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winter.Actaea 'James Compton' - these used to be called cimicifugas. Tall and very, very elegant. 'James Compton' has dark purplish leaves as well.Zauschenaria californica - any plant whose name begins with Z has a special spot in my heart. A great edging

woad body paint terrorising Romans. The plant from which this comes is Isatis tinctoria and, oddly, it is not even faintly blue, but very yellow.I was reminded of this by a quick preview visit to Jekka McVicar's stand at this year's Chelsea Flower Show

.This idea was sparked off by Nigel Colborn’s excellent blog Silvertreedaze. Nigel listed 50 herbaceous perennial plants without which he would feel bereft. I've decided that what is good enough for the all-knowing Nige, is good enough for you and me, so I

that perhaps we can bring our two skills together.The idea of forest gardening is to get away from the traditional vegetable plot (neat rows of annual vegetables that need to be sown every year) towards a more perennial way of growing edible plants. Perennial

called Panicum 'Rehbraun', planted with Cosmos 'Dazzler' and the fabulous Tithonia rotundifolia (pictured, top) that are bushy and wonderful, but I completely forgot to plant anything for spring: no tulips, no alliums, no nothing. As a result I had

of muffled hens while others are as small and delicate as the eyelashes of newborn babies. Some flower in May and others in July. Which one should you choose? How do we know which are the best, most reliable plants? It can get a bit confusing, especially when

plant family (Ranunculaceae), which contains such diverse plants as aconitum, hellebores, clematis and thalictrum. Anyway, we are mildly overrun by creeping and field buttercups. Creeping buttercups lodge in my lawn and many happy hours are often spent

than plant a rose or another wisteria - there might be some unpleasantness hiding in the soil - I decided to stick with annual climbers. We usually have morning glories (Ipomoea species) in pots, so I moved one of them to fill in and it did an admirable

better against a pale background - the darker varieties in particular get a bit lost against the naked soil of February.These irises are terribly easy to grow: plant the bulbs in autumn at about twice their own depth and wait. Clumps can be divided

taste delicious and are much loved by Jekka's dog, and her extensive collection of myrtles. It is always fascinating to visit a proper growing nursery where you can see the plants at every stage, from little baby seedlings to the larger plants