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It's always been my ritual, in the first week of March, to start the long-awaited pruning of overwintered herb shrubs and trees. However, a word of warning for those who live in the north - the long range forecast is for another cold snap, possibly

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

Being a caring fellow, I will ease you gently into a new year of gardening by telling you the story of my pyracantha.Pyracantha - or firethorn - is a much undervalued plant. It's a big spiny shrub, originally from China, and is most usually seen

out there that punch way, way above their weight when it comes to fragrance.As an example Sarcococca hookeriana, a sparky little evergreen shrub with deep maroony leaf stems and tiny white flowers like the tassels on a stripper. Last year I had one

irises.I digress; my favourite roses at the moment are the Hybrid Musk roses. They were mostly bred by the Rev. Joseph Pemberton in the early 20th Century and make great shrubs and small climbers. They are soft coloured, like cowrie pink 'Penelope', clean

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

and perfect. The frost, however, tends to accentuate every line; the branches of trees and shrubs are sprinkled with shards of ice that glint like tiny blades; things you never noticed before suddenly stand out.Wandering through the garden as the sun rises

persica (Persian Ironwood), Viburnum davidii, Viburnum burkwoodii, Philadelphus and various others.The only sure way to keep the things out is to erect a proper rabbit fence - which should be made from 1m high wire netting with the bottom 15cm bent

. 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

and small shrubs, and the birds were sitting on one of the tough child-resistant plants.They were oblivious to the excited line of boys and girls trotting past to class, but continued to explore the branches only a couple of metres from the children