Search - Articles

Sowing cyclamen from seed is surprisingly easy, but it's not a job for the impatient gardener: grown this way it can take a year or more before you are rewarded with beautiful blooms. To produce indoor plants you need to use seeds of tender large

Ensure a burst of spring colour by sowing polyanthus seeds in the previous summer. Watch Monty's video, including tips on compost and aftercare, to find out how.summerMore advice on primulasHow to rejuvinate primrosesBrowse primula varieties

one small, inexpensive seed.Sweet peas aside, annual climbers are rarely seen in borders, but they're easy to grow from seed with a heated propagator in a greenhouse (or a frost-free porch or indoor window sill).Annual climbers are often grown as fast

in garden centres or online, at around £4 for 15. They’re hard to establish in cold, wet soil outside, so plant in pots first.Soak roots in water for half an hour if they look dry. Carefully separate into individual crowns, each with a shoot and set of roots

If you want a spring-flowering display to go on as long as possible, plant separate layers of different varieties of bulbs in one pot. All you need to create a display which flowers in succession is a large pot and a variety of bulbs

30 minutesCarefully remove the tiny bulbils growing from the leaf axils of the plant.Treat the bulbils as if they were large seeds. Plant several in a pot of multi-purpose compost, spacing them 2.5cm apart.Cover with a layer of compost and water using

when the plants are less likely to wilt, and pot them up as soon as you can, keeping them out of strong sunlight.PinksCuttings compostGardeners' knifeSecateursSmall potsJune20 minutesSnip 10cm lengths from the tops of healthy, non-flowering shoots

Sarah Raven demonstrates the most effective method for picking tulips from the garden to ensure the best display indoors, without inhibiting next year's growth.MayMore advice on growing tulipsTreating tulip virusLayering bulbs in a pot

Alliums are spectacular plants and it's worth saving a few seeds to sow in the spring to grow some more for the garden. The seeds will germinate quickly and reach flowering size in a couple of years.SecateursPaper envelopesSeptember - October20

Agapanthus are easy to grow from seed and you may get flowering plants in as little as two years.Collect seed when the seedhead is becoming brown and the capsules are starting to burst. If the weather is turning cold you can collect seed prematurely