Tough as well as bountiful, our indigenous pelargoniums are among the most popular garden and pot plants in the world. Seductive, late-night clouds of perfume are a bonus.

If you have a pond in your garden, plant water lilies. Or, as they do in the East, plant a lotus. Sooner or later a bud will rise from the muddy depths.

Is your garden let down by a drab patch that could do with a bright explosion of colour? Try detonating a bougainvillea bomb and then standing back to watch the effect.

Seductive moonflowers may release a heady, sweet perfume into the night air but be careful how far under their spell you fall, for their narcotic and toxic properties are legendary.