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Last year I saw a meadow with big tufts of white fluff, a bit like tiny pampas grass heads. What is it and is it possible to grow it in a garden? Mel Stanton, Littlemore

Anything that grows will grow in a garden so long as the conditions are right. What you describe sounds like Cotton Grass or Eriophorum augustifolium and it likes damp, acid conditions. You can buy it from plenty of sites such as www.penlanperennials.co.uk

Our Victoria plum looks very healthy but it has a few leaves which are blistered and misshapen – they look like rushed curtains! Is it anything to worry about? Ollie Gilbert, Reading

Have a look at the underside of the leaves. If there are greenfly, this is the cause of the problem and you should either squash them (if there aren’t too many) or use a spray of your choice baring in mind that, if you want to eat the plums, it might be worth going for an organic pesticide (lots on the market: www.nemasysinfo.com www.harrodhorticultural.com , www.Organiccatalog.com , www.defenders.co.uk www.greengardener.co.uk and www.agralan.co.uk ) . If there are no greenfly and the blisters are red, this is the result of a fungal infection which causes peach leaf curl. This needs to be sorted out. It is best to spray a couple of times, in February, with mancozeb. Do that next year and at leaf fall (which will be early) but I’d also be inclined to do it now, despite being so late in the season. Don’t eat the fruit once you’ve used this spray.

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I followed your advice about looking out for lily beetle and slugs and have managed to pick off and kill two beetles and one snail. But the holes in my Giant Lily keep appearing. Suggestions PLEASE before my lovely plant (I’ve been nursing it for seven years) becomes a homage to the lace industry. David Jones, Salcombe

If it’s any comfort, mine aren’t faring much better. A couple of suggestions. Lily beetle, in all its forms, feeds on lilies BUT I have found the infernal pest wandering round the euphorbias and even box plants in my garden. So, look for them all over, not just on your lilies. Secondly, the best way to deal with slugs is a combination of the slug predator nematode (which takes a week or so to work, buy them from www.nemasysinfo.com www.harrodhorticultural.com , www.Organiccatalog.com , www.defenders.co.uk www.greengardener.co.uk . or www.agralan.co.uk ) and night -time military manoeuvres. By the latter I mean watering the garden as the sun goes down (give all your lilies a good soak), leave it for an hour or so while you make time for a war dance and a bracing drink. Then go out with a torch to pick off and kill the slugs and snails which will, by then, be doing their worst. Apart from the ones you can see, feel round the rims of pots and lift pots to uncover those that are trying to hide.

Is it possible to grow an Echium in a pot? I saw them last year in the Scillies but thought we did not have space. Now I’m wondering if I can squeeze one in beside a hot, south facing wall – it would have to be in a pot because the yard in concreted and we are tenants. Jill Hardman, London

It’s a shame you can’t take a pick axe to the concrete. You can grow echiums in pots so long as you use fertile, well drained soil and keep watering. Given that the Scilly echiums you saw were probably the biennials these are best sown in summer and overwintered for flowering next year. Just make sure the pot never gets frosted. The resulting plant is unlikely to be as large as those rooted into the ground but it will make a good display.

e-mail Jane Owen with your gardening questions: jane.owen1@timesonline.co.uk

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