Gardening Advice for February

February can still bring extremes of weather but with longer hours of daylight and spells of bright winter sunshine at last there comes a realisation that Spring is just around the corner. The late winter garden can be so inspiring with hellebores, witch hazels, snowdrops and cyclamen in flower while everywhere there are signs of renewed life.

This is the perfect month for selecting and purchasing new hellebores. Try and find room for a few more Helleborus x hybridus ‘Ashwood Garden Hybrids’ as there have been so many recent new developments in our breeding programme and there really are some gorgeous colours and forms now available. Hellebores can’t be beaten for providing flower colour in winter and early Spring, especially when combined with snowdrops and cyclamen. If you haven’t done it already, carefully remove the old foliage from established Helleborus x hybridus plants.

There are plenty of jobs now that can be carried out for the flower, fruit and vegetable garden from seed-sowing, planting summer bulbs, to preparing the ground for spring planting. Remember to continue to feed the wild birds in your garden with seeds, dried mealworms etc. and provide them with fresh drinking water. Soon they will be nesting so set up nesting boxes in suitable places with entrances out of the wind and sun.