Expert Gardening Tips

Alan Titchmarsh: The stunning midwinter trees whose bark is better than their bite

Our columnist Alan Titchmarsh chats through the winter plants which will light up your garden like fireworks.

Plums to grow, plums to show, and plums to pop in your gin

Mark Diacono picks his favourite plums — and their close relatives, damsons, mirabelles, bullaces and gages.

Your month-by-month checklist of what to do in the garden and when in 2020

Alan Titchmarsh: Why I hugged my trees on Christmas Day — and I don't care who knows it

Alan Titchmarsh explains why Christmas is such a very special day in his garden — and how he makes the most of it.

The plucky amateur gardener who created 'blue holly', and spawned a trend which stretches the world

Curious Questions: Why do we have poinsettias at Christmas — and why did it get the name 'excrement flower'?

Their bright red leaves brighten up our houses at this time of year, but how did the tradition of having poinsettias at Christmas start? Mark Griffiths explains.

How to choose and appreciate your apples with the same care you'd use for a decent bottle of wine

Charles Quest-Ritson loves apples — but laments the fact that we simply don't have the same vocabulary to describe the fruit as we do for wine.

Horticultural marmite: The natural phenomenon which divides gardeners all over Britain

Variegated foliage may be the bread and butter of some gardens, but for some horticulturalists it seems sickly and spoiled.

Alan Titchmarsh: The 'Hollywood A-listers' of the plant world are fussy, flouncy — and totally irresistible

Alan Titchmarsh waxes lyrical about the benefits of bulbs, and why disposing of them year on year might not be the environmental sin that it seems.

The biggest snobbery in gardening 'isn't just regrettable — it amounts to a horticultural sin of omission'

If you thought conifers were naff, think again says Charles Quest-Ritson, who joins the new wave of designers rediscovering the opportunities offered by spreading cedars, noble pines and mysterious swamp cypresses.

The 10 best shrubs for your garden, by the legendary gardener who's dedicated his life to them

The revered gardener Peter Catt — one of a tiny number of people to have won the RHS’s top accolade — has bred and grown some of the finest shrubs in Britian. He told Val Bourne about his ten favourites.

How to grow garlic: Delicious, lucky and superbly easy to cultivate

Mark Diacono teaches us how to grow garlic.

Is it possible to live off vegetables and fruit from your garden all year round?

John Wright considers how we could all do more to make the most of home-grown produce.

The two herbs to grow in your garden that'll convince you never to eat parsley again

Charles Quest-Ritson doesn't grow a lot of herbs, but those he does would grace any kitchen — and will have your friends clamouring for seedlings.

Alan Titchmarsh: How I grow dahlias — and why they're my second-most infallible plants

Gardener, writer and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh has always loved dahlias — even in the days before they gained their current huge popularity. Here are his tips on how to get it right.

How to create a tunnel of pears in your garden

Few things are as beautiful and yet bear such fruit — literally — as a tunnel of fruit trees in your garden. The owners of Banks Fee share how they created their pear tunnel.

Why quince, beloved by everyone from Edward I to the Ancient Greeks, is the perfect autumn fruit

The saucily-named plant whose very mention sparks blushing and tied tongues

Titter ye not: the splendid Gingo Tit is a compact cultivar with bright autumn foliage and prolific woody growths.

Britain's top landscape architects on how to make your garden fit perfectly into the world around it

You can't just plant what you like and just expect it to work in sympathy with its setting — it needs a bit of careful thought. Juliet Roberts spoke to five top garden designers to get their tips.

A moorland splashed with heather makes our hearts leap — so why don't we grow it any more?

Charles Quest-Ritson looks at how heather has gone out of fashion — and wonders what we can do about it.