A perennial grown for it lovely winter and early spring flowers.  Most of the deciduous species retain there old leaves over winter and should be cut off, I usually do this in December but as long as they are done before the flowers show as it it much more difficult otherwise.  It is a plant that is excellent in woodland as it likes half shade and moisture retentive but well drained soil.  Easy from seed but it does need to [...]

Not a plant picture for December and January, but a winter picture, to remind us what the weather was like last year.  This is the family dog Raffy out in the snow, he thought it was wonderful, we still did at the time!

Bergenias are a much under rated plant they are no trouble and very nearly pest free.  They are a genus of evergreen perennials with thick, usually large rounded to oval even spoon shaped leathery leaves with indented veins that make ideal ground cover.  Most varieties a hardy but there are a few that are tender, they will tolerate sun or shade and any well-drained soil.  On poor soil especially they can go a rich red colour in the winter and [...]

Cotoneaster is a genus of deciduous, semi-evergreen or evergreen shrubs grown for the foliage, flowers or as in this picture berries.  Some species may be used as a specimen plant others for hedging and still others for ground cover.  Deciduous species prefer sun but the evergreen species are quite happy in part or even complete shade.  Non of them like to be water logged and so can be quite happy in dry soil and so are most useful for some [...]

Cyclamen hederifolium is an autumn flowering tuber.  The flowers are pendant and have reflexed petals in white through pale to dark purple-pink with a darker staining at the mouth.  Flowering usually starts any time from late July onwards often after a short spell of wet weather.  They will carry on flowering well in to October and sometime November if the weather is clement.  The leaves are just as attractive as the flowers usually ivy-shaped with silver-green marbling with never two [...]

This is a lovely late flowering plant that is mainly a perennial but there are some lovely annual ones also.  It is excellent for cutting and bringing into the house, but it is best as colour for late summer early autumn borders.  Colours include buttery yellow through orange, browny orange to red and dark red.  It is fully hardy and tolerates sun or shade and well drained to moist soil so all this means it is really easy to grow. [...]

This easy to grow perennial is a branching and bushy plant that produces a succession of spikes with cup shaped blooms which are pink or white.  It grows to a height of 60cm – 1 metre (2-3ft) and seeds gently around, always in better places than I originally put it.  It seems to look lovely with almost anything so companion planting is easy  I like it with Eryngium gigantium ‘Miss Wilmotts Ghost’.  I find it is very tolerant of dry [...]

Whether they are massed in traditional formal beds, trained on fences or through trees or even combined with other plants in mixed plantings there are roses for almost any garden.  They can stand alone as billowing or weeping specimens in a lawn or serve as an informal flowering hedge.  They can grow to 50ft or can be as used as ground cover and only be a few inches tall.  The colours range from white to every shade of pink though [...]

Salad Leaves By June we should be well into our successional sowings, I usually start planting salad crops from around mid-April depending on the weather, they are usually slow to start in the cold soil but by June the soil should be good and warm and you will definitely need to be planting about once a fortnight to keep a supply of fresh green leaves for the salad bowl. My favourite are cut and come again leaves which as soon as they [...]