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I love daffodils. To get the best from these wonderful flowers, I plant up a dozen plastic aquatic baskets with spring bulbs in autumn, choosing varieties that flower at different times. When spring arrives, I pop one basket after another

At last, the warm weather has kick-started the season, and blossom is finally appearing.What a difference a year makes. Checking back at my diary, in 2012 the first 'Victoria' plum blossom opened on 28 March. One year on and the same plum tree only started blossoming last week, o...

After such a long and hard winter I’m more eager than ever to see the first apple blossom open. Development seems slower this year, but it's amazing how a few days of warm weather brings everything on. By the end of April I’m hoping to be enjoying blossom like that shown in the p...

It's rose pruning time again. I could debate the merits of autumn pruning over spring, but I've always believed spring really is the best time to tackle pruning.Rose pruning isn't a job to hurry. You need time to ponder, step back and deliberate

What a tremendous pleasure it is to grow sunflowers from seed. Thousands of children up and down the country sow sunflowers in spring, no doubt hoping to grow the tallest and enter the Guinness Book of Records.My sunflowers will never do

I've had mixed results with calla lilies over the years. It's getting them going in spring that's caused me problems. I don't think I provide them with enough heat as I don't want the expense of heating my greenhouse. Until two years ago, they

When visiting large gardens during spring, I always admire the drifts of dwarf flowering bulbs growing up through wide expanses of grass. Catch them when flowers are at their best and they look magnificent. They could be snowdrops or crocus, dainty

When the new series of Gardeners' World returns next spring we'll be welcoming back some familiar friends on a Friday evening. Monty Don returns as lead presenter, and this time he'll be presenting the programme from his own garden in Herefordshire

It won’t be long before daffodils, tulips, fragrant hyacinths and a host of other colourful flowers signal the arrival of spring, but if we want summer and autumn to provide similar displays we have to start planning and planting now

Much of my gardening time in September is spent planning for spring colour. I'm not wishing the year away - I love autumn in all its fading glory - but now is the time to buy spring-flowering bulbs for planting over the next couple of months