Videos Ideas, Tips & Guides

When it comes to buying flowers, I love a frillier bloom. Give me a bouquet of peonies, ranunculus, and fringed tulips over almost anything else and I’m happy.

The star performers at RHS Chelsea Flower Show and other flower shows are herbaceous perennials.

Most gardens have some dry shade, at the foot of walls where foundations draw water from the soil, or under eaves where little rain falls. Trees also create dry shade, as their roots take up a lot of water.

Late spring is the perfect time to give your borders a little attention, in order to keep them in good shape throughout summer. At this time, there’s still room between plants to negotiate a way through, so you can access plants at the back of the border before everything grows and knits together.

Appliances tend to be the last thing we think about when we’re cleaning our home, but that also means they end up collecting the most dirt, dust, and grime—all as we continue to cook with them.

Euphorbia is a large genus, with plants ranging from Christmas poinsettias and cowboy cacti to large shrubs like Euphorbia mellifera. The shrubby hardy varieties make excellent garden plants for a range of situations, depending on their size and preference.

Hydrangeas are much-loved deciduous hardy shrubs, some of which are climbers. Their striking flowerheads come in a range of shapes, from large balls to cones. The most popular and recognisable types are mophead and lacecap, which have large, rounded flowerheads in shades of white, blue and pink in summer and autumn.

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The orange-tip is one of the first butterflies of the year to emerge and can be found nectaring on spring flowers such as bluebells and cuckoo flower. The male is white with orange wing tips while the female has black wing tips – both sexes have beautiful mottled underwings, which are visible when mating and resting. After mating the female lays eggs on the flower stalks of cuckoo flower and hedge mustard, but in gardens may also lay on honesty and sweet rocket.

Left: Gary Miller / Getty Images; Right: Jacob Fox

May is a busy month in the garden, with seeds to sow, young plants to harden off and plant out, and spring shrubs to prune – not to mention leaving enough time to enjoy the warmer, longer days. The risk of frost will be over in most areas by the end of the month, so tender and half-hardy plants such as dahlias, zinnia and cosmos can be planted outside, ready for dazzling summer displays.

In the world of cleaning TikTok, it seems like every new hack looks easier and more efficient than the last. This is especially true of the latest trend of mixing together multiple cleaning ingredients to power wash one dedicated space.

BHG / Ana Cadena

Left: Andrea Araiza; Right: Neil Mockford / Getty Images

Summer wouldn’t be summer without dahlias. Their beautiful flowers come in almost every colour imaginable, from pale pastels to hot, vibrant shades. They come in a range of flower shapes, from small tight balls to lily-like blooms the size of dinner plates. They’re perfect for adding late summer colour to borders from July to October and look good in any style of garden, from a cottage-style border to a jungle or exotic scheme. They look especially good with cosmos, grasses, Verbena bonariensis or cannas.

Hollyhocks (Alcea) have long been associated with cottage gardens. Perfect for the back of a border, they grow up to 2m in height. Each stem bears masses of open, bee-friendly flowers measuring up to 10cm in diameter, from July to September. Hollyhocks are biennial or short-lived perennials. In the first year they put on root and foliage growth and in the second they flower, set seed and then die.

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Holly, Ilex aquifolium, typically has dark green, spiny leaves and bright red berries. However, there are many different varieties of holly with different coloured laves and berries – more than 400 from around the world.

People often keep random things that remind them of their loved ones to keep the memories alive. But if you start a small garden for remembrance, you can care for it and nurture it, and your loved ones will live on in a way through plants and pretty flowers.

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Left: Arnold Turner / Stringer / Getty Images; Right: Claudia Totir / Getty Images

Pears are very ornamental trees, bearing attractive spring blossom and gorgeous autumn colour, and the addition of delicious home-grown pears is a bonus.

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Home-grown garlic takes up little space and requires hardly any effort to get a good crop. It’s an easy crop to grow, spouting from a garlic bulb separated into cloves, which you plant individually. Certified, disease-free garlic bulbs are sold at garden centres or online.

Before you plant anything in a shady garden, you need to know what kind of shade you have.

Penstemons are valuable garden plants, grown for their long-flowering season and popularity with bees. There are many different types of penstemon, with some suited to the alpine garden while the majority are at home in the heart of a herbaceous border. Border penstemons have tubular late summer flowers in a wide range of colours. The flowers look very similar to those of a foxglove.

From earthy new potatoes and bite-sized salad varieties, to floury bakers and roasters, the humble potato remains the nation’s favourite vegetable. If you’re a potato aficionado, there’s a huge number of exciting potato varieties you can grow that you’ll never see in the shops. You don’t even need a garden to grow them – many grow very happily in large bags or pots on a balcony or patio.

Japanese aralia or paper plant, Fatsia japonica, is a fantastic foliage plant, native to Japan. A medium sized shrub, Fatsia japonica bears glossy evergreen leaves and spherical, ivy-like flowers, followed by black berries. It’s a great choice for a shady spot in the garden, and it can also be grown as a house plant.

Zinnia flowers are some of the most beautiful, vibrant, and captivating blooms around. They’re bold. They’re cheerful. They’re resilient. They add bursts of color to any garden or landscape and come in various shapes, sizes, and colors from reds, oranges, and pinks to yellows and whites—and their double-layered petals are exceptional. Plus, they attract important pollinators like butterflies and bees.

Perfect for picking, fragrant sweet peas are easy to grow and come in a range of beautiful colours. You can grow them in pots or in the ground, training them up a frame for a beautiful display. Plant sweet peas near a seating area so you can smell them as you sit and relax in the garden. Or pick some for the vase – even a small amount can fill a room with fragrance.

Left: Amazon; Right: Stacy Zarin Goldberg

Whether you have a small or large garden, or simply a patio or balcony, container gardening offers you flexibile growing opportunities. Growing plants in containers is an easy way to create instant and changeable displays right outside your back door – especially useful if you’re short on space.

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Lauri Patterson / Getty Images

With the return of BBC Gardeners’ World just around the corner, Monty gives us an update on the recent changes at Longmeadow. He shares some of his favourite areas to spend time in in the garden, reveals which section is the heart and soul of Longmeadow and explains some of the planting and design choices he’s made.