Which robust plants can I use in my hanging baskets? My petunias were killed by aphids

Lesley Saunders-Davies, Devon

AANNE SAYS I am surprised that your petunias didn’t recover from the aphids, but in your email you say you were away in hospital, so they must have been missing your tender loving care! Aphids often breed to plague-like proportions, but then tend to dwindle as they are preyed on by birds, ladybirds and their larvae, and various other predators.

Still, a mix of plants is a good way forward. There are lots of colourful options, including trailing pelargoniums, some cheery daisies – maybe yellow bidens and an osteospermum – at least one petunia or the similar but smaller-flowered calibrachoa, and a trailing bacopa.

Ghost orchid spends most of its time underground and can have 10-year gaps between flowering. It is pale and has no leaves.

Fly orchid is aptly named as the flowers resemble flies. This resemblance helps attract digger wasps, which pollinate the orchids.

Lady’s slipper is one of the most widely illustrated species, but was driven to the brink of extinction in the UK in the 20th century.

White helleborine is a slow grower – it takes eight years to develop from seed and blooms up to three years after that.

Registered charity numbers 294344 and SC038885 *For a list of sources visit woodlandtrust.org.uk/GW