The snow has stopped all work in the garden and this is a great time to have a look over all those gardening magazines you have stashed away.

Large clump forming bamboos will thank you if you did a clear out of some of the older shoots, take out up to a third of the older canes at ground level.

This will ‘Open’ the area allowing more rain fall and leaf fall to water and feed the plant.  This makes space for new canes, and lets more light into the  clump which in turn also brings out the markings and colours on the stems.

Please never cut the bamboo from any other place apart from at the base of the plant. If you cut half way up, not only have you just made  a very dangerous spike for someone to fall onto but also and far more importantly, new growth will appear from the next notch down giving a very unappealing and unprofessional look.

Shrubs that will be coming into flower this month will either brightly coloured or highly scented, this is to attract the small amount of insects out at this time of year,  Perfect examples are the Japanese Quince or Forsythia, both can be cut for flowers for the house, prune whilst still in tight bud and within days these boring long stems will be flush with beautiful flowers, and if you have the Quince then your home will smell fantastic.