Plant tulips in November is good advise. Narcissus are traditionally planted earlier in September or October but  it is best to delay planting Tulips until later in October or November. It is more likely a cold snap will occur in this period which helps to eradicated diseases in the soil which could infect the Tulip bulbs. There is also disease particular to Tulips called Tulip fire and planting late helps to reduce the likelihood of this occurring. Tulip fire is true to its name as it looks as if the leaves have been scorched and its hard to get rid of. 

Tulips like well drained soil in a sunny spot and will not thrive if standing in a lot of winter wet this can tend to make the bulbs rot. This also means if we have a weather forecast which suggests biblical quantities of rain and your plot tends to hold water, delay planting until the forecast and weather improve. More tips on Planting Tulips

The weather is of course one of the main challenges for a gardener, because it can be so capricious and unseasonable. Here in the autumn 2015 it seems way too warm, warmer than the summer months which were plagued with chills from the north which upset the more tender vegetables and impeded pollination.

Now I am about to plant Tulips but, bizarrely, the narcissus bulbs planted earlier in the year are already poking their shoots though which is very unusual.

Whatever the books say about what to plant when, the seasonal variations and local weather can make big changes to what you need to do on the ground. We have yet to have a frost which has caused plants to keep on growing. I cut the Delphiniums back as the foliage was well over and the flowers long gone, and then noticed new tiny plants shooting up which will shortly be cut down by the frosts.

I haven't needed the web page on "drought tolerant plants" for some years now, not since I installed a hose watering system also redundant.

You can predict you cannot predict the weather despite what the Met Office says. I will just go and pick the very very last of the sweet peas.

Sweet Peas  although time consuming are a good value plant, as shown by the fact they are still blooming in late October. The image below left shows recently picked flowers, not the handfuls of blooms produced in July, but still lovely scented flowers for the house. I have tried some different varieties in 2015, but was a tad disappointed with some so this year I am back to the tried and tested traditional Spencer varieties with long stems and highly scented blooms

This year  I grew a mix of Spencer types and also lathrus odoratus 'Painted Lady' labelled a grandiflora sweet pea, which was an attractive two tone pink and white, but I thought the blooms were small and less fragrant. I also tried Lathyrus odoratus 'Cupani' which was a lovely colour, but again a bit disappointing.

Those which are still blooming with good sized flowers and scent are the Spencer types. It seems strange to be seeding next years sweet peas whilst still picking this years crop but there has been a bit of an Indian summer.

 I have just seeded for 2016:  Lathyrus odoratus 'Daphne', 'Gwendoline', ' Oxford Blue', 'Mrs Bernard Jones', 'King's High Scent', and 'Charlies Angels'.

Autumn Sown sweet peas need to be kept frost free under glass, and pinched out to keep the plants in check and this will also make them bushy making sturdier plants with several flower stems per plant. They will be ready for planting out later in the spring to make a great display for next year. 

This Clematis is flowering now, C. terniflora "Sweet Autumn" and it is a lovely delicate Clematis with sweetly scented flowers. It is fully hardy and a great alternative to the also sweetly scented climber Jasmine which needs frost protection. As a late flowering Clematis this is pruning group 3 -  Group 3 require a quite a hard prune to cut back all of last  year's growth to a pair of buds15-20 cms above the soil in early spring.

Clematis terniflora is late flowering and will cover fences and walls growing to around 5-6m so it needs a good space. This Clematis was in full bloom early October at the wonderful gardens of Hidcote, about which more another time, but without doubt Hidcote is one of the most  inspiring gardens and even in Autumn looked fantastic full of flowers and interest. The creator of Hidcote, Major Lawrence Johnston, was a genius in his artistic flair and eye in laying out such a garden full of vistas and flowers. I would love to revisit during spring and summer.

This is the Elephant Hawk moth caterpillar a fantastic, if a bit alien looking, Caterpillar which is commonly found on Rosebay willowherb. I removed a large patch of this fairly vigorous weed but left another patch, despite its seeds blowing in the wind and so very efficiently dispersing its seed  everywhere. I wanted to preserve the habitat for this lovely Caterpillar.