Homebase reveals what to do in your garden in February

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After a few months off, it’s time for gardeners to get back into the garden and prepare plants for their growing season. By pruning your plants now, you can help them to grow back even bigger than they did last year, and improve the overall health of your plant. Fuchsias need to be pruned in early spring – here’s everything you need to know about pruning fuchsias.

Fuchsia is one of the most popular plants in Britain.

Although they come in many different colours, the most common fuchsia have delicate pink and purple flowers and can grow to impressive heights.

Fuchsias aren’t the easiest plants to maintain, but all your efforts will be worth it when the plant blooms in late summer, giving you a cascading display of pink and purple.

In order to get the best flowers in summer, pruning your fuchsia in early spring is essential.

Pruning also improves the overall health of your plant and gives you the chance to spot any issues your fuchsia might have developed over winter.

Here’s everything you need to know about pruning fuchsia.

When should you prune fuchsia?

Fuchsias flower on new growth, so when you prune fuchsia you’re aiming to remove old growth and dead stems from last year’s flowering.

You want to wait until the risk of frost has passed to prune your fuchsia, so March tends to be around the time your plant is ready to be pruned.

Leaving the old growth on the plant until the risk of frost has passed will act as protection for the new stems.

Pruning your fuschia in early spring gives it the longest amount of time to get growing its summer flowers.

How do you prune a fuchsia?

Hardy fuchsias can withstand quite vigorous pruning, which in turn should stimulate healthy growth.

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The Royal Horticultural Society website advised: “Fuchsia may need cutting back to near ground level.

“This stimulates development of strong new growth on which flowers will be produced in late summer.”

You’ll need a sharp pair of secateurs: blunt tools can make for untidy pruning and can cause stress to the plant as you end up yanking at the stems.

You should cut back the plant to the new leaf buds which may be around 10 centimetres above ground.

For tender fuchsias, who may have spent the winter months undercover indoors, spring pruning doesn’t need to be quite as intense, but they will still appreciate a trim.

Prune out all the weaker stems and cut back the rest to the lowest pair of good buds.

To help keep your fuchsia happy, feed it a high potash plant food.

Fuchsias also need a generous watering about once a week.

Throughout summer, make sure to deadhead your fuchsia regularly.

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