For autumn colour plant a spindle shrub; refresh your pots; and listen to a National Trust podcast

This plant ticks all the boxes for a garden all-rounder

Not everyone likes bright pink flowers. But they’re wrong

This long-flowerer is a must-have for Chelsea gardens

These native woodlanders are a cottage garden classic

Leaves arranged in a star shape appear in early spring, followed by tiny starry flowers

It’s the prettiest gatecrasher in the garden

If you’ve got a spot in light shade, make space for this cottage garden classic

Its perfumed fruits make wonderful jams, jellies, fruit leathers and lemonade

This throwback to the age of the rockery produces cascades of colour

Make room for this cottage garden classic that’s as popular with bees as it is with gardeners

Choose the right one and you’ll have cheery flowers from March to July

Want early blossom? Look no further than this compact little beauty

These tiny tuberous perennials create a wash of egg-yolk yellow

Its flowers bring heady scents to a bleak time of year from December to March – followed by long-lasting berries

Stick it at the base of a wall, then wait a year or two. Your reward will be beautiful lavender flowers until early spring

Depending on who you ask, it smells of roast beef, wet dog or coffee. Add pale lime-green flowers that last until April, and this plant won’t necessarily cause a stink

OK, it’s nothing special for half of the year – but, oh, those marvellous berries

A late-flowering evergreen with sunny yellow flowers and blue-black berries for the birds

With seedheads that are fantastic dried, it’s the cream of the crop