WALKING the dog or taking a small child to school each day can be great ways of meeting people and making new friends.

A shared love of plants can also be a good ice-breaker, one which may result not just in the gaining of a new friend, but also in the acquisition of new plants.

One such friend of mine was an elderly gentleman who lived in an end-of-terrace house just down the road from me. On fine days, he sat on a chair outside his front door, chatting to anyone who had the time to stop for a few minutes. We generally talked about plants.

Stan Warner was a keen gardener and, although badly troubled with arthritis, he kept his garden immaculate and full of colour for most of the year. We used to swap gardening information and talk about tulips, lilies and roses, of which he was particularly fond.

Sadly, Stan passed away last week, not long after his 90th birthday. I’ll miss our conversations and I’ll remember him fondly every time I look at any of the plants he gave me. My favourite is Rosa noisettiana, originally a cutting taken from the plant that grows over the trellis at the side of Stan’s house, and now growing in two places in my own garden. I’ve also noticed this unusual rose growing in two or three other gardens in the neighbourhood, presumably also originally from Stan’s garden - he was a generous man.

Stan isn’t the only person who comes to mind when I look at the plants in my garden. Keith’s parents gave us the hardy Cyclamen hederifolium that flower each autumn in the front garden, while my Mum gave us plants of Penstemon ‘Evelyn’, known affectionately as Penstemon ‘Sue’s Mum’, and my sister gave us a number of grasses, including the particularly invasive Stipa arundinacea (thanks Jill!). My friend Sylvia has given us loads of plants, including Geranium pyrenaicum ‘Bill Wallis’ and a large variegated Phormium that grows brilliantly in the dry bed by the front door.

In some cases it’s not the plant itself that brings back memories, but the manner of its planting.

The big Gunnera in our bog garden was planted for me by my son, aged around 12 at the time, and persuaded to help by the promise that the small plant in his hands would grow taller than him in just a couple of years. In fact they’ve turned out to be around the same size (just under six feet tall depending on the weather), but both he and I have a soft spot for that Gunnera and, as a physicist, it’s still the only Latin plant name he professes to know. When the garden is full of happy memories as well as wonderful plants, why would anyone want to be anywhere else?

Jobs for the gardener this week...

Prune or clip any remaining beech or hawthorn hedges.

Cut down on the watering and feeding of conservatory and greenhouse plants now that outside temperatures and light levels are lower.

Plant daffodil and tulip bulbs before the end of the month.