I do not suppose that many gardeners will miss the fact that May is the start of the Garden Show season. The Malvern Spring Show kicks off, with a more relaxed feel at the wonderfully scenic Three Counties Show Ground at the foot of the Malvern Hills.  Fair to say though that it is the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, this year from 21st to 25th May, that is the big attraction with large and small demonstration gardens as well as displays from plant nurseries that are almost gardens in their own right.  The show does get very crowded and the weather often adds its own challenges, whether too ..read more

I find April the most uplifting month in the garden because plants are all growing at full throttle. It may seem that there is an endless list of gardening tasks to do, but as we get into this month it is worth making time to undertake some propagation.  There is great joy in getting new plants for nothing and being able to share with friends or the plant stall for a worthy cause.  Mid to late spring is the propagation season for soft wood cuttings.  Some people shy away from propagation, and particularly taking cuttings because of failed experiences, but as with many things in ..read more

By high summer it is tempting to ease off the gardening work and I would not deny anyone a well deserved rest.  But there are a couple of tasks that will keep your garden in good health and giving a great display right through to the end of the season. The first of these is deadheading.  The object is to keep a plant flowering to the end of summer by removing the dead flower head before seeds form.  You need to cut the stem below the base of the flower, and ideally down to where a leaf or shoot is growing out so you are not left with a length of dead stalk.  The time to sto ..read more

With the upcoming coronation this month and the common practice of planting up pots, baskets and even flower beds to celebrate significant events, my thoughts turned to gardeners seeking blue flowers in a Red, White & Blue scheme.  There is no shortage of red and white blooms in a wide range of plant types but blue is a different kettle of fish. The quickest and easiest blue flower for a coronation display has to be the popular summer bedding plant Lobelia with light or dark blue flowers in bushy or trailing form.  But there are a few longer lasting blue flowered plants of every ..read more

I was brought up in a fairly rural village and my mother’s mantra for a healthy childhood seemed to be “fresh air and exercise”.  That suited me pretty well as we children roamed the country lanes on our bicycles (more likely to meet a tractor than a car) and I spent many happy hours in a huge tract of National Trust wood- and grass-land nearby. What has this got to do with gardening in November?  Well late autumn is the time to rake up nature’s bounty of fallen leaves and turn them into the marvellous soil conditioner that is Leaf Mould.  And the first part of this activity cer ..read more

It is slightly unusual for me to devote an article to a garden that I have visited but there are two reasons for writing about the Walled Garden at the Luton Hoo Estate.  In the interests of transparency I should say that I attended a free Press Day for garden writers that involved lunch and chocolate cake but beyond the prompting to travel a bit further to visit a new garden, there is no bribery and corruption going on!  The truth is that I have always loved walled gardens and historic greenhouses and the word Octagonal was enough for me. The first remarkable thing is that Luton Hoo ..read more

You may be familiar with the phrase succession planting from vegetable gardening where it is used to ensure a constant supply of fresh produce, especially for quick summer crops grown from seed. In the ornamental garden we grow fewer annuals – although I will come back to these very useful contributors to the summer borders – and the term succession planting requires a different approach. The objective is much the same, to have a succession of colour and interest throughout the year in each area of the garden and this is particularly important in domestic gardens where there simply is not spac ..read more

This blog for February gives me the ideal opportunity to discuss best use of the spring planting season and a cold (i.e. unheated greenhouse) if you have one.  Gardening writing, including mine, regularly talks about ‘early spring’ rather than specifying a particular month because the advent of increasing temperatures varies so much from place to place even within south east England and from year to year; and more so in this era of unpredictable weather. The spring planting season, at least until late April, is the time to add, split or transplant Hardy plants to your garden.  Hardy ..read more

As I was starting to write this blog I read an article by someone who had given away all their belongings and was wandering the world carrying only a rucksack. The idea of giving up any form of long term residence is unlikely to appeal to a gardener but it did make me think about how easy it is to collect gardening tools and paraphernalia whether we need and use them or not.  Do I really need three trowels? How many hand forks is too many including one with round prongs that I never reach for?   Not to mention years’ of Christmas gifts sitting in a cupboard – clever plant ties w ..read more

Have you ever noticed how many of the flowers we rely on for a late summer display tale the form of a Daisy? Although daisies are one of the most familiar flower forms that we see from the small native Lawn Daisy (Bellis perennis) to the tall Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) the flowers themselves are most definitely worth a closer look. The ‘flower’ is in fact a collection of dozens or sometimes hundreds of tiny individual flowers that make up the centre, surrounded by a ring of ‘ray’ flowers that are adapted and look like the long outer petals. Each floret is pollinated and produces a seed resu ..read more