Helenium crowns can be split into single buds in Autumn or Spring (if you want 45,000 of them) It’s been said before and I’ll say it again. If you want to be good at gardening (or writing about gardening) there is no substitute for getting your hands dirty by doing as much of it as possible. For example. Today I have learned that a Japanese wineberry tip-roots like blackberries do. Not sure why I should be surprised, it is clearly just a fancy bramble. And I also learned that it is b***d spiky if you try and pull the rooted bits out by hand. Through practical experience it has been impressed upon me that tumbling backwards out of the herbaceous border onto the path in an enthusiasm of weeding is distinctly inelegant. Even if one does end up sweetly scented with rosemary and lavender. I have reminded myself (again) that nettles and gardening gloves are made for each other. And concluded that Margery Fish’s maxim ‘when in doubt plant a geranium’ should come with t...