As always to this type of question about annual vs perennial, the answer is complicated. Osteospermums are generally tender or half-hardy perennial plants which makes their survival in UK winters perilous. However, many of the different cultivars and hybrids (there are around 900 officially recognised ones) were developed to be annual plants, dying at the end of the growing season. But two osteospermum varieties, in particular, are labelled as hardy, and these have the best…
A hot water dispenser could be your next great appliance if you ever stand near the kettle just willing it to boil more quickly for your tea, coffee or other beverage of choice. These water heaters work like a kettle but they unusually only heat a cup of water at a time or, in the customisable models, the amount that you’ve selected. And most do this in less than a minute. Our review looks at…
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to steam, bake, grill, roast or fry your food in the same appliance – and save electricity at the same time? Enter the halogen oven. I look at these high-design appliances that cook by infrared light and discuss their pros, cons and features before I make my recommendations and that includes some actual real testing to see how good the food taste too. Some of the models we…
Chrysanthemums are the flowers that you add to your garden to produce colour when everything else is fading away. Affectionally known as mums, chrysanthemums varieties are either early, mid- or late season blooming. That is, they start to bloom in August and early September, or late September through October, or late October, November and even into December. We discuss each of these blooming periods for mums that you grow in your garden. What are some…
There are several ways to look at how to group chrysanthemums (aka mums) together. The UK National Chrysanthemum Society lists many categories of these flowers in which you can display your prized blooms in shows. We, however, have put together a selection of types of chrysanthemum that make sense to regular and enthusiastic chrysanthemum growers in their gardens. We look at early vs late-blooming plants, annual vs perennial mums, categories of colours and full size…
