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of the brassica family, which is apparent in the flowers. It grows best near water, hence its presence by my ditch.As folklore has it, this plant is sacred to the fairies and is therefore unlucky if brought indoors. I have no idea what terrible revenge the fairies

’t seed itself.Verbena hastata - I have written about this fabulous plant here before.Helianthus salicifolia - about the last thing to flower before autumn really hits. About eight feet tall with narrow willowy leaves.Geum 'Prinses Juliana' - I've always

in summer to produce more plants. The tricky bit is remembering to order them in August, so long after they've actually flowered.Make notes, Ladies and Gentlemen, always make notes (says the man who always forgets everything).

carpeted with the things and the air filled with the faint scent of their flowers. That, combined with low rising sunbeams and the lettuce-coloured young leaves, is one of the most spectacular sights you could ever wish to witness.I have been unable

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

A few weeks ago I wrote about the redesign of part of my garden. It's going well — thank you for asking. One of the plants I mentioned was Nectaroscordum siculum, which I think merits a blog of its own, as it's one of my very favourite plants

and robust in spirit) is a bit like a camel: it carries all the nutrition and energy it needs within its pale skin already. This means that it will flower without much help from us (at least for this year it will) no matter how late you plant them.So I reckon

job with crowds of flowers to greet us each morning. As the name suggests, the flowers usually fade away by lunchtime although, at this time of year, they last much longer. I also planted one directly in the ground against another wall just to see how

. Like the lives of James Dean or Tupac Shakur, it's short and spectacular. Thereafter, the leaves can be a bit dull and cast a lot of dry shade, so be wary of planting cherries as the sole centrepiece in a small garden. Plant small trees instead

the drive and while I have been away it has burst into flower. Cow parsley (or Anthriscus sylvestris to give it its posh Latin name) is a pretty biennial* native plant that scatters itself along roadsides and hedgerows.I learned from reading a fine blog