# Enjoy the scents of winter, Daphne and Winter Sweet. Pick the flowers to prune, encouraging new growth and therefore flowers for next year.

#  The shortest day has past but still time to plant your garlic. Push each clove into the soil, about finger length and the point facing up.

#  Plant new fruit trees…plums, peaches pears etc.

# Purchase new and plant replacement roses. Remember to remove soil where old rose was and replace with rose compost. When planting a new rose bed add lots of compost and use slow release fertiliser under each plant. This will begin to work as the soil warms up in spring.

#  Sharpen, clean[with hot soapy water], and  oil secateurs and loppers for your rose pruning.Avoid walking on garden beds when very wet.

# Prune gooseberry, blackcurrants, grapes raspberries and rambling boysenberries.

# Pipfruit, [apples and pears] generally have a central leader with several tiers of branches. They fruit on spurs and these will fruit for many years, so cut back new upright growth to a couple of buds, that will form spurs.

#  Citrus can have a black sooty mould over leaves and stems. This fungus is growing on the sugars which have come out of the plant where the scale insects have damaged the cuticle of the leaf. Spray with spraying oil, which will smoother these pests. You will have to spray several times.

# Plant flowering polyanthus in dull areas, or in containers.