April Gardening advice Posted by paraic horkan on Apr 2, 2003, 12:25am

April Hints & Tips with Horkans.

Horkans Lifestyle & Garden Centres Castlebar, Sligo & Galway.

Plant a selection of roses now.

April remains one of the most important months in the gardening calendar. The perfect spring weather over the past month has stirred many garden plants into full growth & flower. The beautiful magnolias, superb camellias and bright flowering dwarf azaleas are a welcome sight in many gardens at present.

The wonderful free flowering cherries will show great colour very soon and many early flowering cherries have already awakened with our early spring sunshine.

Our attention now focus’s on summer colour, plants for the vegetable garden and caring for your lawn. It is also the ideal time to plant new fruit trees and a wonderful time to plant summer flowering trees & shrubs. So april is a very busy month in your garden.

We profile some of the key gardening topics for you to focus on this month.

Vegetable & Herbs to plant now.

 

April the ideal month to plant vegetables

Vegetable plants ready for planting now !

Choose from a wonderful selection of quality garden vegetable plants which are now ready for planting directly into your garden soil.

Six week old vegetable plants are now available for planting directly into your garden soil for tasty crops in mid and late summer.

Look for the wonderful F1 varieties of both salad and vegetable plants including Lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, onions and radish.

 

wide selection of seeds & plants in stock

Herbs.

Fresh garden herbs are also available for planting directly into your border soil or better still into window boxes or patio containers.

Choose now from a wide selection of quality fresh herb plants which if planted now will reward you with lots of fresh pickings from June onwards.

Garden herbs are so easy to grow and very un demanding. Plant them now.

 

Protect early sowings with our garden cloches

Glasshouse Crops.

April is the month to start some glasshouse crops like the easy to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, peppers and aubergines.

Simply pot them into large pots or grow bags and place them into a bright location indoors in your greenhouse, polytunnel or patio and enjoy a bumper crop of tasty fresh homegrown fruit this summer.

For tasty tomatoes look for the excellent F1 Shirley variety or the dwarf variety called totem.

When planting tomatoes plant some basil plants at the base to give additional flavour to the developing fruit.

Summer colour in Baskets & Patio planters

For lots of summer colour in baskets & containers plant some of the easy to grow and free flowering Trailing petunias which are now available for planting. (Surfinia Petunias Pic)

Petunia million bells.

Trailing petunias are always popular but a neater and more useful plant is million bells.

As the name suggests this plant produces an abundance of small flowers from June to November.

Million bells is more suitable for mixed plantings and window boxes as it is less vigorous and is less competition for other patio plants.

Available in a wide range of colours million bells can be highly recommended for many uses.

Horkys tip: plant up your containers now and place in sheltered areas or under cover in a green house until late April

If frost is promised cover containers with garden fleece to protect them.

Petunia surfinia.

Trailing petunias are easy to grow and are resistant to light frosts.

Planted in hanging baskets, window boxes and patio planters they will flower from June to late November and can be held over to flower the following season.

Horkys tip : plant five trailing petunias into a 14” basket to create a ball of colour.

Summer flowering Climbers.  

wonderful variety called just joey.

 

Clematis summer flowering.

For lots of summer colour plant the free flowering flowering clematis, the spring flowering Clematis Montana is starting to flower now and will continue to flower until early summer.

Clematis Early sensation is another beautiful early flowering clematis which is very free flowering but is unique in that it retains its glossy foliage which it retains all year round – yes indeed an evergreen flowering clematis.

Clematis Pixie yellow is another outstanding free flowering clematis, its bright yellow flowers are produced in profusion, a wonderful variety and so easy to grow.

Wisteria.

One of my all time favourite flowering climbers is the prolific Wisteria Sinensis which produces masses of wonderful lilac flowers on walls or trellis.

Wisteria is easy to grow and quite vigorous – a brilliant free flowering wall plant ideal for many gardens and excellent when mixed with other climbers like clematis.

( wisteria Pic )

Easy to grow summer shrubs.

April is also a great month to plant some foliage & flowering shrubs.

Three of the very best include..

Exochorda the bride.

As the name suggests Exochorda the bride is a pure white free flowering garden shrub ideal for all locations and so easy to grow.

The brilliant white flowers are produced on mass covering this dainty medium sized shrub with an appearance of snow flakes covering the leaves and stems of this wonderful garden plant.

Exochorda is certainly one for your garden this summer. Plant it now.

Syringa or Summer lilac.

One of the greatest border shrubs is the beautiful early summer flowering lilacs. So easy to grow and yet so free flowering year in year out.

The large blooms are covered in a brilliant scent and followed with apple green fresh foliage.

April is the perfect month to plant lilacs, which are available this year in white, pink, red and purple.

Remember lilacs will grow in all soil types and on existing plants a dressing of sulphate of potash will encourage strength and additional flowers..

Corylus contorta. Spectacular Contorted Hazel.

Cork screw hazel is indeed a spectacular plant with attractive twisted branches treasured by flower arrangers and admired by everyone else.

This easy to grow and hardy border shrub produces wonderful structure and interest in shrub beds. The foliage is twisted and has a deep green colour, the  stems twist and contort naturally producing a strong full shrub with spectacular contorted limbs which can be cut and used indoors in arrangements or left alone to make the ideal structure to hanging festive lighting on in mid winter.

All in all a wonderful easy to grow garden plant, ready to plant now.

Attractive trees.

For a real splash of early summer colour plant the Snowy Mespelis or Amerlanchier. This beautiful garden tree is ideal for both small or large gardens.

In late spring & early summer it is covered with snow white flowers and attractive spring foliage.

It is a simply tree to grow loving all soil types and rapidly growing into a small to medium tree suitable for most locations.

In autumn the foliage turns a brilliant red & scarlet and reward’s you with a striking splash of autumn colour which is a sight to behold in mid autumn.

Plant the snowy Mespelis now for instant colour. (Amelanchier Pic)