Prune Clematis to a pair of healthy buds by making a clean cutThe wet and windy weather that we have all experienced so far this year has meant that any dry days have been valuable time spent in the garden. For weeks, it seems that nothing grows and there is no urgency to any gardening work. All of a sudden, the sun comes out, the soil begins to dry and warm a little and spring is here! Now, Snowdrops are beginning to flower and birds are singing to attract a mate. The back garden is tidied now and a layer of homemade compost mulch covers the soil. I thought that I may have covered some plants too deeply but fresh new growth is appearing from the crowns of Phlox, grasses and Day Lilies. It won’t be long before the bare earth is covered in shades of green once again. Daffodils are pushing through the soil at a rate of knots and even the later varieties ‘Red Devon’ and ‘Thalia’ have appeared with sturdy fat flower buds nestled in the heart of the leaves.
This week, I am pruning my late flowering Clematis. Those that flower after the end of June can be pruned now back to healthy buds 15cms from the soil surface. My white C. viticella ‘Alba Luxurians’ has been in for several years and has a lovely strong crown. The plant is shooting away all over and it seems wrong to remove the new growth that has braved the wind and rain. However, I know that by cutting the plant down it will grow back even more vigorously and reward with flowers from July until well into the autumn. The spring flowering varieties that we have around the garden are still bare twigs but soon they will show signs of the flower buds to come and should be spared the secateurs until they have had their show and produced fluffy seed heads.
The summer flowering Jasmine (J. officinale) that is planted on a trellis near the compost heaps has really grown over the last year. I think some roots may have found their way into the rotting compost and be benefitting from the extra nutrients! The plant is still full of fern-like leaves because of the mild weather and some of the sweetly scented white flowers were followed by black berries that have stayed on the plants through the winter. This is another contender for the secateurs whilst they are handy!
The front garden is home to a few more tender plants including Melianthus which have produced seedlings over the years. The leaves are looking very tatty after the winter gales but it is still too soon to hard prune the plants - I will leave them until March in case we get a late cold snap. One piece of fencing has taken a battering through the last windy spell and we have decided to plant an evergreen hedge in front of it so that eventually it can be taken down completely and we will still have our privacy in the back garden.
There is always plenty to do given a spell of dry weather – I haven’t even begun on the allotment yet!
