Search - Articles

Sweet peas are some of the the most versatile plants you can grow. Train them up a trellis, pergola or obelisk, or support them with canes in large pots. They bring height and colour to borders and their scented blooms can be used as cut flowers

but you may feel a small part of the January blues fall away.If anybody should get them all right then I will award them a loud and prolonged round of virtual applause - and a huge bunch of heavily scented imaginary flowers. Answers in a couple of weeks.

Bumblebee numbers have declined in recent years, due to changes in agriculture, which have led to fewer nesting opportunities and flowers for them to feed from. Making this simple nest will encourage them to nest safely your garden. Many species

of the few flowers I actually cut and bring indoors. A tall rosebud vase is perfect for a small bunch, and I position it somewhere I regularly pass during the day so I can pick it up, breathe deeply, and lose myself in its sweet scent.There has only been one

candidates - lots of little bulbs cropping up all over the place, like snowdrops, crocus and Iris reticulata - and wonderfully scented Hamamelis mollis, Sarcococca and Daphne bholua.The winter stems were also looking particularly fine - in particular

, as long as they're looked after. Choose a sheltered spot with light shade to enjoy their delicious scent.Petunia surfiniaFor more on late-summer colourVisit Great Dixter, Sussex, for its Long Border and Exotic GardenDiscover the late-flowering exotics

snail' but I just cannot learn to 'love a forsythia'.Please dig them out and plant something else. If you must have a yellow shrub flowering now, then try Chimonanthus praecox; it bears pale, lemon meringue-yellow flowers and a scent that reminds one

to live with a big empty space until June. That is not a mistake I will be making again.My third mistake is due to soft-heartedness. One part of the garden has been colonised by Hesperis matronalis 'Alba', the white flowered, scented sweet rocket, which

(some bumblebees nest in old mouse holes so I was trying to recreate the scent). It's so old and unused it's falling apart and it won't be long before the spiders find alternative accommodation. The hedgehog home my mum put in lies unused, despite being

will generally follow suit. A bee-friendly garden should have a mix of nectar and pollen-rich flowers from March to November and somewhere to nest. There are six or seven (of 24) species of bumblebee that are likely to visit our gardens, each with different