One of the things I enjoy most about perennial plants is that they rarely stay the same. Unlike annual bedding plants that complete their lives in a single season, perennials settle into the garden and slowly develop character. Each spring they emerge a little stronger, each summer they fill a little more space and, if they're happy, they gradually become substantial clumps that seem completely at home in the border. For several years that's exactly what we hope for. Then som

Shade has an unfortunate reputation. It's often spoken about as though it's a problem waiting to be solved. People apologise for it when I visit their gardens. "Nothing seems to grow there." "It's too dark." "I don't know what to plant beneath the trees." I understand why. Garden centres and gardening programmes tend to celebrate bright, colourful borders full of sunshine-loving plants. It's easy to come away thinking that a successful garden needs six hours of sunshine every