The cut flower garden
Sow hardy annuals now in the cold greenhouse: calendula, cornflower, larkspur, sunflowers, love-in-a-mist, Shirley poppies and Ammi majus. You can still sow sweet peas, but they will not flower very early. You might do better to pick some plants up from a garden centre now, and pot them up at home, ready to be planted out next month.
It is time to start dahlias into growth. Pot up the tubers into generous pots of fresh compost, label them and place them in a sunny and sheltered spot – a cold greenhouse is ideal, but even there you should be ready to throw some horticultural fleece over them if a frost is forecast. If starting dahlias in pots outside, wait until next month.
Houseplants
Houseplants are looking pretty grotty after a winter indoors, but as the light increases, they start to perk up. Give them the best start by placing them in the bath and giving them a thorough shower, to remove the dust from leaves and soak through dried-up root balls. It is time to start watering and feeding regularly now, but just a little at first, then more as they start into growth.
Balcony and patio
Plant lily bulbs for summer scent now. Oriental lilies such as white ‘Casa Blanca’, gold and cream ‘Mister Cas’ and purple ‘Montezuma’ are highly scented and bloom in the later part of the summer, when the weather might just suit sitting out and wallowing in their lovely spicy evening scent.
Get your pots ready for a spring and summer of growing. Long term plantings should ideally be potted on each year, and now is the time. If they have become dried out over winter, tip the root balls out of their pots and soak them in a bucket of water for a few hours. Find a pot large enough to give the root ball another inch of space all the way around and then re-pot, using fresh compost. If pots are too large for this treatment, scrape off the top inch of compost and replace it with fresh.
This article is kept updated with the latest advice.