Spring

Lupins give spires of dazzling colour in late spring and early summer, and are once more gaining in popularity. Plant expert John Hoyland shares his advice on growing lupins and recommends the best.

Discover the indestructible varieties that designers, head gardeners and flower growers rely on: the top easy-to-grow, long-lived, pest- and disease-free performers for your garden

Biennials bring colour to spring and summer borders - and are easy to grow from seed. Sissinghurst head gardener Troy Scott-Smith shows how to grow biennials and the best flowers to choose.

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

Struggling with slugs eating your crops? Here are 17 varieties of veg that they won't touch.

Equally at home in a cottage garden or urban courtyard, stunning in pots and borders, the globe-like flowers of ornamental onions add a welcome dash of early summer drama. Nurseryman John Hoyland is your guide to how to grow alliums, when to plant them, and recommends his favourite varieties.

Despite their reputation for being hard to grow and infuriatingly easy to kill, Eremurus, or foxtail lilies, are spectacular and desirable plants for sunny borders or gravel gardens with well-drained soil

When this vigorous climber is in full bloom, it is a glorious sight to behold. Nurseryman Chris Lane is your guide to how to grow, train and prune wisteria, and recommends his favourite varieties.

Designer Dan Pearson has long loved the beautiful irises bred by the artist Cedric Morris, and recommends some of the best currently available.

Kitchen gardener Aaron Bertelsen and head gardener Benjamin Pope pick the jobs you should be doing in the garden this month.

As the days and soil gets warmer, expert plantsman Keith Wiley’s choice include colour, from a bright-orange lily to a crimson rose, offset by the delicacy of a soft-pink viburnum.

James Horner, garden maker at Benton End, the one-time home of the artist and plantsman Cedric Morris, suggests this arrangements in a basket to celebrate spring

Nursery owner Claire Austin grows over 100 different herbaceous peonies in her garden and trials field to find the very best

Peonies offer voluptuous blooms to grace your garden from late spring until July. Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall and Claire Austin give tips on how to grow these alluring flowers

At Primrose Hall Nursery Alec White specialises in breeding rare and desirable intersectional peonies – plants that can last for 100 years.

Try your hand at an Easter wreath with flowers and foliage to celebrate the arrival of spring. Words and styling Jacky Mills, photographs Éva Németh

Erysimum, also known as wallflowers, can brighten your garden, bridging the months from spring through to summer. Here, garden writer and plant expert Val Bourne recommends the best Erysimum to grow. Photographs Sharon Pearson

These hardy, versatile perennials can be planted in mixed and herbaceous borders, and in containers. Grower and collector of camassias Stella Exley shares advice on how and when to plant camassia bulbs, and recommends her favourite specimens

Discover how to make your own peony supports, which will work for other plants too, with expert advice from Sissinghurst head gardener Troy Scott Smith

Yellow magnolias can be an attractive alternative. Here you'll find growing advice for yellow magnolia trees and shrubs, the best magnolias to grow and where to buy them.

With spring firmly in the air, designer and plantsman Dan Pearson chooses his favourite plants from his garden Hillside, in Somerset, that bring him joy in spring

Ornamental Japanese cherry blossom trees are one of the delights of spring, with their clouds of pink or white blooms.

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