Early spring Primrose tidying

It's spring! (well, nearly...) 

The daffodils are shooting up, the snowdrops are already doing their thing, and what about the Primroses?

Yes, they are now flowering, but in many gardens they are not looking their best because they still have a frill of last year's leaves, which are now very large, very brown, and rather ugly. 

Like this lot - left.

So is it time to get out there and rip them all off? 

Yes! 

Except that instead of ripping them off, just snip them off, as close to the base of the plant as you can get, with either secateurs or scissors. 

Why snip, not rip?

Because each leaf has a tough fibrous midrib, and if you just pull off the leaves, you will leave behind the stringy central ribs, which look dreadful, and make a mockery of the time you spent in pulling them off....  so, out with the scissors, or sharp secateurs, and off you go!

Does this seem like a bit of a faff? 

Well, yes, but the results are well worth it: getting rid of all the ugly old leaves shows off the flowers to their best advantage, against a background of nice fresh green leaves: and often, removing the long old leaves will reveal a small border of bare soil (where the weeds have been suppressed by the dying leaves) - right - which makes the flowers stand out even more clearly.

Also, dead and dying leaves are a sort of running buffet for slugs and snails, not to mention being perfect hiding places from predators - and although all of nature is wonderful (I am rolling my eyes as I say it), there are some aspects of nature which simply don't need feeding or encouraging!

This is a nice, simple quick job, to encourage you to get out in your garden and enjoy some fresh, so I hope you are now inspired to go round your garden, snipping and neatening!

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