June is such a lavish and luxurious month in the garden, what with irises, peonies and roses all bursting into gorgeous bloom. Drop into the garden centre this week and enjoy our wonderful range of in-flower plants – it’s the best way to buy as you can see for yourself exactly how beautiful they’ll look in your own garden.

Even better, you can test colour combinations by putting plants next to each other to check they’ll work. If you’re after a little inspiration, ask us to show you our favourite plant partnerships so you can try them out in your garden for breathtakingly beautiful borders all summer long.

This Saturday we have a Free Rose Talk (see below) by our own James Wickham (Boyle) and Tony Collins (Roscommon Town) who will explain how to get the best from this most lovely of flowers. It's also a great time of year to choose roses as many are in bud and flower and you can choose your favourite for colour and fragrance.

Hope to see you soon

The princesses of the early summer borders, peonies may have a relatively short season in the spotlight – but what a season. You will fall instantly in love with their heavy heads of luscious petals unfurling seductively in ravishing shades from coquettish cream to rococo red. We love 'Bowl of Beauty' (pictured) for its sumptuous single pink bowls, cradling a creamy white centre of smaller petals.

Choose those with intense perfume, like the pink 'Sarah Bernhardt' creamy-white ‘Duchesse de Nemours’ and you’ll add even more pleasure to your peony season. Plant in a sunny spot, in rich, well-drained soil, and not too deep: the crown should sit at the surface of the soil. Provide support for those lavish heads and sit back to enjoy one of the finest of garden displays, year after year.

First early, or new potatoes should be growing strongly by now, and depending on when you planted you can start thinking about harvesting them. Test to see if the tubers are ready by burrowing close to the plants with your fingers. If you can only feel tiny tubers, leave the plant in the ground to grow a little longer: But once they reach around hen’s egg size, dig up your plants and enjoy that mouthwatering new potato flavour.