If you have healthy perennials it’s important you divide them regularly, just to make sure they continue to perform as well the following year. This is something that is quite easy to do and it’s perfect for all clump-forming herbaceous perennials, even plants like ornamental grasses. Most perennials will do much better if you divide them every 2 or 3 years. If you want to increase how many plants you have in your garden by…

If you are growing a Mahonia shrub it’s important that you keep it healthy and well-maintained. One of the things you should do to help it remain healthy and grow well is to prune it. Pruning the Mahonia aquifolium – Oregon Grape / Mountain Grape Firstly there are two different classes of Mahonia. The first is called Mahonia aquifolium and these are the lower growing evergreens that flower in the spring. These smaller Mahonias typically don’t…

If you are wanting to take a cutting from the Skimmia japonica, you want to take semi-ripe cuttings. By using these cuttings, you can easily propagate new shrubs. When should you take your Skimmia cuttings? Semi-ripe cuttings need to be taken from the current season’s growth. You want to find pieces so the base of the cutting is hard but the tip is soft. You can typically find stems like this on your shrub between…

Mahonia is a very strong evergreen shrub that brings with it bright yellow flowers and shiny green foliage in the winter. During the summer it produces bright blue berries for birds, these come after the yellow flowers they are renowned for. So if you have a beautiful Mahonia shrub that has brought with it a great deal of colour and texture to your garden you can take stem cuttings from your bush and propagate more…