Slowly but surely, gardeners up and down the country are gearing up for spring, tackling overdue jobs and preparing their outdoor spaces for the growing season ahead.
As you move through your plot – decluttering your shed, checking and repairing fencing and giving your lawn some love – you've probably noticed a few rather sad-looking plants: droopy, leafless and seemingly lifeless.
If you've spotted one such specimen, don't accept defeat, assume it didn't make it through the winter and consign it to the plant graveyard (aka the compost heap). As one gardener reveals, there's a simple way to check whether a plant is actually dead or merely dormant.
Ish Kamran – the charismatic gardener behind the 104K-strong Instagram account @gardening.with.ish – recently shared a rather clever trick with his followers.
Holding the bare-stemmed skeleton of a potted hydrangea into the camera, he says: "I've rescued this from the garden centre, and it looks completely long gone."
He continues: "But you do something known as the 'scratch test', where you just scratch the base of the stem, and if it's green underneath, then this is perfectly fine."
What to Read Next
Using his fingers, Ish gently removes some of the bark to reveal healthy, bright green growth beneath. "It's just dormant," he concludes, "and it should be happy and healthy throughout the course of summer."
If the colour hiding beneath the bark is brown, however, it's time to say goodbye. "Unfortunately, if it's brown underneath, it means it's too far gone – it's dead," says the gardener.
The simple test can be used on plants already living in your garden and, as Ish demonstrates, on those for sale at the garden centre – potentially saving you money.
"You can do this little test to see if it's worth buying or not and bag yourself what should've been a £10 hydrangea for 50p," he says with a proud smile.
So next time you come across a plant you suspect might be dead, remember: never judge a book – or indeed a plant – by its cover.
Gardening must-haves
Filberts of Dorset Gardeners Hand Salve
Haywards Garden Bee and Butterfly Water Stations, Garden Décor, set of three colourful bee water cups .
Home Sussex Handmade Peg Apron
Painted Garden Label/Marker
The Fae Potter Wild Bird Feeder ceramic hanging
WhinnyPoo WhinnyPoo Box of 3 Plant Feed
Wanda Sachs is the Multiplatform Writer for Country Living and House Beautiful, exploring the latest in gardening, wildlife and sustainable living alongside interiors and property. She is particularly interested in human-interest stories, the intersection of design and pop culture, and the evolving relationship between urban and rural life. Previously, she served as Associate Editor at The Berliner in Berlin, where she reported on culture and fashion. Wanda studied English and German at the Goethe University Frankfurt and Exeter University.
