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and open. Prune to an inward pointing bud and the shoot will grow inwards, crossing other stems to create a congested bush.I remember, about 15 years ago, the Royal National Rose Society in St Albans conducted a trial comparing roses pruned conventionally

displays, and fruit to enjoy later this year. It's essential to prune wisteria twice a year. Once in the summer, shortening long, wispy new shoots to about 20cm (8in), and again in winter, pruning the same shoots further to roughly 5-7.5cm (2-3in

the long wispy side shoots back to about 20cm during summer (July is perfect), and then cutting these stems back further to about 5cm during winter. Pruning twice a year in this way not only controls the mass of new growth that develops each year, but also

I always have a dilemma in April, choosing the right plant supports for my tall border perennials, delphiniums in particular. Last year I used lots of home-grown sticks leftover from pruning my silver birch. Pushed firmly into the soil around clumps

to integrate some 'planned' piles of logs and prunings at the back of borders for these creatures, but they often have their own preferences for sheds and sheltered corners.The untidy gardener in me can use all those piles of autumn leaves and debris around

There is never enough time to get out in the garden, but I have to count myself lucky in making gardening my work. For the past 25 years I've been editing one gardening magazine or another, launching Gardeners' World Magazine back in 1991. And what

new hedge, plant garlic in modules, lift and divide clumps of phlox, and prune an overgrown Clematis viticella. Her husband Neil held the ladder, watching as Carol climbed an alarming distance. Perhaps, like me, he doesn't have a head for heights

and Joe Swift, and what a team they'll make when Gardeners' World returns to our screens on Friday 12 September 2008.

Last summer I discovered a twining, tender climber called Lophospermum, or lofos. I bought two varieties, 'Burgundy Falls' and 'Summer Cream' (both pictured left), as plug plants from a mail-order seed company. I grew my lofos under cover, in 7.5-10