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I have cats. Every so often I have to live with the guilt that they kill the local wildlife. It's usually one of the mice breeding in the compost heaps or a blue-tit fledgling. The main hunter is the black and white one; lovely and soft and over

nearly as long flowering it has spikes of flower where bonariensis and rigida have plates. It also comes in blue (hastata), pink (hastata rosea) and white (hastata alba). Even more hoorays all round (and perhaps the occasional whoopee.)

but you may feel a small part of the January blues fall away.If anybody should get them all right then I will award them a loud and prolonged round of virtual applause - and a huge bunch of heavily scented imaginary flowers. Answers in a couple of weeks.

than blue-tits and sparrows. Oh, and I hope it will stop them terrorising the budgerigars by climbing on top of the cage and hurling it to the ground.

blue dye plant but it is also an important Chinese medicinal herb, the roots of which are used to treat mumps. The other aspect of putting on a display in the great floral pavilion is the props to use. Personally I like my displays to resemble a small

as blooms had faded, I would have missed out on the delightful swelling seed heads.The variety 'Back in Black' is a deep blue agapanthus with striking black stalks, and each seed pod develops a dark mottling, too. They look wonderful in my autumn displays

Monday morning and a jay visited the kitchen window. I always think these are incredibly handsome birds and the small blue wing feathers still give me a childish thrill when I find one dropped. I can't resist picking it up to stick in my hat

still when variegated, but I have to admit it looks rather smart where it stands in a sheltered spot by the back door. The cyclamen are in pots close to the house, my favourite is a large blue glazed pot crammed with three red cyclamen, a stately pink

iris). The flowers vary in colour from pale blue to deep violet, with yellow-spotted splashes down each petal.Some of them share names with the engines of Rev. Wilbert Awdry, so we have I. reticulata 'Edward' and I. reticulata 'Gordon' although, sadly

Sunday, and the spring sunshine hit East Dulwich with a blast of warmth that has got everything moving again. The blue sky was almost painful to the eyes, after so much grey recently. Our south-facing fence, covered with ivy, was alive