What to do in March
- Lift divide and re-plant snowdrops as the foliage starts yellowing.
- Cover areas of soil with black plastic or black landscape fabric to warm it up before sowing seeds and planting out
- Complete pruning Hybrid T and Floribunda roses.
- Remove the top 1 to 2 inches of old compost from permanent pot plants and top dress with fresh compost
- Start winter store dahlias into active growth. Hot firm healthy looking tubers into 3 L pots of multipurpose compost. Water sparingly and keep free of frost.
- Sprout or chit seed potatoes indoors before planting.
- Prune established blueberries now while the rounded fat fruit buds are distinguishable from the smaller flat leaf buds. Blueberries fruit on the previous years growth so prune up to a quarter of the older stems each year to promote fruitful young shoots.
- To encourage healthy new growth tidy strawberry plants now remove dead and damaged or diseased leaves and old runners.
- Plant soft neck garlic cultivars such as Picardy Wight and Solent Wight
- Prune the colourful stems of shrub Cornus and Salix this month Cut all stems back to 2 to 3 inches from the ground or to last year stubs. This process should be done every year.
- Cut back Epimedium leaves before the flowers appear.