This is the month of hope and anticipation.
Warm sunshine is often followed by frost at night and should you be caught napping and a plant frozen, it should be thawed out by spraying with tepid water, afterwards covering it with bracken or paper.
If on heavy land, there are those, among them the scabious, that are safer planted in spring than autumn.
Successional sowings can be made of annuals in the kitchen garden to avoid picking from beds and borders.
Running water and pools are much in fashion. The gardener should prepare for waterside planting next month. A drift of golden marsh marigolds, forget-me-nots, Myosotis palustris, and white and glorious yellow sunrise water lilies, with a few willows in the background with flat-faced Japanese iris at their feet makes a happy-picture.
Meanwhile, back to earth, this is the month to make war on weeds.
The gardener should look out for the Easter performer, the Pasque flower, an enchanting mauve flower decked with silky hairs and filigree foliage: if you live on the pulsatilla's favourite chalk soil, you must not fail to grow it.
As many nurseries as possible should be visited and, perhaps, Kew and Wisley when the ornamental cherries are in full bloom. The cherries are a great sight, from rather crude double-pink Kanzan of by-pass renown, to the more distinguished white prunus, Avium flore plena, one of the loveliest of them all. These visits will help you in making your list for autumn planting.
Spring bulb planting is the keen gardener's regular autumn chore, but comparatively few plant the summer-flowering bulbs in late March, and by not doing so miss a lot. May I remind you of the Caen anemones, the single poppy flowers with black centres, and the richly coloured St. Brigids, the galtonias or summer hyacinths, the exotic tigridias in exciting colours, and others that deserve to be seen more.
Spring-flowering shrubs that have bloomed, and in particular the free-growing forsythia, can be pruned; and any last planting of rhododendrons or azaleas made towards the end of the month, tucking the roots up in plenty of peat.
Now to the greenhouse where the schizanthus should be soon at the top of its form, with the calceolarias not far behind them.
The temperature must not be allowed to rise above 18°C. (64°F.) otherwise the cinerarias and the sensitive plants will wilt (damping down the floors and in between the pots may be the answer). Meanwhile, ventilate the house in the morning, closing up at about 4 p.m.
April is a busy time, for nearly all greenhouse plants can be propagated this month, and the pot-bound will be crying out for attention.
Be ready to shade against sunshine and fumigate or spray with nicotine immediately pests are spotted.
This is also one of the busiest months in the vegetable garden. Don't make the mistake of leaving everything until the Easter holidays.
The-time for sowing in the open ground will depend on the weather: far better wait until the earth has dried out than sow when it is cold and wet.
Where apple or pear scab is rampant, an anti-scab spray should be given during the early part of the month.
A lime sulphur spray at pink bud stage should be followed by a nicotine spray if pests are still active.
In fairness to the bee avoid spraying when the flowers are open.
Meanwhile, if time permits, a visit to the Azalea Bowl in Windsor Park will be of particular interest to gardeners on acid soil.
Warm sunshine is often followed by frost at night and should you be caught napping and a plant frozen, it should be thawed out by spraying with tepid water, afterwards covering it with bracken or paper.
If on heavy land, there are those, among them the scabious, that are safer planted in spring than autumn.
Successional sowings can be made of annuals in the kitchen garden to avoid picking from beds and borders.
Running water and pools are much in fashion. The gardener should prepare for waterside planting next month. A drift of golden marsh marigolds, forget-me-nots, Myosotis palustris, and white and glorious yellow sunrise water lilies, with a few willows in the background with flat-faced Japanese iris at their feet makes a happy-picture.
Meanwhile, back to earth, this is the month to make war on weeds.
The gardener should look out for the Easter performer, the Pasque flower, an enchanting mauve flower decked with silky hairs and filigree foliage: if you live on the pulsatilla's favourite chalk soil, you must not fail to grow it.
As many nurseries as possible should be visited and, perhaps, Kew and Wisley when the ornamental cherries are in full bloom. The cherries are a great sight, from rather crude double-pink Kanzan of by-pass renown, to the more distinguished white prunus, Avium flore plena, one of the loveliest of them all. These visits will help you in making your list for autumn planting.
Spring bulb planting is the keen gardener's regular autumn chore, but comparatively few plant the summer-flowering bulbs in late March, and by not doing so miss a lot. May I remind you of the Caen anemones, the single poppy flowers with black centres, and the richly coloured St. Brigids, the galtonias or summer hyacinths, the exotic tigridias in exciting colours, and others that deserve to be seen more.
Spring-flowering shrubs that have bloomed, and in particular the free-growing forsythia, can be pruned; and any last planting of rhododendrons or azaleas made towards the end of the month, tucking the roots up in plenty of peat.
Now to the greenhouse where the schizanthus should be soon at the top of its form, with the calceolarias not far behind them.
The temperature must not be allowed to rise above 18°C. (64°F.) otherwise the cinerarias and the sensitive plants will wilt (damping down the floors and in between the pots may be the answer). Meanwhile, ventilate the house in the morning, closing up at about 4 p.m.
April is a busy time, for nearly all greenhouse plants can be propagated this month, and the pot-bound will be crying out for attention.
Be ready to shade against sunshine and fumigate or spray with nicotine immediately pests are spotted.
This is also one of the busiest months in the vegetable garden. Don't make the mistake of leaving everything until the Easter holidays.
The-time for sowing in the open ground will depend on the weather: far better wait until the earth has dried out than sow when it is cold and wet.
Where apple or pear scab is rampant, an anti-scab spray should be given during the early part of the month.
A lime sulphur spray at pink bud stage should be followed by a nicotine spray if pests are still active.
In fairness to the bee avoid spraying when the flowers are open.
Meanwhile, if time permits, a visit to the Azalea Bowl in Windsor Park will be of particular interest to gardeners on acid soil.
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