You may think that there is very little to do in a winter garden other than clearing away soggy leaves and mulching your beds.
But don’t be fooled: this is the perfect time to sharpen the loppers and pruners and start pruning.
Certain trees, shrubs and fruit bushes will thrive in the spring if sensible cuts are made now.
Alison Smith, botanical horticulturist at London’s Kew Garden, told Sun Gardening: “A crucial winter job is pruning flowering climbers such as wisteria, schisandra, climbing roses and vines.
“It’s an opportunity to shape the structure, and it’s a way to manipulate the plant to do what we want: restrict budding, minimize leaf growth and divert more energy to flowering.”
APPLES AND PEARS: Remove the three D’s – dead, diseased and damaged – and rub crossing branches.
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Thin out the center to let in light and air. Do not remove more than a third. Do not prune cherries and plums.
CLIMBING ROSES: Focus on retraining, bending and tying flexible stems to encourage more blooms.
BUSH ROSES: Remove the inward growing stems to create a cup shape and allow air and light in.
Cut the remaining stems back about a third to just above an outward-facing bud.
Perennials: Remove rotting Hosta foliage, especially to deter slugs and snails. The same applies to daylilies once the leaves have died.
FRUIT BUSHES: Black currants – remove a third of the oldest, darkest lower branches to the ground to promote new, fertile wood.
Gooseberries, red currants and white currants: aim for the cup shape.
Raspberries with autumn fruits: cut the stems to 5 cm above the ground to get fruit in late summer.
WISTERIA: Prune side shoots pruned in summer to two to three buds.
GRAPES: Cut back to the main bars you train with, along support.
HAGEN: It is a good time for deciduous hedges such as beech, hawthorn, hornbeam and hazel. You can reshape or prune these.
Make sure the base is wider than the top to allow light to reach it.
This week also in Veronica’s Column….
TO RESCUE! GET pruning with this handy Niwaki folding saw for £39 from Amazon, or go for the Hawksmoor saw from Toolstation for £6.99.
WIN! VONHAUS is giving one lucky reader a two-in-one scarifier and aerator worth £139.99 and a cordless hedge trimmer worth £114.99.
To be in with a chance, go to http://www.thesun.co.uk/Vonhaus or write to Sun Vonhaus Competition, PO Box 3190, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GP.
Please include your name, age and email address or telephone number.
- UK residents 18+ only. Registration closes at 11:59 PM. February 14, 2026. Terms and conditions apply
LEARN! Q) IS it better to plant onions from seed or use sets? Sarah Davey, Cambridgeshire
A) Good question. Sets are the small bulbs that allow for easier planting and faster, more reliable growth, but they are prone to lodging (premature sprouting of stems). Seeds are cheaper, have more variety and a higher yield, and are stored better.
JOB OF THE WEEK! Continue mulching, start choosing your seed potatoes and summer flowering bulbs, start sowing vegetable seeds and flowers such as petunia and salvia under cover.
PLANTS OF THE WEEK! CEANOTHUS (California lilac) is evergreen with beautiful blue racemes in early to mid spring. For a 20 percent discount, see thompson-morgan.com/sunoffers. General terms and conditions apply.
SPRING KEEN: THIS year’s Plant Fair Roadshow series starts on Sunday near Rolvenden, Kent.
The Snowdrop & Spring Plant Fair, in the 40-acre Hole Park Garden, will feature more than a dozen dedicated growers and nurseries from across the South East.
In addition to special snowdrops, they also sell hellebores, daphnes, aconites and other winter flowering plants.
The fair lasts from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission to the fair and the garden is €8. To see plantfairsroadshow.co.uk.
BUG’S BATTLE IN ’25: THE results of last year’s Garden Organic survey are in – with 2025 being dubbed the Year of the Aphid.
Runner beans were the worst performers overall for the second time in recent dry years, with almost half producing poor or no yields due to lack of water and poor pod set.
Lettuce bolted quickly in the summer heat, necessitating a rapid succession of sowing.
Well-known pumpkins with reliable water did well, but 40 percent produced poor or no yields.
Brassicas struggled early on due to aphids, cabbage white butterflies and bolting, but the crops that survived later recovered and produced good fall harvests.
Onions yielded mixed results. Carrot germination often failed and potatoes struggled in the hot, dry soil.
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