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Plant any prepared narcissi now and you'll be able to enjoy their fragrant flowers during the dark days of winter. For an interesting indoor display, choose a glass bowl and fill it with gravel, glass beads or pebbles. 'Paperwhite', 'Soleil D

Learn how to grow dahlias for cut flowers, in Rachel de Thame's video demonstration. Rachel recommends varieties and shares tips on soil preparation, planting, feeding and staking young plants.early summerMore advice on growing dahliasLift and store

flowering times:10 best varietiesIf planted in a sheltered, south-facing spot, 'Rijnveld's Early Sensation' will be in flower by Christmas. While most daffodils in bloom at this time of year are usually small, this variety has large, windmill-style flowers

cactus dahlia, with sunny yellow flowers. Height 120cm.Dahlia 'Yellow Galator'Small-flowered semi-cactus type, with white-tipped pinky red petals. Height 60cm.Dahlia 'Pianella'More about using garden weedsTake dahlia cuttings Plant dahlia tubers

is to blame, with wild areas of farmland sacrificed for bigger yields. Bumblebees now have fewer nesting opportunities and flowers to feed from.Grow a range of flowering plants all year - especially from March to November when bees are most active - to provide

When we think of irises our minds tend to wander towards May and great swathes of big, brassy flowers over sharp-sided, sword-shaped leaves. Either that or drifts of yellow flag iris on the sides of pools and streams. We tend to ignore February. Big

This time of year the crab apples are at their most impressive: the trees are laden with little yellow or red apples that hang on until long after the last leaves have fallen. These are really useful smallish trees, not just for their colourful

snail' but I just cannot learn to 'love a forsythia'.Please dig them out and plant something else. If you must have a yellow shrub flowering now, then try Chimonanthus praecox; it bears pale, lemon meringue-yellow flowers and a scent that reminds one

it in gardens.Quite why so many of the flowers in our gardens during these early months of the year are yellow, I don't know. Winter flowering jasmine has been followed by forsythia (don't get James Alexander-Sinclair started on this again), daffodils have

, scented, white-flowered daffs with dark red, jagged centres. I planted them in a large terracotta pot, next to a few pots of 'Minnow' - a dwarf, creamy-flowered variety with contrasting yellow centres.Both varieties are quite late flowering in April