The battle of the spring blooms!

The latest from Carol's beautiful cottage garden... plus her diary for the week!

A heavenly flower border is a work of art, a living composition in which colour themes are finely balanced to wax and wane through the seasons

It took me a while to love roses as a plant. I had always admired the flowers in the kind of knee-jerk way that most of us love sunsets or the song of a blackbird, but I had no feeling for them as pla

Use a palette of palest pastels for this jostling, flower-filled midsummer scheme, says Helen Billiald

Find room for some fragrant plants to liven up your summer garden

Try our pick of the most beautiful plants you can buy now