Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue'
sage
This head-turning perennial offers both stature and sumptuous colour. It's an impressive sight in late summer and autumn...
GOES WELL WITH
How to encourage beneficial insects
![How to encourage beneficial insects](http://img.crocdn.co.uk/images/features/ladybird.jpg)
All garden pests have natural enemies. The trick is to encourage these beneficial insects and other creatures to take up residence in your garden so that they can do the pest management for you. The most effective way to do this is to provide the conditio
Read full articleWhich plants need cloching?
Frost tender plants can be encouraged to grow far more quickly under cloches and one group of plants, the cucurbits, benefit from the extra warmth overnight. This allows them to photosynthesise for longer and squash, courgette and outdoor cucumber plants
Read full articleHow to overwinter tender perennials
Tender perennials, such as pelargoniums, fuchsias, osteospermums and marguerites look great all summer, but unless they are given protection from the harsh winter weather, they will need to be replaced each spring. If you can do this, they will last for y
Read full articleHow to use those dreamy flower spires
There's one garden essential that brings a planting scheme to life and it's upright flower spikes that soar heavenwards. They add drama and perspective to all your other planting and, as they open from the bottom upwards, each spire offers a glorious co
Read full articleSummer stars from warmer climates
When we are all, hopefully, enjoying the hotter more humid days in July and the longer evenings there is a different range of plants that come into their own in our gardens, ones found naturally close to the equator or in the upper reaches of the Souther
Read full articleOver wintering half hardy plants in pots
You can never quite predict how severe our winter weather will be. In the absence of a crystal ball, it is best in October to make contingency plans to help your plants to survive while there will still be some warmth in the sun and the soil. Hardiness is
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