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, making box balls is a great way to start. Box is the ideal topiary plant, and a simple sphere will allow you to try out the basic techniques and see the results quickly. Simply buy a tray of rooted cuttings and follow our instructions. It will take around

house plantsLooking after orchids, with a video guide from Sarah RavenGrowing orchidsGrowing cactiInstalling an automatic watering systemBrowse a selection of general houseplantsView a variety of cactus plants

on growing summer displaysSowing sunflower seeds, demonstrated by Monty DonSarah Raven gives advice on taking dahlia cuttingsPlants for late-summer colourCreating a daisy window box

thing, it has continued growing strongly to dominate this display. Yes it's tender, but I could take cuttings now to keep young plants through winter on a warm, bright windowsill. The contrast in colour between the cream-and-pink-veined upper surface

garden needn't have fewer plants or less variety than a large garden, but it's important to avoid growing large plants and shrubs, which can exclude light from the garden and compete with smaller plants for water and nutrients. Here, Monty Don and James

It's easy to be sniffy about the ornamental cabbage. It is quite a strange concept; an odd, Frankensteinish amalgam of vegetable and bedding plant. However, my mind was changed - temporarily at least - during a recent trip to New York. I saw

, an easy-to-grow bulb that produces flowers during August, filling that colour gap between summer perennials that have passed their best and autumn ones that are yet to start flowering.My lilies have already been planted, but bulbs may still be available

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

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

, and eventually grew too large.Let's be fair. All plants grow, and many trees, shrubs, perennials and climbers can grow too tall or wide for their site, so this isn't just a 'problem' with conifers.As always when choosing plants, do your homework, get advice from