Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2014 | Page 59

3

GARDENING
OF THE

BEST

Without daffodils our landscapes and
literature would be much duller. Resilient
and versatile bulbs, in an extraordinary
range of variations from fragile looking
miniatures such as the wonderfully
named 'Hooped Petticoat', multi headed
Tete a Tete to the deliciously scented
jonquils, we're spoiled for choice. Many
make great cut flowers too so plant a row
just for picking. Resist the temptation to
tie up the leaves and give a feed as they
die back and they'll reward you for years.

Coming up Roses!
month.
March is rose pruning
ng to
New shoots will be starti
times
develop and may some
e
suffer damage due to lat
Different
frosts and cold winds.
rent
types of rose need diffe
some
treatments but here are
basic rules regardless of
all
growing habit. Remove
sed
sea
di
d
dead damaged an
ely
shoots. Cut approximat
tward
ou
od
2.5mm above a go
gle.
facing bud at a slight an

Chop, chop

Ornamental grasses are starting to
grow now; they look very tatty after
being battered by the wind and wet.
Give them a good tidy up to remove all
the dead material by either chopping
them back to a neat mound or going
over them with a spring-tined rake to
pull out all the debris.
Different grasses need different
treatments depending on whether
they're warm or cool season grasses.
This is also a good time to divide them
if they've outgrown their space.

Elephants in the room?
Berginias, also called elephants’ ears, are
hardly shy or retiring plants with their
enormous leathery leaves, but somehow
they can go unnoticed for much of the
year. They are unfussy about soil and
will grow equally well in both sun and
shade. They are extremely useful as
ground cover and will smother steep
banks making them much easier to
maintain. The leaves often change colour
in the winter, developing red edges or
interesting burgundy tints across the
leaves. The bell shaped flowers appear
in late winter and early spring in jaunty
shades of pink or white.
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