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I'm always looking for plants that make an impact - things that will grab the attention and put on a good show. Seasonal bedding and bulbs are always popular, but many shrubs also grow well in patio pots.Over the years I've tried all sorts, from

Shade is probably one of the most challenging situations for plants to flourish in. Whether it's buildings, walls, fences, shrubs or trees, on the south side your plants bask in full sun but on the north side they'll be in cooler shade. Choosing

So many shrubs are popular because they're easy to propagate and grow by the nurseries, cheap to buy, reliable performers, and grow in many types of soil and situation. But sometimes you don't want your garden to look like everyone else's, and would

established shrubs carry crisp, brown leaves, and one has lost them all completely. What is normally a beautiful flowering shrub called Viburnum 'Mariesii' produced little bloom in May, since when the foliage has simply dried up and dropped off.Again, I

mainly flies), but in the past I've seen wasps and tortoiseshell butterflies eagerly making the most of this final feed of nectar before hibernating.Fatsia japonica is an exotic looking evergreen shrub with large glossy, lobed leaves. Despite its tropical

are 'creative, colourful and convenient'. In other words, they'd like us all to buy and plant more of these valuable evergreen shrubs.I find it surprising that while most of us love seasonal colour in our gardens, and invest a great deal of time and money in pot

. A variegated shoot on a plain green shrub or a differently coloured bloom, for instance, could both be the beginning of a new variety. Garden centres are full of varieties discovered this way, but these characteristics must be stable in order

with the stuff, every shrub and fruit bush mulched with a thick layer, and still the overflowing buckets continued to come!I'm a keen home composter - who isn't these days - but I do still resort to buying in mushroom compost from time to time. If I lived near a

displays on so many trees and shrubs, such as pieris. But with blossom on many fruit trees now at its peak, frost can kill flowers before bees have had a chance to pollinate them. When this happens the blossom will fall without developing any fruit

the furniture in your home, as pots can be moved from one place to another to create a fresh display.It helps to have a few hardy shrubs in pots, things that play their part in displays throughout the year. Then add in the seasonal performers, like bulbs