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is that the well-drained substrate (usually including crushed brick and concrete) produces a sparse vegetation of mainly annual wildflowers, and areas of bare ground that rapidly warm up in the sun. This favours the warmth-loving insects that elsewhere in Britain

is lost, as none of it will produce a single flower the following summer.Late-flowering clematis are ideal in a border, either trained up a wigwam made of bean sticks or growing through an earlier-flowering shrub, such as weigela or lilac. An annual prune

and bamboos as the new stars of the border and containers.They come mainly from South Africa where they're found on the fynbos, a rich and diverse habitat made up of bulbs, perennials, annuals and shrubs. This area is occasionally swept by fire, but smoke

'll have my first hardy vegetables in the ground. It seems hardly possible at the moment, but it's amazing the difference a few weeks make in early spring.What are you sowing now? Have you sown any half-hardy annuals yet? Post your seedling tally

with genetic make-up as it does with horticultural aptitude.  The subject was on my mind a while back when I went on my annual pilgrimage to see my mate Natasha in Rugby who tends to three plots. Her acreage backs on to a plot owned by John, a lovely man who

centre. The latter turned out to be an annual chrysanthemum: 'Eastern Star'. All of the above are easy to grow and will also help attract vital pollinators to your vegetable crops.There's still time to get dahlias started now and get a head start

of lettuce etc.A word on fruit crops: this is taken to mean anything which has the seed in the part where it's edible, so: artichokes, courgettes, cucumbers are all classed as fruit as well as what we traditionally call fruit.Annual flowers should be planted

in late-summer are pretty wide-ranging, as are shrubs, climbers and herbaceous perennials. Most fashionable annuals, exotics and tender perennial patio plants should also stay in flower until late-September, or even early October, if properly looked after

.Cowslip, Primula verisLeft to its own devices, the foxglove tree, Paulownia tomentosa can grow to a height and spread of 12m x 10m. But if cut down to the ground annually, it will produce long (3m) stems with leaves up to 60cm wide.Foxglove tree, Paulownia

30cm (12in) or more.This aquatic perennial should be divided annually to maintain the striking green and white horizontal variegation of its foliage. When dividing only replant the most vigorous sections. Plant with 5cm (2in) of water above the crown