February - Plants of the moment

Gardens can be created in many popular styles, so choose one to suit your mood. Perhaps you want a relaxing patio garden packed with colour where the family can play, or somewhere more modern, vibrant and stylish to sit out and entertain. Flowery and fragrant cottage gardens can include traditional favourites like roses, lilies and sweet peas, while a natural wildlife garden will create habitats with plants that will attract birds, bees, beneficial insects and other welcome friends.

If space allows try developing different themed areas divided by paths, clipped hedges, planted trellis screens or archways. Be creative and play with colour themes or celebrate a season, having fun and expressing your own personality.

PLANT SUGGESTIONS:

* Cottage garden favourites.

* Reliable and easy to maintain shrubs and perennials.

* Bold, leafy and evergreen shrubs, bamboos, grasses, etc, to create privacy.

* Any shrubs, hedging, perennials and trees with flowers, fruits and berries of value to wildlife or that can be used to create habitats for nesting and feeding birds and insects, etc.

* Plants to include in this month’s selection could include: Bergenia, Brunnera, Cyclamen coum, Doronicum ‘Little Leo’, Nandina domestica and Photinia ‘Red Robin’.