Divide 'and conquer'

16:03:20 28th March 2008

As the Easter break has passed and April approaches, gardeners should spring into action in the garden and divide clumps of snowdrops, according to Tyrone Today's Garden Helper.

The resource suggests that congested snowdrops should be lifted and divided after flowering but while they remain in leaf.

Horticulturalists should gently tease the clumps apart and replant the bulbs at the same depth they were previously buried at.

Crowded perennials should also be lifted and separated, the helper notes, adding that people gardening in light soils may have carried out this task last autumn.

However, it states that those working with heavier clay soils benefit from waiting until the warmer and drier conditions that spring provides.

Finally, horticulturalists are advised to order summer-flowering bulbs - such as gladioli, eucomis and dahlia - at this stage of the year.

Meanwhile, gardening enthusiasts were recently advised by expert John Cushie in a Telegraph article to plant asparagus around the Easter period, if they have the opportunity to do so.