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Wendy has spent the past few days tidying the plants and loading them onto trolleys for the show gardens that we're supplying. Then Mac, my husband, has been delivering them to the gardens at Chelsea.Cleve West, designer of the BUPA garden, kindly

on the surface of the compost and cover with perlite, the white granular material that can be purchased at most garden centres. Then put the seed tray or module tray in a propagator or on a heated mat at 16°C. The seeds will germinate in about 20 days, depending

It's now May, and we're just 12 days away from building our display at the Chelsea Flower Show. We've had a few bouts of sunshine in the last week, during which I could literally feel the plants growing.The new Nasturtium, Tropaeolum majus 'Black

. The plants are for our own display, the theme of which is the myth and magic of herbs. Calendula is steeped in both. It was first used in Indian and Arabic cultures, before being discovered by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. In medieval England, marigolds

It has been one of those typical early spring weeks, not enough hours to do everything I want to do. The team from BBC Gardeners' World Magazine came down for a couple of days to take a series of photographs on how to raise plants from seed

.It's so rewarding to see the plants all lined up, waiting for their May debut in the best flower show in the world. This week we moved the borage that was sown at the end of December. It's fortunate that borage is a hardy annual, because within a few days

Blustery crisp days and cold nights, north winds, sleet, hail, snow and cold rain. It's amazing with this mixture of weather that plants manage to plod their way into spring.I was very excited this week to notice that one of my favourite herbs

the snow settled on the floods!All this and it is a mere 16 weeks before we are on site, and 12 weeks before the gardens are built at the Chelsea Flower Show. I always find it a miracle that the plants are ready for the show. It's as if the plants know

; the temperatures have reached 23ºC in the day and fall to 13ºC at night. Sudden high temperatures after a long period of cold have caused many plants to grow very fast, which leads to wilting. The wonderful Angelica archangelica was the first to succumb

that in my lifetime so many of our native wildflowers and herbs have become endangered. They are now protected; it is illegal to pick or dig up any wild plant. However, it is heartening that with the increase in more sympathetic farming practices