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

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

Monty Don and Chris Beardshaw demonstrate how to sow a range of vegetable crops in a greenhouse, including chillies, cucumber and lettuce. Pick up tips on choosing compost, watering, spacing, preventing disease and covering your seeds

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

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

Several varieties of lily form small bulbils on their stems from late summer to autumn, from which new plants can be propagated. If they fall off the plant, they rarely grow into large plants, so it's best to remove the bulbils by hand and plant

You can never have enough lettuce in summer, but sowing directly into the soil takes up valuable space in the garden. Keep a regular supply growing by sowing seeds in lengths of plastic guttering: short, 1m lengths are convenient and easy to handle

you started, so long as you plan further sowings in a few weeks.There are always plenty of seeds in a packet - usually enough to sow a row up to 6m long. But that would give you a glut all at once, so sow just a small quantity at one time, then sow

Tomatoes are easy to grow from seed and should germinate within two weeks. Compact cherry varieties can be grown in pots and hanging baskets, while larger, cordon types are more suited to being raised in the ground or in growing bags. Tomato seedsSeed