I have been reviewing plants of merit, as in those that give loads of flowers for a long time.

I am not one of those who want a plant to flower from spring through to autumn and, if that’s what you want, you’re on a loser anyway.

Plants don’t flower because we want them to – they flower in order to be pollinated and that is where the discussion about the ‘only propagated by cuttings’ comes to the fore. These are therefore useless to any form of wildlife assistance and we are all aware of the plight of our bees.

To return to useful plants – Gaura lindheimeri or ‘Whirling Butterflies’ is an absolute cracker. I put a small plant in the front area with generally rubbish soil as that is what I wanted, and full sun. Bingo! It took off like a rocket, even through the coldest and the mildest winters. The thing flowers its socks off.

Then Aster x frikartii ‘Monch’. I have mentioned this before and make no apology for mentioning it again. What a stonkingly good plant it is. It makes a sort of sub-shrubby plant, not having the running habit of many Asters, and has bigger flowers that go on for yonks.

My very late flowering Aster ericoides is coming into its own as we speak and reminding me of a favourite pussy cat – his ashes are buried under it!

Verbena bonariensis was much-loved of garden designers about a decade ago but don’t let that put you off – it is also much-loved by butterflies. Mine grows in more-or-less gravel and I let it seed before cutting it down in late autumn. It’s tall – about 4ft – but there is a more restrained variety called ‘Lollipop’ if that’s your thing.

Sedum – aren’t they brilliant at this time of the year? Most will be better if you apply the Chelsea-chop, as in whacking them back by about half in the week of the flower show. That leads to delayed flowering but more compact plants are less inclined to flop and snap.

In the shrub area, Caryopteris are a blaze of blue and brilliant for the bees. I was at one of our suppliers recently and the Caryopteris were alive with bees.

Ceratostigma (the shrubby plumbago) has also been flowering for weeks and these have what I call a true-blue flower, so difficult to find. Also the lovely Abelia, much neglected as a shrub. I don’t know why. I can only assume people don’t know about it. It’s evergreen with rather lax growth and in the autumn is smothered in small white/ pale pink trumpet-shaped flowers.

In the vegetable garden, get your spring cabbage, Brussels sprouts and sprouting broccoli in now. Also onions, shallots and garlic can go in now. You may be wondering why you haven’t got the entire range of these latterly mentioned. The reason is that some are okay through the winter, being hardy, and some are better planted in the spring. I am a fan of elephant garlic as it is easy to grow but it makes you weep when chopping.