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plants, but Euonymus alatus was probably the first. Hailing from China and Japan, it is slow-growing, and deciduous. The greenish-white flowers appear in spring and, for much of the year, it is a green, innocuous-looking shrub.However, in autumn

: The wood anemone. You don’t have to have a wood to grow this little plant. Underneath deciduous shrubs or in a shady corner will do fine. Also comes in white and a sort of washy pink. But I would stick with the first two.

and that sour smell that haunts institutional kitchens. But I leap to defend purple sprouting broccoli (very classy), red cabbage (with cloves and bacon) and the white curds of cauliflowers.The beetroot used to be considered rather dodgy when it was only

; eight very friendly brown hybrid chickens that are always pleased to see people and tend to cluster around pecking at your legs and sitting on your boots, one white Legbar and two extremely large pedigree hens. One is a huge Light Sussex and the other a

spiralling growth habit, has fleshy white roots that reach out in every direction and can go many feet into the ground. All the topsoil in my garden (formerly a concrete covered farmyard) was imported so a little bit must have come in with it and has spread

sensibly, still tucked up, waiting for the weather to improve.Pear 'Winter Nelis': this is a late fruiter (although we are yet to get much), with the best blossom of all. Pink and white nuggets like freshly washed babies.There are apples as well, but only

host of fabulous cultivars of B. davidii. Among my favourites are B. davidii 'Royal Red' and B. davidii 'White Cloud'. They'll all grow to the height of about 4m and will attract clouds of butterflies.

: an extraordinarily vigorous plant, which never disappoints. It rockets from nothing to about eight feet and then, over the six months, the white blooms turn into pinkish seedheads.Darn it. What about beech trees, yew hedges, alliums, all sorts of clematis, deep red

, your safest bet is the white double Dianthus 'Mrs Sinkins' which smells like the wrists of wood nymphs. It's one of the old garden pinks (great scent, short flowering season, most of them about 30cm high) and was originally bred in 1868 by John Sinkins

extraordinarily good the pictures are nowadays - it seems so strange now to have gardening books which only have black and white illustrations!Among my collection are a few which, I must admit, were given to me and I've never read. Most notably a very intense