Pruning tips – how to prune deciduous trees, roses and ornamental grasses. Plus starting a wildflower lawn with crocuses.
0:00 Welcome
0:54 Growing crocuses in a lawn
2:50 We’ve got ivy mining bees in the lawn
3:57 Planting wildflower seeds in the lawn
4:27 Prune your roses now
4:32 Growing roses video – expert tips on choosing and caring for roses from Neil Miller, head gardener at Hever Castle Gardens: https://youtu.be/CsOAr8mZrnA
5:29 Three different ways of pruning deciduous trees
6:27 Jane Beedle’s contemporary town garden with design ideas: https://youtu.be/p8cjOk2USWo
6:37 Where to cut a branch off a tree
7:21 Thinning out a shrub or tree from the ground
7:42 How to cut back ornamental grasses
9:28 Garden tour and spring flowers to music
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34 Comments
I had no luck naturalising crocus until a neighbour (a retired garden designer) recommended crocus tommasinianus. It started to work but then I moved….to her house and now benefit from her planting!
Hello garden lady from Kent : ) I notice you linger longer now on the garden screen -time shots, very nice, relaxing.
good advice thank you…I ‘naturalise’ my crocus in grass bordering my main gravel and stone path….and I’m very pleased with the yearly display it puts on…😁
Last year, I started a garden of sorts, in pots, on the barren sidewalk in front of my apartment building. In the fall, in a burst of optimism, I planted bulbs of crocus, anemone, muscari, tulips, and pheasant's eye narcissus. I didn't know what would survive the harshmness of winter in pots. (I live in Philadelhia, in the mid-Atlantic coast of the U.S.; it is Zone 7.) Gratifyingly, some grass-like blades showed up a couple of weeks ago, but then a terrific snow and ice storm hit — the same one that brought Texas to its knees. But some crocus are trying again, now and I can see the golden-yellow buds. It is intensely gratifying.
Tomorrow’s job is going to be reducing a pampas grass to ground level. It’s sort of in an awkward place so some of it might be coming out. The wonders of inheriting a mature garden.
Excellent tips! My own wildflowers are mostly poppies and snapdragons that self seed only in my volcanic gravel areas. I guess because the sun heats the gravel and it drains well. My few crocuses and daffodils bloom in the shelter under my big wisteria. Again a well drained area as it's a raised bed. Hope your wildlife meadow turns out well! 💚🍃 Crocuses are so lovely!
Thank you for all the information
Excellent video. Thank you for posting. DA
Greetings from US Zone 8b. Thank you for all the great gardening ideas and tips! Been wanting to say that since I started watching your videos a few months back. Really enjoy your channel. God bless.
Thank you! ☺
Can I make beds without digging and using cardboard
Really a zone 9? That's subtropical! Here in the U.S. Zone 9 is central Florida and Texas,, when I think England I don't think hot ! Enjoy the videos immensely.
Thanks for being the first signs of Spring in Ohio.
Hello Alexandra, there are reports of further snow to come here in Kent during March – is it still ok to prune/tidy in such circumstances?
That a fun touch …the time-lapse and lively piano bit!
I live in Harrogate where every year the crocuses on what is called The Stray are absolutely delightful. I have tried to do the same thing in my lawn but it never seems to work.
Thank you
How & when to divide helleboes? Weirdly I live in 10a – but I am able to grow them in full shade under a tree.
Oh, I do appreciate your honesty. I have tried to plant swathes of irises and daffodils and it is quite the disapointment. Need much more, way more than you think is reasonable. ( I would have thought 150 would be good, though!)
Hopefully your crocuses will multiply though, right? You could also line the sidewalk a bit with a few clumps next fall planting of them.
I am pleased that I discovered this channel. It never fails to be both informative and inspiring. Thank you Alexandra.
I live in Japan but love English gardens rather than Asian ones.(mainly roses, Christmas roses and perennials but now I'm gonna look into how to grow crocuses here💕)
Your videos are so very soothing, relaxing, inspirational and educational! Thank you(*ˊ˘ˋ*)｡♪
Another super helpful video– thank you! I just adore you and your channel.
Loved the music at end. We still have snow here in New England so I throw poppy seeds and some annuals right on the snow and they are watered as snow melts and germinate. I envy your weather.
Nice video. I cut my stipa tenuissima right to the ground in February and they grow back really well with new bright green fine blades and look like new plants. Try it with one and see what happens!
I too experienced the unimpressive 100 crocus planting some years back. So last autumn I planted 500 in a 10 foot diameter form of a smiling face 🙂 Every time I catch a glimpse this spring, it definitely lifts the mood
Beautiful! 👍 🙂
I’ve heard that it’s best not to “clean up” dead woody stems and leaf litter etc in early spring until daytime temperatures are consistently above 50 F or 10 C because many beneficial insects including pollinators and larvae overwinter in them and are still dormant. Perhaps we need to resist the urge to tidy up just yet?
My early spring flowers are a little different, because I have some very curious cats, they love plants, so I just have safe cat plants in my garden. They love to play with the ornamental grasses, rub cheeks, chew in other like catnip, Nepeta Walker low, Nepeta Cataria, Lonicera Japonica etc. Right now I have blooming the Alyssum, pansy, bellis perenis, primrose, mathiola Incana, matricaria chamomile, the calendula and salvia are starting flowering now. All the grasses, nepeta, pepermint, Lonicera japonica are gorgeous with all those new fresh leaves. The Aeonium Hawortii are flowering, the mathiola are gorgeous, and smell so good. The nigella damascena, wild flax, snapdragons, are growing, the rudbeckia are shying waking up, and I'm starting my annual flower seeds in trays because we are having some frosting outside and there are another snow coming this weekend, so, I can't directly sow my annual yet. I'm so excited to see what I will get with may Cosmos and Zinnias this summer, because due to pollinators I get a tin of new colours last summer, the same with my mathiola, tagete, calendula, snapdragon, I get more than 5 shades or variegated colour from the originals I sow…
Thank you for all the tips. I’m going to put on my gardening trainers and get out into the garden right now!
I planted crocuses last autumn to come up on a patch of lawn surrounding a small lavender bed. The crocuses have emerged and look good but the pesky wood pigeons 🐦 seem to think I planted them for them to eat. They have taken all the flower tops off especially the purple ones. The yellow ones are surviving better so maybe I’ll plant more yellow in the autumn.
She has the same problems as me.
😆 Alexandra, I did the same thing. I have a small lawn of about 12 x 16 feet surrounded by beds. I’d taken out a large tree and could finally grow grass. Last fall I scattered 200 small crocus (tommies) across the dirt just before they put down sod. They came up this spring, but not in the swath I was hoping for …. they look a little pitiful. But all 200 are there and like you, they are ones that should naturalize. I figure in about five years it’s going to look fabulous! If you add more in the fall, cutting away a swath of sod and placing the crocus tightly under it before flopping the sod back over may be a much quicker way to achieve your desired results. Good luck!
6:20 wow I wasn't expecting that.