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Foliage plays a central role in this window box, which means it looks good even before the citrus-coloured tulips and primroses burst into bloom in spring, adding a zesty splash of colour to your window ledge. September - OctoberFebruary - March20 minutesTulip bulbs x4Primrose p...

Sown now in the greenhouse, dahlia seeds will produce young plants ready to plant outdoors in late May to flower this year. Seed companies sell a range of quick-growing bedding strains that are suitable for growing this way. You can also use this method for sowing seeds saved fro...

Learn how to pinch out and pot on sweet peas with Sarah Raven's step-by-step video guide.springMore advice on growing flowersGrowing sweet peas from seedGrowing lupinsHow to create a cut flower patchPlanting out cerinthes

Of the bee family, similar to the honey bee. Distinguished by the orange hairs on its underside and the powerful jaws with which it shears off pieces of leaf. May cause damage to the leaves of roses, laburnums, lilacs, etc, during the egg

Rust fungus is the curse of hollyhocks. The undersides of the leaves are often peppered with bright yellow or orange-red rust spots with corresponding beige-yellow splodges on the upper surface. Eventually, it affects the whole plant, with leaves

A soil that has a high activity of hydrogen ions, which gives the soil a pH value below 7 and produces a yellow, orange or red reaction when in contact with universal indicator solution (see pH). Acid soils are suitable for growing ericaceous

Spores carried by water and wind spread this fungus, which leaves primula foliage peppered with holes. The initial signs are spots in a yellow-orange area, or in grey, papery tissue. When the centre falls out, holes appear. Look beneath the leaves

the mainland European form, orange spotted rather than the yellow speckled ones we get in Britain, and was that a swallowtail fluttering down the road?Each afternoon, as we sat in the garden of the gite, we were visited by hummingbird hawkmoths

The fungal spores that cause rust are spread on the wind, and they can survive over winter on the soil surface, on fallen debris and even objects such as fences and stakes. The symptoms spread in early summer from patches of orange on the stems

with low-growing stems can be propagated by layering, such as honeysuckle, mock orange (Philadelphus), rhododendron, magnolia and forsythiaDig up and divide clumps of winter aconitesPlant new shrubs and hardy perennialsCut away old foliage on Christmas