After last week’s chilly spell, we can look forward to Spring officially beginning with the official first day of Spring on March 20th this year.

There are lots of jobs to be getting on with this week so get your secateurs at the ready and get pruning!

• If you have any plants that are grown for winter stem colour such as cornus or willow then now is the time to cut them back. These plants will respond well to hard pruning, so prune them back severely and they will produce lots of stems to give you great colour for next winter.

• Now is the time to prune your summer flowering clematis – regular pruning of clematis encourages strong growth and flowering. If you don’t prune clematis they can turn into a muss of unruly stems and will produce limited flowers – pruning now will give you great results in the summer months.

• Another group of plants which respond well to pruning in mid-March are summer flowering shrubs. In my own garden this week I have been busy cutting back shrubs such as buddleija and puntilla and removing last years flowers from hydrangeas. All this pruning will provide great rewards over the coming months.

PLANT OF THE WEEK: FORSYTHIA ‘WEEKEND’

Most Spring flowers are yellow in colour and a great early Spring flowering shrub is forsythia ‘Weekend’.

This variety is ‘old fashioned’ and has been around for a long time, however it is one of the most reliable forsythias available. It bears masses of deep yellow flowers on bare stems throughout early Spring. It enjoys sun or partial shade and suits a moist but well drained soil. Its habit is compact, but will reach a height of 2m in 10 years . . . a great Spring flowering addition to any garden!