Now is the time to get your garden prepped for the spring (Image: Getty)
March is here and that means it’s time to grab your secateurs and get . As plants start waking up for spring, a little careful cutting now will keep your looking its best when the warmer weather finally arrives.
By cutting back parts of a plant – like , or leaves – you can keep it healthy, encourage new growth and improve its shape. But what exactly should you be pruning this month? According to the , the longer days of March provide the opportunity for an increasing range of gardening tasks.
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Prune your roses as they start to wake up (Image: Getty)
Roses
By far one of the most important however, is to start pruning your roses so you can enjoy incredible blooms in the summer.
If you have bush or standard roses, now is the moment to give them some attention before their leaves start to unfurl. Pruning roses in March helps them grow stronger and stay healthy by improving airflow and preventing disease.
Attending to them as a they start to wake up will make it easier to shape and refresh the plant for beautiful blooms later in the year.
Summer-flowering shrubs
Many deciduous shrubs that flower in summer or late summer shoudl also be pruned in March. If you’ve got Buddleja (butterfly bush), Caryopteris, Hydrangea paniculata, Lavatera, or hardy fuchsia, give them a trim now to encourage lush new growth.
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Remove dead shoots and tidy up your clematis (Image: Getty)
Clematis and Jasmine
If you did not prune your clematis last month, now is the time to cut to the lowest pair of strong buds above ground level, mulching and feeding afterwards.
You should prune winter-flowering jasmine after blooming by removing dead shoots, tying in new ones and trimming laterals to 5cm (2in) to keep it tidy and encourage next year’s flowers — then mulch and feed for healthy growth.
For summer-flowering jasmine, only remove a couple of stems at ground level if needed, but avoid cutting laterals to protect this year’s blooms.
Climbers like Ivy can also be renovated this month (Image: Getty)
Climbers
According to the RHS, overgrown climbers can also be attended to this month. They say: “With deciduous ones, you should now be able to tell which growth is dead and which alive, as the live stems will show buds bursting into life. Suitable climbers include Lonicera (honeysuckle), Hedera (ivy) and rambling roses.”