Have to prune? Do it soon | The Compleat Home Gardener
Published 11:00 am Wednesday, March 4, 2026
The beginning of March belongs to forsythia so clip the long branches of this yellow flowering shrub and enjoy indoors as it bursts into bloom.
Pruning during blooming is a good rule to follow as you won’t be cutting off future blooms if you harvest shrubs while they are flowering. Just make an effort to shape up the shrubs you prune by removing any crossing or extra long branches.
March is also a good month to prune roses if you have not yet cut back your shrub and hybrid tea roses by at least one third. Yes, even if your rose plants show signs of fresh new growth, you can cut them back. You will be forgiven for forgetting to prune and the rose plants will reward your snippy behavior with more flowers on more compact plants.
Q. When should I fertilize my lawn? I did not feed it in the fall. I do see some weeds so maybe I should use a weed and feed product? L.M. Buckley
A. You can fertilize your lawn now with a spring or organic lawn food but do not use a weed and feed product in the month of March. In our Western Washington climate, it is still too cool for weed killing chemicals to work effectively and striving to eliminate herbicides or weed killers from our ground water is a good reason to omit weed and feed products. Fertilizing, aerating and proper watering as well as mowing high are better ways to control weeds in your lawn. Tip: Allow your grass to grow to three inches then remove only one third of the blade. By keeping the grass blades above two inches you are creating shade that helps to control many of the most common sun loving lawn weeds including clovers and dandelions.
Q. I want to fill my large, empty porch pots with blooming plants for a celebration at our home this month. The garden center says that March is too early for the geraniums and petunias I love to put in my pots during the summer. Any suggestions? R. Email
A. March right into a colorful container season by choosing frost resistant bulbs, perennials and early annuals such as pansies and primroses. Garden centers and nurseries offer potted bulbs of tulips and daffodils to use in the center of a container and surround these spring bulbs with pansies, primroses, candytuft and heather blooming now.
Tip: You don’t have to remove the potted bulbs from their plastic nursery container. Just dig a hole and plop in the pot, bulbs and all into the larger container. Cover the plastic rims with moss or a mulch. Be sure to choose budded bulbs not yet in bloom to enjoy weeks of future color. The day of the big party you can cut blooming branches from blooming shrubs to poke into the soil and fill in around your potted bulbs.
Q. Do you use AI to write your garden columns? Asking for a friend. Anon
A. Ha! Thanks for asking. I cannot use Artificial Intelligence to write this local gardening column because the gardening information they offer is not local and frankly, often incorrect. I did check it out and once they told me the time to plant tulip bulbs was in April, I knew somebody goofed up on the intelligence. (Tulip bulbs are planted in the fall not the spring.) Besides, gardening is an art not a science and advice varies depending on the weather and location of the garden so information benefits from the human factor.
Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of “Easy Answers for Great Gardens” and several other books. For answers to gardening questions, visit plantersplace.com and click “As The Expert”. Copyright for this column owned by Marianne Binetti. For more gardening information, she can be reached at her website, www.binettigarden.com.
