1) Recently purchased plants that have been planted but have yet to establish. These plants will take some time yet to become self-sufficient, and set down roots – until then they are reliant on you to give them water and food.

2) Potted plants. It is essential in keeping your containerised plants in tip top shape to keep them well-watered and fed. Pots drain really quickly and will need to be watered every other day atleast to keep the plants hydrated.

In most parts of the UK, the milder weather conditions should be here to stay – with the severe frosts and snow but a distant horrible memory. So now is the time to cut back and tidy up dead and damaged growth on your evergreen shrubs, palm trees, cordylines and phormium.

Any plants that are wrapped in fleece/hessian should be unwrapped by now to prevent any sweating.

Now importantly is the time to start feeding, whatever fertilizer you use, now is the time to apply, especially to containerised plants. The pruning and the feeding will really stimulate new growth and give the plant some real vigour heading in the growing season.

Most of our structural plants, especially the palms we apply a nitrogen/iron feed to the foliage and the roots. This foliar feed approach will help to green up the foliage which looks a little washed out after a hard winter.

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But getting back on topic I’m sure many of you are starting to survey the garden for any ill-effects from the dark cold months of winter.

This season’s big losers already seems to be Cordyline australis, Agave americana and Phoenix canariensis, basically the type of plant that doesn’t enjoy half the Himalayas sitting on top of them.

These three tend to survive through most UK winters but the last three winters in particular have really been harsh, and have taken their toll.

As with a lot of plants it quite difficult to determine if the plant is beyond repair until Spring comes. By mid-Spring you should really begin seeing signs of recovery and regeneration, until then in most cases it can be quite difficult to tell either way.

An early test that can be tried to most structural plants including the three above is the ‘Spike Pull’ it is by no means definitive but it usually gives a fair indication to a plants survival chances.

To ‘Spike Pull’ carefully grip the central growing point of the plant, (the part where the new leaves are forming) and give it a gentle tug. If the spike pulls out, the diagnosis is not encouraging, if it doesn’t budge, then there is life in the old dog yet.

Looking onwards to next winter, if indeed it is another severe one, it really is worth the effort to give a little help to the more susceptible plants. In the case of the Phoenix palm simply tying the fronds together can mean the difference between life and death, as with the cordyline, (although you maybe doing the tying via a step ladder).

Even the chances of the Agave americana can be greatly improved by putting a bucket over the top of it to keep most of the winter wet off it. Along those lines make sure when planting any Agave to make sure the planting area is as well drained as possible.

Well this is not too difficult to remedy, a good prune in early Spring will quickly tidy up a Phormium for the coming season. Unfortunately pruning a Phormium is a fairly slow monotonous job, and can be only effectively be carried out with a sharp pair of secateurs, cutting one leave at a time. For best results cut each damaged leave at its base.

This hardy fan palm is salt tolerant, wind tolerant, looks great in a pot or planted out with other palms and structural plants.

If you are new to palms this is a great place to start. Click on dwarf fan palm to see more.

Dwarf Fan Palm