Home & Garden

Then trim hellebores and invest in a guide to cacti and succulentsPlant this Tree ivy (× Fatshedera lizei) is one of the few plants that thrives indoors or out. It’s a cross between ivy (hedera) and fatsia with large evergreen leaves, but it won’t cling like ivy and is more restrained at around 1.5...

Our gardening expert on the divisive tubersJerusalem artichokes tend to divide people. To some they are the devil’s work, whereas others can’t get enough, particularly at this time of year, when the tubers have been mellowed and sweetened by frost. I fall firmly into the second category. I love their nutty flavour and...

Try David Austin’s colourful, fragrant and repeat-flowering roses for something personal, surprising and original on the 14thValentine’s Day, when unromantic people splurge on overpriced roses and expensive restaurants. It doesn’t have to be this way. Roses don’t have to come in red buds and straight stems, they don’t have to smell of desperation....

I like to feel that I’m rescuing them, but maybe it’s the other way aroundThere’s a greenhouse at the back of my local garden centre where they keep the big houseplants and each one is carefully labelled: “Plant”. I buy one at a time to avoid ongoing domestic dispute and they collect greenly...

Then cut back winter jasmine and visit Lanhydrock in Cornwall to see the magnoliasPlant this I would gladly lie belly down on a damp lawn to get a whiff of sweet violet blooms (Viola odorata), such is my love for these tough little plants. They are best planted under deciduous trees and look wonderful with snowdrops...

Plant lovage, hyssop and summer savory for both your patch and your table’s sakeAs a botanist obsessed with food, I have always found one particular statistic perplexing. Of the estimated 300,000 plant species on Earth, about one in six are edible. Yet our species subsists almost exclusively on the harvests of only a...

Designer Anthony Burrill and his wife Emma have embraced country house living on their own termsIf you know about Anthony Burrill and the upbeat graphic slogan prints he creates, you might guess that he lives in a creative urban hotspot – east London, Glasgow, Bristol… Actually, he lives with his wife Emma, two almost-grown-up children,...

If your garden has been looking a little sad, plan now for a more verdant winter next yearGardening is a fascinating art form. As much as it is about experiencing tranquillity and nature, it is also about the excitement of escapism that these enclosed ecosystems can bring. In the UK, perhaps the ultimate...

It’s a big investment, but you’ll reap the rewards if you sow and grow under glass, says our gardening expertEvery gardener dreams of one day owning a greenhouse. It is an inevitable path that starts with a bit of fleece and the miracles of growth that happen with just a few extra degrees...

Plus the Brighton radio gardening show that’s bucking the trend, and why a bean trench ticks two boxes at oncePlant thisA pink-flowered shrub might be a bit cloying in summer, but in winter, clusters of scented, rosy blooms on a bare-stemmed shrub are a welcome sight. Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ is a cinch to grow, tolerating most...