BBC Gardeners' World

more from gardeners’ world magazine

Listen now… to season 3 of our podcast, featuring GW regulars Monty, Alan and Adam plus special guests Joe Lycett and Michael Mosley. Visit GardenersWorld.com/podcast Save… subscribe before 4 January to receive 14 packs of seeds FREE with your February to June issues, saving you more than £31. Pay just £24.50 for six issues and all your seeds, plus a 10% saving with our mail-order partners. See page 93. Learn… how to care for house plants, with our expert online guide. Study at your own pace, in your own time. Courses are FREE, with an option to upgrade. Go to bit.ly/Healthy-House-Plants Plan… for your best-ever year in the garden with our 132-page Year Planner 2022. Order home delivery for just £7.99+ P&P, at magsdirect.co.uk/yearplanner2022 Keep up to date with us at FACEBOOK @GWmagazine INSTAGRAM @gardenersworldmag TWITTER @GWmag PINTEREST @GWmag Looking to get in…

welcome

Hellebores, mahonia, viburnum, early narcissus… all stars on the rollcall of winter flowers that stand up to the weather and draw us into the late winter garden. Yet, as I write this at the start of December, I’ve seen them all in full bloom on a garden visit today – alongside the tail-end of autumn’s periwinkle, hydrangea and autumn crocus. It seems several seasons in one day in our gardens isn’t so unusual. We’ve all spotted this – but it’s more than just anecdote. Scientific studies of nature’s changing calendar show leaves on trees for longer, warmer (and wetter) winters, earlier flowering times, fewer frosts. That’s great for us as gardeners, right? Well, yes and no. But when a plant hosts insects that rely on a certain timing, and in turn…

we love january

“The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.”G. K. Chesterton STAR OF THE MONTH Hamamelis mollis There is something truly magical about a plant that suddenly pops out something as fabulous as these little wriggly yellow fowers, just when you most need it. We have struggled through the festive season, our heads still throb slightly from the after effects of a misspent New Year, and here it is with a little taster of spring, winking at you in a most seductive manner. Just to make it even better, if you edge a little closer then you will get a little puff of scent. A sort of sweet spiciness: like a curry made of boiled sweets. Shelter from the…

expert’s choice snowdrops

‘Atkinsii’ Large, slender flowers, with a heartshaped mark on the inner segments. Scented. Height x Spread 20cm x 8cm ‘Cordelia’ A delightfully symmetrical double. Has more than 20 even inner segments with a green V on each. H x S 18cm x 8cm ‘Straffan’ A vigorous, single-flowerer producing two flower stems from each bulb. Pale mark on inner petal. H x S 25cm x 15cm ‘Three Ships’ Large, rounded outer petals frame pairs of markings on the inner ones. Vigorous and reliable. H x S 30cm x 15cm Snowdrops ‘Wendy’s Gold’ Has yellow inner markings, and more vigour and reliability than other yellow variants. H x S 20cm x 15cm When is a snowdrop not a snowdrop? When it costs £50 or more for one bulb? Then, it’s either self indulgence or an investment – or it’s an infectious addiction! For…

the full monty

When I began hosting Gardeners’ World at Berryfields in 2003, I was determined to make the garden there as integrated and real as possible. For the first year or so, there was so much to do – borders to make, hard landscaping, the huge pond, greenhouse and vegetable garden – that every programme involved a new project of some sort. But then we made a special programme that involved visits to all the previous Gardeners’ World gardens – The Magnolias, Clack’s Farm, Barnsdale and Barleywood – and I realised that my goal of creating a real garden was completely wrong. The thing that stood out from Barnsdale, and to a lesser degree Barleywood, was that they both comprised lots of very different areas covering an unusually wide range of horticultural situations.…

have your say

Gardeners are full of bottle We have been recycling all our plastic bottles in the garden. We cut them into three sections: we use the bottom as pots for cuttings (my husband is then happy to give them away, rather than his coveted pots!), the middle section protects plants from slugs, and the top part is popped on canes to protect our eyes. We use plastic milk bottles too, for growing salads, leaving the handle so we can hang them up. Can other readers offer more recycling ideas? Sue Baker, Balsall Common Young fan of Monty and Don My four-year-old daughter Imogen enjoyed the November issue of Gardeners’ World Magazine. She even likes watching the show and catching up with Monty and Don (she thinks one of his dogs is called Don). A big…