Meet Norman...

My favourite plant is the Snowdrop (Galanthus Nivalis) it heralds the start of a new year and hopefully the end of winter, just seeing clumps of snowdrops in the garden and at the roadside makes me smile.

In my spare time I enjoy country walks and wildlife, angling and motorcycling. 

In my garden at home I have large herbaceous borders including giant Himalayan Lily (Cardiocrinum giganteum) it has beautiful large white flowers, the plant dies after flowering but it usually seeds itself and is well worth a try. Also several species of spring bulbs, hostas and Helleborus and as a consequence I have something flowering for most of the year.

Customers always ask me for plants with year round flowering, there are a large number of plants that flower in spring, summer and autumn, but to have a well planted garden the ideal plants are those which have more than one attribute such as the Acer which has beautiful foliage from spring and then in autumn the leaves turn golden or Acer griseum which has a beautiful peeling bark.

My advice to anyone interested in gardening is to make the most of all four seasons and senses, even if the winter is cold and dark there are some wonderful trees such as Betula Silver Birch which has lovely white bark or Cornus which have beautiful coloured stems, Acer Griseum which has peeling bark, flowering edible plants and you can’t beat the Rose for that quintessentially English scent.