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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

Although flowers usually steal the headlines, think how bleak a garden would look without foliage. Leaves are a vital part of every garden. Consider the contrast between the lushness of summer and the bleakness of winter, when tender plants have

as to build up a National Collection, or go trekking to visit other growers.My enthusiasm for plants changes, too. At first a new plant gets my attention, and gradually my head is turned whenever I see other relatives too. A small collection builds into a

It's worth getting out into the garden even when the weather is so cold. I find I've been missing out for the past few weeks; there's a plant doing its own thing while everything around it is dull and dormant - the hellebore. The oriental hellebore

How tastes change. Going back five years, I hardly remember ever cooking with chillies, but now I use them nearly every week. They're so easy to grow from seed, but you can buy young plants from garden centres, like the pretty 'Medusa' (pictured) I

Ask any seed company to name their Top 10 bestselling flowers and you'll regularly find sweet peas in first place.Sweet peas are the gardeners’ favourite for climbing colour and delicious fragrance, bringing a touch of cottage garden nostalgia

, transformed for just a few short weeks, before all trace of the bulbs is mown away.Of course, once established, bulbs will readily multiply. Planting bulbs in my own small lawn somehow isn't the same, though - my garden doesn't have the breathtaking scale

will send the leaves tumbling to the ground.Slow-growing Japanese maples, particularly those with dissected leaves, make perfect small trees for patio pots. I've grown acers in pots on my patio for about six years now, using large, heavy terracotta pots

The same thing happens every year. I buy my bulbs in good time, and then don't make time to plant them! I've got a huge bag of tulips and other bulbs to be planted, but it will soon be December.Other things got in the way during October, and then I

soon germinate.I do prefer sowing in small pots in my greenhouse, and then planting out seedlings, but if you really don't want the hassle just sow them directly into the soil in May at the base of a support. Once shoots have grown about 15cm tall