To cut or not to cut, that is the question?

I love simple unfussy flowers, so it was with a sense of dread that I had picked over the tangled brown remains of my Osteospermums that up to this year had survived everything that seven years of Lincolnshire weather could throw at them, but now seemed to have met their maker.

These plants have always delivered their bobbing pinkish daisy like flowers with the littlest effort on my part; simple therapeutic deadheading keeps them in flower till well into the autumn.

However, with this unusually balmy weather and a bit of love and care, in the form of compost and seaweed spray, lovely fresh green shoots are working their way through the dead looking nest of stems.

The plants are still a bit too big for their position but fear has gripped me so I think I’ll wait to see what happens before I do anything else. I did cut them back last year at the end of the season for the first time ever, which may have been why the winter weather got to them.