Weekend work: Time to prune trained fruit trees

WHAT TO DO

Prune trained fruit trees. Winter pruning is the way to gradually build up a standard or half standard apple or pear from a young, single-stemmed whip. With big, established trees, you need do no more than cut out thin, weak shoots, or any wood that is diseased or already dead.

Check bowls of hyacinths rooting in whatever dark, cool place you have put them in, to see that the compost is not drying out.

Mulch beds and borders, round the bottoms of currant and gooseberry bushes, round roses, climbers and wall shrubs. A good, thick mulch of mushroom compost (or your own homemade product) is the best Christmas present you can give you garden.

WHAT TO BUY

Is this the beginning of an avalanche of plants bearing the name of the new young heir to the throne? 'Prince George', a white clematis with a faint blue flush on the backs of the petals, will be available in spring 2014 for £9.99. For more information call New Leaf Plants on 01386 442055 or go to the website at newleafplants.co.uk