Search - Articles

As temperatures rise and summer sets in, give your container plants a little time and care. Water, feed and deadhead them regularly over the next few weeks and you can keep plants flowering and looking good right into autumn.Container plants

' or general plant supports. Push them into the ground around young plants so that they can grow up between the twigs.Tall flower stems of delphiniums or dahlias can be tied individually to bamboo canes pushed into the soil alongside the developing shoots. Tie

Spring-flowering shrubs, such as physocarpus, philadelphus, forsythia and weigela produce their blooms on the woody stems made in the previous year. Cut out these stems as soon as the flowers have faded (or by July at the latest) and leave

. Practice the basics of rooting softwood cuttings with our step-by-step advice and you'll be able to use these skills for more complex cuttings. 10cm flower potCuttings compostPerlite (optional)Sharp knifeRooting hormone liquid (optional)Polythene bag

Fungal spores attack emerging tulip leaves. They invariably become malformed, with brown spots leading to rotting of both the foliage and flowers, although the buds may well fail to open. If they do open, there will probably be white spots

There are several different viruses that affect tulips, each with slightly different symptoms. Tulip breaking virus causes streaking or marking of purple, pink and red tulips, usually on the late-flowering cultivars. White and yellow tulips aren

Thanks to our warmer climate, most of us can now enjoy traditionally tropical plants in our summer gardens. Canna 'Tropicanna' is surprisingly tough for such a lush-looking plant, and can survive outdoors all year round (with a little protection during winter). Boosting the exoti...

be submerged to a depth of 5cm (2in).Cyperus involucratusAn attractive small iris, I. laevigata 'Variegata' has pretty blue flowers and white and green variegated foliage.Iris laevigata 'Variegata'This pretty British native bears delicate blue flowers from May

I might move house this year. It’s very early days, but the possibility of having a bigger garden is sending my plant-collecting gene into overdrive. I currently grow plants in my small, shady courtyard garden. But after four years of this, I long to choose plants that require fu...

There are many ways to store apples, from keeping them fresh in the fridge for a few weeks, to long-term storage in apple crates. Early apple varieties, harvested between September and October - such as 'Beauty of Bath' and 'Worcester Pearmain' - don't tend to keep well and are b...