Top ten wildflowers

Ox-Eye Daisy from Thompson & Morgan

Ox-eye daisies are easy to grow and very popular with pollinators
Image: Ox-Eye Daisy from Thompson & Morgan

Wildflowers are a low-maintenance and long-lasting addition to any garden. Often planted as annual or perennial meadows, they make a wildlife-friendly alternative to lawns or a quick and easy way to fill a border. Not sure which varieties to choose? The easiest way is to use a themed wildflower mixture. You can also choose individual varieties of wildflower seeds if you prefer to concentrate on your favourites. Here are our top ten wildflowers and how to grow them.

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Seed and seedling tips from the experts

seeds-and-seedlings-on-sack

Give your seeds the best start with these great tips!
Image: Marie C Fields/Shutterstock

Get your seeds and seedlings off to a great start by taking a look at our top tips. These handy hints come courtesy of some of our favourite gardening bloggers – advice from experienced growers and bloggers who know what they’re talking about. 

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What to do when bad weather prevents planting

Bench in winter with snow surrounding

Unexpected late frosts or snow or can undermine the best laid plans
Image: Shutterstock

When bad weather stops you from immediately planting out your order, don’t despair. With a little bit of care, your plants will survive intact until conditions improve. Here’s how to look after your freshly ordered roots and plug plants when unexpected snow, late frosts, severe rain or the fickle British weather prevents you from getting them into their final positions straight away. From artichokes to strawberry runners, here’s what you need to do.

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The rough guide to beans by Real Men Sow

Climbing bean ‘mixed’ from T&M

This mixed bean collection adds colour to the vegetable plot as well as the plate
Image: Climbing Bean ‘Mixed’ from Thompson & Morgan

To help you produce an abundance of beans this year, we turned to an expert grower for practical advice. Jono, the original founder of the ever-popular gardening blog, Real Men Sow, is a man whose own hard-won experience has taught him how to get the best from his beans. Here are his top tips for sowing and growing bean seeds in your garden or allotment. 

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Why you need to grow Raspberry ‘Ruby Beauty’

Summer-fruiting Raspberry ‘Ruby Beauty' in container

Summer-fruiting raspberry ‘Ruby Beauty’ can be grown in the ground or containers
Image: T&M

If you’d love to grow raspberries but lack the space in your garden to accommodate rows of towering canes, Raspberry ‘Ruby Beauty’® is the solution you’re looking for. This space-saving raspberry has all the deliciously sweet flavour you’d expect from a modern variety, but you don’t need a veg patch to grow it – in fact, this little beauty grows to just 1m in height and is perfectly happy in a container on your patio or balcony.

Being compact makes ‘Ruby Beauty’ easy to net to protect the fruit from hungry birds. And because its stems are thornless, the fruit is easy to pick too. This plant requires little, if any, support but you may choose to add a few canes around the pot to help hold up the fruit.

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