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Q – My ‘Bird of Paradise’ plants are too big.Ìý Can I take seeds from the flowers to start new plants?

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Matthew Wilson – This is the Strelitzia reginae

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Q – I’ve a small front garden that I can’t grow spring bulbs in due to cats.Ìý Can you advise on deterrents please?

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Bunny – It’s often squirrels rather than cats – especially with Crocuses

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Eric – You could put holly leaves down

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Matt – Chicken wire over the top until they’re more settled

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Q – I’m keen on Ferns.Ìý What flowering plants can I use with them?

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Bunny – I’ve got them mixed with Arum ‘Marmoratum’.Ìý White flowering Roses too.Ìý

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Matthew – I’ve got Dryopteris erythrosora with a grey-leafed Hosta (‘Halcyon’) and a blue Hydrangea called ‘Zorro’ underneath a big Hawthorn.Ìý

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Q – We’re having a school potato growing competition and we want to grow ‘Pink Fir Apple’.Ìý Will it work in Yorkshire? If not, what should we try instead?

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Bunny – They should be fine – give it a go.Ìý

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Matthew – ‘Charlotte’ or ‘Anya’ are good for growing in bags.Ìý

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Q – We’ve developed an environmental classroom – what would the panel put in such a space to inspire newcomers to gardening?

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Matt – I saw some of yours today like Echium wildpretii.Ìý Some lovely palms too.Ìý And a young olive tree.Ìý

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Matthew – Things with a backstory are good.Ìý Like Metasequoia glyptostroboides.Ìý Ginkgo biloba.Ìý Woolemi Pine.Ìý ‘Monkey Puzzle’.Ìý

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Q – Best plants to establish in a large wildlife pond with a clay bottom please?

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Bunny – Use a subsoil across the bottom rather than topsoil to encourage a natural look.Ìý Use coir rolls around the edge filled with things like the ‘Water Iris’, ‘Water Forget-Me-Not’, and ‘Water Mint’

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Matthew – I would add ‘Flowering Rush’ (Butomus umbellatus).Ìý

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Q – I have a large bronze Phormium tenax (possibly ‘Purpureum’).Ìý I want to reduce its size.Ìý When/how should I do this?

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Matthew – It’s quite hard to get root out with them.Ìý Split them into small pieces and pot them up in good compost.Ìý

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Q – My daughter has an area of the garden for her fairies.Ìý What can she plant there please? (No pink!)

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Matthew – Geranium ‘Crane’s Bill’. Perennial Geraniums like Geranium phaeum ‘Album’.Ìý And Geranium macrorrhizum ‘White-Ness’.Ìý Deschampsia cespitosa.Ìý

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Bunny – Dwarf apple tree in a pot.Ìý If you can get one impregnated with Mistletoe that’s magical. Nigella and Forget-Me-Nots.

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Matt – Get one of Mabel Lucie Atwell’s books and plant the plants from them. So she can see them growing!