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It's Valentine's Day on Monday. Walking past a local florist yesterday I spotted buckets of red roses, sunflowers, gerbera and iris. It's incredible to think that in one of the most dreary months of the year, we can decorate our homes

corollas, like foxgloves and red campion. Smaller-tongued bees are generally less fussy. Buff-tailed bumblebees, B. terrestris have learned to rob nectar from plants with long corrollas, by piercing them and taking nectar from the side of the flowers. I

, scented, white-flowered daffs with dark red, jagged centres. I planted them in a large terracotta pot, next to a few pots of 'Minnow' - a dwarf, creamy-flowered variety with contrasting yellow centres.Both varieties are quite late flowering in April

are commendable, if nothing else. There are friends who grow the plants indoors and wonder why they don't fruit (the flowers need pollinating); friends whose plants flower and fruit but the tomatoes rot at the ends (blossom end rot caused by irregular watering

marigolds, cosmos and agastache.Planted in one of the tree pits was some monarda, (commonly known as bee balm or bergamot). My partner hadn't seen these flowers before and the name was on the tip of my tongue. I smelled them to jog my memory and, instead

feeding, nesting and hibernation preferences. Tongue lengths determine which flowers the bees can feed on, so grow flowers with long corollas like red clover, honeysuckle and foxgloves to attract long-tongued bumblebees like the commmon carder (Bombus

This week I learned that there is little point in making a Christmas wreath unless you have a bright red front door to hang it on. Or any front door at all, really (both entrances to my flat are PVC French doors, which make the positioning of a

in the grounds. The bushes were huge and bright red chillies hung from them like exotic earrings.By December my overwintered chillies looked quite dead. I put this down to the fact that it was December, it was dark and miserable and they should have been

before it’s flowered, but I can’t help leaving a few around the edge to provide food for wildlife.I hate seeing bare earth in my garden. If I expose the soil I sow a few seeds of red clover on the surface, which germinate quickly and provide some ground

In 1985, Chris Baines created the first ever wildlife garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. Apparently it caused quite a stir - wildflowers in those days were often dismissed as 'weeds' - and his medal was mistakenly inscribed "Chris Baines, for a