These roses are doing well in pots. The Sexy Rexy was in the garden, but was not thriving. It didn’t take long to recover once it was in a pot. I have a watering schedule: the pots are watered twice a week and fed on alternate weeks (roughly). The liquid plant food smells rich and pungent; the prolific flowers suggest it is doing them good. I’m hoping a Spiced Coffee rose, also rescued from the garden, will do well in its pot. The Violet Hit, which has always been in a pot, was not thriving, so I moved it last summer into a more open position and it is steadily improving, despite the fact that an aquilegia has taken up residence in the pot and will not be budged.

A mass of sweet peas is growing in a barrel. They have simply come up by themselves this year. Popping up amongst them are self-sown poppies – including some fluffy ones – and underneath a little daisy is struggling for light.

The potted yucca is hosting self-sown lobelia. The Mother of Herbs has been removed from its pot as it was taking over the kitchen windowsill. It is now beside the sage barrel and a basil plant has taken its place in the kitchen. Tiny viola pop up around the garden, and these ones are with self-sown poppies in a daffodil pot – with a background of geraniums grown from a cutting given to my mother years ago by the Avon lady.

You can hardly see the pot this lime tree is in; the companion plants of alyssum and silver thyme are thriving – a sign of good soil health, I hope. A previous lime tree died, so I decided on a pot for this one, beside the house for shelter. So far so good – and the lime tree has lots of flowers. As with all the pots, I use food suitable for container plants – either liquid or slow release – so that the soil doesn’t build up toxicity, a tip picked up from a television gardening show.