Rosebie Morton’s March Gardening Guide

If you’re wondering how to get stuck into gardening this month, here’s everything you need to know: Rosebie Morton, founder of The Real Flower Company, shares her top tips. Here’s your March gardening guide.

Gardening In March: What To Sow & Grow This Month

Snowdrops and Narcissi February Gold are in full bloom this time of year, heralding spring and seed-sowing time. Similar to taking cuttings, sowing seeds is such a positive and exciting pastime and doesn’t require much expertise.

A seed catalogue is a bit like walking into a sweetshop: one is inundated with pages and pages of irresistible flowers, so it can be daunting to know which to buy. I tend to go for a few tried and tested favourites which I know will give maximum impact in both flower beds and containers, and anything I know is reasonably bulletproof.

Cosmos, Escholzias, Nicotianas, Nigella and Sweetpeas are always on my radar. This year I have been tempted to try Cosmos Atrosanguineus Cherry Chocolate, a beautiful cherry wine-coloured Cosmos which has an incredible chocolate scent and will be lovely in containers outside the door.

I always opt for varieties with as much scent as possible, so I choose Nicotiana Perfume mix or Sweetpea Matucana or Grandiflora. These are some of the old smaller headed Sweetpeas which have an incredible fragrance – and if space is an issue, they’re perfect in a pot, where they will create a bushy spectacle. Now is the ideal time to get them started.

Sweetpeas resent root disturbance, so it’s worth sowing them in deep cells (root trainers are ideal). Alternatively, save your empty cardboard paper rolls and pack them full of a free-draining, peat-free compost and place one seed per roll about 1cm in depth, water them in, and place them on a windowsill. They should germinate in about seven to ten days. Keep them watered and plant them out when the risk of frost is over. 

A lot of half-hardy annuals (plants that can’t survive frost) such as Cosmos and Nicotiana are best sown into seed trays, sprinkling the seed on the surface of the compost and then lightly covering the seed with compost or vermiculite. Germination should be quite quick. and when the seedlings are up and are showing two leaves, they can be thinned out into small pots before being transferred outside to their final positions after the risk of frost is over. Windowsills are ideal places for germinating seeds. 

Several vegetables can be sown now: tomatoes, chillies and aubergines can all be sown under cover, sowing a few seeds in a small pot which can then be pricked out when big enough to handle.

Beetroot, carrots and salad leaves can be started outdoors, too, depending on your location. Spinach really benefits from early sowing to avoid it going to seed in the summer. If sown every two weeks, these crops will produce a good succession throughout the year.

Since it’s Mother’s Day on 30 March, what better present to give along with a bouquet of scented flowers than a spring flowering box? I’d recommend a mix of seeds and bulbs such as Ranunculus and Anemones. Alternatively, give your mother a head start by buying her ready germinated Sweetpeas – five seedlings are often available in 9cm pots, ready to be planted out. These are guaranteed to make you very popular!