A LEAFLET was produced by the inimitable Peter Sutton in 1980 for the then City Parks Administration entitled a “Guide to the City’s Colourful Trees”. At that time we had a proper city parks department […]

BRIGHTEN the garden through the dull winter days ahead with perennial flowering plants. At the moment Iris unguicularis will be all scrappy leaves that don’t look particularly attractive. So, like hellebores, it’s not too late to […]

IF you haven’t completed trimming hedges by now, I recommend leaving any heavy trimming until October. Usually, I suggest all trimming of evergreen shrubs and hedges is completed by Easter. That, of course, varies from […]

WHO ever said winter was dull? It’s a time for flowers! Just look at the three “P’s” – primula, polyanthus and pansies, plus violas and the first of the winter-flowering bulbs. One of the great […]

DESPITE the warm days and nights, one thing is certain; the chances of getting caught out by a sharp, unexpected frost are very high. With this in mind, here are a few suggestions to be […]

SEDUM is a plant that anyone can grow, without any gardening knowledge, that performs year after year in drought or rainy weather. The sedum genus of more than 600 species are mainly low growing to […]

WITH our warmer climate, exotic trees grow faster in Australia than in Britain or Europe, although they have to tolerate huge weather extremes. European settlement has only been in Australia for a couple of hundred […]

THE intricacy of flowers never ceases to amaze me. We can land men on the moon or make mobile phone calls to anyone anywhere in the world, but we can’t replicate the perfection of plants. […]

UP to 80 per cent of tree ferns die due to lack of information about siting and watering requirements. Tree ferns, or Dicksonia antarctica, are sold in increasing numbers. Sometimes they are taken illegally, but […]