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I love early September: the sun is still hot but the nights are not stifling. The majority of plants have flowered and faded away but there are still some, particularly the dahlias, that are flowering their little heads off. There was a time when

hispanica): a plant that has been muscling its way into our gardens and woodlands. Bluebells are protected and it is illegal to dig them up from the wild although there are various nurseries who grow them for sale. They are best planted around this time

to have done by now. A box of tulips is sitting under my desk (along with two pairs of shoes, the overspill from the waste paper basket and a pen top whose presence I have been missing for a while). They should have been planted at least a month ago (the

snail' but I just cannot learn to 'love a forsythia'.Please dig them out and plant something else. If you must have a yellow shrub flowering now, then try Chimonanthus praecox; it bears pale, lemon meringue-yellow flowers and a scent that reminds one

there are not enough, because I bet you a shiny 20p piece that in a couple of weeks, when they have died back and other things have doubled in size, that you will have completely forgotten.I plant a lot of bulbs every year for various clients — last autumn I had about

and this year there were far too many; I pulled out about half but that was not enough. They smothered the other plants and ruined a whole corner of the garden. This autumn I shall be ruthless and will dig up 90% of the seedlings.That is probably enough of my