If ghoulies, ghosties and bonfires aren’t really your thing, never fear dearies, we’re here to help you. We’ve found plenty of botanical nightmares out there worthy of The Little Shop of Horrors… The carnivorous plants hold a special fascination, don’t they – monkey cups (Nepenthes), cobra plants (Darlingtonia), Venus fly-traps (Dionaea) and the like. These lure innocent […]
Chinese lantern I regard the Chinese lantern as one of my inheritance plants; my parents grew it in their garden in Kent and as a child I would immerse myself in its magical world of enchantment and spells. In the years that followed I rarely came across another, which is a puzzle to me because […]
Trees and shrubs that round off their summer performance with a blaze of glowing crimson give you twice as many bangs for your hard-earned bucks. But which are the best to choose? In our view, there are some go-to trees and shrubs if you’re after an autumnal blaze… Best trees for autumn colour in a small […]
Yes it’s that time of year again when, with fortitude and determination, we attempt to get our amaryllis bulbs to flower for Christmas week. Are you up for the challenge? Unless you’ve over-summered your amaryllis, you’ll need to buy some NOW. In terms of quality and price you probably can’t beat Lidl. Their amaryllis bulbs […]
The clocks go back tonight – no more pretending that the winter is an age away! But while we are bidding a sad farewell to yet another glorious summer of gardening there are still tasks to be accomplished such as looking after pots of herbs, cutting back spreaders that may harbour snails and slugs and […]
We all make terrible mistakes in the garden every so often … you know it’s true! – and today we are going to fess up to 10 of ours. We are writing in the spirit of ‘Cautionary Tales’, but we can’t help wondering if you’re going to recognise a few of these gaffes as ones you’ve […]
or autumn ox-eye daisy We may be half way through October, yet there are still so many plants looking picture perfect at the moment and the autumn ox-eye daisy is most definitely a main player. The fresh-as-a-daisy, pristine white flowers are such a cheery sight, up to 8cm across with yellowish green centres, they are […]
Choosing plants is great fun and having the right equipment (and clothes) definitely makes gardening much easier. Here we recommend some good buys gleaned from our 200 years of collective garden pottering. Our recommendations are based on experience not on free samples. If you click on links we provide we may, though, get a small […]
You may have heard that all three Growbags were in the Scottish Highlands for a few days last week – evading Storm Amy by a whisper before she started wreaking her havoc. In between lovely walks, garden visits and long periods of tea and laughter, we managed to get some jobs done such as late […]
You know that you have been on an epic garden visit when you leave with your preconceptions debunked, the dial on what is possible shifted and you continue to mull over with wonder at what you’ve experienced long afterwards. I was awash with all these emotions after Caroline had organised visits to two very contrasting […]
You’ll find current garden offers and recommendations on other tools and plants at our ‘save money’ page here.
This draw closes today (28 October 2025) and we’ll be emailing the winner shortly. Please continue following us though, as we’ll have more free draws for subscribers coming up 😄
How often do the words ‘good autumn colour’ seal your decision to ‘buy now’ when browsing a tree or shrub you hadn’t actually set out to purchase at all? Don’t feel guilty. Trees that round off their summer performance with a blaze of glowing crimson give you twice as many bangs for your hard-earned bucks. […]
Have a look at the trees and shrubs we’ve chosen for autumn colour. If you buy from any of these links it doesn’t affect the price you pay (if you can get any of them cheaper elsewhere, go for it!), but we get a small commission from the suppliers NB If you’re not already a subscriber […]
Thunberg’s bushclover Sometimes I become fixated on a certain named cultivar of a plant, even if it means driving six hours to collect it! Well, I’ll admit we were already going in that direction and I had long wanted to visit Larch Cottage Nurseries in Cumbria, but this was the opportunity I needed and I […]
There’s a nip in the air now, all right! Even here in the soft south, we’ve already had pretty chilly nights. There are still tasks to get on with in the garden in spite of the autumnal vibe, such as planning some new features, overhauling the tool collection, and ordering spring bulbs… Perfect planning Are you […]
Climbing plants can add so much to the beauty of a garden, wall, glasshouse or balcony. Between all three Growbags and our regular columnist, Louise Sims, we grow a lot of them! This is a handy aide-memoire to bring our thoughts about them together into one post. We start with a fairly short list of […]
Summer is definitely over. The swing seats are being dismantled and the BBQs put back in the shed, but this year our gardens seem to be putting on some very welcome ‘plot twists’ before we batten down for winter. Here’s what we mean… 2. As I expect you know, I’m lucky enough to spend my […]
or Arizona beggar’s ticks ‘Hannay’s Lemon Drop’ This is a perfect late-season pick-me-up plant; it’s fresh and uncomplicated and able to hold its own amongst its neighbours. As always when one trawls the internet, there are accurate descriptions that have clearly been written by people with first hand knowledge of their subject, but sadly there […]
We’d like to recommend some good buys gleaned from our 200 years of collective garden pottering. This week’s offers We’ve had a look around to see who has offers on their garden products this week. Here’s what we found: Crocus bulbs to buy now It’s a bit early to plant tulips, and snowdrops are best […]
It looks like we are all in for some rougher weather in the next couple of weeks. To be fair, we don’t need wall-to-wall sunshine for the sort of jobs we need to do in September – tidying up shrubs, perhaps, planting clematis or repairing bare patches in the lawn……. Shrubs in autumn Are you getting […]
Cactus, pompon, waterlily, ball, collarette, there are so many different types of dahlias. Here we each pick our favourite one of all… Caroline: My favourite dahlia is of course, one that appears to require little expertise. I bought D. ‘Karma Irene’ from Chelsea Flower Show three years ago. One of the ‘waterlily’ type dahlias it’s […]
Early September is THE time to plan changes in your garden. The triumphs and the mistakes are mostly still staring you in the face, for one thing! But what alterations will you make? We 3Growbags each have our own wildly-divergent ideas… I need less garden. There, I’ve said it. I know my sisters have been telling me this for […]
or potato bean Many years ago I went to a talk given by Bob Brown (founder of Cotswold Garden Flowers) at one of our local Hardy Plant Society meetings. I remembered to grab my garden notebook as I left home, because what Bob recommends will always be worth growing and he introduced me to my […]
The end of the summer hols – back to school, back to work…….and it’s just the same for gardeners too! September brings plenty of early autumn tasks such as moving or digging out plants in the borders, choosing new roses or prepping alpines for winter… Making changes This can be a fabulous time for looking critically at […]
This draw has now closed (17 September 2025), and we’ll be emailing the winner shortly, but do still sign up to get our free newsletters here: the3Growbags because we’ll have another one for our subscribers soon!
There aren’t many parts of Britain that haven’t had to contend with extremely dry soil this summer. Parched lawns, hosepipe bans, farmers desperately worried about their crops…it’s been a worrisome few months for many. Lots of garden plants can shrug off such conditions and we’d like to recommend a few to you, in case you’re […]
or Green bristle grass, or Green foxtail I first noticed this pretty little grass growing in our garden several years ago. It arrived as a hitch-hiker in a pot of some perennial or other that I had been given and which is long forgotten, but I’ve enjoyed the presence of the Setaria ever since because […]
Most of August’s gardening jobs are all about KEEPING THINGS GOING! Cutting back, watering, harvesting to encourage more produce…. Just trying to keep the show on the road. Especially for Caroline who’s got a big Open Gardens event this weekend in the Highlands (link at the end). There are a few tasks that are specific to […]
In the harsh sun of August, flower-colours can look washed-out and flat. What is needed are some plants that will shine brightly in high summer, popping and fizzing in answer to glaring light. Don your shades, here we go with some of our favourite zingers……… 1. What wonderful summer-flowerers perennial phloxes are! They like sun and good […]
The problem with homemade tomato soup is that you are eternally comparing your efforts to the gold standard of Heinz, the most popular of any canned soup on the market, and deservingly so – it’s delicious. But it’s also chock full of salt, sugar and goodness knows how many stabilisers and e-numbers. So it’s worth […]
By no stretch of the imagination do I regard myself as a clematis expert, but I have found ‘Sugar Candy’ to be trouble free and robust despite the rather less than gentle handling it sometimes receives. I made the number one mistake of planting it through a climbing rose* because I thought they’d look so […]
And so the year tips over into August. The tree foliage looks dustier and the blackspot is getting a grip on the old roses. But it’s also harvest-time – wonderful! Not only is there fruit and veg to pick, but what about seed-harvesting too? This is just the time to get started, as well as […]
It’s almost August and we are smack in the middle of prime garden-visiting time. But why do we do it? And which gardens do you really rate? We share some of our favourites, but of course we sisters each have our own agenda……… I have always loved Sissinghurst Garden in Kent. It was the first place that taught […]
or shrubby hare’s ear Let’s start with the family to which Bupleurum fruticosum belongs: formerly known as Umbelliferae (indicating slightly domed flower shape with spokes like an umbrella), it is now called Apiaceae. Apis is the Latin name for ‘bee’ and these are among the myriad of insects that are attracted to the many members of this group. It […]
There are certain gardens that just have a magical, dream-like quality about them. They transport you to a place, a moment in time, that lingers in your memory more as a feeling than an image. This is one such garden. Your first temptation to visit The Manor at Hemingford Grey (near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire), might […]