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producing a single flower per stem once a year, moth orchids produce several stems, each boasting a dozen or more exotic flowers. Yes, I know you'll find these phalaenopsis orchids everywhere now, but they offer so much more value than a bunch of cut flowers

overcoat that has now infected their foliage in my garden (anyone know any resistant varieties?).With regular deadheading and watering I'm hoping to keep my sweet peas going a little longer, generating ever-welcome cut flowers.For me it's also one

Although flowers usually steal the headlines, think how bleak a garden would look without foliage. Leaves are a vital part of every garden. Consider the contrast between the lushness of summer and the bleakness of winter, when tender plants have

that have been providing interest around the garden, but this potted collection will suffer in the cold. I need to give the plants a sheltered home under cover.In past years I’ve sometimes risked keeping a few in my unheated greenhouse over winter

.While this verbena is often classed as a perennial, most gardeners treat it as an annual. Old plants can be cut down to their base each winter, and new shoots do often develop the following spring. However, for a reliable display (like the one shown in the picture

Flowers are not the only attraction in winter gardens. Biennial honesty (Lunaria annua) is a good example of a plant that keeps delivering after its flowers have passed. Once the petals have fallen, enchanting disc-shaped seed-pods are formed

from time to time is to lift and divide our plants. Large, congested clumps need gently lifting completely, like with my hardy geraniums, hostas, phlox, campanula and others.Healthy, young outer portions can be teased or cut away to be replanted

in the garden, although they could have been cut for indoor display.Another variety to consider is Zinnia marylandica 'Zahara Starlight Rose' (pictured left), a beautiful bicolour variety that has resistance to leaf spot and mildew disease, that can sometimes

close second only to roses, according to a recent survey of florists. And as with any 'easy-to-grow' plant, it divides gardeners in the same way that gladioli, dahlias and many others do.Horticultural snobs may give them a wide berth as they search out

perennial plants have soared upwards, and being preoccupied with other parts of the garden I took my eye off the ball. Now these perennials, including my delphiniums, have grown too tall to comfortably drop a metal plant support frame over the top