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Be Plant Wise, a government campaign to halt the spread of non-native, invasive pond plant species in our ponds, streams and rivers, was launched this week.The five key culprits listed on the Be Plant Wise website are: floating pennywort

of bumblebee rely on chalk grassland, hay meadows and other disappearing habitats that our gardens cannot provide for them.The problem for bees is that their favourite food plants are often considered to be 'weeds'. They don't go for highly bred double

There are some plants which everyone agrees smell bad. The titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) and the dragon arum (Dracunculus vulgaris), for example, both smell like rotting corpses when in flower, to attract pollinating flies. Happily, not all

I might move house this year. It’s very early days, but the possibility of having a bigger garden is sending my plant-collecting gene into overdrive. I currently grow plants in my small, shady courtyard garden. But after four years of this, I long

my mum's plum tree.When browsing through seed catalogues recently I came across some pretty horrible plants. Take daffodils, for example. You can't beat the elation of seeing your first daffodil of the year in flower. But I don't think I'd like

I've been quite frustrated with my garden lately. I'm getting impatient waiting for plants to become established; there are too many gaps in the borders and the recent cold spell has prevented the quick germination of seeds I sowed on bare soil. All

Thank heavens for winter-flowering plants. These hardy specimens often have tiny, inconsequential blooms, but they more than make up for them with their powerful, sweet fragrance. I rarely notice the flowers of Sarcococca hookeriana, but I’m always

In last week's Observer Magazine, Dan Pearson wrote about collecting berries from hedgerows near him, so he could grow plants with local provenance. This is a subject I've been thinking about a lot recently, so I read on with interest.Put simply, a

part. We all sowed our seeds, watered, tended and waited.Now, in late May, we should all have good, strong sunflowers ready to plant out (depending on where we live). Mine have been outside in pots for about three weeks now, but I only planted them

Why is it that we have no trouble expressing our dislikes, but when it comes to things we love, we're more reticent? Last year I conducted a poll in the office to see which plants were 'most hated' and blogged about the results. The response