– It’s better to leave succulents and pelargoniums out as late in the season as possible, but once frost is forecast in your area, get them indoors or under glass.

– Shorten back long gangling stems on shrub roses, to reduce wind-rock. If you didn’t prune ramblers after they flowered, do it now, cutting out plenty of the old flowered stems and training in the new (if it’s a ‘Rambling Rector’ halfway up a tree, you never heard this).

– This is the time to take/beg hardwood cuttings of buddleia, coloured elders, currants and forsythia, ie, stick foot-long pieces into the ground where you want them to grow, for three quarters of their length.

- Cut grass no closer than 1-2in now, and make sure the holes in the back of the grass box are clear so the clippings are sucked up off the lawn efficiently.

READERS' QUERIES

Last spring I bought Clematis ‘Alba Luxurians’ to grow through a purple elder. Its flowers turned out mostly green. What should I do? Mrs G. Preece, Walthamstow

Here’s a clematis which, from its name, you would expect to be an explosion of white, but in fact the ends of the petals are usually green and often there’s a green stripe down the middle; cool and elegant as ‘Spring Green’ tulips, and for my money rather nicer than pure white. Sometimes there are wholly green flowers and they are always very variable, so I am sure your plant will go mainstream next year.

It’s a vigorous variety, and the small flowers, plentiful as they are, make it good for growing into large shrubs.

The viticella group of clematis, bred from the species of that name, all have a much more delicate, informal air than the large-flowered hybrids and are good in less formal parts of a garden. The British Clematis Society (www.britishclematis.org.uk) produces a booklet on viticellas which suggests putting three in the same planting hole. If the hole were big enough, well prepared with compost, and the colours harmonious, it could be good. The BCS has a booklet on herbaceous clematis too, for a small fee, as well as factsheets on pruning, pests and diseases, etc.

I planted three tubs with acidanthera bulbs last year and had a beautiful display. I allowed them to die down and then stored them over winter, well protected. I brought them out when the weather warmed up and they grew beautifully; I did not overfeed them when they were at the leaf stage, but only got one flower stem in each tub this year. Is it worth keeping them for next year? Mrs C. Holliday, South Croydon

Acidanthera (now Gladiolus callianthus) are so appealing; like the sweetest, most demure of white gladioli. In containers they dry off too soon to feed the corms sufficiently to flower again, over-watering is damaging, and heavy feeding is not helpful. They look dreadful while they are dying down and need standing somewhere warm, sunny and out of sight (what a waste of good space). I prefer to plant them in the ground and let them take their slim chance against our winters there (they come from Eritrea). No, let’s be honest: I prefer to throw them out and start again with full-size corms guaranteed to flower. They are not expensive. Better to regard them as bedding plants.

stephen.anderton@thetimes.co.uk

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