Country Life’s best gardening tips of 2018: Wisteria, Christmas trees and getting rid of box moth caterpillars
Our panel of experts includes writer and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh and Charles Quest-Ritson, author of the RHS Encyclopedia of Roses as well as many others. Here are their most popular gardening tips of the year.

How to get rid of box moth caterpillars
The box moth, Cydalima perspectalis, and its caterpillars quickly destroy box plants. Here's how to combat these pests.
When will your fruit be ready to pick? A complete guide to fruit in the gardens of Britain
From apples to strawberries, here's when the fruits in your garden will be ready to pick.
Alan Titchmarsh: A foolproof guide to growing wisteria
Results aren't guaranteed, exactly, but Alan Titchmarsh's guide makes them very, very likely.
Growing your own Christmas tree: Alan Titchmarsh on what to plant and where to plant it
Why buy your Christmas tree when you can grow your own and enjoy these handsome, statuesque trees all year round?
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
The delicious salad leaves to try in your garden that keep on giving with ‘cut and grow’
Pulling up entire salad plants seems like madness once you've moved on to 'cut and grow again' as Mark Diacono explained.
Curious Questions: Why do leaves change colour in Autumn? And why do some go yellow while others are red, purple or brown?
Nature has few rites of passage more impressive than autumn colour. Mark Griffiths explains how it happens.
Alan Titchmarsh: ‘Why on earth haven’t I done this before? There’s an extra spring in my garden’s step’
A visit to Sissinghurst showed Alan Titchmarsh some tricks he's been missing for years – here's what he learned.
Japanese knotweed: How a delicate bloom beloved of the Victorians became a modern British scourge
Mark Griffiths explained how Japanese knotweed took hold in Britain thanks to Victorian gardeners with the best intentions – and tackled the question of how to get rid of it.
Six common garden problems, solved by our experts
At the start of the year we asked our experts for advice on common conundrums - here's what they came up with.
Ultimate guide to growing roses: What to plant, where to plant it, and why you really don’t need to prune
Roses are among the easiest of plants to grow and perhaps the most rewarding – and all the more so when you have the brilliant Charles Quest-Ritson as your guide.
Tapeley Park: A Devonshire garden filled with dramatic flourishes at every turn
Non Morris discovers that experimentation, environmentalism and numerous dramatic flourishes invigorate this unusual Devonshire garden at every turn.
Warnell Hall, Cumbria: Where sympathy and experimentation go hand in hand
Non Morris is intrigued by the close attention to detail that has produced a new Cumbrian garden of great style
Credit: Val Corbett/©Country Life Picture Library
Plas Cadnant, Isle of Anglesey: The place where the heart rules
Non Morris is enchanted to learn about the twice-over extraordinary restoration of an Anglesey garden by its owner, who ‘fell
Rofford Manor: A derelict house and garden transformed into a harmonious haven
George Plumptre is won over by a sympathetic and highly individual design that gradually reveals its string of secrets.
Little Mynthurst Farm: A rare mid-20th-century garden designed by Russell Page
George Plumptre enjoys the grounds of a Tudor farmhouse that was the former home of Lord Baden-Powell. Photographs by Clive
Credit: Getty - Sheffield Park - a Capability Brown landscape
The last word on Capability Brown – but one which comes with a health warning
This book on Lancelot 'Capability' Brown by the greatest living expert on his work is like nothing else – but it
Credit: LOOK Die Bildagentur der Fotografen GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo
Nymans Garden: The West Sussex gem that's been at the cutting edge for over 120 years
Nymans Garden in West Sussex is one of Britain's great horticultural wonders, and with its relatively-new head gardener – only
Toby Keel is Country Life's Digital Director, and has been running the website and social media channels since 2016. A former sports journalist, he writes about property, cars, lifestyle, travel, nature.
-
How many puppies in the average litter? Country Life Quiz of the Day
Plus a 1960s house, Hollywood's most famous cavewoman and more in Friday's quiz.
By Toby Keel Published
-
Love, sex and death: Our near-universal obsession with the rose
No flower is more entwined with myth, religion, politics and the human form than the humble rose — and now there's a new coffee table book celebrating them in all of their glory.
By Amy de la Haye Last updated
-
An expert guide to growing plants from seed
All you need to grow your own plants from seed is a pot, some compost, water and a sheltered place.
By John Hoyland Published
-
The best rhododendron and azalea gardens in Britain
It's the time of year when rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias and many more spring favourites are starting to light up the gardens of the nation. Here are the best places to go to enjoy them at their finest.
By Amie Elizabeth White Published
-
Great Comp: The blissful garden flooded with rhododendrons and azaleas that's just beyond the M25
Each spring, Great Comp Garden — just outside the M25, near Sevenoaks — erupts into bloom, with swathes of magnolias, azaleas and rhododendrons. Charles Quest-Ritson looks at what has become one of the finest gardens to visit in Kent.
By Charles Quest-Ritson Published
-
'I'm the expert who wrote the RHS's guide to roses — here's why pruning them right now is almost certainly a terrible mistake'
More roses die from over-pruning than any other cause so what’s the reasoning underpinning this horticultural habit? Charles Quest-Ritson, the garden expert who wrote the RHS Encyclopedia of Roses, takes a closer look.
By Charles Quest-Ritson Last updated
-
Forsythia: The spring flower that's a ray of sunshine — and a foolproof option for novice gardeners
Forsythia are often sniffed at for being too brassy, but there is a lot more going for them, says Charles Quest-Ritson, although don’t plant them next to clashing pink-flowering currants.
By Charles Quest-Ritson Published
-
John Morley: A brush with the artist who changed the world of snowdrops
Tilly Ware meets the artist and galanthophile John Morley in his Suffolk garden, home to the oldest snowdrop nursery in the country.
By Tilly Ware Published
-
Alan Titchmarsh: I went a bit mad ordering bulbs — and I'm not even a little bit sorry I did
Our columnist's splurge in the autumn is now paying off with spectacular irises across his garden.
By Alan Titchmarsh Published
-
Dawn Chorus: How to travel around the world in 19 flowers and the Mini Moke that took St Moritz by storm
What do Charles Dickens, Henry VIII and Ellen Willmott all have in common? They all appear in a new book chronicling 19 flowers and the people responsible for bringing them to the UK. Find out how to get your hands on it, plus, we reveal why a rare Beach Boys-inspired Mini Moke turned up in a Swiss ski resort and a few of India Knight’s favourite things.
By Rosie Paterson Published