e-mail Jane Owen with your gardening questions: jane.owen1@timesonline.co.uk

My Christmas roses have come out and I hope there’ll be some for Christmas day. I am fed up with their heads looking downwards. Will they survive if I cut them for indoors? Is there any way of getting them to keep their heads up? Mike Harty

These beautiful winter-flowering plants will survive as cut flowers but will not last many days inside, particularly in heated rooms. All Christmas roses, or Hellebores www.hellebores.org, hang their heads and there is nothing you can do about it other than propping them up with short stakes. This is an ugly solution. Here’s a suggestion for next year: you could pot them up, after flowering, and put display the pots on an auricular theatre or any other form of stand to bring the flowers up to, or just above, eye level. I have never seen this but it strikes me that it would work well.

A lemon tree we grew from seed about ten years ago usually has lots of scented flowers for Christmas. This year I can see only a couple of buds. The leaves look fine. Sanjay Meade

This has been a bad year for citrus because there was so little heat this summer. I think that is probably the reason for your poor show of flower buds. Keep feeding it and keep your fingers crossed for a hot summer in 2008.

I would like to give my parents a present for the garden this Christmas. They are keen gardeners and so they have probably got all the hardware they need unless there is a new piece of kit on the market? Or are there any outdoor plants which can be given now? Jamie Crick

There are always new gizmos coming onto the market – the latest being a ride on lawnmower made by the American company Snapper which can turn on a five p bit to a cross between a spade and fork manufactured by the great Dutch tool company Dewit. Gardeners have strong views about preferred tools and plants and so you’d be well advised to ask your parents what they want or give them a garden centre token. Even that may not be a good idea because some gardeners will not buy from garden centres and prefer instead to go to specialist nurseries for plants and specialist manufacturers for tools.

We will be getting our Christmas tree this weekend. Please can you advise on a non drop tree? I have seen them advertised but do they work? Amy Scott

Nordman firs, which are about twice the price of regular Christmas trees, usually drop fewer needles than other varieties. Aerosol sprays, from garden centres, will keep needles in place for a little longer than they would naturally but the best approach to needle-drop-prevention is to buy a newly cut tree (I go to a local farmer who cuts the tree in front of me) and then keep it well watered as you would any cut plant. Also, keep the tree in a cool room.

After extensive building work our old lawn was ruined so we had a recommended garden centre in to flatten , rake etc and then plant grass seed. This was back in March/April this year. Almost as soon as the grass seed went down we had solid rain for a few weeks. The seed was swept into 'drifts and when it did grow it was impossible to cut as it was always just too wet. We did our best with some shears but some patches collapsed on itself and we have dead grass patches where it went mouldy. Now to add to all the other troubles we have what appears to be an infestation of wild strawberry plants. They are taking over the 'lawn' and I am in despair! Please help! Jane Murray

Start by reading the lawn-making contract, if you have one, to see if there is some way in which the contractors can be made to come back next spring and start again. If you have no contract, try to persuade them to come back and do the work if not gratis then at least at a reduced rate although, let’s face it, the rain this year was exceptional. The bottom line is that there is now way round this problem other than clearing the site and starting again.

My honeysuckle has lost its leaves. Could you tell me what I can do to stop this happening? Shirley Bennett

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