustering around light brown stems. This shrub will grow anywhere in any soil and almost any situation as long as there is sun for some part of the day. An unpruned plant will grow very large, a multitude of stems topped with flowers towards the end of the summer. The usual advice for this species is to cut hard back at the end of the winter, taking all stems back to a strong outward facing bud a few inches above soil level. This keeps the shrub to a reasonable size, although it is amazing how much growth an established plant can make in a few short weeks, with flowers in July or August or later.

The flowering season of this buddleia can be extended by altering the pruning method a little. The oldest stems should still be cut hard back together with any weak ones. Remaining stems can be taken back to varying lengths, reducing them by between a third and two thirds in length. This produces a tall plant that could start to flower in June then on and off throughout the summer and autumn. If the shrub gets too large it can be rejuvenated every few years by cutting all stems hard back.

Weekend catch-up

Now is the time to get any broken fences mended or replaced. The task is so much more difficult if left until summer when it is impossible to do without damaging the plants that have filled the garden.

Gardening TV and Radio

Tomorrow.

8am, Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors. Presented by Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart.

9am, Radio Leeds, Gardening with Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden.

2pm, R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Pippa Greenwood, Bob Flowerdew, Anne Swithinbank and chairman Peter Gibbs are in Cornwall where they take questions from members of the Cambourne Fuchsia Society. Pippa also looks at fuchsia varieties and how to grow them and the gardening weather forecast is at 2.30pm. (Repeated from Friday).

Friday.

3pm, R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. The programme comes from Birmingham where Matthew Biggs, Bunny Guinness, Bob Flowerdew and chairman Eric Robson take questions from members of Selly Park Garden Club. The gardening weather forecast is at 3.40pm. (Repeated on Sunday).

8.30pm, BBC2, Gardeners’ World. In the first of the new series the team are ready for action after the long winter. Toby recommends snowdrops and starts up the vegetable patch with a first sowing of tomato seeds, Joe plants raspberry canes, Alys plants sweet peas and Carol discusses hellebores.

Saturday, March 6.

7am, Radio York, Julia Booth. Presenter Julia Booth and horticultural expert Nigel Harrison hold their weekly plant surgery.