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've visited. It has sculpted meadows, native wildflowers (including Verbena bonariensis) and a plethora of fruit and nut trees, dominating the landscape. Except for the beautifully kept English rose garden and vegetable patch, the garden is almost entirely

the adult bee, while the pollen is collected to feed the young. Of course, the more flowers you have, the more attractive your garden is to bees, so you can never have too many!Plants for lifeTry the following to attract more bumblebees into your garden

Hardy tulipsIf you find tulips difficult to grow, you may find species tulips easier. These are quite unlike their large-flowered cousins, which can frustrate gardeners by dazzling in their first year, then all but disappearing the next

is an organic method of maintaining a natural balance in your garden, aiding pollination and keeping pest numbers down. Common plant combinations include growing herbs with roses to deter aphids, and planting alliums around carrots to ward off carrot root fly

close second only to roses, according to a recent survey of florists. And as with any 'easy-to-grow' plant, it divides gardeners in the same way that gladioli, dahlias and many others do.Horticultural snobs may give them a wide berth as they search out

and this year there were far too many; I pulled out about half but that was not enough. They smothered the other plants and ruined a whole corner of the garden. This autumn I shall be ruthless and will dig up 90% of the seedlings.That is probably enough of my

looking like dog-eared lace doilies. Hostas seem to be the snack of choice for all molluscs.This problem is pretty much universal - except, it seems, at Hever Castle in Kent, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. Hever Castle has a magnificent rose garden

. For the same price as your vase of red roses that within a week are only fit for the compost heap, you could instead grow orchids on your windowsill, which carry a succession of flowers for three months.If that wasn't enough, it will even flower again about six

Adam Pasco, the handsome and multi-talented editor of Gardeners' World magazine, wrote a blog the other day about blossom. I thought it might be a mildly entertaining diversion to write about the moment just before blooming, the point at which most

group plantings of them that get people worked up?It's not just members of our team that have such strong views about plants. The inaugural Gardeners' World Awards revealed that we're a nation divided when it comes to the rose, placing it top of the poll