Gardening column: Why it's never too early to get back into the garden over the festive period

After the flowers have faded, cut them off to stop them producing seed. And leave the flower stalk until it has turned yellow because it’s needed to help manufacture food that will be stored in the bulb.

Hippeastrums are plants of the light – they revel in the maximum amount of sunlight, so after they have finished blooming, pop them in the brightest possible location you can find.

Water the plant from the top of the container and continue to feed it to help it build up its strength for next year. And ensure that the container sits proud of any excess water – hippeastrums hate having soggy roots.

And when all danger of frost is past, give the plant a taste of the outdoors by first placing it in shade or indirect light. Gradually move it to a bright garden or bed where it will receive full sun for at least six hours daily.

Sink the pot into the soil and feed monthly with a balanced houseplant fertilizer to build up nutrients for flower production the next year.

Propagation by offsets will produce a flowering bulb in three to four years, which will be identical to the parent plant.

Separate offsets from the main bulb when repotting (January to March). Look out for offsets with their own roots and pot them in individual containers in a free-draining compost. Keep at a temperature of 21°C (70°F).

If after all your hard work your well-cared-for hippeastrum should fail to flower it could be because it is growing in excessively shady conditions or it was under-watered during the previous summer. Don’t despair – if the worst comes to the worst, you can always buy another.

Wisteria

The end of December is not normally when you’d expect to be talking about wisteria, but if you want the best, the most beautiful and bountiful, get the secateurs sharpened because it’s almost time to cut back the plant’s side-shoots to two or three buds.

Some people never prune their wisteria and they somehow still enjoy a staggering show of those fantastically fragrant flowers.

Wisteria x floribunda (Japanese wisteria) is one of the best choices for blooms. It’s a vigorous, twining climber that produces racemes (long, hanging clusters) of violet blue flowers in spring and early summer.

Wisteria sinensis (Chinese wisteria) is often the one you see growing around older houses and gardens. Varieties include ‘Sierra Madre’, which produces very fragrant, lavender-violet flowers. ‘Alba’, not surprisingly, bears white flowers, and ‘Prolific’ should yield an abundance of lilac-blue or pale lilac-blue flowers.

And if you want a wisteria but don’t have the space, there are a few dwarf varieties that can be grown in large containers – W ‘Amethyst Falls’, for example.

Wisteria is generally hardy and quite fast growing. It’s happiest in fertile, moist, well-drained soil, but will tolerate poorer soils. Full sun or partial shade is equally suitable.

Raspberries

Snow, ice, winds and wild weather make it difficult to come to terms with the fact that very soon it will be the time for raspberries – pruning the autumn-fruiting canes down to the ground and planting bare-rooted plants of the summer-fruiting varieties.

The latter grow prolifically during the summer months; the former ripen during the late summer and can continue to crop until the first frost. And although they are both raspberries, they have very different growth cycles. Summer-fruiters grow on canes produced the previous summer; the autumn raspberries grow on shoots produced during the current summer. So that’s why, after fruiting, you need to cut those canes down to ground level. Right now, the hardest work is in preparing to plant bare-rooted canes. If the weather allows, get the site ready by digging out weeds and digging in plenty of well-rotted manure.

Raspberries are best grown in rows against supports. In a large garden, hammer in a tree stakes at the ends of each row. With the summer varieties, drill holes into the posts and stretch three rows of wires between them. The autumn varieties tend to grow shorter and stronger so they can make do with just two wires.

In a small garden, grow shorter rows of simply hammer a stake into the ground and plant a couple of raspberry canes at the base. Allow nine or 10 canes to grow up and tie them in.

The planting depth is important - the old soil mark on the stem should be at the same level as the ground after planting. Then spread out the roots and firm them in. Plant canes 18in apart.

Now get out the secateurs and cut the newly-planted canes to nine inches above the soil. It may seem like vandalism, but this is to encourage strong new growth for future years. And it will also pay dividends to leave this year’s crop of fruit untouched; in fact, remove temptation by nipping off the flowers as they appear – the plants will grow stronger and you can start cropping them the following year.