Rhubarb is coming into season now and healthy plants will continue producing stalks right through until summer. Don’t cut these, but instead pull firmly to remove them. Mulch around the crown now and apply liquid feed occasionally and if your plant is less than two years old, resist the temptation to pick from it until next year to allow it to build up strength.

Rhubarb likes a sunny spot and is unfussy about soil, but don’t let it dry out, so work well-rotted manure into the hole at planting time and keep it well watered.

Once you have an established rhubarb patch it will continue to thrive for many years, which is why you should make sure that you are growing a variety that your really like. ‘Champagne’ is a traditional favourite for its sweet flavour, but new varieties such as ‘Pink blossom’ will give stalks over a longer period.

TOP TIP
Remove the buds from newly-planted rhododendrons. It may seem like a drastic step, but without flowers to support this spring, the shrubs will divert their energy into making stronger roots, which will result in much better flowering in future years.

Scottish Gardener:

WHAT TO DO NOW

  • Repot alpine plants into gritty soil and surround with a further layer of grit to prevent water from standing around them.
  • Divide congested agapanthus, replanting large clumps into free-draining soil. Wait at least four years before dividing again.
  • Cover rows in the vegetable garden with cloches to warm-up the soil for seed-sowing.
  • Prune buddleia once new shoots start to appear. Cut the old stems down almost at ground level.
  • Chillies and peppers need a long growing season, so sow seed now in a heated propagator.
  • Cover dahlia tubers with moist compost, keep them somewhere warm and in three weeks shoots will have developed which can be used for cuttings.
  • Start feeding cymbidium and phalaenopsis orchids with proprietary orchid food.
  • Prune gooseberries and currants.
  • Pot-up early-flowering strawberries and move them into the greenhouse in order to produce an earlier crop of fruit.
  • Plant spring bulbs ‘in the green’ while their dying foliage is still attached. This works for snowdrops, bluebells, wood anemones, hardy cyclamen, aconite and snowflakes.
  • Clip heathers as they finish flowering, removing most, but not quite all of last year’s growth.
  • Potatoes chitted six weeks ago can be planted at the end of March.
  • Tidy up borders, removing dead growth, emerging weeds and leaves then dig up and divide mature perennials.