The glory of bergenia is its great show of spring flower colour. The flowers are carried on stout stems that push up over the foliage and they can be seen clearly. The flower is a rounded cluster of florets, which are individually bell-shaped, open and can be upward-facing or slightly nodding.

The most common kind is a pink magenta shade and there are others that are paler pink or white flushed with pink. The flowers appear in early to late spring, depending on the kind grown. The purple colour of bergenia looks well with yellow daffodils, especially lovely with white and pale yellow kinds. Late-flowering bergenia is still in flower for tulips, and looks well with pink or white tulips, also bright yellow and orange tulips for a clash.

The bergenia most commonly seen in gardens is Bergenia cordifolia, a tough species that comes from Siberia. The flowers are pale pink-rose, but these vary and can be darker too in some named kinds. This one has green cabbage-like leaves and it is early to flower, even opening in late winter in a mild year and location. Another commonly grown species is Bergenia purpurascens, from China, with rich purple-red flowers and leaves that are red-brown underneath and turn red-purple in winter. This has been crossed with the common kind to give varieties that have red leaves in winter and darker flowers.

There are lots of named varieties, some with deep purple flowers, such as ‘Ballawley’, others with white flowers, such as ‘Beethoven’ and ‘Silberlicht’. The second of these is early to flower. The flowers of the white kinds are occasionally damaged by late frost. ‘Bressingham White’ is another good white variety, a vigorous plant that flowers freely in pure white.

‘Abendglut’ has semi-double magenta-pink flowers and its leaves change to maroon in winter. ‘Morgenrote’ keeps green leaves but with good rich pink-red flowers in late spring, and it often flowers a second time in a cool summer. Visit the garden centres and see which varieties you like, because magenta-pink can be loved or loathed. The white ones have an elegance that the pink-purples do not.

Unlike most perennials, which generally die back in winter, bergenia maintains a presence year-round and provides much-needed green or red-purple foliage in winter. Bergenia plants form a low clump of leaf rosettes that spreads slowly outward as they grow. They look very well at the front of a bed or border, where their foliage helps to fill winter bareness. Bergenia also can be planted at the base of a wall, or a bank, or to fill out an odd corner, even one partly shaded. Wherever it is grown, bergenia is good ground cover, shading out weeds with its broad leaves.

Bergenia is tolerant of any kind of soil, rich or poor, quite dry or tending to be moist, but not wet. The plants are slow-growing and it can be worthwhile to tuck a mulch under the leaves and give a shake of general purpose fertiliser to encourage growth. The plant is very easily propagated by pulling away some rosettes of leaves with a bit of attached stem, perhaps even a small root or two, and just pushing the stem into the soil. This can be done at practically at any time of year, but is best done in autumn or spring. The stems root quite quickly, and almost without fail. CL

Patchy flowering on spring cherry trees

While there has been a phenomenal show of flower on the early spring flowering cherry trees, some individual trees have been disappointing. The early cherry plum, or purple plum, is often affected by bullfinches, especially in rural areas, where these birds like to move along hedgerows.

But other flowering cheery trees, notably the beautiful Yoshino cherry, show patches of early green leaves and few or no flowers on those parts, while the rest of the tree is covered with blossoms. This is likely to be a virus disease, and the non-flowering bits should be cut out. This will not rid the tree of virus but will make it look better, as the problem will get progressively worse otherwise.

Fruit, vegetables and herbs

After a mixed spring, there is no rush to sow seeds of most vegetables until soil conditions allow. It is better to sow late in good conditions. Spray fruit trees if they had scab disease last year. Plant potatoes, shallots and onion sets when possible.

Trees, shrubs and roses

Forsythia, kerria and flowering currant should be pruned as they go out of flower, if necessary. Rose bushes susceptible to blackspot disease need spraying to prevent leaf loss. Only container-grown trees or shrubs should be planted now, or root-balled evergreens, with watering to settle.

Flowers

The new shoots of herbaceous flowers can be attacked by slugs as they come up and this can be difficult to spot until it is too late. Tubers of begonias and dahlias can be potted up, or planted out towards the end of the month, and corms of gladiolus can be planted out where they are to flower.

Lawn

Despite stop-start spring weather, lawns are generally in good condition. If an old lawn looks tired and a bit pale, it should get some high-nitrogen lawn feed to give it a boost. Moss can be a problem too and a mosskiller might be needed. Increase the frequency of mowing as growth accelerates.

Greenhouse and house plants

All greenhouse plants should be fed on strongly now and watered well to make rapid growth early in the season. Houseplants can be re-potted now, if they are pot-bound and easily toppled over. Overgrown house plants can be cut back now and watered and fed until they have new growth.