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Is your garden stimulating all your senses? Like many people, I'm sure, the main driving factors behind my choice of plants are colour, size and shape. In other words, I'm most interested in what they look like. Nothing wrong with that. I want my

blocked.For the first 18 years living here there was never a rat in sight, but within a few months of setting the chickens up in their new home, the rats arrived. As chickens become popular in residential areas I wonder if anyone else is having the same

eye at a local plant centre, its spoon-shaped petals infused with steely blue crying out for closer inspection. Three plants were soon at home in a large terracotta pot, positioned in a hot spot on my patio. Since June they've bloomed non

James Alexander-Sinclair's blogs on the subject of small trees but wanted to share my own experience - not of growing trees in the garden but in large pots.Acer shirasawanum 'Aureum' is a stunning small, slow-growing maple with the most gorgeous palm-shaped

spathes in pale shades of pink, yellow and cream through to white, and lance-shaped leaves. Elliottiana hybrids have wonderfully speckled leaves and bright, brash spathes, while the rehmannii hybrids have mainly deeper green leaves and often deep purple

Flowers are not the only attraction in winter gardens. Biennial honesty (Lunaria annua) is a good example of a plant that keeps delivering after its flowers have passed. Once the petals have fallen, enchanting disc-shaped seed-pods are formed

(10ft) in 14 years. It doesn't have a neat or compact shape, so now the stems at the base are bare, with leafy tips and flowers high up. It certainly attracts attention when in flower; although it's pretty widely available it's still unusual to see

in total, representing over 100,000 rose lovers - and their decision certainly carries weight. First introduced in 1983, 'Graham Thomas' was bred by rosarian David Austin. His rose breeding programme aimed to combine the best qualities of old roses

had developed, providing blooms until now, in November. The shape of their flower resembles a cup and saucer, hence their common name, but another descriptive name for them is cathedral bells. From the centre of the bell emerge a tight clump of stamens

be pruned away, and badly positioned and congested shoots can be cut out to shape the bush. Last year's stems need shortening to prevent new growth developing higher and higher up the bush, carrying flowers on increasingly leggy stems.And then there