Modest, alluring and versatile, Viola odorata, or sweet violet, is a small, hardy, herbaceous perennial that tumbles and scrambles close to the ground, forming dense clumps of dainty, heart-shaped, gr

Kay Maynard explains how her first-ever garden has become a wildlife-friendly haven with year-round interest

The sweet violet, Viola odorata, may be a diminutive flower, but its small, slightly asymmetrical, pansy-like flowers are highly fragrant. They open in early spring before most plants have even though

Which gardening jobs are you guilty of putting off? Planting bulbs? Cleaning tools? Edging the lawn? There are many I leave too long, but staking and supporting plants, particularly perennials, is the

The finest bay trees I know are the legendary 150-year-old specimens that line the gracious balustraded South Terrace at Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland. The trees were already at least 50 years old

Picotee-pink-edged, large flowers that look at you from a tall stem. Followed by marbled evergreen leaves. A sterile cultivar from Rodney Davey, it flowers prolifically as its energy is saved for flow