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This has been a better week despite the weather. The days are getting longer, the light levels are increasing, the sun has shone off and on and the seedlings are emerging.Our nasturtium seedlings will be beautiful flowering plants at the Chelsea

above), a glorious Clivia miniata. I had one many years ago, and thoroughly enjoyed its stunning display of bright orange trumpets, but this one was different. Among a selection of Clivia with broad green strap-like leaves was one plant with light

unstaked. All it takes is one downpour and strong wind when plants are coming into flower and the whole lot can be flattened.But this May has caught me out. Some of my plant supports are in place, but not all of them. In the past two-three weeks my

, there are no articles about that other winter stalwart, the aconite, and I intend to rectify that right now.Eranthis hyemalis is the egg yolk-yellow flower we see clustered around trees in February. It is shorter than its chum the snowdrop but has wider, more

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

coloured flowers, usually with a brilliant boss of yellow stamens at the centre. While many bedding plants remain dwarf and compact cosmos grows taller, swaying above them on the breeze. Seeds are cheap, and these tender summer bedding plants are always

of the plant, attracting black sooty mould, which inhibits photosynthesis and deprives the plant of energy.Young tender growth is vulnerable to aphid attack. These tiny insects (1mm-7mm long) are usually green or black and breed fast, smothering the plant

The large, beautiful caterpillar larvae of the elephant hawk moth has two pairs of eye markings, which are made even more prominent when it withdraws its head into its body. They are, typically, a blackish-brown colour but are sometimes green

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

' garden though, but in the playground of Goodrich Primary School. Like most Victorian London primary schools Goodrich suffers from an over-abundance of tarmac and virtually no 'green' open space. There are a few concrete and wooden tubs of flowers