Choosing plants is much harder than choosing curtains and cushions. Curtains reliably swish back and forth, maybe fading a little, but still beautiful and unchanging from season to season. Cushions plump, unplump and plump again from year to year.

But flowers, enchanting in their moment, will wither: within weeks you’re left with an untidy mess of dry brown stalks. And if they don’t like where you’ve put them, they probably won’t come back at all. Shrubs and trees may seem disappointingly small; then one day much too big and overbearing.

An artistic eye for form and colour is a good start when choosing plants to create a border or bring life and shape to your garden, but the experience of growing and a knowledge of their habits and seasonal variation is essential.

Abu Hassan tulips pick up the vibrant red of the Sharifa Asma rose’s new growth

I have had long professional experience of working in private gardens, such as the abundantly floriferous 10-acre gardens of Doddington Place and have always experimented madly with planting combinations and positions in my own garden. Thus have I, with my innate aesthetic sense of colour and form, gained an extensive knowledge of what plants can do to achieve it.

I create planting plans after conversation with the garden-owner. Much is learned from looking at photographs of other gardens and discussing the tastes of the garden-owner – finding styles, colours, establishing gardening inclination, looking at views from the house. Each unique plan develops as these elements come together.