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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

, in Bethnal Green. Cars, buses and lorries roared past, a city squirrel buried its head in an empty packet of crisps, and I stood in a tiny thicket of hawthorn and dog rose thinking “Is that… a goldcrest?”It reminded me of the recent news that Britain’s rarest

, each local strain of any species will be better suited to growing in its immediate environment than any other. A dog rose, Rosa canina growing in mainland Scotland, for example, will be better suited to a shorter growing season and lower temperatures

once watched a great tit dive into a clump of forget-me-not to retrieve a fat caterpillar. I also grow native shrubs such as holly, guelder rose and dog rose. A native hedge can also help moths – a mix of species including hawthorn, hazel, dog rose

Two years, I felt the need to grow a local, native plant in my garden. I gathered rosehips from a field rose at the edge of a nearby canal, soaked them in water and sowed the seed in coarse compost.The pots sat in a corner of my patio, doing nothing

For two years, I have been trying to grow climbing plants to cover the walls of my garden. I've planted honeysuckle, passion flower, jasmine, numerous clematis and a revolting rose I found in the street. Some died, others developed mildew, while

or planting a shrub or tree, now’s the time to do it.There’s a small selection of fruiting plants in my garden, namely holly, guelder rose (Viburnum opulus), dog rose  (Rosa glauca) and ivy. All were planted as bare-root shrubs last autumn, except the ivy

blown away by their scent. I also like Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’, which produces clusters of tiny rose-pink flowers on bare stems from October to March. However, I’ve seen too many viburnums growing in ‘municipal’ settings to want to grow them in my

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

'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