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It's strange how some wonderful plants just pass you by. I've only just discovered a lovely low-growing perennial called Verbena rigida. As is the way, I was buying paint at B&Q and just happened to walk through the plant area when I came across

The plants used in this hanging basket display are both colourful and fragrant. Heliotrope is one of the best scented plants for growing in a sunny spot, and works well in baskets. The lavender and nemesia are also richly fragrant, and all three

Nemesia plants produce a haze of flowers throughout the summer, and with the pale-gold felt leaves of the helichrysum, a soft cloud-like effect is created. Helichrysum grows happily in sun or part-shade and is ideal for brightening up a dull corner

, including African violets, cane-stemmed begonias, coleus, cyperus, impatiens, ivy, rubber plants and verbena.More on growing and caring for house plantsTaking stem cuttings from dracaena house plantsGrowing cactus plants from seedGrowing indoor amarylis

cutting. You can tease the pot of plantlets apart and grow them on separately or transplant them as a group to produce a bushier pot plant.More advice on taking cuttings from plantsCarol Klein demonstrates how to take basal cuttings.Dahlias, with Sarah

the compost regularly to make sure it doesn't dry out and take off any browning leaves or spent blooms.More hanging basket ideasPot up a hanging basket with geraniums and verbenaCreate a cottage garden look with a display of begonia, marguerite, plectranthus

and carex for an autumn pot displayEnjoy the long flowering season of Verbena bonariensisTrain a late-flowering clematis up a wallEncourage wildlife to visit your garden by growing flowers for year-round colour

and petunia with 12 per cent.Yes, the result did surprise me, as although I do grow winter pansies I probably wouldn't have put them at the top of my list. Having said that, if I'd been allowed to vote for the best winter bedding plant then I don't think

-lizzies but will always defend your right to grow them.Parks, however, are a different matter and everybody is allowed an opinion.I was pondering this subject while I was loafing around Paris last week in perfect weather and wandered into the Jardins de Luxembourg

It's performance that matters when it comes to bedding, and top of my list for the past few years have been New Guinea Impatiens. In dry summers of the past the top spot might have been taken by pelargoniums, trailing Surfinia petunias, verbena