Move dormant fuchsias and heliotropes on to the greenhouse staging, if possible in a warm spot where a temperature of 10ºC (50ºF) can be maintained. Spray the plants with water on sunny days, and give them increasing amounts of water as growth becomes active.
Sow and prick out. Sow seeds of cannas, coleus, gloxinias, tuberous and fibrous begonias, celosias, abutilons and streptocarpus. Place the pans or seed boxes in a propagating frame heated to 16-18ºC (61-64ºF). When the seedlings are large enough to handle, prick them out individually into 3in. pots of John Innes potting compost No 1 and grow them on at normal cool house temperature.
  Sow seeds of schizanthus to provide plants for flowering in late spring.
Sow tomatoes. If you wish to plant tomatoes in a cool greenhouse during April, sow the seeds this month in pots or boxes of John Innes seed compost in a temperature of 16ºC (61ºF).
  Start an early batch of achimenes into growth by placing the corms into shallow boxes of moist peat and keeping them in a temperature of 13-16ºC (55-61ºF). When the shoots are an inch or so high, pot them into 5 in. pots containing John Innes potting compost No. 1, at the rate of five corms per pot.
Prune greenhouse climbers. Prune greenhouse climbers, such as plumbagos and passifloras. by cutting back the growth made last summer to within one or two buds of their point of origin.
  Keep watering to a minimum and ventilate freely on mild days.
Care of ferns. Remove any dead and discoloured fronds from ferns, potting on into larger pots any that may require it. Potting on is needed if more roots than compost can be seen when the soil ball is tapped out of the pot. Use John Innes potting compost No. 1 or a mixture of 2 parts loam, 1 part leaf-mould and 1 part sand. To increase your stock of ferns, divide old plants and pot the divisions separately into 3 in. pots. Use the vigorous crowns from the outside of the old plants, discarding the weak ones from the centre.
  Towards the end of the month transfer to 5 in. pots young plants of fuchsias, zonal and regal pelargoniums and coleus, which have been over-wintered in 3 in. pots, setting them in John Innes potting compost No. 2.