Planting ideas

As summer reaches its peak Tom Brown, the head gardener at West Dean Gardens, picks his favourite August flowers. Photographs Jason Ingram

Looking for plants that won't get munched by slugs? Instead of using slug controls, why not grow plants that the molluscs just don't like? Here's 38 to choose from

Preserve the fleeting summer beauty of your garden by drying flowers to enjoy year round indoors. We’ve asked three expert growers to recommend the best dried flowers to grow

Out of the rubble of a former brownfield site, Jo McKerr has 
created a beautiful and natural managed-meadow garden. Words Alys Fowler. Photographs Jason Ingram.

Head gardeners from some of the most spectacular gardens around pick their top beautiful plants and flowers

Make your garden attractive to vital pollinators with these suggestions of plants that butterflies love

Create a buzz in your garden by adding the plants that bees love best.

Fragrant, drought tolerant and easy to grow, lavenders are popular plants that suit many different styles of garden. Discover more with our lavender expert grow guide. Words: Janice Shipp, Photograhs: Annaick Guitteny

The scarlet poppy may be one of the most instantly recognisable flowers, but with more than 70 species of Papaver, in a range of shapes and colours, there’s one for every garden. Plant expert John Hoyland picks the best and gives his growing advice

Discover some of the best July flowers and plants including a graceful daylily and a dwarf, claret sunflower. Photographs Jason Ingram

A rosehip is the 'fruit’ of the rose, coming after the summer flowers and 
offering vibrant colour in the winter garden. Discover the top roses to grow for rosehips and how to care for them to get the best display.

The best plants for a meadow recommended from Manor Farm and a modernist house in California specialising in structural meadow plants

These hard-working plants provide several seasons of interest in your garden through flowers, fruit, foliage, bark and even spring shoots

Discover some of the most beautiful white flowers around and learn how to make a stunning white border to delight from early spring to late summer

Sissinghurst’s head gardener Troy Scott Smith guides us through the jobs that he and his team do in summer. Images by John Campbell

Ensuring Sissinghurst’s famous roses look fabulous throughout the season is one of the many tasks keeping head gardener Troy Scott Smith and his team busy right now. Photographs John Campbell

Discover the roses that rosarian Michael Marriott features in his own garden in Shropshire

We recommend 26 of the best flowering shrubs, so that with careful planning, you can enjoy flowers in your garden for 12 months of the year.

Ever wondered how companion planting might help your vegetables and deter pests? Here expert grower Matthew Biggs breaks down the companion planting myths and explains how the system works

Award-winning designer Jo Thompson offers new container-planting inspiration with an idea for flower combinations for high summer. Words Jo Thompson, photographs Jason Ingram

Half-hardy plants with airy flowers in dark maroon to apple green, most nicotianas also bring heady scent to summer evenings. Gardener Matthew Reese shares his advice for how to grow nicotiana, where to plant it, and recommends his favourite varieties. Photographs Jason Ingram

For fast-growing, seasonal colour in your garden that won’t cost a fortune and is fun to grow, one of the easiest things to do is sow some annuals from seed

As late spring turns to early summer, Keith Wiley picks the flowers that will look best in June and takes pleasure in a delicately coloured Japanese water iris, an exotic-looking aroid and an unusual form of a red hot poker. Words Keith Wiley, photographs Jason Ingram

Sowing seeds where you want them to flower is an easy, bother-free way to bring colour to your garden. Here, three experts recommend their favourite flowers for growing direct