Why is my camellia dropping its buds without flowering?
Bud drop, brown flowers and no buds at all are three different problems — separating them, and the summer watering that fixes the most common one.
beginner20 min3 min read
Plants & Flowers
Choosing, planting and keeping things alive.
150 guides in Garden
Why is my rosemary dying?
Why rosemary dies of wet feet rather than cold, the beetle that strips it, and the drainage and pruning that keep a plant going for years.
beginner20 min3 min readCan I root cuttings in a jar of water?
Which plants root readily in water, why water roots are not the same as compost roots, and the transfer stage that kills most of them.
beginner20 min4 min readHow do I repot a shrub or tree that is too big to lift out of its pot?
Getting a root-bound shrub, olive or bay out of a container without breaking either — the knife cut, the tip-and-roll, the two-person slide, and when to break the pot instead.
intermediate1 hr4 min readLiquid feed or slow-release granules — which should I use?
How each type behaves in a pot and in the ground, what happens to them in rain, and the combination most container growers should actually use.
beginner15 min5 min readCan I grow grapes outdoors in the UK?
Which grapes actually ripen outdoors in Britain, the south wall that makes the difference, and the bunch thinning and leaf removal that turn a mass of small sour berries into fruit worth eating.
intermediate2 hr4 min readDoes my apple tree fruit on spurs or on the tips?
Why shortening every shoot in winter improves one apple tree and removes the entire crop from another, how to tell the two apart in winter, and how each should be pruned.
intermediate20 min4 min readEnglish or French lavender — which should I plant?
The three lavenders sold in the UK, how to tell them apart at a glance, and why the hardiness difference between them is the reason so many lavenders fail to reappear in spring.
beginner15 min4 min readHow do I get figs to ripen in the UK?
Restricting the roots, keeping the pea-sized embryo figs and removing the rest, and the wall warmth that decides whether a fig tree is productive or purely ornamental.
intermediate1 hr 30 min4 min readHow do I get more flowers from my dahlias, for longer?
Pinching out the growing tip, telling a spent flower from a bud so you deadhead the right thing, and the feeding and staking that carry a dahlia from July to the first frost.
beginner30 min4 min readHow do I grow apples as a cordon?
Building the wire structure, planting single-stem trees at 45 degrees, and the August pruning that turns a whip into a fruiting column — the fastest way to get many varieties into a short run.
intermediate3 hr5 min readHow do I layer bulbs in a pot to flower three times?
The three-layer bulb pot, which bulbs go at which depth and why the shoots are not blocked, and the aftercare that decides whether it is worth keeping for a second year.
beginner45 min4 min readHow do I look after an olive tree in the UK?
What an olive actually needs in a British climate, why winter wet kills more of them than winter cold, and whether you will ever get olives.
beginner45 min3 min readHow do I pinch out plants to make them bushier?
What removing the growing tip actually does to a plant, exactly where and when to do it, which plants benefit and the ones that must never be pinched.
beginner15 min4 min readHow do I plant a bare-root rose?
Soaking, hole preparation and the one detail that decides everything afterwards — how deep the graft union sits — plus what to do if the ground is frozen when the parcel arrives.
beginner45 min5 min readHow do I prune gooseberries and redcurrants?
Both fruit on spurs on old wood, so both are pruned to a permanent open goblet with sideshoots cut to two buds in winter and five leaves in summer.
intermediate1 hr4 min readHow do I take hardwood cuttings?
The easiest form of propagation there is — dormant winter cuttings stuck in a slit trench outdoors, left alone for a year, and mostly free.
beginner45 min3 min readHow do I top-dress a large pot instead of repotting it?
The twenty-minute spring job that keeps a large container plant going between repottings — how much compost to take out, what to put back, and where the plant's collar has to end up.
beginner20 min3 min readWhat is the difference between frost-proof and frost-resistant pots?
Why terracotta pots flake and split over winter, what the two labels actually promise, and the test that predicts whether a pot will survive before you buy it.
beginner8 min3 min readWhy did feeding my plant make it worse?
Why fertiliser damages a stressed plant, what scorched roots and leaf-tip burn look like, and how to flush a pot that has had too much.
beginner20 min5 min readWhy is my plant dropping its buds before they open?
Bud drop is nearly always a water supply that faltered while the buds were forming — plus the specific cases of moving, frost and pests.
beginner15 min4 min readWill a climbing plant damage my walls?
What self-clinging climbers actually do to masonry, the difference between exploiting existing damage and causing it, and the situations where the answer genuinely is no, do not plant that there.
beginner15 min5 min readDo vertical planters and wall gardens actually work?
Which vertical growing systems genuinely produce a crop and which are a watering trap — the pocket planters, stacking towers, gutter systems and living walls, honestly assessed.
intermediate20 min4 min readHow do I train an espalier fruit tree?
Building an espalier one tier a year from a single maiden tree — where to make the first cut, why the arms are held at 45 degrees before being lowered, and how to even up a lopsided pair.
advanced4 hr5 min read