Light up your life

Peter Dowdall says an Amelanchier, or Snowy Mespilus, in full flower is like a light bulb in the spring garden.

With space in most gardens being at a premium and with so many thousands of plants available to choose from, how in the world can you narrow it down so that a plant ends up with a position in your garden. Every plant should work hard to warrant a place, they should, where possible, have more than one season of interest.

There are some smaller species that cannot be left out even though their period of interest may be oh-so-fleeting, such as many of the spring bulbs like snowdrops and Crocus.