WITH the ground so wet it is difficult to get on with much in the garden. So take the opportunity to get down to the garden centre to choose your seeds.

When making your flower seed selection for this year do not overlook the annuals. There are all manner of exciting varieties which can be imaginatively used in a host of different situations. Think not only of annuals as border plants, but also as suitable candidates for tub and container planting. Amongst the most popular container annuals are baby blue eyes or nemophila, the yellow and white daisy-like layia, and the sun-loving, long-flowering echium Blue Bedder and its mixed coloured hybrids.

Annual convolvulus is also much appreciated, varieties like Blue Ensign being particularly startling. Do not be put off by the fact that technically convolvulus is bindweed, for the annual sort gets killed by autumn frost and never re-appears.

Many annual flowers adapt well to window boxes. The mixed strains of this popular annual are generally too rank and untidy for such a confined space.

Then there are the fragrant night scented stocks, just the plants for a window box. Other useful window box plants include the poached egg plant or limnanthes, violet cress or ionopsidium, and the lovely little variety of anchusa called Dawn. This is particularly special, producing flowers in shades of pink, lavender, blue or white which are greatly favoured by bees. A number of hardy annuals attract wildlife and this is a theme that is very popular at present. The common blue flowered borage although often treated as a biennial, behaves as an annual when sown during early spring.

Although widely cultivated as a herb, it is a magnificent decorative plant, the blossoms invariably being alive with bees.

Butterflies love marigolds, tortoiseshells being regularly seen amongst the blossoms of the common English pot marigold. While the poached egg plant with its scrambling habit and saucer-shaped yellow flowers edged with white has a great attraction for bees. So do the late summer flowering cone flowers or rudbeckias. The Rustic Dwarf strain is especially useful with its coppery and bronze flowers on short strong stems.

Apart from their value for wildlife, the rudbeckias make first class cut flowers, but so too do many other annuals, so why not start a cutting border? This can be both decorative, functional and easily managed.

Make the tall annual delphiniums or larkspurs a priority. The Giant Imperial strain is very fine, but do not neglect the hyacinth flowered mixtures with their fancy blossoms in neat dense heads. Annual cornflowers are excellent too, especially strong coloured varieties like Polka Dot. Grow these alongside godetias with their soft silky blossoms in pink, rose and white and include the billowing white gypsophila for contrast.

Philip Swindells

WHAT'S NEW

Primrose Star is a primrose to white flowered Clematis montana which is said to be a less prolific grower than the usual species and therefore better suited to the small garden.

The Maxi Weedwiz is a unique, long handled, self-cleaning weeding tool which is developed from the recently introduced Mini-Weedwiz.

Sparkler is a cushion chrysanthemum with masses of red blossoms with rolled quill-like petals.

Q I have just moved and inherited some large un-pruned blackcurrant bushes. What do I cut out and what do I leave?

A Blackcurrants only fruit on wood made during the previous season. This is very distinctive and a lighter brown colour. Retain as much of this as you can and remove as much older wood as possible.

Q I want to try growing very early peas this year. Which is the best variety to try here in the North-East?

A Choose a round seeded variety. Feltham First is probably the most reliable and prolific