All Categories - Katie's Garden Plant Centre

March plants for pollinators

6/3/2025

More and more pollinators become active over the month of March so make sure your garden is full of food for them.

Whether you have acres, a courtyard or only a few pots, you have the space to help them out.

Valuable pollen and nectar is produced by everything from bulbs to bedding to perennials to shrubs.

Examples include, clockwise from top left: Pulmonaria; Aubretia; Erysimum (wallflower), Primula (primrose and polyanthus) and Viola; Chaenomeles (flowering quince); Erica (heather); Muscari (grape hyacinth); and Hellebore.

Bulbs for pots

5/3/2025

Potted bulbs are perfect for presents and spring pick-me-ups.

If using all the same variety, they look most effective if you match the pot to the bulb: tall planters for Tulips, shallow saucers for dwarf Narcissus, and so on.

Have fun and mix up bulbs of different flowering times and heights for more variety and a longer period of interest.

You can also combine your bulbs with the likes of wallflowers, pansies, heathers and primroses for pots of spring cheer.

· Order collections of spring flowers at www.katiesgarden.co.uk/shopfront

The gifts of spring

5/3/2025

Spring-flowering bulbs are among the most joyous plants to have in the garden.

Not just because their appearance signals the ending of winter and the coming of lighter, brighter days.
Not just because they come in a kaleidoscope of colours.

But because they take so little effort from you the gardener that they feel like a gift from nature each year.
Plant once and almost all will come back year after year, often in bigger swathes each time, bare soil transformed as colour bursts open from seemingly nothing.

Crocus

Puschkinia

Iris reticulata

A well done garden has something to enjoy each month of the year and spring-flowering bulbs go a long way towards achieving this.

Starting with snowdrops, Crocus and other carpeting bulbs through to punchier displays of daffodils, Muscari and the heavily scented Hyacinths, followed on by elegant Tulips and Alliums, your garden will have enjoyed a parade of blooms from February to May.

More commonly planted in autumn they are also available as potted plants in spring.

The advantage of planting bulbs now is that you can see exactly where they will be most effective, filling in those gaps where your borders need a little lift, and giving your planters some pizzazz while you wait for summer bedding season.

It is also much easier to get the planting depth correct when they are already growing in pots.

Narcissus Thalia

Narcissus Minnow

Hyacinths

After flowering, larger blooms on spring-flowering bulbs can be snipped off for tidiness and to prevent the plant wasting energy on forming seed. This applies to the likes of Hyacinths, Narcissus (daffodils) and Tulips.

Leaves should be left to die down naturally, to return nutrients to the bulb for next year. This is worth factoring-in when you are deciding where to plant.

Most will die back unobtrusively so can be planted between summer-flowering perennials to give you a succession of colour; others might need placing away from May flowers.

If you have shadier areas try snowdrops, Scilla, Anemone and Chionodoxa.

Taking roses in hand

4/3/2025

Entire books have been written about pruning roses, but truth be told they usually flower well enough regardless of what you do.

Where pruning does pay off is in the health and overall appearance of your plants.

Now is the time of year for giving most roses their main cut, just as you see the first signs of fresh growth appearing on their branches.

If you do it any later than early March you won’t cause any harm but will likely delay the flowering time.

Most bush roses can be happily cut by half and it’s always worth taking off at least the top third.

Doing this rejuvenates the whole plant, creating new branches that as the season progresses will become covered in flowers and leaves. If roses are left uncut over a period of years you end up with a lot of unattractive old wood, with flowers and foliage mostly limited to the top of the plant.

Cut directly above the new shoots and pay attention to which direction they are starting to grow. Your cut will make that shoot the new ‘leader’ of the branch, so you want to cut above ones that are heading outwards.

If you have too many branches growing in the centre of the plant it gets congested, leading to problems with fungal disease.

You also don’t want branches growing into each other as they will rub each other raw, giving opportunities for disease to get into the plant.

New growth will follow the direction of the shoot you cut above, so choose ones heading away from other branches

Don’t be afraid to cut out any old woody branches that are cluttering up the centre of the plant, even if you need to use loppers or even a saw.

Similarly, weak branches are better off being cut back hard to encourage stronger regrowth.

Patio roses and carpeting roses often hold their blooms in clusters at the ends of branches - it is easiest to simply cut below these clusters rather than fiddle around deciding what and where to cut.

The main branches of this climbing rose were bent horizontally, stimulating the growth of a large number of vertical shoots, all of which then bore flowers, as below

Climbing roses should have their main branches left long and carefully fanned out horizontally and tied-in.

You can effectively create a framework using wires secured to your wall or fence with special screws called vine eyes. Have all the wires running horizontally, at intervals of one to two foot.

Once you have tied in these main branches, cut back all the sideshoots on them to just a few inches.

Climbing roses naturally grow upwards, towards the light, and generally flower at the ends of vertical growth. If you leave your climbing rose to grow up of its own accord, you end up with a skinny plant with the few blooms all at the top.

By bending the branches you will stimulate new vertical shoots across their lengths, all of which should bear blooms. You will also get much better value from your rose as it will cover a much greater area!

To achieve the same effect on arches try to loosely wind the branches around the pillars rather than letting them head straight up.

Always check ultimate heights of climbing roses as they can vary considerably.

· Order roses online at www.katiesgarden.co.uk

Strike the tone with topiary!

3/3/2025

Topiary is the art of clipping evergreen shrubs into interesting shapes.

It can have a reputation for being difficult ... but only if you start from scratch. Buy your plants pre-shaped and it's simply a case of lightly trimming a few times a year.

Although often associated with grand stately homes, it doesn't have to been done on a large scale at all.

Even a small front garden can be transformed, the topiary giving the space a sense of structure meaning that no matter what else you do, it will feel 'put together'!

· Visit the miniature topiary garden at Katie’s Garden Plant Centre, Ipswich Road, Newbourne, in place until late-March

Set it off with shrubs

3/3/2025

For many people, the cottage garden look is the fantasy.

One for the plant-lovers, it involves packing your outdoor space with a huge variety of summer-flowering perennials and annuals.

But while they look glorious in May, June and July, they can be a little lacking the rest of the year.
This is where shrubs can come to the rescue.

In our January edition we extolled the virtues of trees and hedging, and the next stage to developing the framework of your garden is with carefully placed evergreen shrubs.

PIERIS
Also known as ‘Lily of the Valley Shrub’ thanks to the delightful fragrance of their bee-friendly spring flowers. Many have colourful leaves, especially in spring when striking red tips appear. Suitable for large planters as well as borders.

SKIMMIA
Skimmias are best known for their red buds, on display throughout winter. No one-trick ponies, they also have fragrant flowers in spring, and can produce berries too. And some actually have lime-white buds! Plant in full or part-shade in reliably moist soils.

Evergreens are plants that keep their leaves all year round, making them a permanent feature in the garden.

They aren’t all green - some have leaves in shades of reds, purples, golds or silvers - so it is up to you if you want them simply as backdrops to enhance the plants around them or if you want your shrubs to be features in their own right.

They can help you achieve whatever look you want, from naturalistic to exotic to formal, depending on what you use. Pay attention to shapes and textures too - variety in the garden isn’t just about colours and flowers.

VIBURNUM TINUS
The Viburnum family is wide and varied, providing flowers at most times of year. The ‘tinus’ types are the evergreens and are a superb choice if you are looking for something larger. Happy in sun or shade they flower and berry for a long period over the cooler months.

EUONYMUS
If you want a reliable plant that will get on with it without fuss or bother, you probably want a Euonymus. Most have gold or silver edging to their leaves but there is a lot of variation when it comes to habit. Some carpet, some are vigorous uprights, while others form neat mounds.

The evergreen shrubs are among the most low-maintenance plants you can have, perhaps wanting an annual prune after flowering, but rarely more.

Check the ultimate height of any shrub before you buy it - most can be pruned to size but your gardening life will be much easier if you just pick a plant that fits!

Low-growing and carpeting evergreen shrubs can help keep down the weeds, while taller types can make your garden feel more secluded from the outside world.

As with all plants choose shrubs that will thrive in the soil in your garden - for example clay, sandy or damp - and factor in light levels too.

One year's seed ...

2/3/2025

It can be tempting to see March as one of the fallow months in the garden calendar but it is a time of year when you will reap the rewards of getting on top of things.

A prime example of this is weeding.

As soon as sunny days reappear those unwanted plants will race up and before you know it they will be spreading seed across your beds and borders, giving you, as the saying goes, seven years weed.

So take advantage of any weather windows to get them out now before the garden gets away from you.
Make sure you pull or dig them out, roots and all, rather than only taking the tops off.

Once you have done this it is worth applying a layer of compost, manure or bark chippings. This is known as ‘mulching’ and can make it harder for remaining weed seeds to germinate.

Greener garden choices

2/3/2025

Open the door to most gardeners’ sheds and you will surely find a surfeit of plastic plant pots.
As many people are aware, rigid plastics, particularly if black, are not easily recycled, so what to do?
Reusing is the best option. However, the average home gardener usually has far more than they are ever likely to need.
Luckily many garden centres and nurseries can now accept them as returns, including Katie’s Garden in Newbourne, which aims to reuse as many as possible.
Sterilising used pots is rarely necessary and comes with its own environmental costs. As long as the pots have been wiped clean of compost, are free of bugs and beasts, and were not previously home to anything diseased they should be fine for potting back into.
Any that are cracked or damaged should unfortunately be considered as waste.

Climbers for every aspect

1/3/2025

Summer-flowering Clematis and honeysuckles are among the climbers in your garden that can have their annual prune in March.

It is also a good time of year for adding extra plants to clothe your walls, fences, arches and pergolas.
They aren’t all sun lovers: some can be used to brighten up those shadier spots.

You can find lots of suggestions at www.katiesgarden.co.uk/advice

Gardening for Wildlife

3/1/2025

Think wildlife-friendly garden and you might well think overgrown wilderness. Unmown lawns and borders abandoned to nettles and brambles.

But a garden can be both beautiful and beneficial to wildlife at the same time. In many ways it can even be easier to look after.

It’s all down to making conscious decisions about the plants you put in and the ways you garden.

Circle-of-life gardening

If all goes well, a nature-friendly garden should be self-policing. Songbirds will eat pesky snails, hedgehogs and frogs will take care of larger slugs, beetles the smaller ones.

Draw in the ladybirds, the lacewings and hoverflies and they will eat those troublesome aphids for you - no chemicals needed. Many birds will also eat bugs, as well as caterpillars.

So how do you harness nature’s pest control army?

Number one is water.

Even a saucer will provide an essential drink for anything visiting your garden; if you can stretch to a small pond you can provide habitat too.

Trees give birds a place to perch, to nest and can provide food to eat, depending on what you plant.

Heroic hedges

The benefits of hedges cannot be over-emphasised.

Vital to hedgehogs, they give a home to birds, pollinators and other wildlife.

Most have flowers followed by berries, providing food one way or another for months on end.

They slow the wind, which helps the butterflies and of course makes your garden more pleasant for you and your plants.

And in winter storms hedges are much less likely to get blown over than fences.

Just as thorny hedges can keep out unwelcome intruders from your garden, they can similarly protect nesting birds from predators.

Options include holly, hawthorn and blackthorn - aka sloe, as in the gin!

Perfect for pollinators

Bee-friendly flowers are a must for wildlife-friendly gardens and it is all about smart choices, particularly if you don’t have a lot of room.

Modern varieties of many perennials have been bred to have lengthy flowering periods, far longer than native plants do. You get to enjoy months of flowers from the same plant, and the pollinators get a longer period of nectar and pollen to feed from.

Salvias are a prime example of this, many flowering virtually non-stop from May to December.

Help all year long

Planting for 12 months of interest is a win-win for you and for the likes of bumblebees, which are active almost year-round, so don’t just have summer flowers in your garden.

Bulbs can give you a succession of pollen-rich blooms for the first half of the year, from Snowdrops now, through Crocus, Scilla, Chionodoxa, Muscari, Hyacinths and Alliums.

Low-cost plants like Cyclamen, Violas, Heathers and Wallflowers will also help to cheer up those gloomy days.