Miniature narcissus look best at eye level on the display table. This piece of advice is offered freely as I dirtied my knees from taking a photograph of a tiny daffodil planted with its fellows in the border. So this is ‘Camborne’, a lovely pale miniature that would look sensational if I was peering at it from eye level, focusing the camera to get the best shot, moving the pot a little for the best angle, perhaps bending my knee a tad, all to get that spontaneous, natural shot. As it is the trousers need to go to the wash.

Helleborus Harvington Double Purple looks a million dollars in photograph and garden. I bought it for £1 a few years ago from one of those bargain benches for sad plants, those that have passed their best or never achieved it. Advised by my wife not to bother, I took a chance, invested wisely, fed it, molly coddled it, gave it time, and it has repaid that investment richly. I’d recommend this variety.

Talking about plants for nothing, how about species crocus that seed themselves freely in borders and lawn. Various shades of these exquisite gems are all over the garden and at some time I’ll have to consider the grass mower…. but not yet.

It’s the end of the road for the snowdrops as time waits for no man. One or two left. ‘The Whopper’ is an Irish snowdrop that doesn’t quite live up to its name, certainly not in its present pot. Unlike the miniature narcissus this deserves to be grown in the border where it can gain sustenance and live up to the billing.
