Peter’s top tips

1 You need a fulsome supply of foliage to fill out bunches of flowers; deciduous snowberry (Symphoricarpos), with maidenhair fern-like leaves, plus evergreens Pittosporum and Euonymus are very useful for this purpose.

2 While zinnias have no fragrance, they make excellent cut-andcome-again summer flowers. Sown where they are required to grow, they will flower from late April in the south and mid-May in colder areas.

3 Include some Brompton stock, sweet rocket, sweet Williams and wallflowers in early summer sowings of biennials, for fragrant flowers to cut next spring.

4 You could still sow some sweet peas for late summer flowering, but they will need a cool place through the summer, plus plenty of watering and feeding.