Position supportspp around emerging perennials

Soon your delphiniums, lupins, peonies and other perennials will come up and quickly grow away. Now’s the best time to put plant supports in place before they get very tall and dense, which makes it more difficult. Supports keep tall perennials from

leaning, toppling over and snapping, as this sedum

could do when it has grown to maturity! You can buy metal supports from your garden centre, which will

last you for many years, and when positioned at the right height will be barely visible once the plants are in full flower. Or you could make a woven structure using prunings of hazel, willow or birch, which looks really natural. Upright plants such as sunflowers, rudbeckias and delphiniums can be tied to canes.