Bunch Helleborus

All these cane fruits, apart from autumn-fruiting raspberries (pictured), will need support for their fruiting canes, which can be done with posts at either end of the row and a minimum of three horizontal wires attached to the posts at even intervals.
If you are using a wall or fence for blackberries (raspberries prefer to be in the open), attach the wires to vine eyes screwed into the wall. Bare-rooted raspberries should be planted about 45cm (18in) apart while blackberries and hybrid berries need more space, so should be planted at least 1.5m (5ft) apart, or more.
Prune newly planted canes to around 22cm (9in) from the ground, to encourage the production of strong canes from the base of the plant. Tie them to the wire as they grow through the season but don't harvest them this year and remove flowers if there are a lot of them, which will encourage a better crop next season.
. Continue chitting seed potatoes.
. Prune late summer shrubs including buddleia, caryopteris and ceratostigma.. Send your mower to be serviced before the spring rush.
. Top-dress permanent plantings with fresh compost, scraping away about 2.5cm (1in) of old compost from the surface.
. Keep the garden relatively free of debris under which winter pests can hide.
. Begin to feed plants in established borders using a controlled-release slow-acting fertiliser, avoiding splashing it on new foliage.
. Spray nectarine and peach trees to prevent or eradicate peach leaf curl disease.
. Test the soil temperature using a thermometer but don't sow anything outdoors until the soil has remained above 7C (45F) for a week.. Check that wall-trained fruit trees and bushes are well supported before the new season's growth makes fresh demands on them.. Prune winter jasmine after flowering, shortening long old shoots to encourage new growth.. Continue planting bare-rooted trees and shrubs while they are still dormant.
. Bring pot-grown strawberry plants into the greenhouse to encourage early flowering and fruiting.. Keep sacking or old carpet handy to cover and insulate cold frames during very cold spells.. In the kitchen garden, continue clearing the ground, digging it over and adding garden compost.. Lift and divide overgrown flowering perennials.
Best of the Bunch Helleborus WINTER can bring out the worst in the garden, especially in the shady spots where it all looks dull and dreary, unless you have some hellebores, upright evergreen flowering perennials whose subtle, nodding blooms bring a welcome interest to an otherwise gloomy outlook.
From mid-winter to spring, H. orientalis, the Lenten rose, bears white or creamy green flowers that flush pink with age, while its leathery, deep green leaves persist throughout the year.
It's ideally placed near the front of the shrub border as it only grows to around 45cm (18in) tall and wide and if you're not careful it can be drowned under other more showy plants.
The leaves provide good ground cover and flowers will last well in water. I personally like the white variety H. niger, the Christmas rose (pictured), which flowers between January and March.
Dig in plenty of well-rotted organic matter before planting, but be warned they won't thrive in waterlogged soil. They will grow in either sun or shade and like lime or chalk.
Interplant hellebores with spring-flowering bulbs or hardy cyclamen, or team them with epimediums and hardy geraniums in a border.
3waysto...
Lookafter yourroses 1 Prune most varieties each year in late winter, although shrub and ground cover types can be left for two or three seasons before needing to be cut back.
2 Feed them generously in early spring before growth starts and again after the first flush of flowers in early summer.
3 Remove suckers, shoots which appear alongside your original rose bush but whose leaves are different and whose shoots appear from the roots. Don't cut them with secateurs. Instead, pull the sucker, while wearing tough gloves, from its point of origin, scraping the soil away to see where it comes from and grip low down.