Taille (arboriculture)

NOW IS A WONDERFUL TIME OF YEAR to collect cuttings from the garden and ‘force’ the buds to bloom early in a vase. Many trees and shrubs lend themselves to this, such as cherry, magnolia, lilac, forsythia, willow (for catkins) and quinces, my persona

SNIPPING about with a pair of secateurs, at this time of year, is playing at pruning. ‘Cut hard in the spring’ is a ruthless instruction for a ruthless operation. And the shrubs that need hard pruning during the next six weeks can be divided into fou

THE organised gardener may have started off their garlic in November, but the rest of us should be looking to do it now. There are two main garlic types: softnecks (Allium sativum) and hardnecks (Allium sativum var. ophioscorodon), but how do they di

February always brings more than a glimmer of hope; with the first signs of nature’s promise in the form of bulbs, peeping through the crumbs of cold soil and in some cases, crocus and snowdrops being the most notable, they are even flowering. In rec

Cut back the last flower stems on clumps of perennials that have been left for winter display. Use secateurs to cut them down to the base. This year’s shoots could be appearing at ground level on some of the earlier-flowering plants, so be careful no

Prune shrub roses before they burst into growth. Have loppers on hand, but secateurs will be suffcient for most of the work. Cake clean cuts and tidy up all the prunings to reduce the risk of fungal disease. This spring pruning is particularly import

At first glance, bark might seem like something you’d only want to eat in a survival situation. Take a closer look, though, and you’ll see that bark can be both nutritious and tasty. It can also be foraged any time of year, even in regions with harsh

IF you pruned your shrub roses back by one half to a third in autumn, now is the time to give them a really good chop. If you didn’t get round to pruning them earlier, they will certainly benefit from a hard pruning now. It may seem counter-intuitive

MID-JANUARY days always feel like the coldest and dankest of the year. Christmas has gone and even though the light is lasting for a little longer each day, there’s a general feeling of slump in the air. I use this time to concentrate on the trees an

IT may feel like we are buried in the depths of winter, but we are well past the shortest day, spring bulbs are shooting and it won’t seem long before our gardens are springing back to life. I use these days for keeping the garden ticking over so it’

January for me is a time of good intentions and renewed energy. After the indulgence of the festive period, I am ready to go back out into the garden. And, while it may not look like it on the surface, the same is true of the vegetable garden. As the

Welcome back to my two-part beginner’s guide to growing fruit trees. Last month we looked at how to choose the right fruit for you, and also had a look at pollination groups. This month we delve a little deeper into the knowledge you need to choose y

• Make sure you’ve ordered in seed potatoes, ready for chitting and planting in spring. • Finish winter pruning wisteria, shortening shoots to two buds to encourage more flowering spurs. • Put in an order for snowdrops and winter aconites, both of wh

January is the month that sits on the cusp of the new growing season. Across the country, winter dormancy is still evident, with many regions still experiencing frost or even snow. But as the month goes on, daylight is slowly on the increase and time

It’s tempting to abandon the garden at this time of year and resign yourself to it looking drab and dreary for a few months while you pine for spring. But it doesn’t have to be that way. It’s easy to inject a little winter magic into a garden of any

THE brash or woody waste from pruning trees and shrubs can be too much. In my small garden I have an ornamental hawthorn tree that’s cut back every three years and the waste completely covers the lawn. Even on a smaller scale it can at first sight se

Q I have an Anthurium, which is growing well inside at the moment. Can it be planted outside in summer? B S Fenton, West Bromwich A If you were to try and plant your Anthurium out in spring, and then return it indoors in autumn, it would cause a lot

Half a century ago Cotoneaster horizontalis, with its fan-like sprays of stiff herringbone branches and shining red berries, graced the low wall beneath the bay window at the front of our house – as it did in most of the gardens along the road. For n

IF there’s one horticultural bugbear that drives me crazy, it’s saggy wires – I simply cannot stand them! Supporting raspberries and trained fruits is critical at any time of year, and now is a great time to make sure that everything is as it should

IN only a fortnight, the days will start lengthening so it’s time to get any unfinished pruning done. Now, you can leave a few fruit bushes alone for years and they’ll not suffer much nor lose you much crop by it. Blueberries, for example, are better

WE have a young grape vine growing up a sheltered sunny wall and this year it produced its first ‘proper’ crop of grapes. We should have thinned them out more thoroughly, but we still had a respectable harvest of bunches of small fruits that were tas

In the previous issue, the fruit fly was mentioned as a major pest in guava orchards in South Africa (FW, 4 December). This article examines the threat that these flies pose to guava production, and the best means of control. Three types of fruit fly

In its first few years your new hedge will require only very light clipping to encourage dense growth. Once it has grown a little above where you want the mature height to be, cut it back to that height and maintain it from then on. In future years m

One way or another, it’s certainly been an unusual year. While there have been many changes to our daily working practices on the nursery to make sure we keep everyone as safe as possible, the day-to-day jobs of grafting, budding, training and prunin

WITH MARTIN FISH If you’ve got a greenhouse the chances are you use it all year round. I certainly do and I keep mine frost-free through the cold months so that I can overwinter tender plants such as my oranges, lime and lemons. However, it’s in spri

Check stakes and ties are still strong. Plants may have lost a lot of lower leaves in a hard winter, but if there is a good cluster at the top they can still produce an excellent crop. Early varieties appear in shops this month. Buy while there is pl

The famous Rule of Three says things are inherently more interesting, enjoyable, and memorable when presented in threes. This rule goes as far back as ancient times when the Romans used the phrase omne trium perfectum – ‘everything that comes in thre

We prune the willow hedge every December while it’s dormant. The variety, Salix ‘Flanders Red’, provides good material for weaving and, with willow’s ready ability to root, propagating. The willows are pruned to the pollard head, a gnarly bump like

How many times have you put it off? Pruning, I mean. In winter. When trees and shrubs are dormant. It’s just so easy to procrastinate, to leave it for another year, by which time you know, in your heart of hearts, that the branches of said tree or s

AUTUMN and winter, when the sap has retreated deep down the trunks of deciduous trees and they have lost their leaves, is when you give most of them a trim. There are exceptions (see p5) but most of them can be cut back during these dormant days with