THE rain and sunshine at the end of March has really perked up the garden, with early spring flowers bulking up and beginning to fill the garden.

Pulmonarias are looking especially good in our garden at the moment, the first having opened a week or so ago. Folklore has it that these lovely plants begin to open on Good Friday, although how they know when this moveable date is to be each year is anyone’s guess.

Safe to say, at least one member of this family is guaranteed to be flowering during the holiday weekend, whatever the date.

Pulmonarias are beautiful spring plants with frosted or spotted leaves and flowers in shades of pink, blue or white, depending on the species or variety.

As the new growth begins, the foliage is quite small as the plant puts its energy into producing the flowers. Fat buds appear among the leaves, gradually swelling at the ends of elongating stems.

By April, the flowers are starting to open, filling low patches of earth with the beautiful colours. I especially like to grow them with pale primroses, the contrast of creamy yellow and pinkish lilac is lovely.

Weekend catch-up

IT IS time to get spring-flowering clematis in order.

Organised gardeners will have done this ages ago, but somehow I always leave it to the last, most difficult moment.

By now, the dead-seeming stems on Clematis alpina and montana will be sprouting tiny leaves and buds, which drop off at the slightest of knocks, so tying these stems in is not the easiest of tasks.

Still, it needs to be done in order to get the best display of blooms later in the month. For the moment, it is only the stray stems that need to be tied into the main framework of branches and supports. Any pruning of these early members of this climbing family should be left until after flowering. Evergreen Clematis armandii can also be tended by gently tying in the long stems that seem to appear daily on this vigorous plant. Avoid bending them too much as they snap easily.

Spring plant fair

FLOWER Power Fairs will make a return visit to Newburgh Priory, in Coxwold, near Thirsk, tomorrow from 10am to 4pm.

“This fair continues to grow and grow,” says organiser, Judy Popley. “I’m really excited about this first fair of the season. We have a tremendous selection of plants and growers attending.”

Many plant specialists will be there, including old favourites, as well as a few new nurseries too, offering a wide range of different plants from spring-flowering bulbs to climbers, alpines to agapanthus, herbaceous to shrubs and everything in between. Entry is £3 and includes access to 40 acres of priory grounds, formal gardens and woodland walks. The house will be open on an informal walk around basis from 11am to 1pm and 2pm to 4pm. The tearooms in the old priory kitchens will also be open throughout the day providing a wide range of home-made cakes and teas. Parking is free with disabled parking beside the fair.

Winners

THE answers to the Harrogate Spring Flower Show competition featured here last week are; 1. The Fodder Cookery Theatre, 2. Grow It demonstration area and 3. 100.

Congratulations to the winners who are J Clarke, Fulford; J E Smith, Askham Bryan; K Meaden, York; E Morley, Thirsk; M Dickinson, Woodthorpe and D King, Dunnington. Each has won a pair of tickets to use on any one day of the Harrogate Spring Flower Show. The prizes are in the post.

Gardening TV and Radio

Tomorrow.

8am, BBC Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors. With Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart.

9am, BBC Radio Leeds, Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden.

2pm, BBC Radio 4, Gardeners’ Question Time. The team are in Devon to help members of Cheselbourne Gardens Club in Sturminster Newton with their queries.

2.45pm, BBC R4, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen’s Escape to the Country. In the first of new series on ideas of the countryside, Llewelyn-Bowen looks at Humphry Repton, the first landscape designer to reconcile the countryside with the city.

Wednesday.

8am, BBC2, The Edible Garden. A new six-part series in which Alys Fowler tries to live off vegetables grown in her back garden.

Friday.

3pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question. Bob Flowerdew, Pippa Greenwood and Bunny Guinness are in Nottinghamshire as guests of Radcliffe Gardening Club in Radcliffe-on-Trent.

8.30pm, BBC2, Gardeners’ World. Toby sows flower seeds that will bloom within twelve weeks and Alys visits Trewithin Gardens in Cornwall where the magnolias are blooming more than one month later than usual.

Roy Lancaster pays tribute to Geoffrey Smith

THE memory of the veteran gardener Geoffrey Smith will be honoured this afternoon at Askham Bryan College, near York.

Acclaimed gardener Roy Lancaster will be the speaker at the first of what is hoped will be a series of annual horticultural lectures. Yorkshireman Smith was originally a student at the college before achieving national recognition as a writer and broadcaster.

Lancaster’s subject is “A Plantsman’s Life: Plants, Places and People”.

The lecture begins at 2.30pm in the conference hall, after which Mr Lancaster will plant a tulip tree near the rock garden. Tickets are £10.