Guides / What to plant
What to plant in March
The growing season starts properly this month. Sow peas and chives outdoors once the soil has warmed, plant wild daffodils in the green rather than as dry bulbs, and repot houseplants now so they root into fresh compost before summer.
These are Northern Hemisphere months. If you garden in the Southern Hemisphere, the equivalent month is September.
In the garden
Barrenwort
Epimedium grandiflorum
How to grow Epimedium grandiflorum, a reliable ground cover for dry shade. When to cut the old leaves off, the spurred flowers in April, and where horny goat weed came from.
Blackthorn
Prunus spinosa
How to grow blackthorn, Prunus spinosa. Blossom on bare stems before hawthorn, picking sloes for gin, planting a stockproof hedge and controlling the suckers.
Butterfly Bush
Buddleja davidii
How to grow buddleja, Buddleja davidii. The hard March prune that keeps it flowering at eye level, deadheading to stop it seeding across the neighbourhood, and why it feeds butterflies but not caterpillars.
Camellia
Camellia japonica
How to grow camellias, Camellia japonica. Why an east-facing wall ruins the flowers, what causes bud drop, keeping the soil acid, and treating petal blight.
Chinese Rhubarb
Rheum palmatum
How to grow Rheum palmatum, the ornamental rhubarb behind da huang. A two-metre flower spike, leaves the size of a table, and why the leaf blades are not food.
Cleavers
Galium aparine
How to identify and control cleavers, Galium aparine. Seedlings, sticky stems, early hoeing and edible young shoots.
English Ivy
Hedera helix
How to grow Hedera helix. Whether it damages walls, the two completely different forms one plant takes, why it feeds bees in November, and where it is a banned weed.
Five Flavour Berry
Schisandra chinensis
How to grow Schisandra chinensis, the five flavour berry. Getting fruit from a plant that needs a male and a female, the shade it wants at the root, and the scent in May.
Forsythia
Forsythia intermedia
How to grow forsythia, Forsythia x intermedia. Pruning straight after flowering, renewing a leggy bush, stopping bullfinches stripping the buds, and taking free cuttings.
Japanese box
Buxus microphylla
How to grow Buxus microphylla. The blight-resistant box, clipping without spreading disease, spotting box tree caterpillar, and the alternatives worth considering.
Japanese pieris
Pieris japonica
How to grow pieris, Pieris japonica. Scarlet new growth in spring, why frost and chalk both ruin it, and the grayanotoxins that make it dangerous to livestock.
Wild Daffodil
Narcissus pseudonarcissus
How to grow and naturalise wild daffodils, Narcissus pseudonarcissus. Planting depth, why the leaves must be left alone, the sap that kills other cut flowers, and why the bulbs are dangerous.
Herbs and edibles
Almond
Prunus dulcis
How to grow almond, Prunus dulcis. Why it blossoms in February and rarely sets nuts in a cool damp spring, peach leaf curl, and the difference between sweet and bitter kernels.
Apricot
Prunus armeniaca
How to grow apricot, Prunus armeniaca. The earliest blossom of any fruit tree, protecting it from frost, and choosing a cultivar bred for a cool temperate climate.
Avocado
Persea americana
How to grow avocado, Persea americana. Germinating stones, pollination groups, fruiting limits indoors and persin safety for pets.
Barley
Hordeum vulgare
How to grow barley, Hordeum vulgare. The cereal behind beer and whisky, two-row against six-row, and how to tell it from wheat at fifty paces.
Cape Gooseberry
Physalis peruviana
How to grow cape gooseberries, Physalis peruviana. The long season it needs, overwintering the plant under glass, and waiting for the husk to go papery.
Celery
Apium graveolens
How to grow celery, Apium graveolens. Self-blanching against trench types, the water it demands, stopping it bolting, and why the sap burns in sunlight.
Chervil
Anthriscus cerefolium
How to grow chervil, Anthriscus cerefolium. Sowing it in autumn for a winter crop, why it bolts in a hot bed, and how to tell it from the cow parsley it is related to.
Chives
Allium schoenoprasum
How to grow chives, Allium schoenoprasum. Cutting for tender regrowth, dividing congested clumps, the edible flowers, and why a herb you can eat is dangerous to cats and dogs.
Curly Parsley
Petroselinum crispum
How to grow Petroselinum crispum. Why the seed takes a month to appear, why year two is a write-off, the difference between curly and flat-leaf, and the rash it can give you.
Durum Wheat
Triticum durum
How to grow durum wheat, Triticum durum. The hardest grain in the field, why it makes pasta rather than bread, and the hot dry ripening it will not crop without.
Flax
Linum usitatissimum
How to grow flax, Linum usitatissimum. One plant that gives linen and linseed oil, a field of blue that lasts one morning, and a founder crop still grown across Europe and North America.
Garden Cress
Lepidium sativum
How to grow garden cress, Lepidium sativum. Ready in a fortnight on a windowsill, growing it in the ground for a bigger crop, and the mustard-and-cress timing trick.
Garden Pea
Pisum sativum
How to grow garden peas, Pisum sativum. Sowing dates, supports, why mice take the seed, and how a crop that feeds itself with nitrogen should be treated at the end of the season.
Ginger
Zingiber officinale
How to grow ginger, Zingiber officinale. Starting a supermarket rhizome, the warmth and humidity it needs indoors, and harvesting after eight months.
Grapefruit
Citrus paradisi
How to grow grapefruit, Citrus paradisi. The citrus that needs the most heat and the longest season, and the one with a genuine medical caution attached.
Lentil
Lens culinaris
How to grow lentils, Lens culinaris. One of the eight founder crops, the shape that named the optical lens, and a pulse that grows in a cool climate better than most people think.
Oat
Avena sativa
How to grow oats, Avena sativa. The weed that became a crop, the panicle that sets it apart from every other cereal, and where oats stand on gluten.
Onion
Allium cepa
How to grow onions, Allium cepa. Sets against seed, why bolting happens, ripening and curing for storage, and why onions are toxic to cats and dogs.
Oregon Grape
Mahonia aquifolium
How to grow Oregon grape, Mahonia aquifolium. The shade-tolerant evergreen with holly leaves, its yellow spring flowers and blue berries, and the berberine in its root.
Pepino
Solanum muricatum
How to grow pepino, Solanum muricatum. The melon pear for a cool-climate greenhouse, growing it from cuttings, and the long ripening the fruit needs.
Pistachio
Pistacia vera
How to grow pistachio, Pistacia vera. Why you need two trees, the split shell that means the nut is ready, and the summer heat a cool climate cannot supply.
Potato
Solanum tuberosum
How to grow potatoes, Solanum tuberosum. Chitting, earthing up, first and second earlies against maincrop, blight, and why a green potato should go in the bin.
Shallot
Allium cepa var. aggregatum
How to grow shallots, Allium cepa var. aggregatum. Planting sets in autumn or spring, why one bulb becomes a dozen, and drying them properly for storage.
Spinach
Spinacia oleracea
How to grow spinach, Spinacia oleracea. Stopping it bolting in summer, sowing for autumn and spring crops, and the perpetual spinach that does not bolt.
Stinging nettle
Urtica dioica
How to grow nettles on purpose, Urtica dioica. Picking the tops for the kitchen, siting a patch butterflies will use, making liquid feed, and why the sting works.
Sweet orange
Citrus sinensis
How to grow a sweet orange, Citrus sinensis. Container culture outside the subtropics, the watering that kills more trees than frost, and fruit that takes a year to ripen.
Tuberous Pea
Lathyrus tuberosus
How to grow the tuberous pea, Lathyrus tuberosus. A hardy European perennial with chestnut-flavoured tubers, scented crimson flowers, and a habit of running where it is not wanted.
White Lupin
Lupinus albus
How to grow white lupin, Lupinus albus. The bar snack that takes a week to make safe, a named allergen in Britain, and roots that mine phosphate out of dead soil.
Wild Parsnip
Pastinaca sativa
How to grow parsnips, Pastinaca sativa. Fresh seed and slow germination, why frost sweetens the root, avoiding canker, and the sap burn nobody warns you about.
Indoors
Chinese Money Plant
Pilea peperomioides
How to grow Pilea peperomioides. Light, watering, why the leaves curl, and how to take the offsets that carried this plant across Europe before any nursery sold it.
Peace Lily
Spathiphyllum wallisii
How to care for Spathiphyllum wallisii. Why it wilts on purpose, what brown tips are telling you, why a shop-bought plant often refuses to flower again, and how it behaves around cats.