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There are several different viruses that affect tulips, each with slightly different symptoms. Tulip breaking virus causes streaking or marking of purple, pink and red tulips, usually on the late-flowering cultivars. White and yellow tulips aren't affected. The leaves can also be...

Hedge bindweed, Calystegia sepium, is able to spread rapidly to creep between cultivated plants, making it difficult to eradicate. It's able to re-grow from small pieces of cream-white root, so cultivating a border often aids its spread. It can make large clumps of foliage, obscu...

Characterised by apple-green, lobed leaves and flat heads of cream-white flowers in summer, ground elder spreads rapidly. What makes it even more difficult to eradicate is it can creep between cultivated plants. It creates large clumps of foliage that obscure and smother smaller ...

Field horsetail is also known as marestail. Once established, it has roots that extend to 2m deep, and spreads by means of creeping rhizomes. The plant produces light-brown stems in late spring, topped with cone-like structures, and these are followed by light-green shoots up to ...

Mind-your-own-business, Soleirolia soleirolii, is a creeping perennial with tiny flowers and leaves. The branching stems root as they spread, forming a dense mat of foliage that few plants can grow through. The plant will soon take hold on any soil or lawn, although it's particul...

After all the winds and rain that swept through earlier in the week (and which washed away poor Pippa's iris) a calm has descended on this part of the world.Wandering around this morning I've noticed that spring has been inching in under cover

Who could ever produce enough compost for all their needs? I remember watching the late Geoff Hamilton at Barnsdale week after week on Gardeners' World, using countless buckets of beautiful home-made compost. Every planting hole was filled

How tastes change. Going back five years, I hardly remember ever cooking with chillies, but now I use them nearly every week. They're so easy to grow from seed, but you can buy young plants from garden centres, like the pretty 'Medusa' (pictured) I

of rust fungus pustules.Just a few days ago the grass was a perfectly good green colour, so I wonder if it knows that it's now autumn. Autumn spells many things for the plant world, but for my warped, often rather pathologically orientated mind, it

The hardy winter-flowering varieties of pansy (Viola) are the best bet for winter and spring containers as they're rarely without blooms, even when other plants are shivering in the cold. The flowers look stunning set off against the golden foliage of the thyme and ivy. September...