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-leaved lime tree in the middle of the gardens. I hardly ever see this curious semi-parasitic plant, it is decidedly scarce in London and the south-east. Although widespread in central and western England, there is a big hole in the distribution map around

.I had quite happily (and rather pompously I’m sorry to say) stated that these lovely insects were never a problem in the garden, because, although they are sap suckers, they prefer wild flowers to cultivated plants. Boy did I get that wrong. I was given

Due to the wet weather of the past week, I haven't been out in the garden much. The snails, however, have been very active; I can barely walk to the front gate without the familiar sound of snails crunching underfoot. Most of the plants we grow

completely destroying the plant.I haven't got any daffs in my garden, but the fly is quite welcome to the Spanish bluebells that come up in vigorous drifts every year. In the wider countryside it is quite at home using native bluebells too. My fond attachment

quantities per m³ of estimated water volume. Since the park was revamped a year or so ago it is a delightful place to wander, but the pond was always the low point. There are now recently installed baskets of water plants (more needed I think), and wire

of the finest herbaceous plants in cultivation'. However later editions, after about 1905, state 'it is easier to plant than to get rid of in the garden'.

americana. I hope I countered her worries that they would kill the plant. Although they're now very common in the London area, the rosemary, lavender and sage bushes they eat are so vigorous that I've never seen any serious defoliation. And they

everywhere. A few years ago I cleared out the small window boxes of the dead and dying plants that were clearly not doing very well. All I found, instead of roots, were lots of these small (7-8mm) creamy white maggots — vine weevil grubs.The adult weevils

plastic flowers instead.Does this sound harsh? If you think it is, I still can't believe that the Editor of Gardeners' World magazine let me get away with calling gardeners 'cack-handed' when it came to planting nectar-rich plants and hanging seed balls

, finding a fasciated marsh thistle, Cirsium palustre, somewhere in the flood plain of the River Cuckmere, near Alfriston, Sussex, when I was aged 12 or 13. I thought I had found some exciting new plant, or strange metamorphic phenomenon. I was amazed how