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as cut flowers). I saw them at the base of street trees, gleefully mixed in with bright chrysanthemums and lipstick-pink cyclamen. Not  a very conventional mixture but certainly striking.There are variations: this one has a good solid evergreen box edge

clinging in tight clusters to the branches. Self-fertile.And Malus 'Golden Hornet': the yellow equivalent of 'Red Sentinel'. A really heavy crop of small golden fruit packed together as tightly as a box of bats. Self-fertile.Malus 'Red Jade': a weeping

cm) but the pale yellow flowers have a rather charming twist. Good for pots and the front of borders.Dahlia 'David Howard': reminds me of the finest chunky cut marmalade. The orange is quite strong but very cheerful. I grow it with the second flush

their prejudices: I, too, dismissed all hanging baskets and garishly coloured window boxes as tasteless and vulgar.But a couple of years ago, brothers and sisters, I saw the light. No matter how much I disliked the colour combinations I could not deny the fact

on a frosty day is one of the greatest pleasures. The winter is when evergreens come into their own and the frost just makes yews look even better. Hedges seem to be draped with diamonds and the shiny leaves of box glisten. There is not a great deal

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

 domesticate it are always a disappointment. When I used to rush around London replanting window boxes we often used heathers for a bit of winter colour - along with those rather ghastly Solanum (the ones with orange berries). Although they looked sort of

am told. There is a large box of seed packets which need sorting and sowing, too. We shall return home later with glowingly healthy cheeks and a feeling of satisfaction.It won’t stop me worrying or complaining about the weather though, that would