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the season. Which plants you cut back depends so much on personal taste and weather - lots of rain or heavy snow tends to make everything go 'flumpf' earlier (flumpf is, of course, a well-known horticultural term describing the process of plant collapse). It

. Apricot trees (Prunus ameniaca) grow particularly well there because of the south-western aspect and because, before the invention of the gutter, they got lots of rain - apricots need lots of water to prevent the fruit from splitting.I mention this because

. The stems are at least 3m tall and they bear vast leaves. It needs a fair bit of water so I planted it just by a downpipe on the house so it gets lots of rain.My second star plant is Persicaria polymorpha. It is planted by the door to the chicken shed

stuff.If it rains or is too cold then you can always take refuge in the vast glasshouse and look at pineapples and vulgarly shaped dangling bananas. There was also a spectacularly flowered Sparmannia africana - if you have a big conservatory

only slept in a jungle once and was kept awake by noises and insects, so I lay there enjoying the sound of rain. The connected problem of very wet socks and damp bedding was less appealing. I have to say that I was quite pleased to get out of there

tufted economy blend.Last year was not a good year as there was too much rain and general bleariness for anything much to thrive. Vegetables drowned and fruit never really came to much, roses were battered by showers and meadows were flattened. Thank

the rain, protects from the sun and - if it is really hot - can be filled with water and slammed on the head as a cooling shower. At the moment I have four. There were more but a dog ate one and another was snaffled as headgear for a bonfire night guy

Since Christmas the weather has been almost universally ghastly - rain, fog, leaden skies and general Januaryness. Over the last couple of days, however, I have noticed everything change; the skies are blue and the sun is shining. In the hedges buds

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

of discomfort: ticks "the size of young crabs", snakes and disease. Eventually he died of, perhaps, diptheria on a rain-soaked hillside. His servant carefully packed up all his stuff, including boots, but threw away all the seeds and specimens that he had