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their absolute best.When we moved into our house we planted several beautiful liquidambar trees. More than twelve years later, some are virtually stately. Liquidambar 'Lane Roberts' is the one to choose for the deepest red-purple foliage. We bought one, plus a

How tastes change. Going back five years, I hardly remember ever cooking with chillies, but now I use them nearly every week. They're so easy to grow from seed, but you can buy young plants from garden centres, like the pretty 'Medusa' (pictured) I

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

). This pruning sequence promotes the development of flowering spurs along the main branches, and the effort really is worth making. Fingers crossed for a frost-free forecast!

-leaved shoots. They pop up all over the place and grow faster than the grass, so it's obvious when the lawn needs mowing.The shoots are the runners of one of my favourite plants, Salix exigua, or the coyote willow. This is about the tallest plant I have

A perfume-filled balmy evening in the garden is heaven on earth. I've always felt that perfumed plants provided an added bonus - scent plus beauty - as who can help but feel a wash of pleasure when experiencing all that a rose-clad arbour has

Dulwich, pictured left, makes of the wild plants turning up in the rough lawn; they are pyramidal orchids, Anacamptis pyramidalis.I was entranced to find them growing here. They are usually chalk downland plants, and they take me back to my childhood

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

There are some people whose names are so easily connected with what they do that they don't need surnames, such as Madonna, Topol or Rasputin. We all know who they are and that they are, respectively, best known for:i) Making music (and, it must

I watered, it rained within 24 hours.The downpours we've had in Hampshire over the last few days have made a serious difference to the plants. The veg plots are suddenly flourishing and some of my miserable-looking lettuce seedlings have finally