The sun has more power and with a bit of luck, the chance of a frost or cold spell is less likely. The garden has sprung into life, the chorus of mowers grows louder and everybody goes gardening.

Chelsea flower show is on TV, shops and garden centres are full of plants, all we need is some good weather.
This is good news for retailers and growers, the plants start to sell and the bank balance improves, May and June turnover is still vital to most nurseries and garden centres.
You will have lots of plants to choose from, sometimes too many, a little bit of forward planning will help

Remember to keep an eye on the weather. There is a wide range of plants in all shapes and sizes available, you should be okay to buy and plant them, but invest in some garden fleece to protect your plants we may still get a frost or bad weather.

Frost

Frost in now your enemy, once you could rely on the local weather forecasts to warn you, but in recent years I have found them to be unreliable and quite often misleading, they now give the temperatures for towns not rural areas this can give you a false sense of security. You need to learn to read the weather yourself look out for still conditions and clearing sky’s at night, if in doubt cover your plants with fleece

Tender plants

There are plenty of hardy plants on sale but often tender plants are sold with them and you need to be careful.

To help you we have split this month’s best buys into tender or hardy

Tender Plants

These are okay to buy but you need to be prepared to help them if the weather turns cold. This may just be covered with fleece, but some will need to spend some time indoors.

Hardy plants this month

Safe to buy and plant out.