Gardening Tips : Bulbs & Flowers
Tips for Bulbs

You can find a fantastic selection of colorful varieties of bulbs in catalogues at this time of the year. Plant Gladioli in small groups. Set out at two week intervals for continuous summer bloom.

Plant Ranaculus tubers and lily bulbs now if soil is workable.

Weed and fertilize all your beds of bulbs, corms and tubors.

Remove all dead flower heads from bulbs that have finished flowering so that their energy does not go to producing seeds rather than bulb development.

Tips for Flowers

Lift and divide large clumps of herbaceous plants. Remove the old woody stalks and add them to the compost.

Plant and display your containers and baskets in sheltered areas now. Try a combination of pansies, heather, grape hyacinth and narcissus.

Plant new lily-of-the-valley pips. Mulch well with compost to protect against unforeseen cold spells.

Plant dahlia tubors that have been stored over the winter. Continue to take cuttings.

Start fertilizing house plants as soon as there are more hours of daylight than darkness.

When buying house plants avoid plant with roots coming out of drainage holes; as well as large plants in small pots, or small plants in large pots.

Some plants can now be set out during the day. If it is mild you can leave them out.

Fertilize the soil around the base of lilacs and primroses in late February or early March.

Half hardy annuals must be planted densely. Raise plenty of plants by sowing seeds in February or March. Sow summer blooming annuals in late march