Gardeners' Question Time

Our experts tackle your queries, offering pomegranate-growing tips, aphid advice, recommended roses and a bug-hotel cleaning regime

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Q Which plants do well in sunny borders and how should we arrange them?

Ian and Sally, Bristol

A MATT B SAYS Plant tulips and daffodils for spring colour. Hardy geraniums are always reliable, particularly Rozanne with bright violet-blue flowers from early summer to autumn. Phlox will add both colour and fragrance, but do dig in plenty of organic matter as they dislike dry soil. Try pale lilac 'Prospero' and bright pink 'Becky Towe'.

Shrub roses will flourish too, including Macmillan Nurse, with blush-white double blooms from summer to autumn, and bright yellow 'Ambassador Nogami' for contrast.

Do find room for campanulas, including the glorious 'Kent Belle', up to 1.2m tall with large, deep-violet bells, and 'Pritchard's Variety', with rounded clusters of smaller, violet-blue blooms.

A MATT P SAYS It sounds like you'll be spoilt for choice with such good light levels. For great flower power, I'm a big fan of Alstroemeria Indian Summer as it blooms for such a long time, as does Geranium Rozanne. Add some flowering shrubs too, such as hibiscus and compact repeat-flowering roses, such as For Your Eyes Only and Eyes For You.

When deciding what to plant where in a border, the biggest lesson to learn is to plant in groups and repeat them along the border so it has a cohesive look. You may wish to consider warmer and cooler colours and their placement, but there are no hard-and-fast rules with colours - you should do whatever excites you.

Finally, an ornamental grass woven through the border will bring movement and soften the rigid bones of the shrubs - one of my favourites is Calamagrostis × acutiflora 'Overdam'.

Q Does my aeonium have mealybugs?

Barbara West, by email