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The early bird... gets very cold trying to photograph flowers in the frost. The weather this past week has been chilly in my neck of the woods, but frost brings its own beauty to our gardens. Frost is an ephemeral beauty that melts with the rising

Sometimes plants do the strangest things, and some of these could make you a small fortune. One of the first dahlia blooms to open in my garden has put on more of a show than expected by producing a flower head with two faces! It looks as if two

There's something really rewarding about cupping your hand under an old foxglove flower, tapping it gently and collecting the seeds that cascade out of it. It must be something like collecting coins from a slot machine when you've hit the jackpot

what they're going to be like. This 'natural' hybridisation may produce progeny of the same flower colour and form as the parent, or something completely new. Then the fun really starts, as you can name them what you like. Helleborus 'Adam's Perfection

What a surprise it is when the Japanese aralia bursts into bloom in December. Quite why anything should naturally be programmed to flower at this time of year always puzzles me, but perhaps this native of Japan and South Korea is just confused

, or a recent favourite, the fan flower (scaevola).But these large-flowered busy Lizzies kick many other summer bedding plants into second (or third) place. They're stunning! Find a spot they like, which is thankfully a shaded position that most other sun

that because I go for the dwarf ones - stocky, short varieties - which are perfect in pots. This one is 'Little Dorrit'; its flowers, with golden rays bursting out from a dark centre, are daintier than the giants. Seed catalogues offer varieties with double

It pays not to be too neat and tidy in the garden or you'll miss out on so many unexpected delights. Agapanthus look stunning in full flower through summer, but if I'd been too hasty with the secateurs and trimmed away the flower spikes as soon

family home in Surrey had a massive, spreading clump of them outside the front door, where they flowered through late-summer and into autumn. They flourished despite the challenges of the site, with its very heavy but dry clay soil along the wall

more (that's a topic for another day).So, what are the alternatives? There are quite a few annual climbers to choose from actually. Morning glory (ipomoea) is popular, but their flowers are all too short-lived. The purple bell vine (rhodochiton) is nice