Fill gaps with winter flowers

Remove tender half-hardy annual bedding plants such as busy Lizzies, marigolds and petunias from pots and borders now it’s getting colder, with frosts on the way. These very tender plants won’t survive the winter and are best put on the compost heap because, even if you can keep them frost free, their lifecycle is all but over. Tender perennials like geraniums and fuchsias, however, can be saved.

Pot them up to overwinter somewhere frost free in a greenhouse or on a cool windowsill. Fill the gaps you’ve made outside with winter-flowering plants such as pansies, polyanthus and wallflowers, along with bright evergreen foliage and spring-flowering bulbs like muscari, narcissus and tulips.

Add a pop of colour to pots of evergreens with flowers such as pansies