by Sally Gregson.

AT last March breezes in with cold nights, rainy weeks and brilliant days of warming sunshine. Winter is loosening its grip. The snowdrops are nearly finished, their moment in the sun over now, while other small flowers – the crocus, aconites and grape hyacinth – are taking their moment in the sun.

In the garden borders the shining stems of the dogwoods and willows are still making headlines, but by the end of the month it will be time to prune them right down, almost to the ground. Cutting them down promotes the growth of new, young stems for next year. It’s a hard decision, but a necessary job. They seem to shine in the sun with such innocent enthusiasm. But if left, their continued growth extends upwards and, as the year goes by, the whole shrub becomes ugly and no longer gar-den-worthy.
So, take a sharp pair of secateurs and a pair of loppers for the thicker stems, and cut each upright down to about 15-30cm from the ground, or to a bud above the position where it was cut down last year. This holds true for most of the coloured-stem willows and Cornus alba, but some dogwoods are a little less vigorous. Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ and its sisters are best cut down every other year. Or just the thicker stems could be cut out each March.

Give the shrub a feed of general fertiliser and a good watering, and, if possible, a top-dressing of garden compost to help lock the moisture into the soil. Dogwoods and willows grow naturally in damp ground and only put up with their enforced time in ordinary garden soil if they are not allowed to become dry.
And now that the snowdrops are fading away, it’s a good plan to lift and split a few clumps, and re-plant them around the dogwoods and willows. They will go back down for the summer under the mulch of garden compost, ready to re-emerge next winter.