Gareth Winter: Fragrant treasures want gentle touch

Ajuga blue is a plant that grows well close to the ground.

I have been doing close-up work in the garden this week - hands-and-knees stuff, weeding among flower beds we grow more unusual, precious small plants in. You need to have a bit of a memory for where the special plants are to be sure you do not snap off the emerging stems of your tiniest treasures.

This weekend I managed to spot the newly arisen buds of the lily of the valley before damaging them but a tiny little bluebell was less lucky. I have struggled to keep the lily of the valley going, and it has not settled down the way it usually does, and has only made three or four stems each year. Lily of the valley, Convalaira majalis, is an old-fashioned favourite that flourished in the gardens of my childhood.

I recall vases of them in my mother's house, combined with delicate Iris japonica, poor man's orchid, to give a miniature study in form and scent. It is a deliciously scented herbaceous perennial that grows best in shaded, cool spots. It has delicate thread-like stems from which hang campanulate flowers that are slightly green-budded but open to pure white.

They are fantastic for picking, lasting well in water and giving their scent generously.

My mother had a large bed along the front of her house where they revelled, almost becoming weeds they were so thickly matted. But my mother gardened in very wet, heavy soil, and my lighter, thinner soils do not suit this treasure so well.

It definitely prefers deep, humus-rich soil. I also saw it flourishing in a garden open to the public last year, where it was also doing very well in a spot with fuchsias, perhaps hinting at the conditions that suit it best.

Fuchsia procumbens variegata is a coastal dweller that deserves attention.

This is one of those plants that moves best when it is in flower so now is the right time to find "pips", as the dormant rhizomes are called in the trade. You should plant these "pips" with the growing tips just showing and about 5cm apart in soil with added animal manure.

There is, of course, a wealth of little ground-covering plants you can use to scramble around your precious littlies to help keep the soil cool and the weeds down. The Head Gardener is fond of the bugle, Ajuga reptans, and I am quite keen on it, too, as it is a lovely little ground hugger that grows well without going absolutely mad.

It has the added attraction of little spires of flowers, usually blue, but also in other colours.

The Head Gardener is rather keen on a subtle pink-coloured form, called "Pink Spires", which is certainly very pretty, and makes a good contrast to the usual blue form, which she grows next to it.

There has been a big flush of new varieties of this useful plant, no doubt reflecting the need for more groundcover options by landscapers. "Jungle Beauty" has been around for a while and is like a normal bugle on steroids, larger in all ways, and certainly a healthily growing option.

If you want a dramatic finish to the garden you should go for "Black Scallops", which really is the deepest foliaged form I have seen, with slightly scalloped leaves. The colour is deepest in full sun.

Lily of the valley is an old favourite.

At the other end of the foliage colour spectrum, is "Sugar Plum", with a mat of glossy cream/pink/green leaves that carpet the ground all year, studded with blue flowers in spring. The variety known as "Variegata" is very similar if not identical.

If native plants are more your go, a number of colourful options are available there, too, including one of the most peculiar of our native plants, a ground-hugging fuchsia with yellow upward-facing flowers and bright red berries. It is the coastal dweller F. procumbens, and deserves to be grown more widely.

It has pretty, rounded leaves, quite unlike a normal fuchsia, and will happily spread to about a metre around or more. The flowers are quite small but are carried with abandon. They are followed by big, bright red berries, which can be used to make jam, not that I have tried.

Another coastal species that makes a good groundcover is the native geranium, G. traversii. Found in the Chatham Islands, this plant has lovely silver leaves and flowers in white through to deep pink.

Gardeners have been selecting this species for years and those usually found in garden centres have pink flowers. Hybridists have also been at work with these, crossing to a smaller purple-foliaged species, with bright pink flowers. "Pink Spice" has deep bronze leaves and bright pink flowers, while "Purple Passion" has deeper coloured foliage and the same bright pink flowers.

These are the perfect foil for lighter coloured native plants.