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interesting leaves that are shaped a bit like baseball mitts. They are best planted in a warm and sunny site as the flowers only open properly on fine days; in the past week or so when temperatures have reached 10°C or so they have been flaunting themselves

Shaping topiary is a fun and inexpensive way to create year-round interest in the garden. These plant sculptures contrast dramatically with flowers in summer, and bring structure, style and form to winter gardens.If you haven't tried topiary before

When we think of irises our minds tend to wander towards May and great swathes of big, brassy flowers over sharp-sided, sword-shaped leaves. Either that or drifts of yellow flag iris on the sides of pools and streams. We tend to ignore February. Big

foliage. Height/spread 1.2m x 90cm.Corsican hellebore, Helleborus argutifoliusDespite its name, it's not that likely to flower for Christmas - more usually seen flowering from late-winter. Flowers are white, though sometimes flushed pink, and flat

Plants for small gardensSmall gardens can accommodate a wide range of plants, from spring bulbs to small trees. We spoke to Monty Don and James Alexander-Sinclair at Gardeners' World Live to discover their top 10 plants for small gardens.A small

Soil typesYour soil type - sandy, loam or clay - determines which plant species you can grow. Knowing your soil type enables to you to choose the plants best suited to your garden. Soil type is identified the presence of clay, sand and silt

with daffodils in an almost unquenchable variety of shapes and colours, almost all of them shades of yellow. Given the joys of this or this or this or (almost) any one of the 20,000 available varieties, why choose a forsythia for your spring hit of yellow?It also

perfectly suited to the smaller garden. It has pure white star-shaped (hence the name 'stellata' as in 'constellation') flowers. It grows very slowly and will reach only about 1.5m after 10 years: given perfect conditions it will eventually top out at about

and the shape of the petals, which range from the very plain to the extraordinarily ornate like Galanthus nivalis f. pleniflorus.This month is the time when the galanthophiles roam the countryside. They are recognisable by their magnifying glasses

I've always been a great fan of bulbs, in all their shapes and sizes. I couldn't get through the winter without snowdrops, and the prospect of daffodils, heralding spring. But right now, in (a rather cold and wet) May, alliums are centre stage