The power of flowers

GARDENS : Knowing what to plant where is part of the learningprocess for gardeners. Here are two books to help you swot up

A LOT OF FLOWER gardening, especially when you are starting off,is based on fantasy. The mind's eye sees billows of frothy thingspunctuated by spires of tall other things, with a few flying-saucer-type blooms hovering in the spaces between them. The colour schemeis harmonious, the plants are in the pink of health, and everythinggets along famously with everything else.

If only reality were quite as obliging. But, often it's not. I amstill seeking this kind of cottage garden accord in my own plot, andthat's after a couple of decades of serious gardening. Plants areliving things, with definite likes and dislikes. If you are luckyenough to get the picture right on a particular day, chances arethat a week later its coherence will have crumbled, when the lupinsfinish blooming, or the poppies open the wrong shade of red. Floweryborder plants are never static. Nothing stays the same for long.

This independent floral behaviour can be troubling, especiallyfor those of us with control-freak tendencies. Inveterate micro-manager types often avoid flowers, and stick to Italianate topiaryand other governable planting styles. But they miss some of the mostsublime moments in a garden's cycle - when the flowers are singingin tune, and the bees and butterflies are weaving their nectardances between them. These splendid interludes sometimes happen bymistake, but they are more likely to occur when the gardener has anidea of what he or she is doing.

My most useful learning has been from experience: if I getsomething wrong one year, I'm unlikely to repeat the same mistake inthe next. I also learn from other gardeners, by visiting theirpatches, observing what works there, and by asking countlessquestions.

I use the internet a lot too (although much of the information ishit-and-miss and should be approached with caution). My most helpfultools, however, in the quest for flower wisdom, are books.

And there are two that I would like to commend to you. Forabsolute beginners, the new RHS Grow Your Own Flowersby Helen Yemm(Mitchell Beazley, pound(s)16.99) starts with the basics: variousstyles of planting, the all-important differences between annuals,perennials and biennials (terms which can be confusing to newgardeners), and how to make the most of your plot's soil andconditions.

There are descriptions and growing instructions for more than 90different flowering plants. Here are all the most serviceable (andgood-looking) blooms for your borders. With a book such as this,gardeners tending their first piece of ground can start to put aname to all those billows and spires, and work out which ones willsuit their plots. Common errors such as buying sun-loving plants forshady places can be avoided (you'll know to look for foxgloves,instead of delphiniums, for such a position).

The second book I recommend - and this is for slightly moreexperienced gardeners - is The Royal Horticultural SocietyEncyclopedia of Perennials,edited by Graham Rice (DorlingKindersley, pound(s)25). It was first published in 2006, and hasbeen re-issued this year: it has a new cover, but the contents arethe same as the earlier edition.

It is the book I pull off the shelf first when I'm trying to sortout my own garden, or when I see a plant in someone else's and wantto know a bit more about it.

Thousands of plants are included, with all the requisite growingfacts. But there is much other information as well, the kind thatplant anoraks seek out, such as notes on breeders, snippets of planthistory, tables of classification, and the answers to convolutedtaxonomic problems. If you want to hold your own at a plantsperson'spicnic table, this book will offer you a complete education onperennials.

Want to learn to garden?

Saturday morning classes at the Bay Garden in Co Wexford startApril 9th. Subjects include growing your own food, designing yourgarden, climbers and roses. thebaygarden.com; 053-9383349

Spring horticultural society shows (with plant stalls)

Today : Delgany and District Horticultural Society Daffodil Showat the Old Schoolhouse, Delgany, Co Wicklow, 3-5pm

Saturday, April 9th : The annual Alpine Garden Society show inCabinteely Community School, Johnstown Road, Cabinteely, Co Dublin,1.30-4pm, alpinegardensociety.ie

South County Dublin Horticultural Society annual spring show atKill-o'-the-Grange Primary School hall, Deansgrange, Co Dublin, 2-5pm

Saturday and Sunday, April 9-10th: Irish Orchid Society's annualorchid fair at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin 9,irishorchidsociety.org, 10am-5pm