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Growing your own cut flowers is pure luxury, but it's also a great way to save money. I love to have flowers in the house and come late-winter I feel I almost need some spring cheer to help me ward off symptoms of SAD.Cut flowers also remind me

I've always been a great fan of bulbs, in all their shapes and sizes. I couldn't get through the winter without snowdrops, and the prospect of daffodils, heralding spring. But right now, in (a rather cold and wet) May, alliums are centre stage.It took me a while to find the best ...

perfume. It's sharp, lemony and ever-so-slightly sweet - I love it.This year there seems to be a lot of grey mould (Botrytis cinerea) lurking about on cyclamen plants. Each time I make my purchases, I spend a good few minutes checking around the base

While the large flower shows are pretty mind-blowing, it's the local flower shows that get me excited about growing plants and vegetables. Many towns and villages have horticultural societies or gardening clubs, which hold at least one flower show a

The sun is shining and the daffodils are out. Nothing spells the start of spring like a mass of golden, trumpet-shaped narcissi.Among the flowering daffodils are some that are only producing foliage. These ‘blind’ daffodils, either side of the driveway, are probably failing to fl...

now. They’re much more likely to germinate and grow successfully now that the soil’s warmer. It would have been a risk planting them a few weeks ago when it was still so cold.Some vegetable seeds can be sown directly outdoors now. I tend to sow only

.FERA carries out masses of environmental research, and their York site is filled to the gunnels with people I feel very at home with, including plant pathologists and entomologists. There are spores and bugs galore.It was great to meet Phil Jennings, also known

up’ one or more of the organisms that can cause damping off.I’m not saying don’t use water butts, but it’s well worth taking care with what plants you use the water on. I use water butt water on more mature plants, and on those in open ground. I

. It's still common practice to use sphagnum moss and peat as a growing medium for carnivorous plants - Kew is practically peat free, but even they use a little peat for carnivorous plants. As soon as my plants were put into their new homes they took

What's the difference between wildflowers and weeds? They're at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to acceptability in the garden, but are they really so different? A weed is a essentially just a plant growing in the wrong place. But what