There seems to be a whole lot of randomness going on in the garden at the moment and it’s probably the only season when those designer drifts of sexy subtle colours go straight out the window - or in this case - out the garden gate!

There are some red Tulips in my garden - I didn’t plant them and each year they divide and  conquer, seemingly to spring up in unlikely places. Masses of them - always. Although red used to be a colour that I wouldn’t normally introduce into the garden on such a random scale - I love it, and taking a leaf from Mother Nature, I’ve cribbed her idea more than once.

Then there are the Hyacinths - blue, pink or white and always in groups of 3 or 4. Why? It’s because they were the ones that your great aunt gave you last Christmas. Papery bulbs squashed into a plastic dish with a little blanket of moss to keep their green snouts cosy. And once flowering was over they were probably unceremoniously shoved into a space in the border. Now, every year you are reminded that the blue ones came from your favourite aunt and the pink ones… were they the ones that Mrs Brushed-Nylon gave you a couple of years back as a thank you for doing her shopping one winter?

Yellow. It’s spring so there’s always masses of it - Daffodils, Primroses, Cowslips, Forsythia, Kerria japonica and so on. Yellow is another colour that I wouldn’t go out of my way to introduce into a garden (unless you paid me of course!), but at this time of year, well, it’s completely right and after so many grey months, very welcome.

When I ask design clients for their likes and dislikes in the garden, more often than not  it’s yellow that gets the thumbs down. That, and gnomes.

Another randomness is the out-of-place shrub or rose. it usually turns out to be a plant given by a well meaning relative or kind neighbour. The spiky bottle brush bush that looks rather out of place in a carefully colour coded border or the ‘Wedding Day’ Rose given as a wedding present. Shame they didn’t read the label as a 26 foot rampant rambling rose isn’t always suitable for a tiny courtyard garden!

Just because you admire a plant in someone else’s garden doesn’t necessarily mean that you want it in your own. But hey presto there it is - a gift wether you want it or not. And you feel you have to plant it because you know that the benefactor will home in on it at every visit.

Plenty of people were let off the hook in the winter before last as thanks to sub zero temperatures, all those unwanted random plants didn’t survive. Oh dear.

“That alright,” says Mrs Green-Fingers happily, “I’ll get you another one!” Don’t you dare, give me a bowl of Hyacinths instead.

Or a gnome.